Ib Extended Essay: The Tsarist Downfall Of February 1917 Essay - 1,544 words

... ussia lost to Germany, losing Poland and other lands. Russians could not believe that they lost and so blamed the loss on treason. The wife of the Tsar, a German, though fully devoted to Russia, took the blame. There were more suspicions of "treason in high places"(24) when a Russian with a German name was appointed Prime Minister in 1916: Boris Strmer.(25) While none of the beliefs of treason were true, they created much "animosity toward the Crown"(26), eventually leaving it "friendless and defenceless."(27) Economic troubles began on July 27, 1914 when the government suspended the ability to convert rubles into gold and gave the treasury permission to print paper money without any regard to the amount of gold that was in the vaults in order to repay loans and pay for the war.(28) As a result, the amount of paper money in Russia increased by around 600%. In July of 1914, the ruble was backed 98% by gold in the vaults.


In January of 1917, though, this had dropped to 16.2%.(29) By the second half of 1916, with over 7,972 million rubles in circulation, prices had risen by over 398%.(30) Inflation did not hurt the peasants too much as they controlled the food.(31) They hoarded what grain that they produced, and were reasonably comfortable. In contrast, inflation was very much felt by those who lived in the cities, and it hurt . For workers, salaries rose in paper rubles from 85.5 rubles per month in 1913 to 255.6 in 1917. However, that was in paper rubles. As more were being printed and as inflation rose the actual value of the wages dropped from 85.5 gold rubles 1913 to 38 gold rubles in 1917.(32) Prices increased with inflation, and many people could not afford to buy what little food was available. Long bread lines formed in the cities. Scores of poor people waited in line for hours in the cold to purchase a little bit of bread. The industrial situation in Russia during the war added to the peoples' problems.


The government gave contracts to many companies, and according to Michael Florinsky, this had "a detrimental effect upon the general economic conditions of the country by monopolizing for the use of the army most of the output of articles of general consumption." (33) As a result of the war effort, 78% of the machine-construction business was given to army requirements. The production of agricultural tools dropped by 80% compared with figures prior the war.(34) The output for the civilian market suffered with the emphasis on war goods. Service writes, "There was little a peasant could buy" (35) This shortage of goods prompted the farmers hoard their food.(36) Peasants received money that was declining in value. They could not buy the products that they required, and thus did not bother to sell their produce.(37) In 1915, a fuel and metal shortage impaired the manufacturing of civilian and military goods, aggravating the economic problem. As these problems grew, the citizens of the towns grew more and more irritated. They began to voice their anger at those who they believed were at the root of the problem--the government.


Labour unrest began again and "waves of strikes pounded official Russia in late 1915 and again in late 1916."(38) Internally the government, by 1917, had been significantly weakened because of the power that it had given the Dumas. Political opposition was so great that, when the feelings of the nation were released in the riots that began toward the end of February, the Tsar could do nothing but abdicate. The fourth Duma (1912-1917) was conservative. However, Pipes writes that: "...during the war, the tsarist government attempted to make peace with the opposition by granting the Duma in fact, if not in name, much of what it wanted, such as the power informally to approve of ministerial appointments...The intelligentsia treated every conciliatory move by the government as another sign of weakness and an opportunity to press for more demands."(39) There was unrelenting hostility between the government and the opposition. Liberals and socialists took the war as an opportunity to denounce the government and claim that they were the real enemy.(40) Dangerous speeches, such as Kerensky's on the first of November 1916, were given under protection of parliamentary immunity. In that speech he called for the removal of those who "ruin, humiliate, and insult it [the country]."(41) Later in 1916, the Duma managed to get Strmer, the Tsar-appointed Prime-Minister, dismissed. This first success was followed by further successful ministerial dismissals, including Protopopov.(42) Political activism was escalating.


Radicals from within the Duma and from without openly incited the country to rebellion. All of the political parties united against the monarchy in face of its increasing weakness.(43) The conservatives started to believe that "the only way to save the monarchy was to remove the monarch."(44). Calls were made to the workers to strike and to call for the removal of the autocratic regime. On 23 February 1917, a women's procession organized by socialists marched in Petrograd.(45) The following day, workers began to strike. Then the soldiers mutinie ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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