AS History
How far do you agree that the most important cause of the revolution in February 1917 was the Great War?
The February revolution which occurred in 1917 was the result of several causes, one of which being World War 1; in my opinion, it was the most important trigger. The Great War was the cause of Russia becoming financially dependent on Britain and France, decreasing the prestige the Tsar once held. Russia was unable to sustain its wealth due to the extreme costs the War brought: Anger rose within the people and with 85% of the army containing surfs that were losing their loyalty towards the Tsar, a revolution was inevitable.
The war encouraged the breakdown of the autocratic way of ruling, but Tsar Nicholas was unqualified to lead the army anyhow, and was ill suited as Commander-In-Chief. This did not aid the Brusilov Offensive in any way; the result was the failure of the attack in August 1916: With the Russian forces deserting from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, the loyalty towards the Tsar was largely affected and reduced. The morale further diminished as during December 1916, the railways were unable to commit to their desired function, which lead to a shortage of military equipment. These transportation failures halted vital supplies reaching the battle areas. The major shortage of military equipment led to the Russian artillery units limiting to firing 3 shells per day – which had an enormous impact on the Russian Army, aiding in their defeat. Despite the Russian economy having potential to perform well in the war production, (they were producing 4.5 million artillery shells whilst Germany were producing 7 million per month - but were also fighting the war on 2 fronts) the country was unsuccessful in fighting against Germany, a country which not only had the greatest army but also equipment of a much higher quality compared to that of Russia. The poor conditions the army had to face due to the mistakes the Tsar had made because of his lack of leadership, only aided the revolutionaries in their determination and stirred rebellious behaviour.
December in 1916 was not a successful month for the Tsar, as Russia suffered terribly from the attacks from Germany - 1.6 million soldiers died, 3.9 million wounded, and 2.4 million had been taken prisoner. Considering that during 1914, the country had militarized 5.3 million men (only 9% of the population), and the drastic change from this small percentage to the 15.3 million men in 1916 who were having military service experience, suggests that Russia was in dire need of more people to maintain their loyalty towards the Tsar in order to win the war- especially as the vast majority of the army consisted of peasants. The transformation of Russia within just 2 years was massive, with the cost of fighting the war and maintaining the now-large armed force creating a huge strain on the Tsar and Government. Furthermore, more problems arose when the National Budget rose; the country had to other option than to borrow money and take loans from France and Britain. Despite doing this, the Russian government still had to print excess money in order to pay for the war; however this only led to inflation, which enhanced the anger of the serfs, creating more chance for rebellion. Additionally, with the prices rising over 200% between August 1914 and December 1916, it brought about an enormous increase of pressure and fury towards the Tsar – creating the most significant cause for Revolution.
Economically, Russia was affected deeply by the War as the loss of agricultural workers and horses - which had been required to fight and be used to aid the army-was great, which resulted in food shortages in the cities. Strain was created on the production of food, which was heightened with the takeover of the railway lines by the army: pressure within the towns grew. The shortage of food led to the Russian home front facing a major economic crisis during the winters of 1916 and 1917: in 1916, Moscow received only 300 wagons of grain per month, a drastic decrease from the 2200 wagons they received in 1914. This crisis caused a huge loss of life, lack of morale, and domestic support for the Tsar was lessened due to the military humiliations. The Russian troops were underfed because of the lack of provisions, along with being underequipped. Within the towns and cities, rations were a must, food was scarce as it was needed elsewhere, and inflation was only increasing the crisis. The impact on the economy played a major part in the revolution of February 1917 as the war created strain and triggered the majority of the Russian army to turn against the Tsar. If Russia had not entered a war, the army would have remained loyal to the Tsar, yet the soldiers in the city refused to obey the commands of their leader and did not fire at peasants, as they were ordered: The Tsar lost his followers, and protectors – also an important cause for the Revolution.
Another cause of the revolution was the role of the revolutionaries – but they did not make a major impact in comparison to the War as they only enhanced the tension that had been created but the fight against Germany. A group was formed named the ‘Progressive Bloc’ - which consisted of liberals, kadets, octobrists and progressivists- which became the centre of opposition. They were not a direct problem to the Tsar and authority, but Nicholas did not improve anything when he refused their requests for change. Because of this, the ministers who complained for reform were either dismissed or resigned from their post. Things were made worse when the Tsar was away at the front and the Tsarina was ruling in his place: She did not trust the organisations, as she believed that the Zemgor and War industries were disloyal; therefore, only dedicated conservative tsarists were given ministerial posts, a biased move from the Tsarina which decreased the popularity of the government. The social revolutionary party had weak leadership at the time and were disunited as the group had many followers -but there was no selected leader to organize them, and the liberals has no mass support either- these lessened the relevance of them and how much they affected the outcome of a revolution. Although the decreased popularity for the Tsarina stirred negative emotions from the Russians, this was not the most important cause of the revolution as it purely heightened the feelings of the serfs and revolutionaries who were already suffering from the War.
Furthermore, the actions and beliefs of the Tsarist government played a part in the revolution, but were not a major cause as the Tsar was already unpopular due to the mistakes he made of entering the war and losing control of his army. Rasputin became involved with the royal court in 1907 as he healed the son of the Tsar, and heir to Russia of haemophilia. But even though he was meddling and influencing the Tsarina with his corrupt theories, he did not make a big impact on the Revolution of 1917 as the Tsar had gone to the front in 1915 to aid the army in the fight: the damage had already been done by the war before Rasputin managed to tempt the Tsarina with ideas of further change.
Overall, I believe that the Great War was the most important cause of the Revolution in February 1917 as it caused the economy to deteriorate in the towns and cities, causing the remaining population who were not fighting to suffer from food shortages, and the army to experience major losses due to lack of equipment and provisions: The Tsar lost the loyalty he previously had and lost control, resulting in more hatred and oppressive behaviour towards him and the end of autocracy.