The fighting that raged in the East during the First World War was every bit as fierce as that on the Western Front, but the titanic clashes between three towering empires--Russia, Austro-Hungary, and Germany--remains a comparatively unknown facet of the Great War.

With the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the war in 2014, Collision of Empires is a timely exposé of the bitter fighting on this forgotten front--a clash that would ultimately change the face of Europe forever. Drawing on firsthand accounts and detailed archival research, this is a dramatic retelling of the tumultuous events of the first year of the war, with the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in East Prussia followed by the Russo-Austrian clashes in Galicia and the failed German advance toward Warsaw.

List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Author's Note
Dramatis Personae
Introduction
1. The German War Machine
2. The Russian Steamroller
3. Austria-Hungary: the Other Sick Man of Europe
4. Over the Brink
5. The First Battles: Stallupönen and Gumbinnen
6. Crisis of Command
7. Tannenberg
8. The Illusion of Victory: Galicia, August 1914
9. The Battle for the Masurian Lakes
10. The Reality of Defeat: Galicia, September 1914
11. A Bloody Sideshow: The Serbian Front
12. Mud and Blood: Autumn in Poland
13. Lódz
14. The First Christmas
15. Disappointments and Illusions
Appendix: Place Names
Notes
Bibliography
Index