After Rasputin – The Most Controversial Russian of the War Was Vladimir Sukhomlinov

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov (born 1848—died 1926) was a Russian general and minister of war who was largely blamed for Russia’s premature and unprepared entry into World War I. [Note:  The late British Eastern Front historian Norman Stone has argued that excessive culpability for Russia's shortcomings has been laid on Sukhomlinov's reputation.]

Sukhomlinov graduated from Nikolayevskoye Cavalry School in 1867 and served in the Uhlans of the Imperial Guard Regiment based in Warsaw. He graduated from the General Staff Academy in 1874 and participated in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), serving for some time on the staff of General Mikhail Skobelev and was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th class. He subsequently advanced as a fast-rising field grade officer, a key assignment being as the highly visible head of the officer cavalry school in St. Petersburg from 1886 to 1897. At this time he certainly came to the attention of the future Tsar Nicholas II. At some point, Sukhomlinov—a charming and much-admired raconteur—became a favorite of  the tsar. He and his fourth wife, who was thirty years his junior, would also later become friends with Rasputin.

In any case, he was promoted the next year to general and his career advancement accelerated. Sukhomlinov became chief of staff of the army in  December 1908 and then—almost immediately— appointed Russia's Minister of War.  He served as war minister from 1909 to 1915, and it was under him that the Russian orders for mobilization were given at the outbreak of World War I. 

At the time of Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia, Sukhomlinov assured the government of the combat readiness of Russian troops. The partial mobilization soon revealed the demoralized and unequipped state of the nation’s armed forces. As the war progressed, Russian combat operations were increasingly hampered by shortages of arms, ammunition, and other war matériel, but Sukhomlinov continued to insist that the army was adequately supplied. 

Sukhomlinov (far left), accompanying Emperor Nicholas II during his 1911
trip to Ovruch, is present at the presentation of bread and salt to
Nicholas II by representatives of the city.

Sukhomlinov (far left), accompanying Emperor Nicholas II during his 1911 trip to Ovruch, is present at the presentation of bread and salt to Nicholas II by representatives of the city.

British Observer Major General Sir Alfred Knox recorded some interesting observations of Sukhomlinov's deceptions about artillery shell production in his diary: 

The Minister of War replied on September 28th that the question of the supply of ammunition in the Russian army gave no cause for anxiety, and that the Ministry of War was taking all necessary steps to provide everything required. At the same time the French Military Attache learned from an unofficial source that the output of factories in Russia then amounted to only 35,000 shell a month. Unfortunately, he had no means of ascertaining that the rate of expenditure at the front then averaged 45,000 a day, and he believed that the initial stock on mobilization was more than twice as large as it really was.

If General Sukhomlinov and his Staff had worried to appreciate the situation at the end of September, they must have known that the initial stock only provided shells for two more months of war, and they should then at once have taken adequate measures to cope with the difficulty by ordering from abroad.

It subsequently became known that the officials at Petrograd had received ample warning. On September 9th the Staff of the South-West Front had telegraphed to the Artillery Department : "It is essential to replace the almost exhausted supplies of shell." On October 26th Ivanov had telegraphed : " Supplies of ammunition are entirely exhausted. If not replenished, operations will have to be broken off and the troops retired under most difficult conditions."

Over a year later I learned on unimpeachable authority that in the middle of October General Kuzmin Karavaev, an honourable old man, whose nerves had been shaken by his immense responsibilities as Chief of the Artillery Department, went to Sukhomlinov, weeping, and said that Russia would have to make peace owing to the shortage of artillery ammunition. The Minister of War told him to "go to the devil and quiet himself."

. . .  I interviewed Sukhomlinov in Petrograd on December 16th [1914] to ascertain his views regarding rifles and shells. His first remark was: "As you know, the Germans have been preparing for this war since 1870. We never commenced preparation till five years ago, when I became Minister of War. We have done a lot since then, but I wanted two years more.

 

Sukhomlinov with a Contingent of Allied Officers
(Possibly That Is Sir Alfred Knox in the Rear)

As Minister of War, Sukhomlinov was never trusted by the Army Committee of the State Duma, led by Alexander Guchkov.  Guchkov challenged one of Sukhomlinov's allies to  duel, which turned out to be mutually non-fatal. Sukhomlinov was also resented by Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich, the commander-in-chief of the Russian forces in the first phase of World War I. The hostile relationship between the army commander and war minister was intensified by the latter's association with purported spy Colonel Sergey Nikolayevich Myasoyedov, who was eventually executed for treason.

In June 1915 the thoroughly discredited Sukhomlinov was dismissed and replaced by the able General A.A. Polivanov. Despite Sukhomlinov’s close ties with the tsar, public sentiment ran high and charges of malfeasance, corruption, and treason were brought against him by the Duma. He was arrested in April 1916, freed in October at the tsar’s instigation, and rearrested after the Revolution by the provisional government. At his trial in the autumn of 1917, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. He was freed by an amnesty granted by the Bolsheviks and went to Finland and later to Germany, where he composed his memoirs, Erinnerungen, published in 1924. He died in poverty in Berlin in February 1926.

Sources:  Encyclopedia Britannica;  "Terrible Internal Enemy", Military Review, January 2015; Wikipedia; With the Russian Army, 1914-1917,  Major General Sir Alfred Knox.