Allied Powers of World War I in the context of "French flag"

Although a member of the Triple Alliance, Italy did not join Germany and Austria-Hungary when the conflict started in 1914, on the ground that war was initiated by the two Central Powers while the Triple Alliance was a defensive bloc. Italians protested for the lack of consultation before Austria issued the ultimatum to Serbia and invoked a clause of the Triple Alliance, according to which both Italy and Austria-Hungary were interested in the Balkans and whoever changed the status quo in the region had to compensate the other; Austria-Hungary refused any compensation before the end of the war. In May 1915, after secret parallel negotiations with both sides, the Italians entered the war as one of the Allied Powers, hoping to acquire the Italian-speaking "irredent lands" of Trento and Trieste (in Italian discourse the conflict was described as the "fourth war of independence" against Austria) and other territories (German-speaking South Tyrol, the largely Slavic-speaking regions of Istria and Dalmatia where Italians lived in coastal cities, some colonial compensations) promised them by the allies in the 1915 treaty of London.

Italy opened a front against Austria-Hungary along the Eastern Alps and the Isonzo river. Fighting was marked by trench warfare and attrition. On the Julian sector, the Italian army launched numerous offensives and made several conquests (most significantly Gorizia in 1916 and Bainsizza in 1917), but both sides suffered heavy casualties. On the Asiago plateau, in 1916, an Austrian offensive was followed by an Italian counter-offensive. Italy was forced to retreat in 1917 by a German-Austrian offensive at the Battle of Caporetto, after the Russian collapse allowed the Central Powers to move reinforcements to the Italian Front from the Eastern Front.

Suvla (Greek: Σούβλα, "spit") is a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros.

On 6 August 1915, it was the site for the Landing at Suvla Bay by the British IX Corps as part of the August Offensive during the Battle of Gallipoli. The landing and others at various points along the peninsula were designed to capture the peninsula from Turkish troops defending it, and to open the Dardanelles Straits to Allied warships, thus facilitating a planned naval attack on Constantinople (Istanbul). The Gallipoli campaign ended in failure and high casualties for the Allied side, which included numbers of Australian, New Zealand, Indian, Irish, French, and Newfoundland troops.

The Supreme Ruler of Russia (Russian: Верховный правитель России, romanized: Verkhovnyy pravitel' Rossii), also referred to as the Supreme Leader of Russia, was the head of state and Supreme Commander–in–Chief of the Russian State, an anti-Bolshevik government under a military dictatorship established by the White Movement during the Russian Civil War. For nearly two years from November 1918 until April 1920, the armies of the White Movement were nominally united under the administration of the Russian State, during which the Russian State claimed to be the sole legal government of Russia. The office's sole holder for most of its existence, and the only one to officially adopt the titles and functions of the Supreme Ruler, was Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who was elected to the position by the All-Russian Council of Ministers following the November 18 coup which overthrew the Directory.

All commanders of the White armies in the south and west of Russia, as well as in Siberia and the Far East recognized the Supreme Ruler; at the turn of May — June 1919, the generals Anton Denikin, Yevgeny Miller, and Nikolai Yudenich voluntarily submitted to Alexander Kolchak and officially recognized his Supreme Command over all armies in Russia. The Supreme Commander at the same time confirmed the powers of commanders. For nearly two years, Alexander Kolchak was supported both diplomatically and militarily by the former Allied Powers of World War I. On 4 January 1920, Kolchak announced his resignation, granting the office of Supreme Ruler to Anton Denikin. Denikin served as the final acting Supreme Ruler of the Russian State, though he accepted neither the titles or functions of the office, which was finally declared extinct on 4 April 1920.