(1904-1905) had emphasized Russia’s military and economic backwardness. The failures during the Japanese War, especially the battle of Tsu-Shima (1904), had fuelled the 1905 revolution. In 1914 Russia was faced with far stronger adversaries: Germany and Austria-Hungary. Russian per capita income was one-third that of the Western average in 1914. It was probable that any heavy defeats, which were likely, risked further rebellion. It was true that a ‘medieval monarchy which had stumbled into the twentieth century’ 11 was losing support from its ‘unstable pillars’ 12 . The regime was also fighting a major battle to quell growing opposition. Nonetheless, on the eve of war the situation was slowly improving, and the risk of Revolution was slowly receding. However, I would argue instead that whilst revolution may not have been inevitable by 1914, it was highly likely if Russia was heavily defeated in war. The dislocated Tsarist regime was unable to mobilize the patriotism of the Russian people in the Great War behind the ‘Defence of Mother Russia' as happened against Napoleon and Hitler. Russia was socially, economically and militarily unprepared for the massive requirements of a major war. The Tsarist regime, having ‘learned nothing and forgotten nothing’ 13 of the lessons of its own recent history, went to war for the last time.
Bibliography
E. Acton and others, Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914-1921 , London, Arnold, 1997. J. Bromley, Russia 1848-1917, Oxford, Heinemann, 2002 O. Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 , London, Jonathan Cape 1996 R. Pipes, Russia Under the Old Regime, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974. R. Pipes, The Russian Revolution 1899-1919 , London, Fontana Press edition, 1992. A. Wood, The origins of the Russian Revolution 1861-1917, London and New York, Routledge, 1993.
11 Comment from History teacher Dr Pyke 12 Figes, p. 35-83. 13 Quote attributed to Charles Talleyrand with regards to the restoration of the Bourbon Monarchs.
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