Why Is World War 1 Important To The Russian Revolution

Access the significant of World War I in the Russia Revolution. The word ‘access’ in the question brings the meaning of obtain or retrieve the validity or the value, while the word ‘significant’ in the question means important. When these words are put into context the entire question can be interpreted as obtain the value of the importance of World War I that further led to Russia Revolution. This is a challenging task as there are two important impacts that can be considered in this period of time: The impact on society and the impact on government. Some historians hold the view that the World War I is important in the Russia Revolution as it brought impact on the society. During the progress of the World War I, the social people had
some physical changes and mental changes. The impact of the war can be clearly seen on the peasantry who made up the bulk of rank and file soldiers. They suffered difficultly in the hardships of the war and that was the time, they became more radical where revolutionary groups began to find them susceptible to new political ideas. On the other hand, there was also peasants who stayed at home, which largely only the women and the elders were left.
All the young males were forced and conscripted into the army to help the war out. This issue had further leaving their farming job into the hands of the women of the elderly, who were found to be much more incapable than the males in that time. The farms were running worse, while the horses were seized for transporting military equipment, which had worsen the situation of the agricultural work. Moreover, the people suffered from insufficient foods because most of their products of plantations were sent to the army by the government. By sending their products away what they had got in return was merely low and inadequate prices. The life of the peasants was getting worse as there was news saying that the war conditions are terrible. They lived in fears. Moreover the food shortages had inevitably led to inflation. By the war time, the price of meat had risen 300% while flour prices risen by 200%. The people had no way and no money to buy those expensive raw materials. In such bad condition, they weren’t helped by the Russian ‘scorched earth’ policy whereby large areas of farmland were set alight to prevent food resources falling into the hands of the Germans. The people were
very disappointed by the way how government performed. For industrial workers, even though their wages had risen at first, still, their wages were failed to match the high prices. Eventually the industrial workers found them are more in tune with the demands of the revolutionary groups. There were airing of grievances. The landowners, who were seemed to be much richer, had not escaped from the hardships of the war, instead, the land that they owned were all collapsed in value. Also, their farms weren’t running as there was severe shortage of farm laborers. The industrialists who did not produce goods for war had found their products disappearing in the market, while the major small businesses faced serious bankruptcies. Even the companies which had running well, they were not satisfied to Tsar as they think that the economy will become more efficient if the regulations associated with government intervention were removed. The environment during the World War I time was growing resentment everywhere against the increased intervention of the government, and whereby the national minorities asserted some measure of independence. Different from the mentioned group of historians, some historians hold the view that the World War I is important in the Russia Revolution as it brought impact on the government.
This group of historians thinks that the World War I had not only revealed the poor government planning, yet it also revealed the political ineptitude of the Tsar. The people had already being very unhappy with the government’s decision to go on the war against German. The impact of this war had shown important values as the Duma was dissolved in 1915, when the war was going on. The incapable Tsar, Nicholas II wanted to have his sole control over the conduct of the war. Everyone had come to knowledge that the Tsar was lack of experience, yet, still, the Tsar insisted on taking over the command of armed forces and direct the fighting, which had lowered the confidences in the armies. Thus, the Tsar had become the target for officers’ criticisms of the war effort. Tsar was then cut off from the information about the situation in St.Petersburg. Resulting from Nicholass II was in the war, his wife Alexandra had took over the control of government in the capital. She was not liked by the people as she had a German background. Furthermore she had added to the demoralization of the government by mistaking the advice of Rasputin (known as decaying the regime). As a result Rasputin misused the power and got both church and government positions for his own friends and cronies. His reaction had upset and
disappointed many aristocrats as their influences and positions were threatened. The ministers were sacked. In 1916, there was succession of 3 Ministers of War, 4 Ministers of Agriculture and 5 Ministers of Interior. This was so chaos that the aristocracy lost the faith in the regime as an instrument for preserving its power. In the same year, Prince Yusupov killed Rasputin, however, his death had not made the condition better as Tsar and Tsarina’s reputations were continued to decline. Alexandra was rumored to be a German Spy, while Tsar was said to cause failure to inflict military defeat on Germany because he owned German sympathies. All these issues reflected by the World War I had weakened the capacity of the regime. The government failed to keep control over the remoter parts of the Empire. Even the soldiers, who initially were part of the government, were discontented by the actions of the governments. The leaders of the regime were suspected and lost in trust, while the government was lost in the way of leading the Russians who are largely grieved.