Chapter 11 - Political authority, opposition and the state of Russia in wartime

Question 1

What evidence is there to show that the Tsar’s decision to go to war in 1914 was initially a popular one?

Answer 1

• wave of anti-German sentiment
• cease of strike activity
• extremists were imprisoned for their lack of patriotism
• the Duma dissolved itself, declaring that it did not want to burden the country with ‘unnecessary politics’ in war time
• the Germanic ‘St Petersburg’ became the new Slavonic ‘Petrograd’
• army was rapidly assembled, which amazed the Germans

Question 2

What events dampened national solidarity?

Answer 2

Battle of Tannenburg (August 1914)
- East Prussia
- 300,000 dead or wounded
- thousands were taken prisoner

defeat at the Masurian Lakes (September 1914)
- forced Russian troops into a temporary retreat

Clear the war would not end with a swift victory, as had been hoped.
Reports of military incompetence inflamed the simmering dicontent in the Russian capital.

Question 3

Why did Russia join the war?

Answer 3

• encouraged by the pan-slavic sentiment in St Petersburg
• backed Serbia, which sough to carve out a southern Slav nation
• Tsar believed this would divert attention away from the discontent at home

Question 4

What evidence shows the governments under-preparedness?

Answer 4

• before the end of 1914, there were disputes over the organisation of the war effor
• July 1914: the tsarist government had set up ‘military zones’ within which all civilian authority was suspended and the military assumed control
• ## this was opposed by the liberal zemstva, who regarded the government as insensitive to the needs of the people and believed that civilians had a major part to play in running the war

Question 5

What specific law also led to the resetment of the tsarist government?

related to vodka

Answer 5

end of 1914 = Prohibition of the sale of alcohol

Led to:
- resentment and evasion of this law
- vodka was regarded as near essential, especially in hard times
- peasants and workers distilled their own
- the government losing valuable tax revenue from legal sales

Question 6

What did the zemstva do in order to make up for the State’s neglect?

Answer 6

Established a ‘Union of Zemstva’ to provide the medical facilities which the State seemed to ngelect

Question 7

What industrial initiative was established as a result of State neglect?

Answer 7

Factory owners and businessmen established a Congress of Representatives of Industry and Business.
- included representatives from the Duma and of workers
- helped coordinate production

Question 8

What was the Zemgor and when was it established?

Answer 8

June 1915.
- Zemstva and municipal dumas joined together to form the All-Russian Union of Zemstva and Cities
- Known as Zemgor
- Chaired by Prince Lvov
- Claimed the right to help the Tsar’s government in the war effort
- Never allowed any direct influence
- soon turned into a liberal focus for discontent (like the Duma)
- rather than working with it, Nicholas blamed it for stirring up trouble

Question 9

What happened in August 1915?

constitutional monarchy

Answer 9

• some of the deputies from the 4th Duma (Kadets, Octobrists and Progressives) many of whom were also involved with the Congress of Representatives of Industry and Business
• organised themselves into a ‘progressive bloc’
• demanded that the Tsar change his minsters and establish a ‘government of public confidence’
• effectively asking for a contitutional monarchy in which they would have a dominant voice

Question 10

How did Nicholas respond to the events of August 1915?

Where some deputies from the 4th Duma suggested political refoms

Answer 10

• In September 1915, he suspended the sitting of the Duma
• Duma remained officially closed until January 1917, although unauthorised meetings still continued

Question 11

What role does the Tsar take on in response to the events of September 1915?

Events = defeats on the Austro-Hungarian front

Answer 11

Nicholas II took on the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army and Navy.
He travelled to the front line.

Bad decision:
- lost the confidence and support of the Russian General Staff
- did not possess the military experience to turn the war effort around
- his new position only made him appear yet more responsible for the disasters that befell on his troops and the State
- distanced himself even further from developments in Petrograd

Question 12

Rasputin, Alexandra and politics

Answer 12

• Rasputin began meddling in political appointments and policy decisions
• Rumours that Nick II’s German wife, Alexander, was sabotaging the Russian war effor
• Changes in ministers in the 12 months after September 1915 put down to Rasputin’s influence
• Therefore, Liberals and socialists began to lsoe patience and demand changes in government

Question 13

What did the Zemgor declare in September 1915?

Answer 13

The Zemgor decalred that Rasputin was a “fatal obstacle”

Question 14

Nicholas’ knowledge of events happening at home (whilst he was on the front lines)

Letter correspondence

Answer 14

Alexander wrote to him saying “young boys and girls running about and screaming that they have no bread”.
Nicholas responded “this will all pass and quieten down”

Nicholas seemed unaware, or unconcerned about, poitical demands.

Question 15

By Christmas 1914, how did the Russian economy show the strains of the war.

Answer 15

A serious shortage of munitions

Question 16

The army Chief of Staff informed the French ambassador in December 1914…

Answer 16

“our magazines are nearly empty”
“the armies need 45,000 rounds a day. Out maximum daily output is 13,000”
“the situation of our armeis will not only be difficult but dangerous”

Question 17

How many men were mobilised between 1914 and 1917?

Answer 17

15 million

Question 18

Issues with supply to the soldiers during the war.

Answer 18

• soldiers sent to fight without suitable weaponry and also lacking basic warm clothing and properly fitting, waterproof footwear
• in 1914, the infantry had only two rifles for every three soldiers
• in 1915, it wasn’t unusual for Russian artillery to be limited to 2-3 shells per day
• in the early years, the soldiers had to rely on the weapons of fallen comrades in order to fight at all

Question 19

Brusilov offensive

Answer 19

• June 1916
• General Brusilov wanted to break through the Austro-Hungarian lines
• however, by this time, the army had a serious lack of ecperienced officers since most had been killed in the early stages of the war
• succeeded in destroying the Austro-Hungarian armies
• within 3 months it had ground to a halt
• this was due to the German railway, which was able to move men forward more quickly than the Russian

Question 20

How was morale by the end of 1916?

Answer 20

• It had plummeted
• heavy casualties
• deteriorating economic and political situation within Russia

This had led to 1.5 million desertions in 1916 alone.

Question 21

How much did spending on the war increase by from 1914 to 1918?

Answer 21

1914 = 1,500 million roubles
1918 = 14,500 million roubles

Question 22

What was the cost to the rural and industrial workforce?

Answer 22

• women and children took on some of men’s work
• production slumped at a time when the country needed to be producing more, not less, to feed and supply its armies
• Poland, and other parts of western Russia, were overrun by the Germans, removing important industrial capacity
• prices offered by the government were low, tools and equipment were in short supply, and it was hard to find essential household goods.
• as a result, some hoarded what grain and foodstuffs they produced, exacerbating an already difficult situation

Question 23

What were some of the benefits of the war in the countryside?

Answer 23

• some did well out of the war as conscription helped to relieve some of the population pressure
• those with horses or surplus grain could make money by supplying the military

Question 24

Issues with the distribution of grain

Answer 24

• even when grain was realeased for market, inefficiencies of distribution meant that it did not always reach the town workers who needed it
• railways had been taken over to transport men and goods to the front lines
• railway locomotive production halved between 1913 and 1916 and there were acute fuel shortages
• foodstuffs that should have found their way to the cities were left to rot beside railway sidings and huge cargos of grain would be sent to the front line, leaving none for the desperate townsfolk
• this made life hard for the otwn populations

Question 25

Issues in urban centres due to the war

Answer 25

• high unemployment as non-military factories, who were deprived of supplies, were forced to close
• lockouts and strikes (some directly encouraged by the German government in an attempt to foester industrial unrest and undermine the Russian war effort) financially crippled what little industry survived

Question 26

What was the % rise in living costs?

Answer 26

300%

Question 27

Why was there a rise in the death rate?

Answer 27

• workers’ unsanitary lodgings and the inadequacies of their diets
• thousands left on the brink of starvation

Question 28

What did all the internal issues in Russia lead to?

Answer 28

January 1917
- 30,000 workers went on strike in Moscow
- 145,000 in Petrograd

Question 29

What happened on the 9th of January 1917?

The anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Answer 29

• 150,000 Petrograd workers demonstrated
• hint of things to come

Question 30

What happened on the 14th February?

Answer 30

• around 100,000 workers from 58 different factories go on strike in Petrograd
• news that bread would be rationed from March 1st leads to long queues and violent exchanges
• the police, who struggle to keep order, are attacked

Question 31

What happened on the 22nd of February?

Answer 31

• 20,000 workers are locked out of the Putilov Iron Works by the management after pay talks collapse
• Workers in other factories go on strike in support

Question 32

What happened on the 23rd of February?

International Women’s Day

Answer 32

• 90,000 workers are on strike
• 50 factories close
• workers join a traditional march of women from the Petrograd suburbs to the city centre along with militant students and women from the bread queues
• city falls into chaos with ~240,000 out on the street
• order is restored by a desperate police force in the early evening
• no loss of life

Question 33

What happened on the 24th of February?

Answer 33

• 200,000 workers are on strike
• crowds overturn tsarist statues, wave red flags, wear red rosettes, shout revolutionary slogans calling for an end to tsardom
• sing ‘La Marseillaise’
• no obvious organisation from any of the radical political parties
• although, some radicals distribute emblems and banners bearing political demands

Question 34

What happened on the 25th of February?

Answer 34

• 250,000 people (over half of the capital’s workforce) are on strike
• Petrograd is at a virtual standstill
• almost all the major factories and most shops closed
• no newspapers
• no public transport
• violence escalates as the Police Chief Shalfeev, in charge of mounted police, tries to control the masses
• he is set upon, dragged from his horse, beaten and shot
• a band of civillians is killed by soldiers on the Nevskii Prospekt
• late in the day, some Cossacks refuse to attack strikers when ordered to do so

Question 35

What happened on the 26th of February?

Answer 35

• Rodzianko (Duma President) sends the Tsar a telegram saying
• ** “The situation is serious. The capital is in a state of anarchy. The government is paralysed” “Hesitation is fatal”**
• Nicholas notes in his diary: “That fat-bellied Rodzianko has written some nonsense to which I shall not even bother to reply.”
• his only response is to tell the Duma to stop meeting

Question 36

What happened on the 27th of February?

Answer 36

• Tsar orders the military to restore order
• soldiers are ordered onto the streets and around 40 demonstrators in the city centre are killed
• a mutiny beings in the Volynskii regiment where a sergeant shoots his commanding officer dead
• 66,000 soldiers mutiny and join the protestors, arming them with 40,000 rifles
• police HQs are attacked and prisons are opened
• Duma holds a meeting despite the Tsars orders, and they set up a 12-man provisional committee to take over the government
• the army’s High Command, which has already ordered tropps to march to the capital to restore stability, change their minds and order them to halt and give support to the Duma committee
• that same evening, revolutionaries set up the Petrograd Soviet, which also intends to take over the government
• it begins to organise food supplies for the city

Question 37

What happened on the 28th of February?

Answer 37

• Nick II leaves his military HQ and starts to make his way back to Petrograd
• he sends a telegram to Rodzianko, orffering to share power with the Duma
• Rodzianko replies “The measures you propose are too late. The time for them has gone. There is no return.”

Question 38

The mutineers

Answer 38

• many of them ordered to shoot the demonstrators were themselbes of peasant or worker background
• their junior officers included men from the middle-ranking ‘intellectual’ class, rather than from the traditional ‘noble’ backgorund
• their sympathies lay with the masses

Question 39

What was Order Number One?

Answer 39

Petrograd Soviet (PS) made it. It was a charter of soldiers’ rights
It promised:
- all units to elect a deputy to the soviet and agree to the political control of the PS
- The Military Commission of the Duma to be obeyed, only if it agreed with the soviet’s order
- all weapons to be controlled by elected soldiers’ committees - not officers
- all soldiers to enjoy full citizens’ rights when off duty - e.g. no requirement to salute or stand to attention
- no honorific title to be used for officers - only Mr General, Mr Colonel, etc

Question 40

What happened on Nicholas’ journey home from the front lines?

Answer 40

• never made it to Petrograd
• divered by rebellious railway workers
• Tsar pressured to resign in favour of his son Alexei, with Nichola’s younger brother, Mikhail, acting as regent
• Nicholas agreed on 2nd March
• Nicholas’ abdication had been agreed, even though Mikhail refused the offer of the throne

Question 41

What was happening beyong Petrograd?

Answer 41

• workers seized control of their factories
• set up workers’ committees
• deposed of their former bosses - sometimes dumping them in a nearby river
• everywhere, rebellious people set up their own elected regional assemblies and soviets
• the army, technically under the Petrograd Soviet, disintigrated into semi-independent bodies and soldiers’ soviets without clear leadership and coordination
• in the countryside, peasants attacked landlords’ properties and fellef trees illegally
• In the provinces such as Finland, Poland, Ukraine and the Caucasus, national minorities declared their independence

Question 42

Bolsheviks couldn’t have inspired the revolution

Answer 42

• leaders in exile or in prison, in Siberia or abroad
• Bolsheviks were in no position to privode leadership and coordinate the risings of Feb 1917
• The revolution itself appeared to be largely spontaneous
• Whilst the revolution overthrew the Tsar, it did not overthrow all ‘aristocratic forces’

Question 43

The Provisional Government

Answer 43

• under Prince Lvov
• included influential elites and those who had previously favoured consititional monarch - i.e. Kadets
• intended to be temporary
• elections would be held as soon as possible for a new Constituent Assembly which would draw up a new constitution for Russia
• Grand Duke Mikhail gave the PG his blessing, so it was considered legitimate
• set up in the Duma chamber

Question 44

The Petrograd Soviet

Answer 44

• mass of workers, soldiers and peasants regarded the PG as a self-appointed committee of the wealthy, tainted by their previous associations with tsardom
• the PS was a more democratic organisation
• dominated by Mensheviks and SRs, but containted a small number of Bolsheviks
• only 7 of the first 42 committee members were workers themselves
• it claimed direct democratic authority since its members were elected by the St Petersburg Soviets
• seemed to lack the confidence needed to assume direct control
• Kerensky (only member of both the PG and the PS) helped lay the foundations for Dual Power
• The soviet made no attempt for land redistribution or nationalisation of industry but it accepted the PG’s promises

Question 45

What were the Provisional Government’s promises to the Petrograd Soviet?

Answer 45

• general amnesty for political prisoners
• basic civil liberties
• the abolition of legal disabilities based on class, religion and nationality
• the right to organise trade unions and to strike
• that a Constituent Assembly would be elected
• power of the State should be basde on the “consent of free citizens”

What did the PG also do?
- freedom of press and religion
- abolished the death penalty
- replaced the tsarist police force with a ‘people’s militia’
- dismissed provincil governors, giving their work to elected zemstvas

Question 46

How and why was there divisions in Dual Power?

Answer 46

It was a mix of liberals and radicals.
- Order No.1 = soldiers and workers should obey the PG, but only when the Soviet agreed
- PG tried to discipline deserters and restore order in the towns and countryside, but the PS encouraged peasants and workers to defy authority and assert their rights
- PG wanted to continue the war, but the masses wanted the war to end

Question 47

Peasant disturbances during July 1917?

During PG

Answer 47

affected 325 districts in July 1917

Question 48

Desertions in the years 1914-1917?

Answer 48

195,000 (1914-17)

March - May 1917 = 365,000 desertions

So, the death penalty had to be reinstated as it was the only way to control troops

Question 49

What was the upper class reaction to Dual Power? Specifically, Kerensky replacing Prince Lvov as chairman?

Answer 49

• alarmed the upper classes
• thought the government had failed to protect their property, maintain order, or win the war
• this was aggravated by the apparent shift to the left

Question 50

The Kornilov Affair

maybe organised by the Bolsheviks

Answer 50

• Kornilov (the new Commander-in-Chief of the army, appointed by Kerensky)
• he ordered 6 regiments of troops to march on Petrograd - presumably intending to crush the Soviet and establish a military dictatorship
• This failed when Kerensky panicked, even though he had initially panicked
• Kerensky released imprisoned Bolsheviks and provided the Soviet with weapons from the government’s armouries to halt Kornilov’s advance
• Kornilov’s supply lines were cut and the coup leaders arrested

Question 51

Support for the PG by the end of summer of 1917?

Answer 51

• little support left
• food supplies were chaotic in the towns
• despite the 8-hour work day being granted, real wages fell rapidly in 1917 as prices rose

Prices:
Jan 1917 = 300% of 1914 levels
Oct 1917 = 755% of 1914 levels

Question 52

What law was introduced in August 1917 which dashed early hope for workers and trade unions?

Answer 52

• factory owners had the right to dismiss anyone who went on strike
• meetings of factory committees during working hours were forbidden

Question 53

Why was support for the PG lost in the countryside?

Answer 53

• continuation of war
• government’s failure to redistribute land
• peasants took the law into their own hands and seized land anyway, even though the PG had said such an important matter should be left until after Russia had a democratically elected assembly