War is the locomotive of history" Leon Trotsky

1. War is the locomotive of history" Leon Trotsky Short-term Conditions That Gave Rise to the Soviet State in Russia

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

3. Initial patriotic support of the war • 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Maria Boshkarova and the Russian Women’s Battalion of Death • Fifteen Women’s Battalions were formed around the country. • Four communications detachments in Moscow and St. Petersburg, with detachments in Kiev and other cities. • An all-female naval unit was also created. It was estimated about 5,000 women served in these units. Only two, including the 1st Russian Women’s Battalion of Death, made it to the front lines.

9. Maria Bochkareva, known for her harsh leadership, was a great soldier, activist and political player during the early 1900s in Russia.

10. 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

11. 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 • Progressive bloc is a combination of moderate and liberal groups

12. 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.

13. Inflation • Inflation is simply a rise in the average price of goods and services in the macroeconomy. • Also, inflation is the long term rise in the prices of goods and services caused by the devaluation of currency. • What happens when Russia becomes “hangry “ and there is a colossal shortage of food • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SyO5E0MBz4

14. Nicholas II • Retook the “ dominos “ during the 137th week and was reading a French book on Jules Caesar seizing Gaulle. • Colossal issues distributing food through the Tran Siberian railway • Speculation was that it was deliberate to provoke the Russians to accept peace with the Central Powers

15. Alexander Protopopov , Vice President of the Russian Duma , deliberately halted the trains in the provinces so it would not get delivered to Petrograd. • While 2 liberals from the Duma convinced the workers to go back to work, Protopopov fermented the uprisings so the army would put them out , distract the crowds while they could sign a secret peace

16. 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

17. Nicholas at the front

18. Raspoutin’s Dreams • With the Tsar spending most of his time at GHQ, Alexandra Fedorovna now took responsibility for domestic policy. • Rasputin served as her adviser and over the next few months she dismissed ministers and their deputies in rapid succession. • In letters to her husband she called his ministers as "fools and idiots". • According to David Shub "the real ruler of Russia was the Empress Alexandra"

19. Russia was ill prepared from the start • By December, 1914, the Russian Army had 6,553,000 men. • However, they only had 4,652,000 rifles. It has been pointed out: "Untrained troops were ordered into battle without adequate arms or ammunition. And because the Russian Army had about one surgeon for every 10,000 men, many wounded of its soldiers died from wounds that would have been treated on the Western Front. • With medical staff spread out across a 500 mile front, the likelihood of any Russian soldier receiving any medical treatment was close to zero".

20. Nicholas II Supreme Commannder • Tsar Nicholas II decided to replace Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich Romanov as supreme commander of the Russian Army fighting on the Eastern Front. • He was disturbed when he received the following information from General Alexei Brusilov: "In recent battles a third of the men had no rifles. These poor devils had to wait patiently until their comrades fell before their eyes and they could pick up weapons. The army is drowning in its own blood."

21. Nicholas II ,supreme command of the Russian Army • As Nicholas II was supreme command of the Russian Army he was linked to the country's military failures and there was a strong decline in his support in Russia. • George Buchanan, the British Ambassador in Russia, went to see the Tsar: "I went on to say that there was now a barrier between him and his people, and that if Russia was still united as a nation it was in opposing his present policy. • The people, who have rallied so splendidly round their Sovereign on the outbreak of war, had seen how hundreds of thousands of lives had been sacrificed on account of the lack of rifles and munitions; how, owing to the incompetence of the administration there had been a severe food crisis."

22. Alexandra and Rasputin

23. Meanwhile at home, the Tsarina was completely convinced by the supernatural power of Rasputin. "In their despair at the inability of orthodox medicine to overcome or alleviate the disease, the imperial couple turned with relief to Rasputin... She attached physical power to objects handled by Rasputin. She sent Rasputin's stick and comb to the tsar so that he might benefit from Grigori's vigour when attending ministerial councils.” • The Tsarina became very dependent on Rasputin. One one occasion, when he had to spend time outside St. Petersburg, she wrote: "How distraught I am without you. My soul is only at peace, I only rest, when you, my teacher, are seated beside me and I kiss your hands and lean my head on your blessed shoulders... Then I only have one wish: to sleep for centuries on your shoulders, in the embraces."

24. Alexander Kerensky complained that: "The Tsarina's blind faith in Rasputin led her to seek his counsel not only in personal matters but also on questions of state policy. • General Alekseyev, held in high esteem by Nicholas II, tried to talk to the Tsarina about Rasputin, but only succeeded in making an implacable enemy of her. • General Alexseyev told me later about his profound concern on learning that a secret map of military operations had found its way into the Tsarina's hands. • But like many others, he was powerless to take any action.”

25. German Spies • Rumours began to circulate that Rasputin and Alexandra Fedorovna were leaders of a pro-German court group and were seeking a separate peace with the Central Powers. • This upset Michael Rodzianko, the President of the Duma, and he told Nicholas II: "I must tell Your Majesty that this cannot continue much longer. • No one opens your eyes to the true role which this man (Rasputin) is playing. His presence in Your Majesty's Court undermines confidence in the Supreme Power and may have an evil effect on the fate of the dynasty and turn the hearts of the people from their Emperor."

26. La conspiration du meurtre de G. Raspoutine

27. La conspiration du meurtre de G. Raspoutine

28. British Intelligence Agency, MI6 • Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the head of MI6, became very concerned by the influence Rasputin was having on Russia's foreign policy.

29. "I am confident that Russia will never fight through another winter." Samuel Hoare , British politician • The main fear was that Russia might negotiate a separate peace with Germany, thereby releasing the seventy German divisions tied down on the Eastern Front. • One MI6 agent wrote: "German intrigue was becoming more intense daily. Enemy agents were busy whispering of peace and hinting how to get it by creating disorder, rioting, etc. Things looked very black. Romania was collapsing, and Russia herself seemed weakening. The failure in communications, the shortness of foods, the sinister influence which seemed to be clogging the war machine, Rasputin the drunken debaucher influencing Russia's policy, what was to the be the end of it all?

30. Raspoutine en train de la consommation empoisonnée

31. Conspiracy • Eventually, Vladimir Purishkevich and Felix Yusupov agreed to work together to kill Rasputin. • Three other men Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, Dr. Stanislaus de Lazovert and Lieutenant Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin, an officer in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, joined the plot. • Lazovert was responsible for providing the cyanide for the wine and the cakes. He was also asked to arrange for the disposal of the body

33. 1 November 1916: “Stupidity or Treason?” • Pavel Miliukov • 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

34. Cyanite- x 5 une dose létale Tiré …au dos Tiré encore … à l’épaule Tiré encore … à la tête Batu avec le gourdin Démonté du pont bridge Placé sous la glace = Mort noyé Assasination

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

36. 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.

37. Revolutionary Petrograd

38. 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.

39. The February Revolution • Feb 23 Riots and Strikes in Petrograd • Feb 25 Mutiny of troops on Petrograd • Feb 26 The Tsar ordered the Duma to adjourn but it refused. • Feb 27 Petrograd Soviet set up. • March 1 Duma set up the Provisional Government under Prince Lvov. • March 2 Nicholas II abdicates

40. February 26 • The Tsar's response was feeble, he was warned by both the military commander in Petrograd, General Khabalov, and by Rodzianko, the President of the Duma, but he did nothing. • Worse still, on 26th February, Nicholas II dismissed the Duma.

41. February 27 • The Duma decided to continue to meet and on 27th February workers and soldiers marched on the Tauride Palace where the Duma was meeting. • The Duma was unsure whether to support the rioters or not but one Socialist Revolutionary deputy, Alexander Kerensky, helped persuade them to do so. • Rodzianko announced that the Duma was taking control of the capital. • At the same time the workers and soldiers in Petrograd elected a Soviet as they had done during the 1905 Revolution.

42. By Februray 28 • Most of the 160,000 soldiers in Petrograd had either mutinied or stopped trying to restore order. • There were about 1,300 casualties in the fighting in Petrograd (half civilians, half soldiers and police). • Rodzianko contacted General Alexeyev, Chief of the General Staff. • They agreed that the Tsar's immediate abdication and the establishment of a new government were essential if order were to be restored.

43. March 2 • Nicholas II, at Pskov, on his way back to the capital, was informed by his generals and a delegation of Duma deputies that they would no longer support him. • Nicholas agreed co abdicate in favor of his son, Alexis, but later decided that he was too ill and so decided on his own younger brother, the Grand Duke Michael. • Michael refused and so Russia became a republic

44. The downfall of the Russian monarchy • The downfall of the Russian monarchy was not planned and took everyone by surprise, including revolutionary groups like the Bolsheviks. • There were 400,000 workers in Petrograd and, by 23 February, there were only nine days' supply of flour left. • Demonstrations over bread shortages led to riots, which merged with a strike at the Putilov armaments factory. • Unlike the 1905 Revolution, much of the Petrograd garrison openly sided with the rioters (the first mutinies occurred on 25th February) and the situation became serious.

45. Duma wanted another monarch • The Duma leaders and generals had hoped to use the disturbances in Petrograd to force a change of Tsar, but had not intended to establish a republic. • They had reached the conclusion that Nicholas II had to be removed if Russia were to stand any chance of winning the war and of avoiding a social revolution.

46. End of the Romanov Dynasty, 1613-1917

47. Provisional Government

48. The Failure of the Provisional Government (March-October 1917) • What weakened the Provisional Government? • Its own reforms • The Provisional Government (PG) issued a series of liberal reforms, including freedom of the press, the release of political prisoners, and the abolition of the death penalty. • It abolished the Okhrana(the Tsarist secret police). • This reduced the government's coercive capabilities at a time of crisis, a dangerous move.

49. Provisional Government • The Duma on 1st March chose ten of its members to serve as a Provisional Government; this was dominated by the liberal parties (Kadets and Octobrists). • The Prime Minister was Prince Lvov, and the Provisional Government included one Socialist Revolutionary, Alexander Kerensky. • Paul Miliukov was the Foreign Minister and Alexander Guchkov was Minister of War.

50. The Failure of the Provisional Government (March-October 1917) • The Soviets : 'Dual Authority' • The PG intended to introduce a new, democratic system of local government but took until August to create a scheme. In the meantime, soviets (elected councils of workers, soldiers and peasants) had been set up across Russia to take charge of the localities. Therefore, the PG did not have effective control of Russia. • It used to be thought that the PG had responsibility but no power because of the existence of the Petrograd Soviet (PS) but historians now think that the PG had a window of opportunity in March-April when fear of a counter-revolution by conservative army officers bound the PS and PG together.