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The Great War and the February Revolution, 1914-1917

The Great War and the February Revolution, 1914-1917. Initial patriotic support. Duma deputies Major cities middle-class Workers stopped striking Peasants – resignation and misunderstanding Large-scale anti-German propaganda (popular): e.g. Petrograd

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The Great War and the February Revolution, 1914-1917

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  1. The Great War and the February Revolution, 1914-1917

  2. Initial patriotic support • Duma deputies • Major cities • middle-class • Workers stopped striking • Peasants – resignation and misunderstanding • Large-scale anti-German propaganda (popular): e.g. Petrograd • Initial military gains: East Prussia and Galicia

  3. But soon ended, not a short war • April-September 1915: Great Retreat from: • Galicia • Prussia • Russian Poland • Lithuania • Latvia • Why? • Germans better armed • Russian generals incompetent • Radicalized soldiers

  4. Great Retreat’s effects Huge losses (G.F. Krivosheev) : • Killed in action 1,200,000 • missing in action 439,369 • died of wounds 240,000 • gassed 11,000 • died from disease 155,000 • POW deaths 190,000 • deaths due to accidents and other causes 19,000 • Total war dead 2,254,369 • Wounded 3,749,000 • POW 3,342,900

  5. A Whole Empire Walking (Peter Gatrell) • Massive refugees problem • Military command incompetent • Six million fled front zone • One million forcibly expelled Jews, Germans and other foreigners • Jewish pogroms • ‘scorched earth’ • Increased ethnic tensions

  6. Peasants’ lives transformed • Most soldiers were peasants • 50% of working-age men mobilized • Livestock massively requisitioned • Many impoverished • Soldatki • Stolypin land reform protests • Bazaar riots against price controls

  7. War’s economic impact • Prohibition stopped vodka revenues • Cut off markets • Cut off foreign investment • Impoverished government printed tons of money • Inflation • War effort greatly impeded food supply

  8. Greater public participation • All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and Municipal Councils (ZemGor) • Aid to refugees, injured soldiers • Military-Industrial Committees • Involved middle-class, but workers often boycotted. • Led to greater public self-confidence • Progressive Bloc in Duma -- increasingly critical

  9. Workers’ war situation • Many mobilized • Increasingly valuable to military production • But real wages fell; by 1917 a quarter of pre-war levels • Food supply and other necessities increasingly expensive and scarce • Illegal to strike • But by summer 1915 strikes began to increase • 1915: 1000 strikes • 1916: 1600 strikes, increasingly political and assertive demands.

  10. Then, Nicholas went to front • Aug 1915: Progressive Bloc demanded a “Government of public confidence” • Nicholas refused, ignored the Duma, went to the front. • Left Alexandra and Rasputin in charge • The “German Woman” and the “Mad Monk” • Ministerial ‘leapfrog’ • Left no one else to blame for military failures • Greatly undermined legitimacy of Romanovs

  11. Nicholas at the front

  12. Alexandra and Rasputin

  13. 1 November 1916: “Stupidity or Treason?” • PavelMiliukov • State Duma • Attacked Sturmer, Rasputin, and “the court party grouped around the young tsarina.” • Nicholas replaced Sturmer with Trepov. • MVD Protopopov remained. • Trepov tried to work with Duma. • Tried to remove Protopopov. • Trepov dismissed. • Liberal opposition united against tsarist government

  14. Rasputin murdered, 16/29 December 1916 •  Prince Felix Yusupov • Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich • Vladimir Purishkevich • Did not solve the problem.

  15. February (1917) Revolution • February 23 (March 8), 1917: International Women’s Day • Women joined by locked out Putilov workers • Police over-reacted. • 25 February: General strike of 240,000 workers • Key: (27 Feb.) Volynsky regiment mutinied.

  16. Revolutionary Petrograd

  17. February Revolution, final acts • 27 Feb: Temporary Committee of State Duma (Chair: Rodzianko) • 1 March: Petrograd Soviet issued Order No. 1 • March 2 (15), 1917: Tsar Nicholas II abdicates at Pskov. • March 3 (16): Grand Duke Mikhail declines the throne.

  18. End of the Romanov Dynasty, 1613-1917

  19. Provisional Government

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