THE COLLAPSE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

(Dates in the New Style):

• March 15, 1917: Strikes and mutinies compel Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate.

• March-October 1917: Dual Sovereignty-- Provisional Government vies for power with the Petrograd Soviet.

• July 1917: Bolshevik uprising crushed by Kerensky.

• September 9-14, 1917: Kerensky must appeal for Bolshevik support against General Kornilov’s rebellion.

• November 6-7, 1917: The Great October Revolution (Bolsheviks seize control of Petrograd and Moscow).

A Russian peasant village around 1900(80% of the population were still peasants, mostly

illiterate)

In 1906 the government abolished all restrictions on foreign investment

and migration by peasants

Russian peasants newly arrived in Moscow,

looking for work;22% of all peasant

heads of household seceded from their

village collective in the years 1906-1915

LEFT: An oil field near Baku on the Caspian Sea

SYMPTOMS OF ILLNESS IN THE RUSSIAN BODY POLITIC

Russia mobilized 11 million soldiers in 1914/15 but could not train competent officers to replace those killed at the front.Most promotions to major commands were based on connections at court, not performance.Russia produced a major food surplus, but the system to distribute food to urban centers often broke down.By the end of the year 1916, almost 2 million soldiers were Absent Without Leave.By the end of 1916, the cost of living was 4X higher than in 1913.By the end of 1916, 1.7 million industrial workers had participated in strikes.

Anti-war demonstrators before the Winter Palace, Petrograd, January-February 1917: By March 9, half the city’s

400,000 industrial workers were on strike

Mutinies spread after the Tsar ordered Petrograd’s military commander to open fire on demonstrators

on March 10 (see Strachan, pp. 238-42)

Revolutionary soldiers and workers control Petrograd:Every large factory and army company sent delegates

to the “Petrograd Soviet”

ORDER #1 OF THE PETROGRAD SOVIET, MARCH 14, 1917

1. In all military units and vessels of the navy, committees from the elected representatives of the lower ranks shall be chosen immediately.

2. …One representative from each company shall be selected [for the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies]….

3. In all its political actions, the military branch is subordinated to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and to its committees.

4. The orders of the military commission of the State Duma shall be executed only in such cases as do not conflict with the orders and resolutions of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

5. All kinds of arms… must be kept at the disposal and under control of the company and battalion committees, and in no case be turned over to officers, even at their demand.

6. During the performance of duties, soldiers must observe the strictest military discipline, but outside duty, …soldiers cannot in any way be deprived of those rights which all citizens enjoy. Standing at attention and compulsory saluting when not on duty is abolished.

7. The addressing of officers with the title, ‘Your Excellency,’ ‘Your Honor,’ etc., is abolished, and these titles are replaced by the address of ‘Mister General,’ ‘Mister Colonel,’ etc.

A British Labourite delegation visits Petrograd after theFebruary Revolution. Most socialists agreed at first that they

should fulfill their treaty obligations and fight Germany.

War Minister Alexander Kerensky

addresses troops about to leave for the front in 1917

The new women’s “Battalion of Death” is blessed by the

Orthodox Patriarch before being sent to the front, July 1917

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, i.e., “Lenin” (1870-1924), leader since 1903 of the “Bolsheviks”

LENIN’S APRIL THESES1.Transform the Imperialist War into Civil War!2.All Power to the Soviets!3.Land for the Village Poor!

The Bolshevik campaign slogan: “PEACE AND BREAD!”

After the outbreak of revolution, the German Army provided him a sealed train to return from Zürich to Petrograd via Finland….

Machine gun fire disperses pro-Bolshevik demonstrators on Nevsky Prospect in Petrograd, July 4, 1917

General L.G. Kornilov waves to the crowd in Moscow in August 1917, shortly before attempting

a military coup

ELECTION RETURNS IN MOSCOW, 1917

  City DumaJune 25

District DumasSept. 24

Const. AssemblyNov. 24

% (votes) % (votes) % (votes)

Social Revolutionary

58.0 374,885 14.4 54,479 8.2 62,260

Minor Socialist 1.5 9,638 1.2 4,449 4.9 37,813

Bolshevik 11.7 75,409 50.9 193,489 47.9 366,148

Menshevik 11.8 76,407 4.1 15,618 2.8 21,597

Kadet 16.8 108,781 26.6 101,100 34.5 263,859

Minor Nonsocialist

0.2 1,440 2.8 10,504 1.7 13,086

Totals 100.0 646,560 100.0 379,639 100.0 764,763

Climax of the “Great October Revolution”:Red Guards storm the Kremlin in Moscow

Fraternization on the Eastern Front after the armistice of December 1917

Leon Trotsky arrives at Brest-Litovsk for peace

talks with Germany,

January 9, 1918

Europe at the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 1918

THE CLIMAX OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR, 1917/18

March 1917: Abdication of Nicholas II

April 1917: USA declares war on Germany

April/May 1917: The Nivelle offensive sparks mutiny in the French army

November 1917: Bolsheviks seize power in Russia, and Clemenceau returns to power in France

March 1918: Bolsheviks sign Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

March-July 1918: The “Ludendorff Offensive” in the West is halted with the aid of American troops

October-November 1918: Collapse of the Ottoman, Austrian, and German Empires

The French newspaper Le Miroir

published this photograph on

May 21, 1916, of a dead French soldier with a German, after

Interior Minister Malvy relaxed

press censorship.

General Robert Nivelle (1856-1924) and the botched offensive at Chemin des Dames, April 16-

19, 1917

See Hew Strachan, pp. 245-49

The ruined village of Soupir,one of the French staging areas for the

Chemin des Dames offensive

TYPICAL DEMANDS BY THE FRENCH MUTINEERS, MAY 1917

(from a letter by a soldier in the 36th Infantry Regiment to his uncle)

“When the time came to advance to the front line, an incident happened in the army corps in which we demanded our rights in the following things:

1.Peace and the right to leaves, which are in arrears.2.No more butchery; we want liberty.3.On food, which is shameful.4.No more injustice.5.We don’t want the blacks in Paris and in other

regions mistreating our wives.6.We need peace to feed our wives and children and

to be able to give bread to the women and orphans.

We demand peace, peace.”

The new French commander-in-chief, Philippe Pétain,

tours front-line army kitchens in May 1917:He improved the soldiers’ welfare but also

executed43 “ringleaders” of the mutiny

The Radical Republican Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929)

returned to power in November 1917 with a program for “total war” (Strachan, pp. 259-60)

“We’ll get them!” (France, 1916)

THE FRENCH IDEAL EVOLVED FROM ENTHUSIASMTO STOIC ENDURANCE

“The Poilu” (1920)

German troops captured at Cambrai, 20 November

1917, after the British deployed

300 tanks in a single attack

A German flame thrower team seeks to halt the advance of a British tank, 1917/18

German troops move through Saint Quentin to preparefor the “Ludendorff Offensive,” launched on March 21, 1918

The Ludendorff Offensive,

March-July 1918:Each assault was very

well prepared, but their force tended to

dissipate…

American troops disembark at Le Havre, July 12, 1918:They numbered one million in July 1918, and two by October

German POWs captured in France, April 1918

“A Warm Lunch for 35¢” (Berlin, 1917):Ute Daniel has shown that German women standing

in bread lines were the first to grow disillusioned with the war

The breach of the “Hindenburg Line” at St. Quentin, 2 Oct 1918

British troops line the banks of the St. Quentin

Canal

Their multitude of German prisoners

In October 1918 Ludendorff told the Kaiser to appoint Prince Max of Baden head of a “parliamentary”

government, but Max soon turned to Friedrich Ebert of the SPD

Social Democratic politicians address revolutionary sailors

at Kiel, November 5, 1918: Mutiny broke out when German admirals ordered a desperate attack on the

British fleet

Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) proclaim the Republic from the balcony of the Reichstag on 9

November 1918

“The Stab in the Back”

(Nazi magazine cover, 1924)

The Boulevards of Paris, 11 November 1918

French troops enter Strasbourg, 29 November 1918

ESTIMATED COMBAT FATALITIES IN THE GREAT WAR

Austria-Hungary 1,200,000

France 1,385,000

Germany 1,800,000

Great Britain 947,000

Italy 460,000

Ottoman Empire 325,000

Russia 1,700,000

Serbia 360,000

United States 115,000