<P> Cornish gives a total of 2,006,000 military dead (700,000 killed in action, 970,000 died of wounds, 155,000 died of disease and 181,000 died while POWs). This measure of Russian losses is similar to that of the British Empire, 5% of the male population in the 15 to 49 age group . He says civilian casualties were five to six hundred thousand in the first two years, and were then not kept, so a total of over 1,500,000 is not unlikely . He has over five million men passing into captivity, the majority during 1915 . </P> <P> When Russia withdrew from the war, 2,500,000 Russian POWs were in German and Austrian hands . This by far exceeded the total number of prisoners of war (1,880,000) lost by the armies of Britain, France and Germany combined . Only the Austro - Hungarian Army, with 2,200,000 POWs, came even close . </P> <P> The empire of Austria lost approximately 60% of its territory as a result of the war, and evolved into a smaller state with a small homogeneous population of 6.5 million people . With the loss Vienna was now an imperial capital without an empire to support it . The states that were formed around Austria feared the return of the Austro - Hungarian Empire and put measures into place to prevent it from re-forming . </P> <P> Czechoslovakia was created through the merging of the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, previously under Austrian rule, united with Slovakia and Ruthenia, which were part of Hungary . Although these groups had many differences between them, they believed that together they would create a stronger state . The new country was a multi-ethnic state . The population consisted of Czechs (51%), Slovaks (16%), Germans (22%), Hungarians (5%) and Rusyns (4%). Many of the Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Poles and some Slovaks, felt oppressed because the political elite did not generally allow political autonomy for minority ethnic groups . The state proclaimed the official ideology that there are no Czechs and Slovaks, but only one nation of Czechoslovaks (see Czechoslovakism), to the disagreement of Slovaks and other ethnic groups . Once a unified Czechoslovakia was restored after World War II the conflict between the Czechs and the Slovaks surfaced again . </P>

Who fought on the eastern front in world war i