How far was the February Revolution caused by the length of World War One?

by augenblick (student)

Anne Tuchelt

At the beginning of 1917 the atmosphere in Russia was really bad. People were unhappy and did not want to suffer in silence anymore. The length of the war was a main factor causing the revolution however not the only factor.

Nicholas II’s political decisions which include him deciding to continue the war against Germany were significantly responsible for the revolution. He decided to enter the war because he wanted to prove the world that Russia was a powerful and potent country. But he knew for sure that Russia had not got any military strength in comparison to Germany. Nicholas tried to defeat them with the high amount of soldiers but Germans had much better equipment and trained armies. Besides he had to get anyhow money because making war is very expensive and he did not want the soldiers to be distracted by getting drunk. Therefore he increased the taxes for alcohol highly what the men did not like at all. Nicholas also closed the Progressive Bloc. As the crisis emerged in summer 1915 by the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive the duma was recalled and the new liberal coalition was elected. They wanted to get the Ministry of Public Confidence in government. Consequently the tsar thought it was another attempt to reduce his power and he dismissed them and closed down the Duma. It could have gone better for him if he would have done a politically reform and changed the government from autocracy to a constituent monarchy but he did not. Therefore the Tsar retained autocracy and gave all the power himself making him personally responsible for everything and being totally on his own. If the war went wrong, all anger would go solely to the Tsar. The Progressive Bloc may not exist without the war, but nevertheless it is not directly linked to the length of the war. Furthermore Nicholas put himself in charge of the army in September 1915. He moved away from St. Petersburg and went to the front and took personally command thinking it would have a positive effect of the soldiers but the contrary turned out to be the case he was held responsible for the defeats.

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Another considerable cause are the military failures. When the war started 1914 there was a rash of patriotic public meetings all over the country. Most people were confident that Russia would achieve much glory through this war and they were certain that Russia will win easily. But soon they realized that they were wrong. In August 1914 Germans defeated the Russian soldiers in the battle of Tannenberg devastatingly. It was a catastrophe for Russia; Alexander Samsonov who was the career officer of the cavalry never came back to Russia committing suicide after this severe defeat. Another battle, the first battle of Masurian lakes took place just one week later. The Germans achieved victory again. Russian forces were much bigger than German forces but they had not the modern arms like Germany and so huge numbers of Russians were killed. Of course people were upset about this as they thought that the war would be short and that they get it quickly done it made them impatient to suffer any longer because they became doubtful of a soon victory.

The political impact of the Tsarina Alexandra and Rasputin also caused unhappiness and discontent in the public. By conducting the army Nicholas II was cut off from other politics – he could not lead the government anymore. As the wife and confidante to Nicholas Tsarina Alexandra took control of the government even though she had no had many experience at all. Having the only son suffering from haemophilia tsarina had employed Grigori Rasputin who was a peasant priest. Alexandra took advice by Rasputin and therefore he became her confidant. Rasputin did a quite good curing Alexis and so he had great influences on church as well as the government. The holy man sacked ministers and gave power to his friends and cronies. Rasputin was the one who brought chaos into the government. In the publicity a rumour was going about that Rasputin and Alexandra had a love affair but there has never been found a reliable evidence. Anyway the Tsar did not make any attempts to stop Rasputin although he was just up to mischief. Tsarina Alexandra was German. Many people believed that she was a spy and that she was trying to ruin Russia. As a result especially the aristocracy lost faith in Nichols II’s regime. If the war would have been not as long as, the Tsar could have intervened before it would have come so far and then Rasputin were not be able to bring disaster on the country.

The war did not only make an impact on the structure of the government but also on the social aspect and the economy. Millions of peasants were mobilized in the empire and not just because of the less peasants it could not have been practiced enough agriculture but because most of the plants were needed to turn over to war production. Nicholas II had driven up prices – the wages of urban workers increased just to a little extent however the prices on all products especially food have risen up highly that no one could afford it anymore. The inflation caused hunger in February 1917 people in towns were starving. There were also shortages of fuel and raw material. Furthermore many people were unemployed because hundreds of factories were closed. It is fair to say that Russians economy was in total chaos during the war. Urban Workers became very angry about the incompetent government and peasants were furious about the conscription and the many losses. You can link this to the length of the war because the length made living conditions worse and people increasingly unhappy. The length meant that they had to spend more and more money into war supplies.

All factors would not have led to a revolution - a trigger was needed. After a harsh, cold winter 1917 the dissatisfaction of the public reached the climax. Economy was in the dumper and therefore living conditions were worse than never before. On the 23rd February, the International Women’s day, firstly women in Petrograd started are peaceful march but later they went to factories and spurred workers into action to support them. Women working as tram drivers went on strike. By the afternoon they were a big crowd of women and men marching into the centre of the city. The demonstrations began and increased in the next days. On 24 and 25th of February socialist cells took responsibility for the growing demonstrations and in Petrograd general strike occurred. Then also soldiers joined demonstrations who were afraid fighting in the field. Thus they had nothing to lose because they would probably die in war. The regiments opened fire against the protestants. On the 2nd of March the tsar Nicholas II abdicates for himself and a provisional government has been appointed by the Duma.

We can conclude that the length of the war caused the revolution to a small extent because there were many other factors which are at least as significant as the lasting war. However there some things which are linked to the length of the war as well as the war on its own: the shortages of products. One of the main causes are Nicholas II’s decisions and their consequences because it made the people losing their faith in the Tsar and getting really angry about the government.