The Russian Revolution 1: Build up to the February Coup d'Etat

Russian Empire pre World War 1

Aside from two world wars, the Russian Revolution must be the most seismic and far reaching event of the 20^th Century. It is way beyond my compass to do it justice, but there’s no doubt (in retrospect) it was made inevitable by the first of those global conflicts  - the Great War, subject of this blog. The outbreak of war in 1914 effectively sentenced the Russian people and its army to a perdition that would finish off the Tsar’s Empire. Of course, that dreadful culmination resulted from events and incidents over many years long before, but it was the terrible reverses of 1914 and 1915 that made the Russian Revolution of 1917 reality.

The primitive feudal economy of the Russian Empire, in place since its creation in 1721, began to change in the 1860s with the abolition of serfdom and tentative moves to respond to the industrial modernisation sweeping Western Europe. Urbanisation and industrialisation developed but brought with them social unrest and a weakening of the autocracy. By the early 20^th century industrial unrest and crippling strikes were frequent. The war with Japan in 1904, alongside tensions with Germany, the Balkans and the Ottomans, contributed to nearly twelve months of revolutionary turmoil through 1905. This was eventually suppressed, but at the cost of the Tsar agreeing to an elected parliament – the Duma – plus certain civil and trade union rights.

Alexandra Fyodorovna.
German born grand-daughter
of Queen Victoria.  

Nevertheless, by 1913 Russia was recovering, making the most of her huge country, population and limitless natural resources to become the world's leading grain producer, and the fifth largest industrial power. Ironically this growing strength was one of the key factors pushing Germany towards declaring war during the crisis of July 1914.

As we have seen, Russia’s war to date had been a dismal one (Posts 18/1/15; 23/1/15; 7/6/15 and 28/6/15). Pervading gloom was lifted only right at the start – with Lemberg and the crushing victories over the Austrians in Galicia (Post14/1/15) – and in mid 1916 with Brusilov’s counterstroke (Post 15/5/15). They also clutched at the perennial hope that Allied victory against the Ottomans would hand them Constantinople. After the disastrous defeats of 1915, Tsar Nicholas had appointed himself as supreme commander of the army, replacing his own uncle, the Grand Duke. He was now directly accountable for for failures and by late 1916 his reputation had hit rock bottom. In the battlefields, Brusilov’s surge had degenerated into costly attritional warfare. At home the Tsarina Alexandra’s court was rumoured to be full of bad influences (foremost amongst them Rasputin) and German agents. The Tsarina was hated by the common people, while the Tsar had lost all trace of respect.

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

This was the point we reached in the previous post (23/12/16). The outspoken attacks on the Tsar and his incompetent government by Miliukov and Kerensky did not immediately bring great change. In fact, the Tsar confirmed two reactionary autocrats at the head of his appointees in the Duma – Prince Golitzin and Protopopov. But the opposition’s various factions were now united and determined on change. The murder of Rasputin on 30^th December ignited the blue touch paper for the February coup d’etat. Rasputin's body was hidden beneath the ice of a frozen lake, but on its discovery several days later, the death rapidly became public knowledge, and there were noisy celebrations on the streets of Petrograd.