Alexander Samsonov

The Battle of Tannenburg was Russia’s worst defeat in World War One. In fact, the Russian army never fully recovered from the battle at Tannenburg and the contribution of Russia’s disillusioned army to the February/March Russian Revolution has been well chronicled. At the start of the war, Alexander Samsonov was appointed commander of the Russian Second Army. His brief in August 1914 was to invade East Prussia along with General Rennenkampf’s First Army. The start of the campaign went well for Russia. The German commander facing Samsonov, Maximilian Prittwitz, was sacked by Helmuth von Moltke, Germany’s Chief of Staff, for ordering his Eighth Army to retreat as Samsonov’s Second Army advanced.