4. WW1 Flashcards
Economic Effects
1.5 Billion Roubles were spent on the war between 1914 - 1917
Inflation soared to 400% by 1916
Russia was at 15% of pre-war agricultural output
1914 - 1916 - Inflation caused wages to double and food prices to quadruple
Workers only took home two thirds of the necessary amount of produce home
300 of the 1000 wagons of bread wagons reached Petrograd in 1916
Economic Effects - Railways
From the Volga, ten rail tracks led westward.
Eastern Russia (mining and metallurgy) to central waterway by only four tracks
North tied to the artery by one narrow-gauge track from Vologda to the port of Arkhangel’sk.
War Effort
August, 1914 - Battle of Tannenberg (Russian Loss) [30,000 Russians killed or wounded / 92,000 Russian prisoners were taken]
September, 1914 - Battle of Masurian Lakes (Russian Loss)
Mid-1915 Russia, Poland and Lithuania all invaded by the German army,
August, 1915 - The Tsarina / Rasputin left in charge, electing 4 Prime Ministers
Supreme Commander of the war effort (August 1915)
Autumn, 1915 - Russians were forced out of Poland
War Effort
Over one million Russian soldiers were killed between May and December of 1915
1916 - 1,000,000 Central Powers soldiers killed in Brusilov Offensive (½ of Austrian Army)
1916 - 3,000,000 Conscripted // 1917 - 730,000 Conscripted
First Hand Quotes
Milyukov (Kadet, November, 1916) - “…is this stupidity or treason” -> revolutionary situation before Feb
Durnov (interior minister) on the war- “The financial and economic consequences of defeat can be neither calculated nor foreseen.”
Lockheart (British agent) on start of war- “Revolution was not even a remote possibility.”
Historian Interpretations
Smith - “…the autocracy collapsed because of the First World War”
Lynch - “…famine was a constant reality”
Lynch - “…heavy to sustain”
Service - “…donated a revolutionary opportunity”
Corin - “…personally responsible”
Pipes - “economic and social difficulties did not contribute significantly” [pivot]
