Political authority, opposition and wartime russia

• • Wave of anti-German sentiment
  • strike activity rose again and extremists were imprisoned for lack of patriotism
  • Having voted for war credits, the duma was dissolved as it didn't want to burden the country with 'unnecessary politics' in war time.
  • Germanic St P was changed to Petrograd 


  Why was the initial decision of the tsar supported
• The raising of taxes and loans to finance the war

  War credits
• • German victory at the Battle of Tannenburg in East Prussia, leaving 300,000 dead in August 1914.
  • Another defeat at Masurian Lakes in September forced Russian army to retreat temporarily
  • Although they had some victories in Austria, it became apparent that this was not going to be a quick victory as the people of Russia had hoped.
  • Reports of military incompetence inflamed discontent about this in Russia 


  How was the national spirit dampened as Russia was defeated at the start
• • After defeat in Japan in 1905, there was agreements with Britain over Persia and Afghanistan in 1907 to which Russia turned their attention to the Balkan area
  • Encouraged by pan-Slavism, Russia backed Serbia
  • After the disagreement between Serbia and Austro-Hungary, Russia backed Serbia (which Nicholas thought would divert from the troubles at home)
  • Russia was drawn into war and even tho their allies were Britain and France, they were left alone in the Eastern front to fight Germany. 


  Russia's involvement in WW1
• • July 1914: gov set up military zones in which all civilian authority was suspended and military assumed command
  • Opposed by liberal zemstva who thought this was insensitive of the gov to the needs of the people who played a major role in the war effort
  • Gov deicison to end the sale of alcohol at the end of 1914 was resented and evaded as this helped them deal with the ongoing issues so people turned to making their own. 


  Disputes over organisation of the war effort since end of 1914
• • Established a 'Union of Zemstva' to provide medial facilities which state was neglecting
  • Factory owners and businessmen established the Congress of Rep of Industry and Business to help coordinate production.
  • In June 1915: existing zemstva and municipal dumas joined together to create the All-Russian Union of Zemstva and Cities (Zemgor): chaired by Lvov and claimed to help the tsar's gov war effort but it didn't really have any real influence and soon turned into a beacon of discontent 


  Zemstva response at the beginning of the war
• • Organised themselves into the 'Progressive bloc', demanded Tsar to change his ministers and to establish a 'government of public confidence' (they weren't asking for a constitutional monarchy)
  • This would have meant the war effort would be in the hands of the gov but he didn't want this
  • Instead, in September he suspended all sittings of the Duma and it remained that way until Jan 1917 


  August 1915 and deputies in 4th Duma
• • Decision influenced by defeats in Galicia
  • This move did nothing to help with the war and Nicholas had lost the confidence of the Russian General Staff and didn't have any experience in the war to help with the war effort
  • It made him more responsible for the disasters of the war and distancing himself further from the affairs in Petrograd 


  Nicholas and commander-in-chief Sep 1915
• • Rasputin was meddling in political affairs and policy decisions and rumours of Nicholas' German wife deliberately making the war effort worse
  • There were many changes in ministers in 12 months after Sep 1915 and changes to 3/4 ministries affecting influence of Rasputin


  What was going on in the city
• • They warned him of his unpopularity and damage to the tsarist regime.
  • Nicholas didn't want to get rid of him because he knew how he was supporting his wife
  • Prince Yusupov and Purishkevich referred to R as 'filthy, vicious and venal peasant' invited him to the Yusupov Palace in Dec 1916 for tea to murder him but at that point it was too late. 


  Mikhail Rodzianko and others warning Nicholas about Rasputin
• • By Christmas 1914 there was a serious shortage of munitions while there was a prospect of a long war, requiring a lot of people was daunting 


  Economic and social problems created by the war
• • Although Russia managed to mobilise around 15 million men between 1914-17, it was mostly conscripted peasants who weren't good enough
  • Problems grew worse as soldiers were sent to fight without suitable weaponry and by 1914, there were only 2 rifles for every 3 soldiers and in 1915, it was not unusual to see soldiers only have 2-3 shells per day
  • They also didn't have warm clothing and suitable footwear

  Military issues
• • Went quicker for Russian army as they had more time for training nd more ammunition was coming through
  • By the time of the Brusilov Offensive, most front line units had machine guns and artillery shells but by that point, the war didn't have enough experienced soldiers as most of them had been killed in battle 


  Winter months of 1915-16
• • Russian attempt to push westwards from areas of Ukraine to Austro-Hungary lines
  • It succeeded in destroying their armies and it relied on German reinforcements
  • This soon changed because Germany had better railway systems and moved men more quickly to the Austro-Hungarian line 


  Brusilov Offensive june 1916
• • Morale of army plummeted

  End of 1916
• Spending on the war rose from 1,500 million roubles in 1914 to 14,500 million in 1918, but the real cost was far greater. The rural and industrial workforce was severely affected and although women and children took on some of the men's work, production slumped at a time when the country needed to to be producing more, not less, to feed and supply its armies.


  Spending and Russian people
• Poland, and other parts of western Russia, were overrun by the Germans, removing important industrial capacity. Naval blockades of the Baltic and Black Sea ports, together with the loss of overland routes to Europe, brought Russian trade to a virtual standstill.


  Others countries affected by WW1
• In the countryside, some did well out of the war as conscription helped to relieve some of the population pressure, and those with horses or surplus grain could make money by supplying the military. However, in general, the 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.


  countryside and wartime
• Even when the grain was released for the market, inefficiencies of distribution meant that it did not always reach the town workers who desperately needed it. Railways had been taken over to transport men and goods to the front line, 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 cargoes of grain would be sent to the front line, leaving none for the desperate townsfolk.


  Wartime and grain
• This made life hard for the town populations, which swelled as factories sought more workers for essential war industries. The recruitment drive meant that though armament manufacture improved in 1916, when rifle production doubled and heavy artillery production quadrupled, this was all at the expense of civilian needs.


  Grain affecting ppl in wartime
• • unemployment soared as non-military factories, deprived of vital supplies, were forced to close. Lock-outs and strikes, (some directly encouraged by the German government in a deliberate attempt to foster industrial unrest and undermine the Russian war effort) financially crippled what little industry survived. 


  Urban cities (Petrograd and Moscow)
• • A 300 per cent rise in the cost of living, and rising death rates because of the workers' insanitary lodgings and the inadequacies of their diets, left thousands living on the brink of starvation.
  • In such circumstances, in January 1917 30,000 workers went on strike in Moscow and 145,000 in Petrograd.


  Cost of living in urban cities
• By the winter of 1917, the streets of Petrograd were tense with the pent-up frustrations of the unemployed, the starving and the desperate. A demonstration by 150,000 Petrograd workers on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in January 1917 was a hint of things to come.


  Opposition to autocracy by 1917
• Some 15 million conscripts and volunteers were enlisted for military service between 1914 and 1917, although this represented only 9 per cent of the Russian population compared with 20 per cent in Germany and France.


  Stats
• • 100,000 workers from 58 different factories go on strike in Petrograd
  • News that bread would be rationed 1st March means there are long-queues and violent exchanges.
  • The police struggle to keep control and get attacked

  14th February
• • 20,000 workers are locked out of the Putilov Iron Works by management after pay talks collapse
  • Workers in other factories also go on strike in support

  22nd February
• • 90,000 workers go on strike and 50 factories close
  • They join a traditional march of women from Petrograd suburbs to the city centre along with students and women from bread queues.
  • Chaos breaks out with about 240,000 people on the street
  • A desperate police force only clams them down in the early evening but there is no one that died

  23rd February- International Women' Day
• • 250,000 (over half of capital's workforce) are on strike and Petrograd is on a standstill
  • Almost all major factories and shops close, no newspapers or public transport
  • Police Chief Shalfeev tries to control the masses and ends up being dragged from his horse, beaten and shot.
  • Band of civilians are killed but later on in the day even Cossacks refuse to follow orders to attack the strikers


  25th February
• • Rodzianko: President of Duma sent the tsar a telegram
  • 'The situation is serious. The capital is in a state of anarchy. The government is paralysed; the transport service has broken down; the food and fuel supplies are completely disorganised. Discontent is general and on the increase.... It is urgent that someone enjoying the confidence of the country be entrusted with the formation of a new gov. There must be no delay. Hesitation is fatal'


  26th February
• He wrote in his diary: 'The fat bellied Rodzianko has written some nonsense to which I shall not even bother to reply' He only said that the Duma should stop meeting. 


  How did Nicholas reply to Rodzianko
• • Tsar orders Major-General Khabalov, Commander of the Petrograd military district, to restore order by military force.
  • Soldiers are called on the street and around 40 demonstrators are killed
  • A Mutiny begins in the Volynskii regiment, where a sergeant shoots his commanding officer dead.
  • 66,000 solider mutiny and join the protestors, arming them with 40,000 rifles
  • Police headquarters are attacked and prisons opened

  27th February part 1
• • Later in the day, the Duma met, despite Tsar's order, they set up a 12-man provisional committee to take over the gov
  • The Army' High Command, which ordered troops to march to the capital to restore stability, change their minds and support the new Duma
  • Same evening, the Petrograd Soviet was set up by revolutionaries which intends on taking over the gov and provide food supplies 


  27th Feb part 2
• • Nicholas II leaves his military headquarter at Mogilev and starts to make his way back to Petrograd.
  • He sends a telegram to Rodzianko, offering to share duma power to which the leader replies 'The measure you propose ae too late. The time for them has gone. There is no return' 


  28th February
• • The first time it took place was in 1909 in the US
  • In 1910, around 100 women from 17 countries gathered for a socialist conference in Denmark and agreed to an annual women's day to campaign for female suffrage.
  • Russian women, demanding peace, not war, observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday of February 1913


  International Women's Day
• • Most people who were ordered to shoot demonstrators were peasants or workers background (young and newly enlisted)
  • Junior officials included men from the middle class (intelligentsia) rather than a traditional noble background
  • They joined for patriotism reasons but theeir sympathies lay with the masses


  The Mutineers
• • All units to elect a deputy to the soviet and agree to the political control of the Petrograd Soviet
  • The Military Commission of the Duma to be obeyed, only if agreed by the Soviet's order
  • All weapons are controlled by elected soldiers committees- not officers
  • No titles for soldiers like General

  The Order No 1
• • He never actually returned to Petrograd as his train was diverted by rebellious train workers and forced to stop at Pskov about 200 miles south of the destination
  • He was under pressure by the General Chief of Staff 


  How did Nicholas II respond to this escalation
• • He never actually got to Petrograd because his train was diverted by rebellious railway workers and stopped at Pskov, 200 miles south of Petrograd
  • He was under pressure by the Chief of General Staff, Alekseev, to resign
  • He did this because he wanted to convince for his sons to act as regents in the new provisional government on March 1st. 


  What was the response of Nicholas II in all of this
• • He agreed to their demand but fearing Alexei health, he named Grand-Duke Mikhail as the new Tsar
  • He added that Mikhail should lead the country 'in complete union with the representative of the people in the legislative bodies on principles to be established by them and to take an inviolable oath to this effect'
  • Nicholas abdicated but Mikhail turned down the offer

  March 2nd Nicholas II
• • Appeared in 1905 and were literally the 'councils'
  • They didn't necessarily support one party and it was not a political term originally
  • Following the Feb 1917 revolution, soviets were elected in cities and towns, the most important one being in Petrograd
  • By 10th March it had 3,000 members and most of its work was done by its executive committee which was dominated by socialist intellectuals

  Petrograd Soviet