As the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, the war against Russia in the Caucuses had reached a stalemate. One thing Russia desperately needed was supplies. First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, believed that they needed to secure the land around the Dardanelles Strait, which would then lead into the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea beyond, allowing a secure supply line to Russia. It could also possibly help the Western Front, by opening up a new front to divert the German forces onto 3 fronts.
A map of the area
The first attempt at securing the strait was on March 18th, 1915 via a naval attack through the straight in an attempt to take out the Ottoman artillery guns. However, Ottoman sea mines had been placed in the strait and that, combined with the Ottoman gun fire, sank 3 battleships and the ships eventually had to retreat. On the 25th of April, 75,000 troops, comprising of French, British, Australian and Kiwi troops, commanded by General Ian Hamilton landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Despite not having proper landing craft, instead having to row over, a decent beach head was formed.
The Anzac forces had landed North of their intended target and were now inside a cove. Due to their valiant efforts, the cove was named Anzac Cove.
British Officers in a trench at Gallipoli
However, once the beach head was formed, trench warfare soon began to set in. What made the trench warfare here worse was the glaring sun and the dysentery epidemic. Hamilton ordered another 60,000 men to attack Suvla Bay from the water. However, due to hesitation from Allied high command, the Ottoman’s had managed to dig defences and the bay was eventually recaptured by Mustafa Kemal Pasha on August 10th. The attempt to break the stalemate was a disastrous failure.
As allied and Ottoman casualties began to increase, the stalemate was no closer to breaking. Eventually, on December 7th, an evacuation was ordered, with the last troops leaving Gallipoli on January 6th of the next year.
Despite its significance in Australian, Kiwi and Turkish history, the Gallipoli campaign is still considered to be one of the greatest catastrophe for the allies during the war. One of the main problems with the campaign was that, despite the Allied advantage, no orders were issued and due to the lack of coordination the allies could not advance. They were instead ordered to dig in, which was considered to be highly counterproductive. The campaign ultimately failed to take the pressure off Russia, which many attribute as the reason of the Russian Revolutions of February and October of 1917.
Well, I thought the same as everybody else. Everybody said ‘It’ll be over by Christmas and you’ve got to get out soon, otherwise you won’t see anything’. But I don’t know if it was my opinion, or if everybody was saying it. One certainly changed one’s mind when we found how well-organised Jerry was compared with us for instance.
Bill Haine, a British Soldier in WW1
Despite what many claimed at home, the war was not over by Christmas. Winter was setting in and the fighting had slowed even more than before. Whilst the Christmas Truce of 1914 is seen as a unique one, ceasefires had been occurring all over the Western Front. A “turn a blind eye” attitude was becoming common place, despite orders from command. The harsh winter was also getting to the soldiers. The feeling of the first Christmas away from home was beginning to set in so gifts were sent. Kaiser Wilhelm sent cigars for the officers and pipes for the ranks while Princess Mary of Harewood sent out cigarettes, sweets and cards.
On Christmas Eve, the rain that had been flooding trenches for weeks had finally stopped, and the ice froze the floor of the trenches over, reducing the risk of trench foot significantly. Soon, snow fell upon No Mans Land and the gun fire slowly but surely dwindled into silence. Filled with merriment and joy, the German’s began to sing Silent Night in their trenches. The British officers, hearing this, believed it to be a challenge and began singing their own carols back at the Germans. However, what began as a competition eventually turned into a harmonisation of English and German voices. Many officers met by the wire, agreeing not to exchange gunfire the next day. However, such friendliness was not shared with the French or Belgian troops, as they were under occupation by the Germans at the time. However, they did agree to stop shooting in order to bury their dead.
Christmas Day came. Many British soldiers looked over the parapet to see German Soldiers standing upright in No Mans Land. The two sides got out and buried their dead. The two sides found they shared a communal experience, of having had their friends die and being sick of the war. Extra gifts given to them by their wives and families were exchanged. One notable exchange was between Captain Edward Hulse of the Scots Guard and Lieutenant Thomas of the 15th Westphalians. Thomas gave Hulse a Victoria Cross and a series of letters belonging to an officer who had been killed in a German trench in a previous attack, hoping to have them returned to his family. Touched by his empathy, Hulse gave Thomas his scarf he had received the night prior. Not having anything to give back, Thomas ordered a German troop to find the gloves given to him by his family in order to give them to Hulse. Unfortunately, Hulse ended up being killed in action the following April at the Battle of Neuve-Chappelle while trying to help his commanding officer. Thomas’ fate remains unknown
German and British troops playing football together on the battlefield
The most famous part of this truce were the football matches played between the two sides. Both sides brought out their own footballs, playing kick-about between the two trenches. However, not all was done with best intentions. This time of peace was used to repair dugouts and spy on the enemy. Some were cautious, with incidents of people spotting daggers being drawn and British soldiers not wanting to smoke German cigarettes for fear of poisoning.
Eventually, high command stepped in, fearing that the war would not go on if their troops knew their enemy as people. For some, the armistice was swift and done with by Boxing Day. Others carried on, pushing until New Years Eve. German command dispatched snipers whilst the French ordered artillery barrages. For high command, they believed the war machine had to go on and all human connection must be stamped out. There was never another ceasefire like this, not just in this war but any war since then.
Initially, many trenches of World War 1 were glorified foxholes. But once the war began to set in, these trenches became more complex and became a vast system behind the front lines, including reserve trenches, dugouts and medical areas behind the trenches.
Trench warfare would tend to be very repetitive in nature. A battle would start with a large artillery bombardment from one side against the other. Many of these artillery barrages would cause Shell Shock or, as modern physcologists have called it, PTSD.
A British soldier suffering from Shell Shock
Then waves of troops would come over through an area called No Mans Land, the term for the empty land between the two trenches, which was often ravished by craters, barbed wire and dead trees. The guns from the defending side would open fire, usually massacring the wave. They offending side would then usually send wave after wave until they either gave up or captured the trench. Tens of thousands of lives would be lost, only to gain a few metres of land.
The trenches were often very crudely designed, as many suspected the war would not be long. Many had open mud on the floor, which would mean diseases such as trench foot would be spread. Rats were common place as well. However, the German trenches were considered to be more sturdy, being deeper and wider than the Allied trenches, allowing for better movement and cover. German trenches averaged around 12 feet in depth, whilst British ones averaged around 6 or 7 feet deep.
A drawing of a German Trench from a book
For when artillery fire came, bunkers were dug in, with the German ones being characterised as a lot more homely and comfortable.
By 1915, the true nature of the war began to set in and the trench fixtures became a lot more permanent. Machine gun turrets were set up and, eventually, the German’s began using the new weapon, chlorine gas. Poison gas was a key element of the war, despite it being illegal. Both sides would use this weapon on each other. Many died due to gas attacks and those who survived suffered later in life.
The Russian Army had now fully mobilised, a lot earlier than Germany had expected. Now half their army was trapped in trenches in France whilst the other half dealt with the Russians. The Russian troops made an advance into Prussia but were swiftly crushed at Tannenberg, where 90,000 Russian troops were taken prisoner and an entire army was wiped out. Another victory at Masurian Lakes forces the Russians out of the region.
Further south, the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was going bad for Austria-Hungary due to a humiliating loss at the Battle of Cer. An offensive against Russia also fails and the Austro-Hungarians are pushed back, with a siege on Przemysl beginning not long after. The Germans, in an effort to distract the Russian forces, engaged in a series of battles at Lodz in modern day Poland.
German troops at the battle
Eventually, the Ottoman Empire, a large Middle Eastern Empire spanning Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and parts of Saudi Arabia, join the fighting on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, by sending some ships into the Black Sea, launching naval bombardments on the naval bases of Odessa and Sevastopol, while engaging with ground units on the Georgian border. Due to the vast length and low density of the line, trench warfare never set in like it did on the western front.
Tsar Nicholas ordered the mobilisation of troops on July 29th and Kaiser Wilhelm mobilised theirs on the 30th. Because Russia had such a large army to mobilise on such a large border, Germany believed they had to take out France first. Luckily, they had planned for this.
In 1906, Alfred Von Schliefen had devised a plan in case they needed to invade France. He proposed a plan of going through the Lowlands, of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, before attacking France from it’s northern border, encircling Paris, assuring a swift victory. The front could then be moved to Russia and their large army to focus on that front.
A photo of Schlieffen, 1906
The invasion of Belgium began. Having reassured it’s safety, Britain joins the war against Germany, sending troops down to France. However, the advance slows at the heavily fortified city of Liege. Once the city was captured, the German’s committed brutal war crimes against the civilian population. The Triple Alliance spread propaganda, denouncing the German’s actions in the Belgian cities, making many neutral countries opinions of Germany turn sour.
France began to make a push into the German territory but were pushed back at a heavy cost in the Battle of the Frontiers
A French army at the battle
The British troops eventually make an advance and fight with German troops at Mons. However, they were vastly outnumbered and had to retreat to the French frontline at the Marne River. It seemed as though the Schlieffen Plan would be a swift success.
However, the German’s needed to secure a naval port. The Allied Armies and the Germans quickly ran to the coast trying to flank one another, forming a full frontline, colliding at the First Battle of Ypres. However, due to some light tinkering from Helmuth von Moltke, the German line was under supplied so could not advance past this point for the meantime. The two lines began to dig in, building a network of trenches across the frontline.
Many believed that the plan itself was flawed and was destined to never work. Others claim that due to Moltke’s meddling, the plan failed. But no matter what you think was the cause for the Schlieffen Plan’s failure, the era of Trench Warfare had begun.
On 28th of July 1914, Gavrilo Princip, member of the Serbian organisation “The Black Hand” shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife in Bosnia, killing them both. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination, so declared war. Russia had an alliance with Serbia, so declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany had an alliance with Austria-Hungary, so declared war on Russia, thus bringing both Germany and Hitler into World War 1.
He was attached to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 and was a runner on the Western Front in East Belgium. He was awarded an Iron Cross (2nd class) for his bravery, one of the highest awards given to soldiers in the German Army, similar to the Victoria Cross or Medal of Honour.
Hitler in a dugout in the war. He is furthest left.
During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, he suffered an injury from an artillery shell which wounded his left thigh. He was sent to hospital and returned in March 1917.
In September 1918, Hitler claimed that in a battle was unarmed and a rifle was pointed at him by Private Henry Tandey, one of the most highly decorated privates of the war, having gained a Victoria cross for his bravery at the fifth Battle of Ypres. He held his gun on Hitler but then told him to go. Hitler told this tale to Former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain when he visited his house in Bavaria, saying “That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again,”. When first hearing this Tandey denied all claims but later on he says he remembers doing something like this and if it was Hitler he should’ve pulled the trigger, saying, “If only I had known what he would turn out to be […] When I saw all the people and women and children he had killed and wounded I was sorry to God I let him go.” when an interviewer went to his house in Coventry. The paper wrote “Nothing Henry did that night could ease his sickening sense of guilt. […] It was a stigma that Tandey lived with until his death […] He could have stopped this. He could have changed the course of history.” Tandey passed away in 1977 at his home in Coventry.
This is a painting at Hitler’s home in Bavaria which he showed to Prime Minister Chamberlain. Hitler claimed that the injured man being carried at the front of the line is him and the man carrying him is Tandey.
A month after he was nearly killed, Hitler was partially blinded by a mustard gas attack and was sent to hospital. It was during this time when he learnt of Germany’s defeat. Hitler said that when he learnt this he had a second wave of blindness. Hitler and many others believed that Germany had been stabbed in the back from the home front and Hitler blamed it on the Jews and Marxists. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles didn’t help matters, making the German people hate the countries that made them sign the Treaty even more than they already did.
In the early 20th Century, Europe began to split into two factions. France, The United Kingdom and Russia formed the Triple Entente. France wanted the region of Alsace Lorraine back, a wooded area that had been taken by Germany. Britain feared the size of Germany’s navy and were worried it could possibly rival the famous Royal Navy, which had ruled the waves for centuries. But all 3 countries feared the possible expansion of the German Empire, lead by Kaiser Wilhelm
Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. Germany was fearing an all on attack, so made an alliance with Austria-Hungary, a vast yet fragile empire in the Balkan Sates that was nearing the brink of collapse. Italy wanted to reassert it’s old Roman claims, even if it meant at France’s expense. Tension began to rise and all Europe needed was one little push.
A map of Europe in 1914
June 28th, 1914. Heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was coming to visit Sarajevo in Bosnia with his pregnant wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. A Bosnian terrorist organisation backed by the Serbian Government called the Black Hand decided to act. There were 6 people assigned to assassinate the Archduke as he drove on his motorcade to Sarajevo City Hall.
Muhamed Mehmedbašić
Vaso Čubrilović
Nedeljko Čabrinović
Cvjetko Popović
Trifko Grabež
Gavrilo Princip
These six men were coordinated by Danilo Ilić. Every assassin would be armed with a pistol, a bomb and a cyanide pill. Before the Archduke even got into town, things began to go awry. They were worried the weapons would not get there in time, as they were being smuggled in a sugar shipment to the city. However, the problem was they thought they sent the sugar to the wrong place. Eventually, the weapons did arrive in time.
A modern day map of the river in Sarajevo (Google Maps)
Eventually, the Archduke arrived in the town in an open top car. As he drove down Obala Kulina bana, the street leading up to the City Hall in the third car of a six car motorcade, two of the assassins, Muhamed and Vaso, were stationed next to each other on the side of the street furthest from the Milijacka River and Nedeljko was on the river side of the street. The Archduke passes Muhamed and Vaso. For some unkown reason, Muhamed, who the Archduke is first to pass, does nothing. Many historians suspect it was due to nerves. Vaso, possibly because Muhamed didn’t act, also does nothing.
Eventually, Nedeljko, steps out into the street, throwing a bomb at the Archduke’s car. However, the bomb bounced off the car, rolled into the street and exploded the car behind the Archduke, injuring the guards inside. Realising the plan had failed, Nedeljko takes the cyanide pill and leaps into the river in an effort to drown himself. However, not only was the cyanide pill out of date, the river was also in a dry season. So Nedeljko was now vomiting in knee deep water having just broken his legs from jumping off the bridge. The crowd, mad at the attempt on the Archduke’s life, swarmed him and nearly beat this vomiting crippled man to death, before the police stepped in.
The other 3 assassins, whose whereabouts were unknown during all this, scrammed. Gavrilo decided to make a stop at a local sandwich shop on the corner of Obala Kulina bana and Zelenih berekti. Meanwhile, the motorcade races down to the City Hall, where the Archduke was supposed to make a speech. He burst in, halfway through the mayor’s speech, interrupting him saying:
Mr Mayor, I came here to visit and I am greeted with bombs. It is outrageous.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand upon walking into City Hall
When he wanted to give his speech, he discovered that the speech had been left in the car that had just blown up, so someone was sent back to retrieve the speech, now covered in blood, and hand it to the Archduke. After the speech, the Archduke and a security team decided what to do next, who eventually decided to go back the way they came towards the hospital to see if the guards were doing alright. They all agreed upon this plan, got in their cars and drove away.
The Archduke was now sat in the back right seat of his car, with Sophie on the back left seat and a guard hanging onto the left side. However, for some unholy reason, everyone neglected to tell the drivers, so they continued on the scheduled route up to the museum, which would involve a right turn onto Zelenih berekti. Just outside the sandwich shop, the guard noticed that they had made a wrong turn. Back in these days, there was no reverse on cars so the driver had to get out of the car and push. Around this time, Gavrilo left the shop and noticed his target stopped right in front of him, with his only guard on the other side of the car. Gavrilo took his chance and, with his pistol, shot the Archduke dead. The guard prepped to return fire and Gavrilo shot at him. However, Sophie, who was tending to her husband, got in the way and was shot instead.
A painting of the Archduke’s assassination
Gavrilo Princip, who was only 19 at the time, was arrested and put on trial. He was too young to be executed so was sentenced to solitary confinement in the Small Fortress, a prison complex in Terezin. He spoke to a psychiatrist, to whom he said that World War 1 would’ve started with or without the assassination. He did not feel responsible for the starting of the war but he did feel awful for killing Sophie. Princip died of tuberculosis on April 28th, 1918, weighing only 40kg (88lb) due to malnutrition inside the prison.
This one event set off a chain reaction. Austria-Hungary, believing Serbia to be behind the attack, declared war on them. Serbia was allies with Russia, so they declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany joined in on the fighting against the two nations, with France joining the fight not long after that, beginning World War 1. The UK decided to stay out of it for the meantime. However, that was to change very soon.
Back in St Petersburg, one of the Tsars advisors, Sergei Witte, began industrialising the nation, despite the Tsar thinking it was a waste of time. He borrowed some money from France and used it to build factories. Despite these attempts to modernise, the conditions in these factories were awful. Rats were frequent sights to be seen, workers would sleep in smelly cramped dormitories and arms could be torn off in the heavy machinery. And they all went on strike. The liberals asked for reform, the farmers were all starving and the workers now wanted better working conditions. In order to distract them from the crisis, Nicholas decided to go to war with Japan to bring in some Russian pride, a plan that backfired as Japan won the war relatively quickly, taking a part of Russia’s land. Revolution was right around the corner and all it needed was one little push.
An Orthodox Priest by the name of Father Gapon lead a peaceful march to the palace on January 22nd, 1905, wanting to deliver a petition to Nicholas, asking for freedom and better working conditions. Nicholas, however, had left the palace a few days before, sending in troops to stop Gapon’s protest from getting to the palace. In response to this non-violent protest, the Russian army fired upon the protestors
A drawing of Father Gapon’s march facing down the Russian military
Around 200 people died on the day that would later become known as Bloody Sunday. Despite not having issued the order, all the blame was placed on Nicholas. The nation erupted into political unrest, as rumours of soldiers defecting to the revolutionaries, all while Russia was still losing to Japan. During all this, Marxists established local elected councils called Soviets who coordinated strikes and supplied workers, created by Leon Trotsky. Eventually, Sergei allowed the Liberals to form a government called the Duma, who would help the Tsar decide important issues. He ended the war with Japan and brought the military forces back to violently quell the remaining uprisings. Meanwhile, Nicholas also wrote new laws, allowing him to dissolve the Duma whenever he pleased, something that tended to happen a lot. Still in exile, Lenin believed that Russia had missed its chance at a true revolution and the only way to get that was through a violent armed uprising from the working class.
After the revolution, the Tsar replaced Sergei with Pyotr Stolypin, who thought that to stop more uprisings, the people must be beaten into submission, more than they already were. Some who disagreed with the Tsar were even hanged. Despite the repression, positive reforms were managing to get passed and the economy was on the rise. Lenin soon found that, without the suffering of the people, a Communist uprising would never occur and they would never get enough funding. Around this time was when he met a handsome Georgian by the name of Joseph Dzhugashvili or, as many people know him today, Stalin. Stalin would hold up banks, rob people and commit other such crimes in order to get more party funding. Stalin’s loud antics, while gaining party funding, also got him exiled to Siberia.
A photo of the young Stalin
While Russia’s economy was on the up, Nicholas acquired a new ally, Grigori Rasputin.
A picture of Grigori Rasputin
Rasputin was a man of mystery. He was, ultimately a peasant who was practically homeless but claimed to have magic powers that were healing Nicholas’ sickly son, Alexei. Surprisingly, this allegedly worked, perhaps because he took him off his doctor prescribed meds but that’s besides the point. The point is that Nicholas had found this random homeless man off the street who claimed to be magic and brought him into the Russian Royal Family like one of their own, an action that began to turn heads.
But ultimately, if this crazy wizard’s powers did “work” in healing Alexei, and the economy was on the up, as long as Nicholas didn’t do anything too stupid, there would be no more revolutions. Unfortunately, a Serbian terrorist had to shoot an Austrian Archduke in Bosnia, thrusting Russia into World War 1.
In the 19th century, Russia was, compared to the rest of the world, highly underdeveloped. Whilst many other European powers enjoyed the Industrial Revolution, Russia was still stuck in their feudalist roots. Many offers came across their desk to free the serfs and modernise, the Russians, like many an autocrat before them were too busy partying. And, if you know your history, a suffering, impoverished majority and a careless, party animal elite tend not to mix well.
However, unlike many other European Autocracies, it almost seemed as though the nobility wanted the poor to suffer instead of just neglecting them. They prohibited the people from getting educations, out of fear they may rebel against them, whilst also exporting mass amounts of grain, despite having a shortage themselves, causing a famine in 1891 that killed almost half a million people. With tensions rising between many European superpowers, Russia needed to act now before they were left in the dust. Meet Tsar Alexander II.
A photograph of Tsar Alexander II
Tsar Alexander, unlike many Tsars before him, actually understood the serf’s troubles and wanted to do something to fix it by deciding to free the serfs. However, the land owners weren’t happy about losing their free labour so the serfs had to pay exorbitant amount of money to their former bosses over the next 49 years. However, many people were not a fan of one man ruling the country, so blew him up in his carriage while on the way to a military roll call in 1881. He died shortly afterwards and was replaced by his son, Alexander III
A photograph of Tsar Alexander III
Alexander III was the complete opposite of his father. Due to Russia’s vast size, many ethnic groups resided within its borders, groups that Alexander believed should be more Russian and more loyal to him. He achieved this by repressing this ethnic and religious groups with the help of his new secret police, who also helped crush any anti-Tsar rhetoric. In order to become Tsar, Nicholas, who Alexander called a “girlie girl” in front of his peers, needed to man up in his father’s eyes. So he went to Japan, got a dragon tattoo and got part of his head cut open by a police officer before returning to St Petersburg. But, before his father could teach him anything about ruling this vast empire, Alexander died of kidney inflammation in 1894, making the highly inept Nicholas II the new Tsar.
A photograph of Tsar Nicholas II
Even Nicholas knew he was inexperienced but believed it was his duty to his family and his people to be a good Tsar. On the 27th of May, 1896, 100,000 citizens of Moscow gathered in a field in Khodynka in the outskirts of Moscow, in celebration of the recent coronation of the new Tsar, where free pretzels and beer were offered by Nicholas to his people. Rumours circulated around the field that there would not be enough food and beer for all the attendees. In a rush to get the food and drink first, over 1,000 people were crushed and trampled to death. That night, a gala with the French Ambassador was planned. While Nicholas wanted to stay in his chambers, praying for the lives lost, his uncles believed that if he did not attend this gala, relationships would be strained between France and Russia. Nicholas attended the party. The Russian people, from then on, saw the Tsar as heartless and uncaring of his people. Many also began questioning if there needed to be a Tsardom at all.
Some looked west, at all the republics, constitutional monarchies and democracies, thinking they could emulate them. However, a group of left leaning radicals thought otherwise. They believed what Russia needed now was this new idea called Communism. The idea was initially proposed by Karl Marx in 1848, in his book called the Communist Manifesto.
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms: Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and [the working class]. The immediate aim of the Communist [is for the working class to] overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the [working class]
Karl Marx writing in The Communist Manifesto
One of the main leaders of the Communists in Russia was a man by the name of Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was known for his short temper, and aggressive outbursts whenever you disagreed with him. He was not unfamiliar with political unrest either, as his brother had been hanged from plotting to kill the Tsar whilst Lenin himself was expelled from university after engaging in multiple anti-Tsar student protests.
A photo of Vladimir Lenin
Lenin was very open about his passion towards Marx. However, due to his pro-Marx and anti-Tsar ideals, Lenin and his family were exiled to Siberia, the snowy tundra in the east of Russia. Eventually, he was freed from his exile in Siberia and moved to Europe, where he could freely talk with other Russian Communists about Communist ideals and write Socialist pamphlets, in an attempt to overthrow the Tsar. However, a split began to form in the Russian Socialist party, the more moderate Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, the latter of which was run by Lenin and his more radical ideas for reform.
In Fall River, Massachusetts, on August 4th, 1892, around 11:10 am. Lizzie Borden heard a strange noise from her house and rushed inside. She ran into the living room to find a horrible sight. She saw her father, Andrew Borden, dead on the sofa with a disfigured face with blood pouring out the side of his head. His eye was split cleanly in two, suggesting he was asleep while he was attacked, and his nose wasn’t there. He was still bleeding, which meant the attack was recent. He had 10-11 whacks in him from a hatchet like weapon.
A censored photo of Andrew’s body found in the living room
The maid heard from her quarters in the attic from Lizzie “Come down quick! Father’s dead! Somebody’s come in and killed him!” Despite this call for help, Lizzie refused the maid, Bridget Sullivan, access to the room, thinking it too painful for her to see her father dead. Bridgette soon came back with a neighbour.
They didn’t know where the stepmother was, Abby Durfee Gray. The last they heard of her was the maid saying that she went out with friends. Lizzie said “Oh Maggie (a nickname for Bridget)! I am almost sure I heard her come in. Check upstairs and see if she is there!” The neighbour and Bridgette soon moved upstairs and saw Lizzie’s stepmother, dead. Abby Durfee Gray had 18-19 strokes with the hatchet and was face down in the bedroom.
A photo of Grey’s body in the bedroom
It is believed to be the hatchet that killed them was the same one that killed Lizzie’s pigeons a few months prior. There was nothing stolen, nor was there any sign of a break in. The timing of the murders is very peculiar. According to forensics teams, Abby was murdered at around at around 9:00 and Andrew was murdered around 11:00, since Abby’s blood was dry and, Andrew’s was fresh and wet. The maid stated that Lizzie was wearing “an unstained blue dress.” Lizzie was tried for the murder but acquitted of all charges. The strange thing is is that in such a small 3 storey house, nothing was heard by anyone until by Lizzie at 11:10
Suspect #1: Lizzie Borden – Daughter of Andrew Borden and Step-Daughter of Abby Durfee Grey
Lizzie Borden
The primary suspect is Lizzie Borden. She claimed she was in the barn looking for lead sinkers. After the murder, there was a large sum of money given to her, approximately $10 million in modern times. Her answers at the trial contradicted each other such as the fact that she said she put on her father’s slippers before his nap but according to crime scene photos he was wearing boots. A friend of Lizzie’s, Alice, saw her burning a red dress saying that “there was paint on it.” This was not the same dress Bridget described. A local pharmacist claimed she was trying to buy potassium cyanide the day before the murders. This was dismissed in the trial due to the fact that there was just some bad food in the victims on the autopsy report and nothing more. During the trial, the victim’s skulls were admitted as evidence and Lizzie fainted when she saw them. After a year of planning and prepping for the trial, the police only had circumstantial evidence so couldn’t convict her. 90 minutes and she was off scot free. This theory is so popular that there is a rhyme to go with the murders.
Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.
Rhyme sung about the murders
After her mother died, Lizzie apparently latched onto her father as the centre of her life, becoming a bit of a daddy’s girl before he remarried, an event she felt betrayed by. She often took to petulantly calling Abby “Mrs Borden” and would often leave early at meal times. Mending the relationship with his daughter was clearly irrelevant to Andrew, as he was incredibly strict with Lizzie. Some writers have interpreted the relationship in various ways, extending to him being abusive, and perhaps even sexually abusive, with Elizabeth Engstrom taking a very Freudian approach, with Lizzie filling the sexual desire in Andrew after the death of her mother.
Some have viewed the Borden murders as a feminist liberation from an oppressive patriarchy. Some others have interpereted her as cold, calculating and even insufferable, far from a feminist icon she is sometimes portrayed to be. However, Rafia Zakaria of The Guardian drew comparisons between the relationship with Lizzie and Andrew Borden to the relationship between Ivanka and Donald Trump, who has often been very open about sexualising his eldest daughter, calling her “voluptuous”, a “great piece of ass” and saying that if she wasn’t his daughter, he’d marry her.
The real Lizzie would likely not have recognised herself in many of the books about her, and she certainly never admitted to having committed the murders. It is too bad that recent takes on her story have veered towards the lurid, for there is plenty of contemporary relevance to be found in the feminist appraisals of the story. The same Americans who may choose to pick up a book about her, or even venture to the house on Second Street for a tour, might perceive similar paradigms being played out in the White House, where, with her own office in the West Wing, a daughter plays a similar part to the hilt, with only minor variants from the Victorian script of gentle cajoling and subordination. All while glibly sidelining a stepmother.
Rafia Zakaria “The Lizzie Borden murder industry won’t die – but its feminism has”
Suspect #2: Bridget Sullivan – Maid to the Borden Family
Bridget Sullivan
Abby was very strict and sometimes described as mean to Sullivan. She was cleaning the outside of the house and the went to bed when she was awoken by Lizzie’s screams. Where she was sleeping was above where Abby was murdered. Experiments conducted on the house prove that you would be able to hear a thud from a floor below, a sound even more likely to be heard due to the fact that she said she was only half asleep.
Suspect #3 – John Vinnicum Morse – Uncle of Lizzie Borden, Brother of Lizzie Borden’s mother
John V. Morse
The theory of Morse being behind the murders was thought of by maths teacher Richard Little who wrote a book on the case called “Cold Case to Case Closed. Lizbeth Borden. ~My Story~” John was not seen from 9:00 until noon. His alibi is that he was down the road visiting a sick relative with the town doctor. However, that very same doctor was looking at the bodies at the time. Morse was sleeping in the room that Abby was found in. Also, Morse may have known about the will. We can tell from the following transcript from Lizzie:
Q: Did you know of your father making a will?
A: No sir, except I heard somebody say once there was one several years ago. That is all I ever heard.
Q: Who did you hear say so?
A: I think it was Mr Morse.
Q: What Morse?
A: Uncle John V Morse
Transcript from the trial
Little also states there was a failing livestock business run by Mr Morse. He also said that he killed the Borden’s with a meat clever, since he was a butcher.
Suspect #4 – Were Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan Lesbian Lovers?
A still from “Lizzie”. Kristen Stewart is depicting Sullivan (left) and Chloe Sevigny is depicting Borden (right)
The fourth theory is 2 people at once. That is Lizzie and Bridget. Many a fan fiction claim that they had a romantic relationship and Abby discovered it. The back up for this theory is that Lizzie confessed she had a crush on a female actor later in life. However, this theory was adapted into the 2018 film “Lizzie” starring Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny as Sullivan and Borden respectively, pushing the theory into the mainstream.
Ultimately, we will never know what happened that fateful day in Fall River. The Borden Murders remain unsolved to this day, but have become a defining staple of the Pre-War America.
