Was it the Great War which was essentially responsible for the downfall of the Romanovs in 1917?
The first world war was known as the Great War during the time period it was fought as at this time it was not known that there would ever be another war of the same scale. Nicholas the 2nd the former, and last Tsar of Russia was of the Romanov family, a royal family who had presided over Russia. There were many reasons for the downfall of the Romanov family, some of these were as follows; the first world war known at that time as the Great War, strikes such as that of International Women’s Day and the refusal of the tsar to compromise or cooperate with the duma. However, I believe the most important factor for the downfall of the Romanovs was Nicholas himself as his character and personality traits were exactly the opposite of what Russia needed most during the time of his reign, a time of great instability and economical and social upheaval. Also, his stubbornness and refusal to listen to reason.
One of the most influential reasons for the downfall of the Romanov dynasty is undeniably the Great War. The war caused problems both locally, and on the outskirts of Russia where the war was being fought. Russia’s economy suffered greatly, the rouble was taken off of the gold standard and inflation caused the prices for commodities such as food and engine fuel to rise rapidly, a 400% increase. The transport system, suffered also, the Trans-Siberian railway system and other major rail lines were disrupted by a surge of immigrant workers and were put under immense strain to transport thousands of soldiers and crates full of supplies to the front lines. This caused lines to become blocked or signals to break and in time, caused certain areas of the railway to become superfluous, as they were no longer functional. Also as a result of the blocked lines, food supplies would not reach their destinations on time or would spoil before they could arrive. An example of this was in 1916 in Petrograd, only 300 wagon-loads of grain arrived, as opposed to the 1000 they normally received. The effects of war were also felt strongly on the front lines, morale of soldiers was low as the army was mostly comprised of peasants who were conscripted and who’s loyalty lay only to their families and villages not to mother Russia. They were not patriotic and did not even fully understand the reason for the war. The conditions they fought in were appalling and the incompetent tsarist government was unable to fully provide even the most basic of equipment for all of the army. As a result of this many soldiers went into battle barefoot as the government could not afford boots and the munitions shortage prevented soldiers from firing more than 10 bullets per day. The Russian army was primitive, still favouring cavalry and bayonets whilst fighting in a modern war facing artillery and machine guns. The Tsar made a critical error in the war, deciding to remove his own Supreme Commander Grand Duke Nikolai and assume the role of the leader of the troops on the Eastern front, this in many people’s eyes made him solely responsible for the events which conspired.
