Russia after ww1
Russia joins the war
Russia joins the war in 1914, promising support to its Balkan ally Serbia against Austria-Hungary. Russia started with the largest army in the world, standing at 1,400,000 soldiers; when fully mobilized the Russian army expanded to over 5,000,000 soldiers. The Russian Ministry of War was commanded by General Sukhomlinov. Though Tsar Nicholas wished to lead the Russian Army into battle personally, he was persuaded otherwise and instead named his uncle, the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Commander in Chief.
Military defeats in ww1
Military disasters at the Masurian Lakes and Tannenburg greatly weakened the Russian Army in the initial phases of the war. While chaos ensued at home, the war at the Eastern front was going badly. Poland was lost to the Germans in 1916 and they advanced to just 200 miles from Moscow. It became clear that the morale of the ordinary Russian soldier was extremely poor and desertion became a growing problem. Food supplies were poor and erratic. As the front line got closer to the home front, it became obvious to many that both fronts were in total chaos. As a result of the military defeats, the Tsar became very unpopular in his decision to continue the War.
Rasputin’s Influence on Romanovs
Rasputin gradually became a fixture in the palace. He was given unrestrained access to the palace and was casually familiar with the family. People noticed it, and reacted with resentment. In a sign of imminent trouble, suggestive cartoons appeared in the newspapers, disrespectfully portraying the tsar and tsarina as manipulated children, and the tsarina as Rasputin’s lover.
Nicholas II had a romantic vision of him leading his army. Therefore, he spent much time at the Eastern Front. Initially, it was a popular decision and the people supported Russia’s participation. However, this was a disastrous move as it left Alexandra in control back in the cities. With the Tsar away, the whispers about Rasputin and the Tsarina grew louder. She had become increasingly under the influence of the one man who seemingly had the power to help her son, Alexis, afflicted by haemophilia. Alexandra believed that Rasputin was a man of God and referred to him as “Our Friend”. Others, appalled at his influence over the tsarina, called him the “Mad Monk” Rasputin brought huge disrepute on the Romanov’s. His womanising was well known and he was considered by many to be debauched. His simple reputation while he was alive was enough to do immense damage to the Romanov’s. In gratitude to Rasputin, the Empress allowed him to appoint government officials. The monk bragged about his power, and the unpopular Alexandra became an object of disgust. This thus made the Tsar very unpopular.
The February Revolution centered on Petrograd, the then Russian capital, where longstanding discontent with the monarchy erupted into mass protests against food rationing on 8 March.
Revolutionary activity was largely confined to the capital and its vicinity, and lasted about eight days. It involved mass demonstrations and armed clashes with police and gendarmes, the last loyal forces of the Russian monarchy. On 12 March, mutinous Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. Three days later the result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire. Russian Council of Ministers was replaced by a Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov.
The revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any real leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of economic and social problems, which were compounded by the impact of World War I. Bread rioters primarily women in bread lines, and industrial strikers were joined on the streets by disaffected soldiers from the city's garrison. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, the city fell into chaos, leading to the overthrow of the Tsar. In all, over 1,300 people were killed in the protests of February 1917.
February revolution
Short comings of the new government
Kerensky became Minister for War and rallied the army for a great offensive in June, which ended in a disaster, massive desertions, and collapse of army morale and discipline. After the offensive by Kerensky failed, the Russians were getting worried about the losses that Russia would suffer as a result of the war. As such, the public turned to Bolsheviks as a better option as they promised to stop the war, hoping that they could help to stop the war. As such, this increased the popularity of the Bolsheviks.
October revolution
During the night of 6 November, the Red Guards led by Leon Trotsky took control of post offices, bridges and the State Bank. On 7 November, Kerensky awoke to find the Bolsheviks were in control of most of Petrograd. Through the day, with almost no opposition, the Red Guards continued to take over railway stations and other important targets. On the evening of 7 November, they stormed the Winter Palace and arrested the ministers of the PG. Kerensky managed to escape and fled into exile. Lenin was convinced that the time was right for the Bolsheviks to seize power. They had the support of many workers and control of the Soviet. Lenin convinced the other Bolsheviks to act swiftly. With the popularity gained by the Bolsheviks, the Bolsheviks were able to conduct the October Revolution. With the power the Bolsheviks had obtained from the successful October revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was hence established.
During the Russian civil war, the Bolsheviks pulled out of WW1 by signing the Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany. Although the USSR lost much of its land and resources as a result of the treaty, they were able to fulfil the wishes of the Russians and achieve peace in Russia. As a result of this, the SFSR was established. At the start, only a few countries such as Latvia and Estonia that recognised the SFSR. However, slowly, more countries recognised the SFSR. This resulted in the fear of communism in the US. With the new communist Soviet state being recognised by more countries, the US became fearful of a spread of communism across the world, resulting in the red scare.
In 1921, there was a civil war between the reds (Bolsheviks) and the whites (anti-Bolsheviks) in Russia. The Bolsheviks wanted to establish a communist government in Russia while the whites made up of Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, supporters of the Tsar, landlords and capitalists who had lost land or money in the revolution and was against communism. The Western powers, were afraid that the USSR becoming communist could result in the spread of communism around the world as they were a major power and also afraid that communism will result in the loss of businesses with countries. The opponents of the Bolsheviks wanted to restore rule of the Tsar, restore wealth to the aristocrats and middle classes, to provide an alternative government so that leadership does not only belong to the Bolsheviks, and to do away with the Bolsheviks’ harsh economic policies. As such, there were foreign troops from Britain, France and USA who came to the assistance of the whites to help fight against the Bolsheviks.
As the civil war occurred, troops were being sent to help the whites to fight against the reds in Russia. However, the whites were made of different groups with their own armies and leaders. They were not united and had no common goal. Had frequent quarrels among themselves and did not work together to take down the Reds. Trotsky was able to defeat them one by one. Furthermore, the whites were unhappy with the foreign aid that was provided by the Western power. With all this coming into play, the whites were unable to make full use of their advantages and eventually were defeated by the reds.