Causes of the 1917 February Revolution

Economic and Social unrest
1. Inflation
  1. By 1917, had reached 200%
    1. Price of flour had grown by 500%
2. Grain shortages
  1. Petrograd received less than half of it's grain requirements
  2. Army rations reduced
3. Population movement
  1. Due to war economy growth, many male farmers left the countryside to work in factories
    1. Less people working the farms
    2. Petrograd population grew by 500k in 4 years
4. Urban Unrest
  1. Despite inflation, value of wage of indistrial workers halved
    1. Workers Sriked in major cities (Moscow and Petro)
      1. End 1914 = 10,000 1915 = 540,000 1916 = 880,000
5. Peasant Unrest
  1. Conscription of young male peasants led to shortages on the farms
  2. Requisition of horses for war effort made farming harder
  3. Grain prices kept low, but with rising inflation, living standards fell
Failures of Romanovs
1. Departure of Tsar to war effort left Tsarina in charge
  1. German Tsarina distrusted
    1. People suspected she was a German agent
  2. Her being in charge undermined the government
  3. Suspicion of affair with Rasputin
    1. Thought that Rasputin had a great deal of influence over the two, and it was him running the country
      1. Rasputin disliked by the population of Russia
        This was recognised by aristocrats
        In December 1916, Prince Felix Yusopov and others assassinated Rasputin
      2. Damaged perceived authority and autocracy
  4. Fired and appointed ministers at an alrming rate
    1. Destabilised Govt.
2. Stubborn Tsar
  1. Convinced of his Divine right to rule
    1. Rejected the offer of a Constitutional Monarchy from the Progressive Bloc
  2. Rejected offer from the Zemgor to assist with war
    1. Became voice of liberal discontent
  3. Unable to recognise issues within his country
  4. Events of 1905 gave him confidence that despite discontent, his regime would reign supreme
3. Weak Tsar
  1. The Tsar lacked the leadership qualities and desire to be Tsar
    1. More of a family man
  2. Influenced easily by his wife
Impact of WWI
1. Tsar took direct control, directly responsible for failures
2. Many militaristic failures
  1. Despite initial success and optimism for war, many battles lost
    1. Battle of Tannenberg - 300,000 dead or wounded
    2. Brusilov offensive (1916) into Austro-Hung front lines regarded as a success
      1. Massive loss of life
      2. Issues in arms rectified for offensive
      3. Despite success, had no long term gain
        By the end of that year, morale rock bottom - 1.4 million desertions
        The amount of desertions was equal to the size of the professional army pre-war (Biggest in Europe)
    3. Great Retreat of 1915
      1. Combined with previous military failure in Russo-Japanese war, source of shame and discontent
  2. Conscripted 1.2 million between 1914-17, but 2 out of 3 soldiers had rifles and artillery limited to 2-3 shells per day
    1. Russian industry undeveloped compared to rest of Europe
      1. Russian arms production comparatively ineefiicient
      2. Transport infrastructure not suited to mass transport of resources, many trains couldn't reach front lines
  3. Death of high ranking generals early on
    1. Many Generals incompetent, and had job due to family rather than merit
  4. Conscription of peasants, largely inexperienced, unhealthy and uneducated
3. Jacob became cool

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Causes of the 1917 February Revolution

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