Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive

Central Powers make powerful blow to the forces of the Russian Empire.

The situation in the east seemed to be more or less stable after the initial battles in Galicia and East Prussia. German Empire was busy in the west, Austro-Hungarian Empire didn't have an army strong enough to attack on its own, and the Russian Empire was busy fighting on Caucasus and in Carpathian Mountains (where they didn't manage to achieve too much), and had a still sore wound after the disaster of Tannenberg.   This changed very quickly. Central Powers redirected the efforts east, hoping to push Russia back, away from important core lands of Germany and Austro-Hungary. This included a lot of heavy artillery. Russian forces were suddenly drowned in an artillery preparation never before seen in the east... and then Central Powers marched forward.   The offensive turned out to be an utter disaster for the Russian Empire, resulting in the so called Great Retreat. Kingdom of Poland was lost completely. Galicia was reconquered and Lithuania captured. Front was finally stabilized, but the blow to the self-confidence of the Russian Army soldiers was already struck. Soon, first signs of demoralization started showing.   On the other hand, the division between German Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire grew as well. Germans openly mocked and almost ignored their ally, seeing it as incompetent. It didn't sit well with archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was... very easily triggered when the position of Austro-Hungarian Empire as a world's Great Power was at stake. He could do little for now, though.