To what extent did the First World War contribute to the fall of Czardom in Russia?'

History essay Alexandra Mok

6A 18

‘To what extent did the First World War contribute to the fall of Czardom in Russia?’

Since the 1905 Revolution, the Czardom continued to decline. The insincerity of the Czar, setting up of Dumas, the rise of revolutionary group and so on had created an explosive situation in Russia. In 1914, Czar Nicolas II decided to enter the First World War in order to rise the prestige and gain support from people, however, it was the fatal mistake ever made by the royal family which acted as a catalyst for the February Revolution. Though at the beginning, the Russian seemed to support to enter the war, military defeats the government's incompetence soon soured much of the population. Maladministration and ineffective economic policies hurt the country financially, logistically and militarily.

Russia entered the war unprepared. There was a grave lack of co-ordination between the Ministry of War and the Front. War Industries Committee was formed to ensure that necessary supplies reached the front. But army officers quarreled with civilian leaders and refused to cooperate with the committee. The army was inadequately trained and equipped. They were instructed to pick up weapons from the dead and the superiority of the Germans lowered the morale and spirits of the soldiers. Several severe defeats in the battlefields had made the soldiers lost their faith and not as loyal to Czar as they were in 1905. They blamed Nicolas II for the lost. Moreover, Nicholas II went to the front to assume leadership of the army, leaving behind the Czarina, Alexandra, and Rasputin, an evil monk, who exercised influence on policy and ministerial appointments after the Czar went for war. This had upset the nobles and the church, many of them turned their back to the government. During the First World War, Czarist government had lost two major supports, soldiers and nobles, which were the pillars of the government in 1905. They even helped the Soviets to get into Petrograd and refused to help the Czar in February Revolution. Therefore, by 1917, the Czar was remained isolated and overthrown by people.

Moreover, WWI caused a heavy blow to the Russia’s economy. Government’s inconsistency of making the economic policy had made the economic situation became more and more desperate. The lack of systematic planning before the war resulted in serious shortages and high inflation. Particularly, Ukraine was captured by Germany in the war, which caused serious food shortages and inadequate supply of raw materials. Factories were closed down. Unemployment, famine and high inflation, derived from the war, had further deteriorated people’s living standard. People had great discontent towards the corrupt government and strikes and demonstrations were frequent during war period.

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In 1905, though people were discontented by the poor living standard, they were still willing to support the government on certain matters. However, the consequences of entering First World War clearly revealed the inefficiency for the Czarist government, and people could bare no more, thinking that it might be the right time to overthrow the government. According to Sazonov, ‘the government was hanging in the air and had no support either from above or below.’ The war made the Czar totally discredited and lost all supports. Nonetheless, there were still some factors that contributed to the fall of Czardom in lesser extent.

First of all, the insincerity of the Czar in making reforms had disappointed many Russian. In 1905, though the Czar carried out his promise of an elected duma as he announced in the October Manifesto. However, the Fundamental Law he announced later, which gave him the right to dissolve the Duma, had shown that he was not ready to share his power, he remained autocracy. The four Dumas that were elected between 1906 and 1917 had never lived up to a true constitutional democracy. In the end, the failure of the Dumas disillusioned the liberals and many Russians were convinced that the Czar had to be overthrown. Many people joined the revolutionary groups as resulted.

After 1905 Revolution, the Czar had appointed Peter Stolypin as the prime minister, he had successfully reforms together with repression that helped to strengthen the confidence of the people. The social and economic reforms carried by him might have created a bulwark against revolution. However, all came to an end when he was assassinated by a Socialist Revolutionary in 1911. After that, the Czar did not have any attempts to carry out further reforms relieve people’s living. Despite the land reform introduced by Stolypin, the majority of the peasants still had a poor life and suffered from the shortage of land. The rapid industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century had made lots of workers suffered. They were exploited, suffered from low wages and poor working conditions. People became more believed that the Czar had no attention to improve their situation, the major thing he concerned was to prolong the Czarist regime. The attitude of Nicolas II had only driven more people to the revolutionary groups. These factors though stir up problems and discontent in Russia, they only contributed to the growth of opposition groups such as the Soviets and Populists. They only held strikes and demonstrations and it was indeed the First World War that worsened the situation and made people had an actual planning of overthrowing the government.

Lastly, Nicolas II was an incapable leader. He was deeply influenced by his wife, Czarina Alexandra. After 1906, the Czarina strongly believed an evil monk, Rasputin, who claimed to use magical powers to cure the serious disease suffered by Nicolas son, Alexis. Therefore, Rasputin became the real hand of the government afterwards, especially during the First World War. However, it could not say that this was a major cause of the fall of Czardom, since Rasputin was murdered by nobles in 1916, the situation was no better onwards. Revolution still broke out after a year later. But Czarina Alexandra and Rasputin undoubtedly decreased the regime's prestige and credibility.

To conclude, though there were lots of underlying causes that contributed to the fall of Czardom, they only created an explosive time bomb for a revolution. It was the WWI act as a trigger, brought about the people and overthrown the Czardom in 1917 February Revolution. Therefore, WWI is the major cause to the fall of Czardom.

Reference:

Aspects of European History 1789-1980 --- Stephen J. Lee

Mastering Modern European History --- Stuart T. Miller