Stage 6
Preliminary
Lesson plan
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
The Revolution spreads
October Manifesto
The Dumas
Nicholas' advisers
World War I
Conclusion
Web Wiz
Nicholas II and WWI
As you have already read, The October Manifesto and the reforms made to agriculture had split the revolutionary movement in 1906. Workers gained very little from the reforms of Peter Stolypin and continued to work and live in appalling conditions. After 1912 a series of strikes threatened to turn into another 1905 revolution. In the Neva goldfields police fired on striking miners and over two hundred miners were killed. A wave of sympathy strikes swept the country. nce more autocracy came under attack from the proletariat. In July 1914 a general strike was called in St Petersburg but the outbreak of war inspired a rallying of patriotic support for the government and the Tsar. The outbreak of WWI saved autocracy, but not for long.
World War I was a disaster for Russia. Many Russians blamed the Tsar for the failures of the army and the government. By 1917, as in 1905, all sections of society were united in the belief that the only way to save Russia was to overthrow the Tsar.
How did World War I help to bring about the end of the Romanovs?
| August 1 | Germany declared war on Russia. Wave of support for the Tsar. |
| August 4 - 23 | Russia swiftly advanced into Germany through East Prussia |
| August 26 - Sept 13 | Russia was defeated by Germany at Masurian Lakes and Tannenberg. There were over one million Russian casualties. |
| December 1914 | Russia defeats Austria and occupied Galicia |
| August 1915 | Tsar Nicholas II left St Petersburg to take control of the armies on the Eastern Front. He left the running of Russia to his wife Alexandra. |
| October 1915 | Germans attacked the Russians and drove them out of Poland. Russians lost over 750,000 men |
| June -Sept 1916 | Russia, under General Brusilov launched a major offensive against Austria. The Austrian army was driven back but Russia lost another one million men. |
| March 1917 | Russian army demoralised and nearing collapse. Tsar forced to abdicate. |
Why was Russia losing the war?
Russia had an army of nearly 6 million men. In the early stages of the war it seemed that the Russian army was unstoppable. But the early victories could not be sustained.
Read the sources below to see what they tell you about the Russian army.
Source A: The French Ambassador in Russia explained the Russian defeats:". . . for lack of munitions and rifles, the offensive cannot be renewed for another two or three months! The Germans can certainly send 400 trains a day to the Russian border. The Russians only ninety to the German border. The Russian army is a paralysed giant. It can still hit enemies it can reach but never follow up . . ."
Source B: A Russian general wrote:
"For over twelve days, the Germans swept our lines, and we could not reply, as there was nothing left as exhausted regiments had only bayonets to fight with . . . When our batteries [big guns], silent for three days, finally received fifteen rounds [of ammunition] there was joy and relief."
Source C: Another Russian general wrote:
"We are not producing more than 24,000 shells a day. . . But our shortage of rifles alarms me far more. Just think! In several infantry regiments at least one third of the men had no rifle. These poor devils had to wait patiently under a shower of shrapnel, until their comrades fell before their eyes and they could pick up their arms [rifles]."
This inability to supply the army stemmed from Russia's small industrial base. The problems were made worse by the gross inefficiency and corruption among the Tsar's officials which led to chaos and chronic waste of materials. The transport system was a shambles and unable to supply the cities with food or the military with supplies. The leadership of the generals was incompetent.
The Tsar as Commander in Chief
As trouble in Russia mounted the Tsar unwisely decided to take over command of the conduct of the war. He had no military training and he was blamed for the poor showing of the army as well as the problems in the cities. Food and fuel prices were soaring and the winter of 1916 - 1917 was very harsh. People in the cities were hungry and cold and the soldiers on the battlefront lacked even basic supplies such as boots. The support of the army ebbed away and even the peasants, who made up the majority of the soldiers turned against their Tsar. In March 1917 a revolution which began in St Petersburg overthrew the Tsar. Nicholas II, the last of the Romanov Tsars was forced to give up his throne on March 15 1917.
Alexandra and Rasputin
As you read earlier, when the Tsar left for the front he left the running of the country to his wife Alexandra. She was to be his "eyes and ears". Alexandra was German by birth and in the climate of the war the people hated all things German. To make things worse she turned to the disreputable monk, Rasputin for advice. The rumours of an affair between the Tsar's wife and the mad monk again began to circulate and other rumours that they were both German spies. Rasputin was referred to as the "dark force" which controlled the royal family. Even when members of the Duma condemned Rasputin's scandalous behaviour the Tsarina continued to support him. Eventually in 1916 Rasputin was murdered by a group of noblemen. That the Tsar had allowed such a man to gain such influence in the affairs of the government and the war was seen as a failure of autocracy to protect Russia.
Crisis in the cities
Throughout much of the war the people in the cities faced severe food shortages. This was due to a number of factors, bad harvests, poor transport systems and the loss of large areas of fertile farming land to the Germans. The food shortages meant that prices for food were very high but workers wages did not keep pace with these rises. At the start of 1917 many workers and their families were facing starvation.
 |
Exercise 5.9: Source study
|