WW1 Flashcards
What did the Russian people blame the government and military leaders for?
Russia’s not meeting the demands of the world’s first industrial war
Without the war, what would the Tsar have coped with?
Demands for further constitutional reform and changes to government which would quieten the critics
Already a trend that had started after 1905
Little reason to believe that further progress would not be made
What did the military failures of WW1 result in?
Economic pressures, which had a negative impact on the daily lives of Russians
What did these economic pressures result in?
Levels of social unrest not witnessed before
What was the scale and degree of coordinated protest?
Such that the authorities could not cope and only a drastic change in government averted a state of anarchy
Russian casualties
around 8 million-
1.7 million dead, 2.4 million captured
What gave indications that the tsar was not capable of bringing the conflict to a satisfactory end?
The failure of the 1916 Brusilov Offensive and the emergence of attrition warfare
What had prompted NII to take personal control of the armed forces?
The Great Retreat in 1915
When did NII abdicate?
March 1917
What meant the war was unlikely to turn in Russia’s favour?
The domestic upheaval that proceeded after the abdication throughout 1917
When did the Bolsheviks decide to withdraw Russia?
March 1918
What to optimists believe the impact of the war was?
Determined the development of Russian government
Financial cost of the War
3 billion roubles
- Greatly exceeded levels of government expenditure during peacetime.
For example 1913 government expenditure was 1.5 billion roubles
How was the cost of war met?
Borrowing, increases in tax and printing more money, foreign loans, war bonds,
What were conditions for Russian workers during the war?
full employment and a regular and slightly higher income than usual
Evidence of inflation
Prices had risen 400% by 1917 from the start of the war
Those on what type of incomes suffered greatly?
Fixed
Why were there food shortages?
Rapidly rising population, food requisitioning, a fall in the availability of fertilisers and transport problems
Where did people suffer from food shortages suffer most? Evidence of this
Petrograd, their bread ration fell by 25% in the first 3 months of 1916
What resulted from high prices and shortages
Social unrest in towns and cities
What gave fuel to the critics of the tsar?
Military weaknesses and mounting economic problems
What do optimists believe the war made it impossible for the Provisional Government to deal with?
The burning issues of land reform, the modernisation of industry and the call for a Constituent Assembly
What do optimists believe this failure of the PG gave to the revolutionaries?
An opportunity to overthrow the government completely and install their own form of direct rule
What do pessimists believe about the war?
It was an event that sped up the demise of the Tsar by further proving him an incompetent leader. He had been struggling to deal with the demands for a constitutional govt for some time; duma had developed a progressive bloc before the war
What had the war gained momentum to?
The rise of the working classes as a distinct form of opposition to autocracy
large scale industrialisation and urbanisation, which could be traced back at least to Witte’s Great Spurt
What reinforced greater working-class consciousness?
The legalisation of political parties that represented their interests, the growth of trade unions and the setting up of soviets
What do pessimists believe the war accelerated, but was not responsible for?
class-consciousness causing working-class agitation
