Riga offensive (1917) 1917
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 1 September 1917 – 3 September 1917 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1917 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Latvia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | WWI Eastern Front | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | German Empire, Russian Republic | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 56.9694, 24.3233 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Riga offensive (Russian: Рижская операция), also called the Jugla offensive or the Battle of Riga (German: Schlacht um Riga), took place in early September 1917 and was the last major campaign on the Eastern Front of World War I before the Russian Provisional Government and its army began disintegrating.
The battle was fought between Oskar von Hutier's German Eighth Army and Dmitri Parsky's Russian Twelfth Army. The Russian forces in Latvia were under the command of Vladislav Klembovsky's Northern Front, tasked with guarding the approaches to the Russian capital Petrograd. The Imperial German Army advanced through most of Lithuania and southern Latvia during the Russian Great Retreat in the summer of 1915, putting them in the vicinity of one of the largest industrial cities of the Russian Empire. The Twelfth Army was then tasked with defending Riga, though the situation on the northern frontier of the Eastern Front remained static until early 1917.
German quartermaster-general Erich Ludendorff gave the order for an offensive in the direction of Riga in early August 1917, shortly after defeating the Kerensky offensive, with the goal of pressuring Russia to accept a peace deal.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Riga offensive (1917) (revision 1374197456), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Riga (1709–1710) 1709 · 13 km
- Siege of Riga (1812) 1812 · 13 km
- Siege of Riga (1700) 1700 · 13 km
- Siege of Riga (1656) 1656 · 13 km
- Battle of Kircholm 1605 · 14 km
- Crossing of the Düna 1701 · 16 km
Other battles of the WWI Eastern Front
- Battle of Vilnius (1915) 1915
- First Battle of Przasnysz 1915
- Gorlice–Tarnów offensive 1915
- Siege of Novogeorgievsk 1915
- Battle of Ustechko (1916) 1916
- Battle of Moon Sound 1917
- Battle of Toboly 1917
- Battle of Bakhmach 1918
All 19 battles of the WWI Eastern Front →
Browse more: battles in Latvia · Europe · World War I era battles