In February 1917 the Tsar had been forced to give up his throne. Explain why this first revolution occurred. Revolution occurred because of the impact World War One had on the defeat of the Russian military; food shortages and transport dislocation in Russia. There was a shortage of weapons and soldiers were forced to fight without weapons as weapons and ammunition had become rationed. The military leadership was terrible and the Tsar took it upon himself to have the role of personal command in 1915 (as told to him by Rasputin).
Before the PG came into power, the already dire economic, agrarian and social problems were getting worse and worse as the war continued and as a result, the majority of Russians opposed the war effort. This meant that from the beginning of their reign, the PGs decision to carry on with the war made them unpopular as food shortages and the economy got worse and worse. For example, by 1917, the price of bread had doubled while the rations halved from their original figures in 1914. This discontent was proven as early as April the 20th as a riot broke onto the streets demanding that Milyukov, the head of Russian foreign affairs and key war minister, was sacked. This was significant as it meant that in the times of potential danger for the PG, they couldn’t rely on the people to support them.
The attempt to transport millions of troops and masses of supplies to the war fronts created unbearable pressure on the Russian transport system, and it bucked under the pressure. The signalling system on which the railway network depended on broke down and this accumulated to Petrograd and Moscow receiving only a third of their food and fuel requirements, in comparison before the war
If this was not the case, when the Germans attacked there could have been a much better chance of defeating them. The low level of morale was mostly due to Stalin’s purges of the 1930s which led to a huge loss of talent from the Red Army as well as its organisation and structure. Leadership of the army was specifically targeted resulting in the murder or removal of three to five marshals, 13 of 15 army commanders, eight of nine admirals, 50 of 57 army corps commanders, 154 out of 186 division commanders, 16 of 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commanders. In total, 30,000 members of the armed Red Army forces were executed. This was a heavy blow for the Russians when the Germans attacked, leaving them without leadership or well-planned strategies.
Nicholas II fell from power in February 1917, there are many reasons for the collapse of Tsarism but to what extent was World War 1 the most important reason? World War 1 seems to be the most contributing factor to why Tsarism collapsed in 1917; the huge effects and problems that the War had on Tsarism was able to overturn the monarchy, that before then, had never died. This is due to the impact of War on Russia’s Political state. In 1915 Nicholas II as Tsar toke power of the Russian army, this had a huge effect on the outcome of World War 1 on Russia. Despite this, the collapse of Tsarism could be blamed on different factors of Russia, such as the civilians; the percentage of peasantry in Russia was extremely high, not only the percentage but also the conditions of peasants was awful.
Between 1915 and 1917, Italian troops only got 10 miles inside Austrian territory. But in October 1917 came the disaster of Caporetto. In this battle, in fact a series of battles, the Italians had to fight the whole Austrian Army and 7 divisions of German troops. The Italian Army lost 300,000 men. Though the Italians had a victory at Vittorio Veneto in 1918, the psychological impact of Caporetto was huge.
World War One was finally over. However, at the beginning of 1918, it had looked as if the Germans might win. The winter of 1916 was bad for Russian soldiers and the Russian people. The arrival of the German troops after Brusilov’s successful offensive in the summer saw the Russian army retreating again. Valuable weapons were lost and the army was running short of ammunition and medical supplies.
Tsarina Alexandra was influenced by Gregori Rasputin, an unpopular and scruffy “holy” man, who was supposedly controlling her son’s haemophilia condition. Nicholas’s decisions at the Eastern Front caused the country's military failures; by 1917 over 1,300,000 men had been killed in battle, 4,200,000 wounded and 2,417,000 had been captured by the enemy. First World War had a disastrous impact on the Russian economy; food was in short supply and this led to rising prices. By January 1917 the price of commodities in Petrograd had increased by six times. In an attempt to increase their wages, industrial workers went on strike.
How important were the actions of officers rather than conditions in causing a high death toll in WW1. In World War One the amount of deaths were staggeringly high, this came down to many different reasons. Over the four years many men died from diseases, the conditions of the trenches and ‘no mans land’. However the most deaths came from within the army itself, it usually came from the poor actions that the officers made. Firstly, a main point that their actions were to blame would be that repetitive tactics and how they would refuse to change them.
How far do you agree that the First World War was mainly responsible for the February Revolution of 1917? The First World War is hugely responsible for the February revolution in 1917 for 3 main reasons which will be talked about in this essay; an example of one of the reasons is that Ww1 destroyed the Russian economy. However Ww1 was not the sole reason for the February revolution the other factors which had a great effect on the revolution are the rumours surrounding the Tsar and his closest friends namely Rasputin, another reason is the defection of the army. The First World War was responsible for the for the 1917 revolution for 3 main reasons. Firstly, the loss of agricultural workers and horses to the army, combined with the takeover of railway lines by the army, led to food shortages in towns and cities due to poor internal communications between most main cities due to how spread out they all were.