Baron G. Von Romberg

The Great War of 1914 - 1918, which later came to be known as World War I, was fought in modern-day Europe, and had some characteristics which have been long-time overlooked. One of these aspects, not of the least importance, is the question what was the cause, or who is to blame. It seems that this question will be one of the major focus points in the The Great War Centennial, 2014-2018 in the United Kingdom.

Asked about the main cause and the main culprit, most people will say that the main cause was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914, while asked who is to blame, most people will say that the aggressor in the war was Germany. This idea was carefully orchestrated by the Allied Powers, and achieved through war propaganda, unprecedented in history. As the true picture began to unravel during the 1920s, Germany's re-armament and the subsequent World War II interrupted the fact-finding, and particularly after the Second World War most teachers and scholars were glad to reinforce the original myth and blame Germany twice for both world wars. However, this is not entirely justified, if not actually quite wrong.

The origins of World War I can be found in the short time between the Sarajevo incident and the outbreak of the war, in just about one month. The war also rapidly escalated from what could have remained a very localized event, for instance an expedition of Austria against Serbia, to a world war involving all major powers. At the root of this quick escalation lay the multiple bi-lateral treaties between the powers involved.

Even in the initial stages of the Great War, i.e. in July and August 1914, the countries involved in the war tried to sway the public opinion to believe that they were fighting a just war, attempting to put the blame on other countries. This was achieved by the publication of diplomatic correspondence, telegrams exchanged between ministries and diplomats in the few weeks leading up to the war. In quick succession, each country published a volume of such correspondence, indicated by different colours, such as The Austro-Hungarian Red Book, "The French Yellow Book", "The German White Books" ( there are two), "The Russian Orange Book", The British Blue Book, "The Serbian Blue Book", "The Italian Green Book" and "The Belgian Grey Book". Most of these books are now freely available on the Internet. The information they provide gave the public the impression of being given a very up-to-date look into official correspondence, that showed that their respective government had no choice but to act as it did. Thus, the Germans were convinced that they fought a war of self-defense, while "The German White Books" was derided by their opponents as a feat of the most contemptuous propaganda. However, it escaped the public’s attention that all of “the colour books” were nothing but official propaganda.

However, this did not become clear until after the war was over. By the end of the Great War, the political landscape had changed greatly as various European countries dissolved in revolutions. The new revolutionary rulers, particularly in Germany and Russia, had no scruples to expose the degree of double-dealing and corruption of the former rulers. Also, during the 1920 several key players started publishing their memoirs, and it the role of “the colour books” as instruments of propaganda gradually became clear. In Germany, the publication of the Kautsky Documents in 1919 showed “the honesty, and the ability of the men guiding the German ship of state in 1914” and paved the way for scholars to see that Germany had tried to avoid the war (Fay, 19xx). On the other hand, the discovery and publication of Baron Schilling’s Diary of the Former Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1923 showed exactly how Russian Orange Book of 1914 had been falsified. Baron Schilling had been the Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonov’s confidential assistant, and as such had had access to all official correspondence. In his diary, Baron Schilling had pasted copies of passages which were suppressed from official documents as they were published in the "Russian Orange Book".

Later in 1923, this lead to the publication by Baron G. von Romberg of Falsifications of the Russian Orange Book: Actual exchange of telegrams between Paris and St. Petersburg at the outbreak of the war. This small volume consists of the original "Russian Orange Book" of 1914 while the suppressed passages from Baron Schilling’s diary are inserted, so that the original telegrams are restored. These corrections are printed in bold type-face, so that the reader can clearly see which words were deleted, and which passages or complete telegrams were suppressed, thus showing how the public was misled.

The “colour books” and Falsifications of the Russian Orange Book: Actual exchange of telegrams between Paris and St. Petersburg at the outbreak of the war can be read as primary sources. Particularly the latter is interesting, as it shows how the "Russian Orange Book" was designed and compiled with the intention of deceiving the reader to believe that Germany was the aggressor while Russia merely defended itself aiding it’s ally France, whereas, in fact, Russia had far more to gain from a large scale conflict, which would enable Russia to expand its influence on the Balkans.

The importance of the “colour books” is most clearly described in the work of the American historian Sidney Bradshaw Fay in his 2-volume work The Origins of the World War (1928), while his legacy is carried on by few modern-day scholars, most notably Christopher Clark, whose book The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 will most likely and justifiably receive a lot of attention this year.

Falsifications of the Russian Orange Book: Actual exchange of telegrams between Paris and St. Petersburg at the outbreak of the war was a moderately interesting read, which, however, sparked great interest with what it reveals. While Fay’s conclusions remain controversial, the responsibility for the Great War should not be put with one culprit, least of all Germany, but rather more be found among various powers, most notably Austria, France and Russia.… (más)