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THE EMERGENCE OF “TOTAL” WAR AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

THE EMERGENCE OF “TOTAL” WAR AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. The First World War is often referred to as the first “total” war for four reasons: Industrial warfare by huge conscript armies demanded the reorganization of the whole economy.

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THE EMERGENCE OF “TOTAL” WAR AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

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  1. THE EMERGENCE OF “TOTAL” WARAND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION The First World War is often referred to as the first “total” war for four reasons: • Industrial warfare by huge conscript armies demanded the reorganization of the whole economy. • Combat became utterly terrifying, with a killing zone over 5 miles deep. “Shell shock” became a major source of casualties. • Government propaganda through mass media disseminated hateful stereotypes of the enemy. • The distinction between combatants & noncombatants began to break down as a result of “hunger blockades,” aerial bombardment, submarine warfare, and partisan warfare.

  2. THE GROWTH OF MILITARY FIREPOWER

  3. Trenches soon ran from Switzerland to the English Channel(a German trench on the Western Front, November 1914)

  4. A Russian peasant village in 1910(80% of the population were still peasants, mostly illiterate)

  5. In 1906 the government abolished all restrictions on foreign investment and migration by peasants LEFT: An oil field near Baku on the Caspian Sea Russian peasants newly arrived in Moscow, looking for work; 22% of all peasant heads of household seceded from their village collective in the years 1906-1915

  6. Tsar Nicholas II greets Russian soldiersdeparting for the front in August 1914

  7. The Battle of Tannenberg, East Prussia, August 27-30, 1914:30,000 Russians killed, 100,000 captured

  8. Russia’s disastrous losses from May to September 1915

  9. SYMPTOMS OF ILLNESS IN THE RUSSIAN BODY POLITIC • Russia mobilized 11 million soldiers in 1914/15 but could not train competent officers to replace those killed at the front. • Most promotions to major commands were based on connections at court, not performance. • Russia produced a major food surplus, but the system to distribute food to cities often broke down. • By the end of the year 1916, almost 2 million soldiers were Absent Without Leave. • By the end of 1916, the cost of living was 4X higher than in 1913. • By the end of 1916, 1.7 million industrial workers had participated in strikes.

  10. Anti-war demonstrators before the Winter Palace, Petrograd, January-February 1917

  11. Funeral in Petrograd in March 1917 for demonstrators killed on orders of Tsar Nicholas II

  12. Revolutionary soldiers and workers control Petrograd

  13. ORDER #1 OF THE PETROGRAD SOVIET, MARCH 14, 1917 • In all military units and vessels of the navy, committees from the elected representatives of the lower ranks shall be chosen immediately. • …One representative from each company shall be selected [for the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies]…. • In all its political actions, the military branch is subordinated to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and to its committees. • The orders of the military commission of the State Duma shall be executed only in such cases as do not conflict with the orders and resolutions of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. • All kinds of arms… must be kept at the disposal and under control of the company and battalion committees, and in no case be turned over to officers, even at their demand. • During the performance of duties, soldiers must observe the strictest military discipline, but outside duty, …soldiers cannot in any way be deprived of those rights which all citizens enjoy. Standing at attention and compulsory saluting when not on duty is abolished. • The addressing of officers with the title, ‘Your Excellency,’ ‘Your Honor,’ etc., is abolished, and these titles are replaced by the address of ‘Mister General,’ ‘Mister Colonel,’ etc.

  14. A British Labourite delegation visits Petrograd after theFebruary Revolution

  15. “War until Victory!” (an attempt to arouse “Jacobin nationalism”) War Minister Alexander Kerensky addresses troops about to leave for the front in 1917

  16. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, i.e., “Lenin” (1870-1924), leader since 1903 of the “Bolshevik” faction of Russian socialism LENIN’S APRIL THESES Transform the Imperialist War into Civil War! All Power to the Soviets! Land for the Village Poor!

  17. Machine gun fire disperses pro-Bolshevik demonstrators on Nevsky Prospect in Petrograd, July 4, 1917

  18. General L.G. Kornilov waves to the crowd in Moscow in August 1917, shortly before he attempted a military coup

  19. Climax of the “Great October Revolution”:Red Guards storm the Kremlin in Moscow

  20. Fraternization on the Eastern Front, November/December 1917

  21. Europe at the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 1918

  22. German troops moving through San Quentin to preparefor the “Ludendorff Offensive” launched on March 21, 1918

  23. The Ludendorff Offensive, March-July 1918:Each assault was very well prepared, but their force tended to dissipate…

  24. American troops disembark at Le Havre, July 12, 1918

  25. The breach of the “Hindenburg Line” at St. Quentin, 2 Oct 1918 British troops line the banks of the St. Quentin Canal Their multitude of German prisoners

  26. In October 1918 Ludendorff told the Kaiser to appoint Prince Max of Baden head of a “parliamentary” government, but Max soon turned to Friedrich Ebert of the SPD

  27. Social Democratic politicians address revolutionary sailors at Kiel, November 5, 1918: Mutiny broke out when the admirals ordered a desperate attack

  28. Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) proclaim the Republic from the balcony of the Reichstag on 9 November 1918

  29. ESTIMATED COMBAT FATALITIES IN THE GREAT WAR

  30. When the “Big Four” gathered in Versailles in December 1918 (Lloyd George, Orlando, Clemenceau, and Wilson), they first debated whether to intervene in the Russian Civil War.

  31. The Russian Civil War, 1918/19:In January 1919 Marshall Foch advocated intervention from Odessa, Murmansk, Archangel, Vladivostok, Poland, and Romania, but Lloyd George insisted that the Russian people preferred the Reds to the Whites.

  32. Leon Trotsky, War Commissar, 1918 “One Year of the Proletarian Dictatorship”

  33. Armored train of the “Czech Legion” inWestern Siberia, July 1918

  34. “Long live the three-million-man Red Army!” (USSR, 1919):The Red Army won a series of victories in summer 1919

  35. “Capitalists of the World, Unite!”(Soviet poster from 1920)

  36. The “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” of 1921

  37. Soviet leaders all hoped at first for world revolution:“Long Live the Third Communist International!” (1920)

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