WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 So I want you to imagine for a second a historical 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.019 battle where the losing army essentially achieves 00:00:08.019 --> 00:00:10.789 its main goal by running away. Right. But at 00:00:10.789 --> 00:00:12.750 the same time, the winning army fundamentally 00:00:12.750 --> 00:00:15.750 changes how modern wars are fought, like forever. 00:00:15.849 --> 00:00:17.850 It sounds like a total paradox. It really does. 00:00:18.269 --> 00:00:20.769 Yeah. But what if I told you that this very same 00:00:20.769 --> 00:00:24.149 battle, which lasted only five days, accidentally 00:00:24.149 --> 00:00:26.309 acted as a major catalyst for one of the most 00:00:26.309 --> 00:00:29.129 significant political upheavals of the 20th century? 00:00:29.230 --> 00:00:31.850 It's pretty wild. Welcome to this deep dive. 00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:34.310 We are going straight to the source material 00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:36.829 today. We're unpacking a comprehensive Wikipedia 00:00:36.829 --> 00:00:41.240 article detailing the 1917 Riga Yeah, and you 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:43.299 know, when most people picture the Eastern Front 00:00:43.299 --> 00:00:45.859 in World War I, the mind immediately goes to 00:00:45.859 --> 00:00:48.179 those completely static lines. Right, the muddy 00:00:48.179 --> 00:00:51.039 trenches. Exactly. Muddy trenches or just massive 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:53.979 lumbering offensives where millions of men clash 00:00:53.979 --> 00:00:56.560 over a few miles of dirt. Yeah. But the events 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.880 around Riga in September 1917, they completely 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:02.700 shatter that mold. It is a terrifyingly dynamic 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:05.819 moment in military history. And our mission for 00:01:05.819 --> 00:01:08.819 this deep dive is to explore exactly how this 00:01:08.819 --> 00:01:12.799 brief five day battle served as a testing ground 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:16.000 for revolutionary military tactics and how the 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.840 fallout from this specific clash actually accelerated 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:21.560 the Russian Revolution. It's a huge domino effect. 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:24.439 OK, let's unpack this. Looking at that map of 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:27.459 1917 Eastern Europe, you've got pulled up behind 00:01:27.459 --> 00:01:30.180 you. We really need to understand the geography. 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:32.519 Yeah, the geography and the geopolitical context 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:34.560 are key here. Right. before the first shot is 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.480 even fired. For sure. Because to understand the 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:39.859 bizarre reality of the Russian front by late 00:01:39.859 --> 00:01:42.700 summer of 1917, we actually have to rewind the 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:45.540 clock two years. Back to the summer of 1915. 00:01:45.939 --> 00:01:48.140 Exactly. The Russian army had suffered through 00:01:48.140 --> 00:01:51.269 this massive German and Austro -Hungarian push 00:01:51.269 --> 00:01:53.670 known as the Gorlice -Tarnow Offensive. Which 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:56.849 was devastating. It really was. This forced the 00:01:56.849 --> 00:01:58.549 Russians into what became known as the Great 00:01:58.549 --> 00:02:01.609 Retreat. Right. They had to abandon huge swaths 00:02:01.609 --> 00:02:04.510 of territory. We're talking much of Western Belarus 00:02:04.510 --> 00:02:08.069 and Lithuania. The front lines shifted drastically 00:02:08.069 --> 00:02:10.590 eastward. And a massive gap even opened up around 00:02:10.590 --> 00:02:13.150 Vilnius. Right. So the Germans are pushing hard. 00:02:13.250 --> 00:02:16.030 They're trying to exploit this chaos. The source 00:02:16.030 --> 00:02:19.169 notes the 10th Army under Paul von Hindenburg 00:02:19.169 --> 00:02:22.349 tried to drive through that gap to take Minsk. 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:24.430 Because Minsk was a vital communication hub. 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:28.780 Exactly. But the Russians managed to launch counterattacks, 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.639 and they eventually forced a new, relatively 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:34.879 static front line. And that new, frozen line 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.520 is where our story really begins. Yeah. Because 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:39.759 it left the German troops sitting right on the 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:42.219 doorstep of Riga. Why is Riga so important? I 00:02:42.219 --> 00:02:44.219 mean, it wasn't just another city on a map, was 00:02:44.219 --> 00:02:46.479 it? Oh, far from it. Riga was one of the absolute 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:48.939 largest industrial centers of the entire Russian 00:02:48.939 --> 00:02:51.719 Empire. Wow. Yeah. And it sat right along the 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.740 Baltic Sea. It acted as a crucial port and a... 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:57.199 symbolic gateway pointing dangerously close to 00:02:57.199 --> 00:02:58.860 the Russian capital, Petrograd. So the stakes 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:01.180 were incredibly high. Unbelievably high. The 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:03.659 Russian high command, the Stavka, cast their 00:03:03.659 --> 00:03:06.120 12th army with defending it. OK. But from that 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:09.879 point, in late 1915 until early 1917, that northern 00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:13.259 frontier basically froze in place. Just a stalemate. 00:03:13.659 --> 00:03:17.159 Exactly. Two massive armies just staring at each 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:19.599 other across heavily fortified defensive lines 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.840 for two solid years. But while the physical front 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:25.560 line wasn't moving an inch, the internal situation 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:28.000 back home in Russia was completely exploding. 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:30.060 It was in total freefall. So while these troops 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:32.259 are freezing in trenches staring at the Germans, 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:35.060 what is actually happening back in Petrograd? 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:37.860 The political foundation of the entire empire 00:03:37.860 --> 00:03:40.580 is essentially disintegrating beneath their feet. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:44.919 In March 1917, the February Revolution tears 00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:48.360 through the country. Emperor Nicholas II abdicates 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:51.500 the throne. Right. And almost overnight, the 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:54.520 country is thrust into this deeply unstable dual 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:56.620 power struggle. The Provisional Government and 00:03:56.620 --> 00:03:59.500 the Soviet. Exactly. On one side, you have the 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:01.460 Russian Provisional Government, which was established 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:04.419 by liberal parties in the state Duma. And on 00:04:04.419 --> 00:04:06.219 the other side, you have the Petrograd Soviet, 00:04:06.740 --> 00:04:08.860 a council heavily supported by revolutionary 00:04:08.860 --> 00:04:11.139 soldiers and the working class in the capital. 00:04:11.310 --> 00:04:13.789 It's fascinating looking at the raw historical 00:04:13.789 --> 00:04:15.909 documents from both sides here just to see what 00:04:15.909 --> 00:04:18.610 they were arguing for. Yeah, it's a stark contrast. 00:04:18.889 --> 00:04:20.949 The provisional government, which was eventually 00:04:20.949 --> 00:04:24.050 led by Alexander Kerensky, was operating on the 00:04:24.050 --> 00:04:26.410 belief that they needed to honor their international 00:04:26.410 --> 00:04:29.250 alliances. Keep fighting the war against Germany. 00:04:29.550 --> 00:04:32.509 Right. Meanwhile, the Petrograd Soviet, which 00:04:32.509 --> 00:04:34.889 was heavily influenced by revolutionaries and 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:37.970 Bolshevik agitators, was aggressively demanding 00:04:37.970 --> 00:04:41.610 an end to the imperialist war. wanted a complete 00:04:41.610 --> 00:04:44.310 social revolution. It's a paralyzing contradiction 00:04:44.310 --> 00:04:47.629 for a country trying to fight a global conflict. 00:04:47.750 --> 00:04:49.589 I mean, we're just stating the historical facts 00:04:49.589 --> 00:04:52.189 from the source here, but you can see how impossible 00:04:52.189 --> 00:04:55.529 that situation is. Oh, absolutely. And that contradiction 00:04:55.529 --> 00:04:58.370 bled directly into the trenches. How so? Well, 00:04:58.490 --> 00:05:01.189 the Petrograd Soviet issued a document that would 00:05:01.189 --> 00:05:04.069 become infamous. Order number one. Order number 00:05:04.069 --> 00:05:06.970 one. Yeah. The single order effectively shattered 00:05:06.970 --> 00:05:09.949 traditional military discipline across the entire 00:05:09.949 --> 00:05:12.089 Russian armed forces. Wait, how does something 00:05:12.089 --> 00:05:14.290 like that actually play out on the ground? Imagine 00:05:14.290 --> 00:05:16.269 being a commanding officer on the front line. 00:05:16.550 --> 00:05:19.449 Under order number one, your soldiers suddenly 00:05:19.449 --> 00:05:22.350 stop following your orders implicitly. Instead, 00:05:22.589 --> 00:05:25.029 the enlisted men begin forming their own democratic 00:05:25.029 --> 00:05:26.970 committees. You've got to be kidding me. No, 00:05:27.350 --> 00:05:31.129 seriously. If you order a unit to march or to 00:05:31.129 --> 00:05:34.290 prepare for an attack, The soldiers might literally 00:05:34.290 --> 00:05:36.829 hold a committee vote to decide if they feel 00:05:36.829 --> 00:05:38.829 like following that order. They're voting on 00:05:38.829 --> 00:05:41.970 military tactics. Yes, they stripped officers 00:05:41.970 --> 00:05:45.129 of disciplinary power. It was the complete evaporation 00:05:45.129 --> 00:05:47.110 of the military hierarchy. That sounds like a 00:05:47.110 --> 00:05:49.569 total operational nightmare. You cannot run an 00:05:49.569 --> 00:05:52.290 army by committee while heavy artillery is raining 00:05:52.290 --> 00:05:55.649 down on you. You absolutely cannot. And the devastating 00:05:55.649 --> 00:05:59.050 results of this became undeniable in July 1917 00:05:59.050 --> 00:06:01.870 with the Kerensky Offensive. What happened there? 00:06:02.110 --> 00:06:03.750 The Provisional Government attempted to launch 00:06:03.750 --> 00:06:06.810 a massive push with the Southwestern Front. Despite 00:06:06.810 --> 00:06:10.089 some initial fleeting success, it ended in a 00:06:10.089 --> 00:06:12.069 catastrophic failure. The soldiers just gave 00:06:12.069 --> 00:06:14.629 up. They simply lost the will to fight. And the 00:06:14.629 --> 00:06:16.250 troops of the Northern Front, the ones defending 00:06:16.250 --> 00:06:18.870 Riga, they were uniquely vulnerable. Because 00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:21.290 they were geographically the closest to Petrograd. 00:06:21.689 --> 00:06:23.629 Exactly. They were heavily exposed to all this 00:06:23.629 --> 00:06:26.709 revolutionary agitation, political fliers, and 00:06:26.709 --> 00:06:28.750 speeches coming out of the Capitol. Someone had 00:06:28.750 --> 00:06:31.680 to look at this absolute freefall. and try to 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:35.100 pull the nose up. Who steps in to try and stop 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:37.519 the bleeding? General Lav Kornilov. Okay, tell 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:39.399 me about him. He had previously been the head 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:42.120 of the Petrograd Military District, and in July 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:45.139 1917, he was appointed the Army Supreme Commander. 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:47.220 And he was a bit of a hardliner, right? Oh, very 00:06:47.220 --> 00:06:49.899 much so. Kornilov was watching the Russian army 00:06:49.899 --> 00:06:52.699 disintegrate into armed mobs, and he was determined 00:06:52.699 --> 00:06:56.000 to restore strict traditional discipline by any 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.519 means necessary. The source mentions he started 00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:01.620 imposing incredibly harsh measures following 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:04.459 a series of violent protests in Petrograd, known 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:07.620 as the July Days. Right. What did his crackdown 00:07:07.620 --> 00:07:11.079 actually look like? It was brutal. Kornilov reinstated 00:07:11.079 --> 00:07:13.560 the death penalty for desertion and insubordination 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:16.660 at the front. Wow. Yeah. He actively tried to 00:07:16.660 --> 00:07:18.300 limit the power of those soldier committees, 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:20.860 and he started throwing troops who disobeyed 00:07:20.860 --> 00:07:22.879 direct orders straight into prison. He wasn't 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:25.620 messing around. Not at all. He believed that 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:28.220 without an iron fist, the entire nation would 00:07:28.220 --> 00:07:30.779 fall to the Germans. Which leads to this incredible 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:35.040 highly tense moment in late August 1917 at the 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:37.519 Moscow State Conference. Right. The warning. 00:07:37.819 --> 00:07:40.500 Yeah. Kornilov stands up before the political 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:43.980 leadership and issues a very stark, almost prophetic 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:46.420 warning. He lays it all out. He tells them flat 00:07:46.420 --> 00:07:48.740 out if order isn't immediately restored in this 00:07:48.740 --> 00:07:52.459 army, the Germans are going to take Riga. And 00:07:52.459 --> 00:07:55.680 after they take Riga, the road is wide open for 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:58.600 them to march right into Petrograd. He saw the 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:00.850 writing on the wall. The Russian high command 00:08:00.850 --> 00:08:03.589 fully anticipated a major German offensive in 00:08:03.589 --> 00:08:06.110 the Riga area before the autumn weather turned 00:08:06.110 --> 00:08:07.850 the roads to mud. So they knew it was coming. 00:08:08.129 --> 00:08:10.670 They did. Anticipating this, Kornilov, along 00:08:10.670 --> 00:08:13.310 with his northern front commander Vladislav Klambovsky 00:08:13.310 --> 00:08:16.250 and the 12th Army commander Dmitry Parsky, they 00:08:16.250 --> 00:08:18.189 make a massive strategic pivot. What did they 00:08:18.189 --> 00:08:20.870 do? They decided to abandon a highly vulnerable 00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:22.970 bridgehead they held on the opposite side of 00:08:22.970 --> 00:08:25.490 the Dvina River near Riga. To tighten their lines. 00:08:25.910 --> 00:08:29.310 Exactly. Klambovsky prepared to evacuate that 00:08:29.310 --> 00:08:32.509 bridgehead on August 20th. And the next day, 00:08:32.590 --> 00:08:34.850 he even started pulling secondary forces out 00:08:34.850 --> 00:08:37.669 of the city itself, preparing for a deep defense. 00:08:38.049 --> 00:08:40.909 So Russians are bracing for impact. Let's look 00:08:40.909 --> 00:08:43.190 at the other side of the trenches. What is the 00:08:43.190 --> 00:08:45.509 German high command plotting while the Russian 00:08:45.509 --> 00:08:48.850 army is internally collapsing? The German quartermaster 00:08:48.850 --> 00:08:51.529 general Eric Ludendorff and Colonel Max Hoffman 00:08:51.529 --> 00:08:54.169 see a golden opportunity. Right. They want the 00:08:54.169 --> 00:08:57.289 industrial prize of Riga. Absolutely. But more 00:08:57.289 --> 00:09:00.049 importantly, they want to apply such immense, 00:09:00.450 --> 00:09:02.970 terrifying pressure on Russia that the provisional 00:09:02.970 --> 00:09:05.669 government will be forced to finally accept a 00:09:05.669 --> 00:09:07.450 peace deal. They want to knock Russia out of 00:09:07.450 --> 00:09:09.529 the war completely. That's the ultimate goal. 00:09:09.730 --> 00:09:11.950 So they heavily reinforce the German Eighth Army. 00:09:12.090 --> 00:09:14.470 commanded by Oscar von Hutier. What kind of force 00:09:14.470 --> 00:09:16.289 are they marshaling for this push? They bring 00:09:16.289 --> 00:09:18.610 the Eighth Army up to a massive strength of eight 00:09:18.610 --> 00:09:20.970 infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions. 00:09:20.970 --> 00:09:24.049 That's huge. Organized into four corps. You are 00:09:24.049 --> 00:09:26.470 looking at roughly 60 ,000 highly trained men 00:09:26.470 --> 00:09:29.009 preparing to face down three corps of the deeply 00:09:29.009 --> 00:09:31.769 demoralized Russian 12th Army. But von Hutier 00:09:31.769 --> 00:09:34.600 is a brilliant tactician, isn't he? He is. He 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:38.740 knows better than to just hurl 60 ,000 men directly 00:09:38.740 --> 00:09:41.179 at the fortified walls of Rika. Right, because 00:09:41.179 --> 00:09:43.480 a direct frontal assault on a fortified city 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:45.460 is exactly what armies had been doing for the 00:09:45.460 --> 00:09:48.000 last three years. And it never worked. It usually 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.059 just resulted in mountains of casualties for 00:09:50.059 --> 00:09:53.620 a few yards of gain. So what is von Hutu's alternative? 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:57.399 He plans a sweeping, flanking maneuver. Instead 00:09:57.399 --> 00:10:00.039 of attacking the city head on, he decides to 00:10:00.039 --> 00:10:03.460 cross the massive Davina River, about 30 kilometers 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:06.379 south of Riga. Near a place called Iqil. Correct. 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:08.879 If you can punch through there, he can swing 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:10.860 up behind the city and cut off the Russian retreat. 00:10:11.220 --> 00:10:14.039 And to punch that hole, the Germans unleash something 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:16.759 truly horrific. The bombardment. On September 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:20.220 1st, 1917, the attack begins not with men charging 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:22.860 over the top, but with an absolute masterclass 00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:25.279 in artillery bombardment. Directed by Colonel... 00:10:25.500 --> 00:10:28.740 Jorg Bruchmiller. Right. Bruchmiller was a pioneer 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:31.539 of modern artillery tactics. He didn't just want 00:10:31.539 --> 00:10:33.500 to bombard the Russians, he wanted to paralyze 00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:36.019 them. How did he do that? He coordinated the 00:10:36.019 --> 00:10:39.799 fire of 1 ,100 German guns against the relatively 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:43.179 few outdated Russian artillery pieces defending 00:10:43.179 --> 00:10:45.659 that river crossing. To put 1 ,100 guns into 00:10:45.659 --> 00:10:48.740 perspective, imagine a solid wall of heavy artillery 00:10:48.740 --> 00:10:51.820 pieces lined up wheel to wheel for miles in the 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:54.340 forest. It's deafening just to think about. And 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:56.840 it's not just the volume of fire that's terrifying, 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:00.179 is it? No, it is the specific calculated chemistry 00:11:00.179 --> 00:11:03.940 of the munitions. Bruckmiller utilized a terrifying 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:08.129 mix. Exploding shells. Right. He would fire high 00:11:08.129 --> 00:11:10.350 -explosive shells to physically shatter the Russian 00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:13.070 trenches, deafen the defenders, and destroy their 00:11:13.070 --> 00:11:16.169 communications. And seamlessly mixed in with 00:11:16.169 --> 00:11:18.529 those explosives were chemical gas shells. That's 00:11:18.529 --> 00:11:20.970 just awful. It's a nightmare. As the Russian 00:11:20.970 --> 00:11:23.110 soldiers dove into the craters to survive the 00:11:23.110 --> 00:11:25.929 shrapnel, the heavier -than -air poison gas would 00:11:25.929 --> 00:11:28.230 settle into those exact same craters, choking 00:11:28.230 --> 00:11:31.070 them out. Nowhere to hide. Exactly. The defenders 00:11:31.070 --> 00:11:33.110 at Iqil were completely overwhelmed before they 00:11:33.110 --> 00:11:35.269 even saw a single German soldier. Here's where 00:11:35.269 --> 00:11:37.730 it gets really interesting. Once that apocalyptic 00:11:37.730 --> 00:11:40.370 artillery barrage lifts, the German infantry 00:11:40.370 --> 00:11:43.049 begins their advance. The stormtroopers. Yes. 00:11:43.549 --> 00:11:46.009 But it looks absolutely nothing like the chaotic, 00:11:46.009 --> 00:11:48.870 massive waves of men that define the early years 00:11:48.870 --> 00:11:52.210 of World War I. This is the birth of what would 00:11:52.210 --> 00:11:55.029 become known as who -tier tactics. The use of 00:11:55.029 --> 00:11:57.750 specialized infiltration stormtroopers. Right. 00:11:57.870 --> 00:12:01.070 To really grasp how revolutionary this was, imagine 00:12:01.070 --> 00:12:03.409 you've been forced to play a rigid, brutal board 00:12:03.409 --> 00:12:06.879 game for three years. I'm tracking. The rules 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:09.899 of movement were fixed. You line up tens of thousands 00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:12.659 of men in a wide straight line. And at the blow 00:12:12.659 --> 00:12:14.659 of a whistle, they mark shoulder to shoulder 00:12:14.659 --> 00:12:17.200 directly into enemy machine gunfire, which is 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:20.740 just senseless slaughter. It was slow, predictable 00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:23.799 and deadly. Suddenly on the banks of the Divina 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:26.340 River, the Germans completely rewrite the rules 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:28.519 of movement. So how does a stormtrooper unit 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:30.879 actually move across this battered landscape? 00:12:31.259 --> 00:12:33.879 It's highly decentralized squad level movement. 00:12:34.029 --> 00:12:36.990 Instead of a massive wave, small, heavily armed 00:12:36.990 --> 00:12:40.049 teams dash forward independently. Like leapfrogging. 00:12:40.370 --> 00:12:42.889 Exactly. One small unit sprints cover to cover, 00:12:43.210 --> 00:12:44.970 while another unit hangs back with light machine 00:12:44.970 --> 00:12:47.929 guns to provide suppressing fire. Then they swap 00:12:47.929 --> 00:12:50.600 roles. And what happens when these small teams 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:53.980 hit a surviving Russian bunker or a heavy machine 00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:57.740 gun nest? In 1915, an entire battalion would 00:12:57.740 --> 00:12:59.700 have been ordered to stubbornly grind themselves 00:12:59.700 --> 00:13:02.519 to dust trying to take that one bunker. Not the 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:05.360 stormtroopers. If they hit a strong point, they 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.639 simply bypass it. Just ignore it. They flow around 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:10.120 the resistance like water flowing around a boulder 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:12.820 in a stream. They push deep into the Russian 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:15.399 rear, severing communication lines and causing 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:18.279 absolute panic. leaving the bunkers behind. Right. 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:21.019 They leave those isolated, heavily defended strong 00:13:21.019 --> 00:13:23.919 points behind to be mopped up later by the heavier, 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:26.299 slower main infantry forces following in their 00:13:26.299 --> 00:13:28.539 wake. Think about why this matters to the broader 00:13:28.539 --> 00:13:32.059 history of warfare. This exact tactical shift, 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:34.539 these infiltration strategies pioneered right 00:13:34.539 --> 00:13:37.620 here in the mud outside Riga, would soon be exported 00:13:37.620 --> 00:13:40.620 across Europe. It changed everything. It fundamentally 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:42.919 changed the geometry of the battlefield. The 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:44.879 Germans would use it against the Italians shortly 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:47.700 after and then unleash it on a terrifying scale 00:13:47.700 --> 00:13:50.279 on the Western Front in the spring of 1918. It 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:53.360 was a lethal proving ground and it worked flawlessly. 00:13:53.820 --> 00:13:56.519 Following the stormtroopers, the German 19th 00:13:56.519 --> 00:13:59.919 Reserve Division, alongside the 22nd and 23rd 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:02.480 Divisions, crossed the river in wooden boats. 00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:05.159 Just pouring across. Yeah. They established a 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:07.539 solid bridgehead and immediately begin constructing 00:14:07.539 --> 00:14:10.500 massive pontoon bridges. The source provides 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:14.279 this incredible surreal historical detail here. 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:17.299 Oh, right. About Prince Leopold. Yes. Prince 00:14:17.299 --> 00:14:20.019 Leopold of Bavaria, who was essentially the supreme 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:22.139 commander of all German forces on the Eastern 00:14:22.139 --> 00:14:25.080 Front, a massive administrative region they called 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:28.360 Ober Oost. Right. He personally rides down to 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:30.940 lead the crossing of the Dvina River over these 00:14:30.940 --> 00:14:33.419 pontoons facing almost zero opposition. With 00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:36.100 the river crossed and the pontoon bridges securing 00:14:36.100 --> 00:14:39.139 their supply lines, von Hutier splits his forces. 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:42.259 On September 2nd, he sends his VIA Corps north, 00:14:42.460 --> 00:14:44.399 along the riverbank, directly toward the city 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:46.899 of Riga. While his LI Corps pushes northeast 00:14:46.899 --> 00:14:49.279 into the countryside. So what is the ultimate 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:52.360 goal of casting this wide net? Encirclement. 00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:54.480 Wanhutia doesn't just want the buildings of Riga. 00:14:54.679 --> 00:14:56.960 He wants to destroy the Russian army. He wants 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:00.440 the troops. Exactly. He is attempting to cast 00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:03.759 a massive net to trap the entire Russian 12th 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:06.519 Army against the coast, cutting off their only 00:15:06.519 --> 00:15:08.179 escape routes before they can pull out of the 00:15:08.179 --> 00:15:10.700 area. But the Russian 12th Army commander, Dmitry 00:15:10.700 --> 00:15:13.940 Parsky, realizes the jaws of the trap are closing. 00:15:14.299 --> 00:15:17.100 He knows defending the city itself is completely 00:15:17.100 --> 00:15:19.200 pointless now. Right, he has to get out. He orders 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:21.779 Riga to be immediately abandoned, but he has 00:15:21.779 --> 00:15:24.039 a massive logistical nightmare on his hands. 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:27.899 He needs time to march the bulk of his 192 ,000 00:15:27.899 --> 00:15:30.679 men north out of the encirclement. And time is 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:32.659 running out. And to buy that time, someone has 00:15:32.659 --> 00:15:35.100 to stay behind and take the full concentrated 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:37.899 brunt of the German advance. It is a desperate 00:15:38.029 --> 00:15:41.690 calculated sacrifice. Parsky turns to the 43rd 00:15:41.690 --> 00:15:44.289 Army Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Vesely 00:15:44.289 --> 00:15:47.429 Boldarev. And within that corps, the heaviest 00:15:47.429 --> 00:15:49.570 burden falls directly onto the shoulders of the 00:15:49.570 --> 00:15:52.149 2nd Latvian Rifle Brigade. The Latvian Riflemen. 00:15:52.269 --> 00:15:54.470 Their orders are incredibly simple, but utterly 00:15:54.470 --> 00:15:57.769 brutal. Dig in at the Mazagougla River and delay 00:15:57.769 --> 00:16:00.230 the advancing German war machine for as long 00:16:00.230 --> 00:16:03.110 as humanly possible. While the main body of the 00:16:03.110 --> 00:16:05.870 12th Army is desperately streaming out of Riga, 00:16:06.269 --> 00:16:08.929 clogging the roads north, these Latvian riflemen 00:16:08.929 --> 00:16:12.070 are hastily fortifying the swampy, unforgiving 00:16:12.070 --> 00:16:15.169 terrain along the Mazajugla. And the clash that 00:16:15.169 --> 00:16:18.529 follows is horrific. It really was. It was an 00:16:18.529 --> 00:16:21.190 absolute meat grinder. The Germans threw everything 00:16:21.190 --> 00:16:24.720 they had at this thin defensive line. The source 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:27.559 notes the Latvian riflemen faced a relentless 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:30.179 onslaught. They were just getting pounded. Yeah, 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:33.379 they endured intense artillery barrages, firing 00:16:33.379 --> 00:16:36.679 chemical gas shells into the wetlands. They faced 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:39.820 German shock troops armed with flamethrowers 00:16:39.820 --> 00:16:42.620 clearing the trenches with liquid fire. Unbelievable. 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:44.840 They even endured coordinated aerial attacks 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:46.860 from German planes strafing their positions. 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:49.379 Yet, despite the technological superiority and 00:16:49.379 --> 00:16:51.960 the sheer numbers of the Germans, for most of 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:54.940 the day the Latvian riflemen absolutely refused 00:16:54.940 --> 00:16:57.200 to break. They held the line. They fought off 00:16:57.200 --> 00:16:59.580 multiple determined attempts by the Germans to 00:16:59.580 --> 00:17:01.779 cross the river. What does it physically look 00:17:01.779 --> 00:17:03.799 like for half a brigade to be wiped out just 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:06.210 to buy hours on a clock? It looks like total 00:17:06.210 --> 00:17:09.150 devastation. As the fighting dragged into the 00:17:09.150 --> 00:17:12.410 afternoon, the 43rd Army Corps rapidly ran out 00:17:12.410 --> 00:17:15.029 of ammunition and medical supplies. The casualties 00:17:15.029 --> 00:17:17.910 were massive. The Latvian riflemen in particular 00:17:17.910 --> 00:17:21.170 took staggering, almost incomprehensible losses. 00:17:21.789 --> 00:17:23.789 Over 50 percent of their troops were either killed 00:17:23.789 --> 00:17:26.829 or severely wounded in the mud along that riverbank. 00:17:26.869 --> 00:17:30.390 Half of them. Gone. Eventually, the sheer crushing 00:17:30.390 --> 00:17:32.569 weight of the German advance pushed through. 00:17:32.730 --> 00:17:35.650 and the shattered remnants of the defenders began 00:17:35.650 --> 00:17:38.390 a fighting retreat. But their sacrifice actually 00:17:38.390 --> 00:17:41.049 worked. By September 3rd, the German forces secure 00:17:41.049 --> 00:17:43.650 the city of Riga with very little remaining resistance. 00:17:44.250 --> 00:17:46.509 Right. Interestingly, the aristocrats living 00:17:46.509 --> 00:17:48.869 in the city, the Baltic Germans, were actually 00:17:48.869 --> 00:17:51.349 hoping the invading army would preserve their 00:17:51.349 --> 00:17:54.930 old Tsarist -era social status. Which is quite 00:17:54.930 --> 00:17:56.650 the detail. Yeah, while the rest of the exhausted 00:17:56.650 --> 00:17:58.950 residents were largely indifferent to who was 00:17:58.950 --> 00:18:01.359 flying the flag. But the real story of the battle 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:03.940 is that General Parsky's desperate gamble paid 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:07.519 off. It did. Because of the bloody time bought 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:09.940 by the Latvian riflemen at the Mazajugla River, 00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:12.460 the vast majority of the Russian troops managed 00:18:12.460 --> 00:18:15.039 to escape the encirclement. They got out. Now 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.599 they had to abandon huge quantities of their 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:19.900 heavy artillery, their vehicles and their equipment 00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:22.559 behind simply because they didn't have the time 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:25.519 or the logistical means to drag it north. But 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:28.730 the men themselves survived. German Colonel Max 00:18:28.730 --> 00:18:31.170 Hoffmann himself noted in his personal records 00:18:31.170 --> 00:18:33.529 a sense of frustration. Oh, he was annoyed. He 00:18:33.529 --> 00:18:35.730 wrote that they captured a mountain of abandoned 00:18:35.730 --> 00:18:38.250 artillery and supplies, but they only took around 00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:41.869 9 ,000 to 15 ,000 Russian prisoners. Out of nearly 00:18:41.869 --> 00:18:45.089 200 ,000. Exactly. When you consider they were 00:18:45.089 --> 00:18:47.609 trying to trap that many men, that means the 00:18:47.609 --> 00:18:50.230 vast bulk of the Russian 12th Army slipped the 00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:53.029 noose. They retreated north to a town called 00:18:53.029 --> 00:18:55.750 Wenden and established new defensive positions. 00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:58.279 If we connect this to the bigger picture and 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:00.440 looking at how your visual backdrop has shifted 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:03.680 from the trenches to imagery of naval ships and 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:05.799 revolutionary crowds. Yeah, there's a lot going 00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:08.099 on. We can see that the ripple effects of this 00:19:08.099 --> 00:19:10.819 five day battle are massive, both militarily 00:19:10.819 --> 00:19:13.220 and politically. Let's look at the military fallout 00:19:13.220 --> 00:19:16.599 first. On paper, the Germans take Riga. They 00:19:16.599 --> 00:19:19.079 get their industrial prize. But how does this 00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:22.809 reshape the wider war? The fall of Riga severely 00:19:22.809 --> 00:19:25.509 weakened the extreme northern flank of the Russian 00:19:25.509 --> 00:19:28.089 defensive line along the Baltic Sea. It exposed 00:19:28.089 --> 00:19:31.309 them. It pushed the German front perilously close 00:19:31.309 --> 00:19:33.970 to the capital of Petrograd, and the Germans 00:19:33.970 --> 00:19:36.650 wasted no time capitalizing on this momentum. 00:19:37.450 --> 00:19:40.190 In the immediate aftermath, they launched Operation 00:19:40.190 --> 00:19:42.549 Albion. The source points out that Operation 00:19:42.549 --> 00:19:45.150 Albion is a fascinating military milestone on 00:19:45.150 --> 00:19:47.690 its own. Definitely. It was a massive amphibious 00:19:47.690 --> 00:19:50.190 landing on several Baltic islands located just 00:19:50.190 --> 00:19:52.670 north of the Gulf of Riga. It is actually considered 00:19:52.670 --> 00:19:55.089 one of the earliest successful examples in modern 00:19:55.089 --> 00:19:57.910 military history of a combined amphibious assault. 00:19:58.230 --> 00:20:01.150 Seamlessly utilizing air cover, naval bombardment 00:20:01.150 --> 00:20:03.950 and ground forces all working in concert. Exactly. 00:20:04.029 --> 00:20:05.890 The tactical innovations were spreading rapidly. 00:20:06.009 --> 00:20:07.789 We already mentioned how the Houthir infantry 00:20:07.789 --> 00:20:09.930 tactics debuted at Riga were almost immediately 00:20:09.930 --> 00:20:12.200 trans... sport itself. And used to devastating 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:14.119 effect against the Italians at the Battle of 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:17.039 Caporetto. Right. The military DNA of the Riga 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:19.599 offensive changed how the rest of the war was 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.859 fought. But the political aftermath inside Russia 00:20:22.859 --> 00:20:26.460 is where the true earth shattering domino effect 00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:29.079 occurs. This is where it gets crazy. Let's go 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:32.160 back to General Kornilov. He had explicitly warned 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:33.839 the government that if they didn't let him restore 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:36.579 harsh discipline Riga would fall. And when Riga 00:20:36.579 --> 00:20:39.970 did fall. and the nearby coastal fortress of 00:20:39.970 --> 00:20:43.349 Ustavinsk was lost, Kornilov decided he'd seen 00:20:43.349 --> 00:20:45.730 enough. He felt totally vindicated in his warnings. 00:20:45.950 --> 00:20:48.809 He used the national panic and the humiliation 00:20:48.809 --> 00:20:52.029 of losing such a major city as the ultimate justification 00:20:52.029 --> 00:20:54.849 to launch a full -scale military coup. He attempts 00:20:54.849 --> 00:20:58.029 to violently seize control of Petrograd. Just 00:20:58.029 --> 00:21:00.410 before Riga actually fell, he had ordered the 00:21:00.410 --> 00:21:02.910 3rd Cavalry Corps to a location near the capital. 00:21:03.109 --> 00:21:05.269 Supposedly under the guise of strengthening defenses 00:21:05.269 --> 00:21:07.329 against a potential German push. Right, that 00:21:07.329 --> 00:21:10.109 was the cover story. But now he orders those 00:21:10.109 --> 00:21:12.349 cavalry units to march directly on the Petrograd 00:21:12.349 --> 00:21:15.470 Soviet and crush the Bolshevik agitators once 00:21:15.470 --> 00:21:20.460 and for all. But the coup. completely and spectacularly 00:21:20.460 --> 00:21:23.480 falls apart. Why does a seasoned general fail 00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:25.799 to take his own capital with a cavalry corps? 00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:29.180 Because the ordinary soldiers simply refuse to 00:21:29.180 --> 00:21:31.559 march. They just stopped. The disintegration 00:21:31.559 --> 00:21:34.059 of military discipline that began months earlier 00:21:34.059 --> 00:21:36.740 with order number one had finally reached its 00:21:36.740 --> 00:21:39.480 logical, fatal conclusion. The chickens came 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:43.130 home to roost. Exactly. The enlisted men heavily 00:21:43.130 --> 00:21:45.849 influenced by railway workers and Soviet agitators 00:21:45.849 --> 00:21:48.109 who met them on the tracks, would not follow 00:21:48.109 --> 00:21:50.589 their aristocratic officers in a domestic coup 00:21:50.589 --> 00:21:52.630 against their own countrymen. So they just refuse 00:21:52.630 --> 00:21:54.670 the orders. Kerensky, the head of the provisional 00:21:54.670 --> 00:21:57.130 government, realizes Kornilov is going rogue 00:21:57.130 --> 00:21:59.470 and officially removes him from his position 00:21:59.470 --> 00:22:02.609 as supreme commander. The coup dissolves without 00:22:02.609 --> 00:22:05.089 a major battle, and Kornilov's key conspirators 00:22:05.089 --> 00:22:07.190 are thrown in prison. And the political backlash 00:22:07.190 --> 00:22:09.809 from this failed coup is the exact moment the 00:22:09.809 --> 00:22:11.710 scales of history tip. It changes everything. 00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:14.940 Because of the so -called Korneloff affair, the 00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:17.819 enlisted men's distrust of their military officers 00:22:17.819 --> 00:22:22.079 transforms into absolute hatred. The army is 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:24.640 fundamentally broken. They are completely unwilling 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:26.859 to fight the Germans anymore. And politically, 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:30.160 the landscape shifts overnight. Because the Bolsheviks 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.420 were highly visible in organizing the workers 00:22:32.420 --> 00:22:35.099 and soldiers to defend Petrograd against this 00:22:35.099 --> 00:22:37.400 right -wing military coup, they suddenly surged 00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:39.539 in popularity. They look like the defenders of 00:22:39.539 --> 00:22:42.500 the people. Yes. They gained the definitive majority 00:22:42.500 --> 00:22:46.670 in both the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. Meanwhile, 00:22:46.910 --> 00:22:49.150 the provisional government loses almost all its 00:22:49.150 --> 00:22:51.450 remaining legitimacy and support among the troops. 00:22:51.670 --> 00:22:53.309 Because Kerensky was perceived as having been 00:22:53.309 --> 00:22:55.950 too weak. Too weak or even secretly complicit 00:22:55.950 --> 00:22:58.730 with Kornilov before the coup. This raises an 00:22:58.730 --> 00:23:00.910 important question. What's that? Would the October 00:23:00.910 --> 00:23:03.230 Revolution have happened at all or happened exactly 00:23:03.230 --> 00:23:06.130 when it did without the fall of Riga? Wow. A 00:23:06.130 --> 00:23:09.079 contemporary newspaper. Novoi Vremya noted at 00:23:09.079 --> 00:23:11.440 the time that discipline had rotted so severely 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:13.940 that large numbers of Russian troops in highly 00:23:13.940 --> 00:23:16.539 fortified positions couldn't even muster a strong 00:23:16.539 --> 00:23:19.200 fight for the city. So the rot was deep. The 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:21.619 battle definitively proved the army was hollowed 00:23:21.619 --> 00:23:25.589 out. That undeniable military failure gave Kornelow 00:23:25.589 --> 00:23:28.089 the excuse he needed for his coup. And the failure 00:23:28.089 --> 00:23:30.630 of that coup handed the political momentum directly 00:23:30.630 --> 00:23:33.089 and irreversibly to the Bolsheviks. Exactly. 00:23:33.170 --> 00:23:34.890 So what does this all mean? Let's bring all these 00:23:34.890 --> 00:23:37.769 threads together. Sure. A relatively brief five 00:23:37.769 --> 00:23:41.329 -day offensive in early September 1917 fought 00:23:41.329 --> 00:23:43.710 over a city that had been sitting quietly behind 00:23:43.710 --> 00:23:47.150 a frozen static front line for two entire years. 00:23:47.329 --> 00:23:49.849 Right. It essentially proved to be the grand 00:23:49.849 --> 00:23:52.430 rehearsal for modern combined armies. warfare. 00:23:52.869 --> 00:23:55.609 The coordinated artillery barrages, blending 00:23:55.609 --> 00:23:58.650 gas and high explosives, the infiltration squad 00:23:58.650 --> 00:24:00.930 movements flowing around strong points at the 00:24:00.930 --> 00:24:03.549 birth of the storm troopers, all of it debuted 00:24:03.549 --> 00:24:06.009 in the mud of the Davina River. And simultaneously, 00:24:06.549 --> 00:24:09.150 the loss of that very city was the precise trigger 00:24:09.150 --> 00:24:11.950 for the Cornell Law of Affair, which completely 00:24:11.950 --> 00:24:14.549 shattered whatever fragile grip the provisional 00:24:14.549 --> 00:24:16.349 government still had on the country. It broke 00:24:16.349 --> 00:24:19.579 the camel's back. It laid the direct, immediate 00:24:19.579 --> 00:24:22.619 groundwork for the Bolsheviks to seize power 00:24:22.619 --> 00:24:26.460 in the October Revolution just weeks later. It 00:24:26.460 --> 00:24:28.819 is a perfect reminder that history is never just 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:31.319 a list of isolated dates and locations in a textbook. 00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:34.740 No, it's not. It is a deeply intricate, highly 00:24:34.740 --> 00:24:37.740 volatile web. A new squad tactic tested on the 00:24:37.740 --> 00:24:40.940 banks of a river leads to a successful encirclement 00:24:40.940 --> 00:24:44.599 maneuver. That maneuver forces a desperate, bloody 00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:47.200 holding action by Latvian riflemen in a swamp. 00:24:47.900 --> 00:24:50.619 That sacrifice results in the abandonment of 00:24:50.619 --> 00:24:53.500 a major industrial city. The loss of that city 00:24:53.500 --> 00:24:55.779 triggers a hardline general to launch a coup. 00:24:56.029 --> 00:24:58.910 The failure of that coup collapses a government 00:24:58.910 --> 00:25:01.750 and hands the keys of the empire to revolutionaries. 00:25:02.130 --> 00:25:04.390 The success of the Russian 12th Army escaping 00:25:04.390 --> 00:25:07.589 the trap at Riga meant that nearly 200 ,000 soldiers 00:25:07.589 --> 00:25:10.109 survived the German onslaught. But they survived 00:25:10.109 --> 00:25:13.230 only to march back into a massive political firestorm. 00:25:13.369 --> 00:25:15.589 That would violently reshape the entire globe 00:25:15.589 --> 00:25:17.329 for the rest of the 20th century. Which leaves 00:25:17.329 --> 00:25:20.130 us with a fascinating and honestly kind of haunting 00:25:20.130 --> 00:25:22.869 final thought for you to mull over. Think about 00:25:22.869 --> 00:25:26.299 the men of the Russian 12th Army. They fought 00:25:26.299 --> 00:25:29.599 tooth and nail in the freezing mud. The Latvian 00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:31.940 riflemen sacrificed half of their brothers in 00:25:31.940 --> 00:25:34.400 arms just to hold a line. Half of them. They 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:36.900 abandoned all their heavy artillery, their transport, 00:25:37.059 --> 00:25:39.319 their supplies, all to successfully evacuate 00:25:39.319 --> 00:25:41.619 Riga and save their own lives from being crushed 00:25:41.619 --> 00:25:46.779 in Vanjutio's trap. But what exactly were those 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:49.720 surviving exhausted soldiers retreating towards? 00:25:50.259 --> 00:25:52.579 That is the question. If you think about the 00:25:52.579 --> 00:25:54.720 timeline, given that their discipline was completely 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:56.480 collapsing and the Bolsheviks would violently 00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:59.700 seize power just weeks later, were those men 00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:02.460 really just escaping a German prison camp only 00:26:02.460 --> 00:26:04.759 to march directly into the complete and total 00:26:04.759 --> 00:26:06.839 collapse of their own empire? It's quite a thought. 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:08.700 It's something to think about the next time you 00:26:08.700 --> 00:26:10.880 look at a map of a battlefield. Thank you for 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:12.779 joining us on this deep dive. Keep questioning 00:26:12.779 --> 00:26:14.920 the hidden connections in history. We'll see 00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:15.500 you next time.