Over the past four days the two sovereigns - "Willy" and "Nicky" as they nicknamed each other - had been trading telegrams in a last-ditch bid to save peace, even as their army chiefs readied for battle. "Only the tsar, with his German origins, is against the war, "the liberal journalist Mikhail Lemke mused in his diary at the time. Joyous street rallies broke out in support of the call to arms, with nationalist fervour still high two days later when the German Emperor Wilhelm II responded by declaring war on his Russian cousin. There would be no turning back from a decision that set Europe on a course to war.Īt 6 pm the order was telegraphed across the vast empire, whose pre-war borders reached deep into central Europe, as red posters appealing to Russian patriots were plastered up in towns and villages. Russian tsar's declaration of war on German cousin set course for WW1Īfter a week of failed diplomacy, dithering and doubt, Tsar Nicholas II ordered Russia's armies to mobilize on July 30, 1914.
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