Nicholas II may have believed that, by taking charge, his army would be inspired. Unfortunately, the Tsar knew little about the command and organisation of large military forces due to his inexperience, and the series of defeats and humiliations continued. The retreat from Russian Poland resulted in 1.5 million casualties and also the loss of territory. By December 1916, just 2 months before the revolution, over 1.6 million Russian soldiers were dead and 3.9 million injured. The morale within the armed forces and amongst the Russian people was at a low due to these crushing, humiliating defeats.
The organisation of the Russian army deteriorated and there were massive shortages of ammunition, equipment, and medical supplies. The armed forces were in a worse state than before he took over. Nicholas II's decision to take charge meant that he was increasingly seen by the Russian people as having personal responsibility for the military disasters inflicted on Russia.
Nicholas failed to address the key social and economic problems facing Russia at this time. In the long war, Russia’s economy failed to maintain supplies and equipment to her armed forces as well as its population. In 1917 inflation had reached 200%, prices were going up fourfold with wages only doubling. This meant that workers no longer had enough money to live on, causing much anger. By 1917, widespread discontent existed in Russia.
However, there was no food to buy, agricultural production continued to pose a problem in the 1st World War. Due to the dire state of Russia’s economy, the peasants decided to stockpile grain for their own use. Many people in the cities went hungry. The peasants could not gain a stable price for their produce, so they decided to keep it to themselves. They felt that there was nothing important or desirable being produced for them to buy, so this is why they refused to sell their grain, because the money that would be given to them was worthless and all the industries were devoted to the war, so no worthwhile products were for sale. By 1917, only 10% of the total grain harvested was sold to the markets.
Any food that was sold was put onto trains and diverted from the cities to the front line. Moscow needed 2200 railway wagons of grain per month to keep it going; in 1917 it was only receiving 300.Food deliveries to Moscow fell 60% short of what was needed. Petrograd, the capital, received only 48% of its total grain requirements. Inevitably this caused severe grain shortages in the cities. Infant mortality rates doubled and crime tripled. The army was forced to halve its 4000 calorie per day ration. This all stemmed from Nicholas not being able to control the levels of inflation and restore confidence in the currency.
As the war went on, the typical war economies flourished. More workers were needed in the cities to cope with the demand. Between 1914-1917 Pertrograd’s population grew from 2.1 million to 2.7 million. But, this combined with the rising levels of inflation led to a decline in living standards which resulted in unrest among workers. Strikes took over Russia from the end of 1916 into the start of 1917.
But by far the most unpopular decision made by Tsar Nicholas 2nd was the prohibition of selling and producing alcohol during the 1st World War. His reasoning was that it would put a stop to the epidemic of alcoholism amongst the peasants, in the hope that they would become more productive in the war economy. This decision was made in the home of Vodka, where it had been a traditional drink among peasants and their ancestors for centuries. It was, and still is consumed daily by Russians who see it as a part of their nation’s heritage, tradition and culture. As a result of this, tax revenues for the government reduced. The country’s national debt quadrupled. The taxation of alcohol was the main source of the government’s revenue. This depravation of money could have been invested into Russia putting all its resources into the war effort and defeating Germany quickly as the plan was.
On the 19th February 1917, the government introduced bread rationing. This led to panic buying before it came into effect and there was even less food in the cities. The government was being run by Nicholas’s wife, Tsarina Alexandria and Rasputin, who were already massively unpopular. But it was Nicholas who left the pair in charge in Petrograd in the first place as he focused his attention on taking over the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
In conclusion, Nicholas 2nd made many catastrophic errors. It is worth taking into account that he inherited his position of Tsar at a time when Russia was in a bad state. He was woefully underprepared and experienced for the job of both head of the Russian Empire and commander-in-chief. There were slight improvements in his reign; the 3rd and 4th Duma’s were a success. But all of the points made in my argument are all a result of a decision made my Nicholas. His actions had many consequences in ways that he didn’t intend. Although, it wasn’t always his actions that caused his downfall, it was what he didn’t do; it was what he didn’t address, such as the decline in living standards and the rise in inflation. He neglected the domestic needs of his empire to play head of the armed forces, something he didn’t do very well. With the millions of casualties he incurred, he lost the support of the army, of whom he relied upon to protect Tsarism. Consequently, 300 years of Romanov rule came to an end as Nicholas abdicated.