WWI and the February Revolution

Question 1

Lead up to WWI

Answer 1

• Nich = optimistic ab wwI -> ‘Russian steamroller’
• Increase in nationalism + loyalty ie decrease in no. of strikes jan-july = 3493 strikes h/w aug-dec = 41, revolutionaries = traitors, 95% of conscripts – willingly reported for duty
• 4th Duma suspended itself
• Great Military Program: 6.5mil men h/w only 4.6mil rifles, artillery = 3 rounds/day, short cartridges by 1 bill, commander in chief admitted to limitations, positions awarded based on loyalty/seniority

Question 2

Key Battles in WWI

Answer 2

Lemburg 5th-21st Aug 1914 – defeat of Aust troops = Aust 400 000 (1/3 of army) casualties VS Ru = 225 000
Tannenburg 13th-17th Aug 1914 – 70 000 deaths @ 4 days + 350 heavy artillery pieces captured
Masurian Lakes 27th Aug-1st Sept 1914 – 60 000 deaths + Ru ejected out of Ger territory
- 1915 = 1mil troops killed – Great Retreat Aug-Sept 1915

Question 3

Limitations of Russia in WWI

Answer 3

• Mid 1915 4mil Ru soldiers dead/ 40/370 officers @ 1 division dead
• Peasants seen as inexhaustible recourse
• 23 mil Ru under Ger occupation
• Soldiers only had 6 weeks basic training + only ¼ of new recruits had weapons

Question 4

Impacts of limitations in WWI - Urban/General

Answer 4

• Chronic shortages in war supplies -> industry directed towards war effort – rail infrastructure unable 2 cope w needs of war ->1916 Moscow + Petrograd only had 1/3 of food, fuel supply + 1/3 bakeries & 2/3 butchers closed in Petrograd -> 1916 = calorie intake of unskilled workers decreased 25% + infant mortality rate x2
• Banned production of vodka (28% of tax rev.) w no replacement
• Ru borrowed from overseas + printed more money – inflation rouble only buy 30%of what it could in 1913
• Wages increased by ½ h/w food prices increased by ¼
• Inflation did little to harm wealth of business owners b/c transferred money into foreign banks t.f poor got poorer while rich survived
• Founding of voluntary org. ie All-Russian Union of Zemstvos (headed by Kadets, attempted to help supply, x supported by govt), Union of Towns (Prog Moscow industrialists, wanted a more competitive war economy, rejected by govt)
• The Progressive Bloc inc 263/422 of Duma rep b/c suspended. Alliance of Oct + Kad, wanted political and administrative reforms + govt of public confidence
• Nich appointed himself CinC h/w he = x popular, no mil experience, all advisors + Duma urged him not to

Question 5

Impacts of WWI - rural

Answer 5

Ru army made of peasants t.f decreased capacity of ag. Sector b/c peasants = farmers
- Attempts 2 maintain adequate grain supply – govt intro unreasonable high quotas -> peasants began 2 consume more grain and produce less

Question 6

Impacts of WWI - consequences

Answer 6

• Morale of troops + public = drained – loyalty and nationalism replaced w fear and anger
• Late 1915 – increase @ no. of soldiers deserting
• Revolutionary ideologies appealing to more soldiers and peasantry
• Increased dissatisfaction with the govt b/c decreasing sol
• Govt loosing support of population as ppl turn to alternative revolutionary movements
• ## Tsar became the main person to blame for the loses at war -> increased disillusionment and anger

Question 7

Causes of the February Revolution

Answer 7

• 3 waves of strikes between 1915 and Feb 1917 = Wave 1 – Aug 2 Dec 1915 (Great Retreat), Wave 2 – Jan – June 1916 steel workers @ Putilov where economic strikes turned political, Wave 3 – July 1916-Jan 1917 political and economic strikes @ Petrograd + beyond w commemorative strikes 4 bloddy Sunday
• Early 1917 – ppl across the political spectrum expected a rev – Guchkov + Lvov thought about replacing Tsar w Alexei + Bolsheviks planned strikes in April
• One of coldest Winters on record - -35 degrees C -> deliveries difficult b/c snow, supplies of food and fuel critically low = evy1 cold, hungry and angry ie Bloody Sunday 12 yrs post – asking 4 same thing

Question 8

February Revolution - 18th feb-25th feb

Answer 8

• 18th Feb – Putilov Steel workers go on strike -> 40 000 militant workers on streets
• 22nd Feb – Strikes escalate + begin 2 denounce govt
• 23rd Feb – 1000s working class Petrograd wmn march 2 commemorate Internat Wmns Day – includes anti-govt banners and demands for bread
• Men join marches – 90 000 on the streets, some armed
• 24th Feb – Strikes and demonstrations escalate - +200 000 on streets
• Key demands= end the war and end autocratic regime
• Troops and Police attempt 2 disperse
• 25th Feb Sat – workers joined by those not already in strikes – virtually all industries closed
• Cossacks ordered to suppress movement but they don’t engage (willing to in 1905)

Question 9

February Revolution - 26th feb-2nd mar

Answer 9

• 26th Feb – 300 000 protestors on streets
• Soldiers order to fire into crowd h/w some refuse
• Mutinies w soldiers -> declaring support for workers
• Nich unwilling/unable 2 accept situation -> dismisses the Duma
• 27th Feb – 400 000 protestors + 70 000 mutinied soldiers
• Rodzianko, Kerensky, Miliukov create the Provisional Committee -> recognized authority as capital falls apart
• Provisional Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers Deputies -> Chkheidze Chairman + Kerensky Vice
• 28th Feb – widespread surrender of police + tsarist officials
• Nich sets off for capital h/w can’t make it b/c train lines now controlled by rev. troops
• 1st Mar – Prov Com. Take pwr as Prov govt + Pet. Sov accept after amnesty for mutinous troops granted -> Dual Authority
• 2nd Mar – Nich abdicates – “If it is necessary that I should abdicate for the good of Russia, then I am ready for it.” -> Prov govt formally announced