By the end of 1916, economic difficulties worsened in Russia, and the country and the army began to lack food, footwear and clothing. The origins of this economic crisis go back to 1914. Because of the war, the Black Sea and Danish straits were closed for Russia, through which up to 90% of the country's foreign trade went. Russia was deprived of the opportunity to export foodstuffs and import equipment, weapons and ammunition in the previous volumes. A sharp reduction in military imports at the front led to the setbacks of 1915 (shell famine, great retreat). But as a result of the measures taken, military production increased manifold, and the shortage of ammunition and weapons was eliminated. This was described in more detail in the articles “Cossacks and the First World War. Part I, II, III, IV, V . The situation with agricultural products was much more dramatic. Labor in the countryside was predominantly manual, and the departure of millions of young and healthy men to the army inevitably led to a reduction in production. But the sharp decline in food exports with the start of the war had a positive effect on the domestic market and at first compensated for the decline in production. In addition, the remaining workers of the village, as best they could, tried to compensate for the loss of labor. In addition to people, horses were the main labor force in the village. Statistics show that, despite the attraction of millions of horses to the army, their number in the civilian sector in 1914-1917 not only did not decrease, but increased. All this made it possible to have a satisfactory food supply for the army and the rear until the fall of 1916. For comparison, the main warring powers in Europe introduced the rationing system already in the first year of the war.
Rice. 1 English Sugar Food Card, 22 September 1914
It must be said that the disciplined European peasants, be they Jacques, John or Fritz, despite all the difficulties, continued to regularly pay the draconian taxes in kind. Our Ostap and Ivan demonstrated something different. The 1916 harvest was good, but rural producers, in the face of war inflation, began to massively hold back food, expecting even greater price increases. Tax evasion is a centuries-old trouble of our producer. In a hard time, this "folk amusement" will certainly provoke the state to repressive measures, which the owner then has to greatly regret. In our history, this "fun" led to many troubles, not only to the introduction of surplus appropriation in 1916, but also became a decisive moment for the implementation of forcible collectivization after the peasants (and not just kulaks) thwarted the tax grain production in 1928 and 1929. It is not yet known how small and medium-sized businesses will end up with their current "fun" with the state tax authorities, but most likely it will be the same. But this is a lyrical digression.
And at that time, to stabilize the supply of food to the cities and the army, the tsarist government in the spring of 1916 also began to introduce a rationing system for some products, and in the fall it was forced to introduce surplus appropriation (some "enlightened" anti-communists still believe that it was introduced by the Bolsheviks). As a result, due to the rise in prices, there has been a noticeable decline in the standard of living both in the city and in the countryside. The food crisis was compounded by turmoil in transport and government. Due to many failures, abundantly flavored with malicious rumors and anecdotes, an unprecedented and unheard-of since the Time of Troubles fall in the moral authority of the royal power and the royal family occurred, when they not only cease to be afraid of power, but even begin to despise it and openly laugh at it … A "revolutionary situation" has developed in Russia. Under these conditions, part of the courtiers, statesmen and politicians, for the sake of their own salvation and the satisfaction of their ambitions, instigated a coup d'etat, which led to the overthrow of the autocracy. Then, as expected, this coup was called the February Revolution. This happened, frankly, at a very inopportune moment. General Brusilov recalled: “… as for me, I was well aware that the revolution of 1905 was only the first act, which inevitably had to be followed by the second. But I prayed to God that the revolution would begin at the end of the war, because it is impossible to fight and revolution at the same time. It was absolutely clear to me that if the revolution begins before the end of the war, then we must inevitably lose the war, which will entail the fact that Russia will crumble."
How was the desire of society, the aristocracy, officials and high command to change the state system and the abdication of the sovereign excited? Almost a century later, practically no one answered this question objectively. The reasons for this phenomenon lie in the fact that everything written by the direct participants in the events not only does not reflect the truth, but more often distorts it. It should be borne in mind that the writers (for example, Kerensky, Milyukov or Denikin) after a while understood perfectly what a terrible role fate and history assigned them. A large share of the blame for what happened, and they, naturally, described events, portraying them in such a way as to find a justification and explanation for their actions, as a result of which state power was destroyed, and the country and the army were thrown into anarchy. As a result of their actions, no power remained in the country by October 1917, and those who played the role of rulers did everything to ensure that not only any power, but even the appearance of such, did not arise. But first things first.
The foundation of the revolution for the overthrow of the autocracy began to be laid quite a long time ago. From the 18th to the 20th century, there was a rapid development of science and education in Russia. The country was experiencing a silver age of the flourishing of philosophy, education, literature and natural sciences. Together with enlightenment, materialistic, social and atheistic views began to be cultivated in the minds and souls of educated Russians, often in the most perverted ideological and political form. Revolutionary ideas penetrated into Russia from the West and took on peculiar forms in Russian conditions. The economic struggle of the working people in the West was in the nature of a struggle against the inhumanity of capitalism and for the improvement of economic working conditions. And in Russia, the revolutionaries demanded a radical breakdown of the entire existing social order, the complete destruction of the foundations of state and national life and the organization of a new social order based on imported ideas, refracted through the prism of their own imagination and unrestrained socio-political fantasy. The main characteristic of the Russian revolutionary leaders was the complete absence of constructive social principles in their ideas. Their main ideas aimed at one goal - the destruction of social, economic, social foundations and the complete denial of "prejudice", namely morality, morality and religion. This ideological perversity was described in some detail by the classics of Russian literature, and the brilliant analyst and ruthless analyst of Russian reality F. M. Dostoevsky christened her "demonic". But especially many non-believers, atheists and nihilists-socialists, appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among schoolchildren, students and working youth. All of this coincided with a population explosion. The birth rate was still high, but with the development of the zemstvo health care system, infant mortality decreased significantly (although by today's standards it was still huge).
The result was that by 1917 ¾ of the country's population was under 25 years old, which determined the monstrous immaturity and lightness of the actions and judgments of this mass and no less monstrous contempt for the experience and traditions of previous generations. In addition, by 1917, about 15 million of these young people had gone through the war, gaining solid experience and authority there, not by age, and often more honor and glory. But having acquired maturity in status, they could not acquire the maturity of mind and worldly experience in this short time, remaining practically youths. But they stubbornly bent their own line, inflated in their ears by the ragged revolutionaries, disregarding the experienced and wise old people. With ingenious simplicity, this problem, in the Cossack society, was exposed by M. Sholokhov in "Quiet Don". Melekhov the father, returning from the farm Circle, grumbled and cursed at the returned strongly "reddened" loud-mouthed front-line soldiers. “Take a whip and whip these bawlers. Well, where really, where can we. They are now officers, sergeants, crusaders…. How to flog them? " John of Kronstadt spoke about the dictatorship of the "autocracy of the mind" over the soul, spirituality, experience and faith at the beginning of the twentieth century: a crafty pen, saturated with the poison of slander and ridicule. The intelligentsia has no more love for the Motherland, it is ready to sell it to foreigners. Enemies are preparing the disintegration of the state. The truth is nowhere to be found, the Fatherland is on the verge of destruction."
The ragged progressists-atheists managed to quickly corrupt and discourage the youth and educated classes, then these ideas began to penetrate through the teachers into the peasant and Cossack masses. Confusion and vacillation, nihilistic and atheistic sentiments gripped not only the educated classes and students, but also penetrated the environment of seminarians and clergy. Atheism takes root in schools and seminaries: out of 2,148 seminary graduates in 1911, only 574 were ordained priests. Heresy and sectarianism flourish among the priests themselves. Through priests, teachers and the press, a great and terrible bedlam is firmly settled in the heads of many people, this indispensable harbinger and companion of any great Troubles or Revolution. It is no coincidence that one of the leaders of the French Revolution, Camille Desmoulins, said: "The priest and teacher begin the revolution, and the executioner ends." But such a state of mind is not something exotic or extraordinary for Russian reality, such a situation can exist in Russia for centuries and it does not necessarily lead to Troubles, but only creates ideological fornication in the heads of the educated classes. But only if Russia is headed by a tsar (leader, general secretary, president - no matter what he is called), who is able, on the basis of a healthy state instinct, to consolidate most of the elite and the people. In this case, Russia and its army are capable of enduring incomparably greater difficulties and trials than a reduction in the soldier's meat ration by half a pound or the replacement of boots with boots with windings for a part of the troops. But that was not the case.
The protracted war and the country's lack of a real leader catalyzed all negative processes. Back in 1916, 97% of soldiers and Cossacks received Holy Communion in combat positions, and at the end of 1917, only 3%. A gradual cooling towards faith and tsarist power, anti-government sentiments, the absence of a moral and ideological core in the heads and souls of people were the main reasons for all three Russian revolutions. Anti-Tsarist sentiments spread in the Cossack villages, although not as successfully as in other places. So in the village. Kidyshevsky in 1909, the local priest Danilevsky threw two portraits of the tsar in the house of the Cossack, about which a criminal case was opened. In the OKV (Orenburg Cossack Host), local liberal newspapers such as Kopeyka, Troichanin, Step, Kazak and others provided abundant food for spiritual debauchery. But in the Cossack villages and settlements, the destructive influence of atheists, nihilists and socialists was opposed by old bearded men, chieftains and local priests. They waged a difficult long-term struggle for the minds and souls of ordinary Cossacks. At all times, the most spiritually stable were the estates of priests and Cossacks. However, socio-economic reasons did not change the situation for the better. Many Cossack families, having sent 2-3 sons into the army, fell into poverty and ruin. The number of the poor in the Cossack villages multiplied also at the expense of the landless yards of the nonresident Cossacks who lived among the Cossacks. More than 100 thousand people of the non-military class lived in OKW alone. Lacking land, they were forced to rent it from the villages, from wealthy and horseless Cossacks and pay a rent for this from 0.5 to 3 rubles. for tithing. In 1912 alone, the OKV treasury received 233,548 rubles of land rent, more than 100,000 rubles of "planted payment" for the construction of houses and outbuildings by nonresidents on military lands. Nonresidents paid for the right to use pastures, forests and water resources. To make ends meet, the nonresident and Cossack poor peasants worked for wealthy Cossacks, which contributed to the consolidation and rallying of the poor peasants, which later, during the revolution and the civil war, bore bitter fruits, helped split the Cossacks into opposing camps and pushed them into a bloody fratricidal war.
All this created favorable conditions for anti-government and anti-religious sentiments, which was used by socialists and atheists - intellectuals, students, and schoolchildren. Among the Cossack intelligentsia there are preachers of the ideas of godlessness, socialism, class struggle and "petrels of the revolution." Moreover, as is usually the case in Russia, the main instigators, nihilists and subverters of the foundations are the offspring of very wealthy classes. One of the first Cossack revolutionaries of the OKW was a native of the richest gold-mining Uyskaya stanitsa, the son of a wealthy gold-mining merchant Pyotr Pavlovich Maltsev. From the age of 14, a student at the Troitsk gymnasium joins the protest movement, publishes the magazine "Tramp". Expelled from many universities, after three years in prison, in emigration he establishes communication and correspondence with Ulyanov and since then has been his main opponent and consultant on the agrarian issue. Not far from him left his half-brother, the wealthy gold miner Stepan Semyonovich Vydrin, who produced a whole family of future revolutionaries. At an equally young age, brothers Nikolai and Ivan Kashirins from the village of Verkhneuralskaya, the future Red commanders, entered the slippery slope of revolutionaries. The sons of the village teacher, and then the chieftain, received a good secular and military education, both very successfully graduated from the Orenburg Cossack School. But in 1911, the officer's honor court established that "the centurion Nikolai Kashirin is inclined to assimilate bad ideas and put them into practice," and the officer was expelled from the regiment. Only in 1914 he was again drafted into the regiment, he fought bravely and in a short time was awarded 6 royal awards. But the officer was still conducting revolutionary work among the Cossacks, he was arrested. After the next court of officer's honor, he was removed from the division, demoted and sent home. Here, in the position of the head of the regimental training team, N. D. Kashirin and met the revolution. In those years his younger brother Ivan Kashirin also went through the same difficult path as a revolutionary: a court of honor, expulsion from the division, a fight with the ataman A. I. Dutov in his native village. But, despite the hyperactivity of some restless Carbonarii, as the historian I. V. Narsky "the enlightened society clearly exaggerated the disasters of the population, autocratic oppression and the degree of secret introduction of the state into the life of its subjects …". As a result, "the level of politicization of the population remained rather low."
But the war changed everything. The first changes in the mood of the Cossack society were caused by the failures in the Russo-Japanese war. After the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, to pacify the rebellious Russia, the Cossack regiments of the second stage are sent from Manchuria to the cities of Russia. The Bolsheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries even then called the people to arms and to cruel reprisals against the "enemies of the revolution" - the Cossacks. As early as December 1905, the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP sent Soviets to the Insurrectionary Workers to the grassroots organizations. There it was written: “… do not feel sorry for the Cossacks. They have a lot of people's blood on them, they are always enemies of the workers. … look at them as the worst enemies and destroy them without mercy … ". And although soldiers, sailors, gendarmes, dragoons and Cossacks were used to pacify the insurgent people, the Cossacks aroused particular anger and hatred of the “shakers of state foundations”. In fact, the Cossacks were considered the main culprits in the defeat of the workers and peasants in the first Russian revolution. They were called "tsarist guardsmen, satraps, nagaechniki", ridiculed in the pages of the liberal and radical press. But in fact, the revolutionary movement, led by the liberal press and the intelligentsia, directed the peoples of Russia on the path of general chaos and even greater enslavement. And the people then managed to see the light, self-organize and show a sense of self-preservation. The tsar himself wrote about this to his mother: “The result was incomprehensible and ordinary in our country. The people were outraged by the impudence and audacity of the revolutionaries and socialists, and since 9/10 of them are Jews, all the anger fell on those - hence the Jewish pogroms. It is amazing with what unanimity and immediately this happened in all cities of Russia and Siberia. " The tsar called for the unification of the Russian people, but this did not happen. In the following decades, the people not only did not unite, but finally split into hostile political parties. In the words of Prince Zhevakhov: "… since 1905 Russia has turned into a madhouse, where there were no sick, but only crazy doctors who bombarded it with their crazy recipes and universal remedies for imaginary diseases." However, revolutionary propaganda among the Cossacks did not have much success and, despite individual hesitation of the Cossacks, the Cossacks remained loyal to the tsarist government, carried out its orders to maintain public order and suppress revolutionary uprisings.
In preparation for the elections to the First State Duma, the Cossacks expressed their demands in a 23-point order. The Duma included Cossack deputies who advocated the improvement of life and the expansion of the rights of the Cossacks. The government agreed to meet some of their demands. Cossacks began to receive 100 rubles (instead of 50 rubles) for the purchase of a horse and equipment, strict restrictions on the movement of the Cossacks were lifted, absences of up to 1 year were allowed with the permission of the village, the procedure for admission to military educational institutions was simplified, the pension provision for officers was improved, a number of benefits for the Cossacks received in economic and business activities. All this made it possible to improve the well-being of families and increase the capital of the village.
The Cossacks, like all Russian society, greeted the Great War with enthusiasm. The Cossacks fought selflessly and bravely on all fronts, which is described in more detail in the articles “Cossacks and the First World War. Part I, II, III, IV, V . By the end of 1916, however, war weariness had spread widely among the masses. People grieved about the losses, about the futility of a war that never ends. This created irritation against the authorities. Excesses, previously unthinkable, began to occur in the army. In October 1916, about 4 thousand soldiers and Cossacks revolted at the Gomel distribution point, on the basis of dissatisfaction with the officers and the war. The uprising was brutally suppressed. The matter was aggravated by persistent rumors that the Empress and her entourage were the main reason for all the troubles, that she, the German princess, was closer to the interests of Germany than Russia, and that she was sincerely happy about any success of German weapons. Even the tireless charitable work of the Empress and her daughters did not save from suspicion.
Fig. 2 Hospital in the Winter Palace
Indeed, in the court environment of the king, in the civil and military administration, there was a strong stratum of people of German origin. On April 15, 1914, among 169 "full generals" there were 48 Germans (28.4%), among 371 lieutenant generals - 73 Germans (19.7%), among 1034 major generals - 196 Germans (19%). On average, a third of the command posts in the Russian Guard by 1914 were occupied by the Germans. As for the Imperial Retinue, the pinnacle of state power in Russia in those years, among the 53 adjutant generals of the Russian tsar, there were 13 Germans (24, 5%). Of the 68 major generals and rear admirals of the tsarist suite, 16 were Germans (23.5%). Of the 56 German aides-de-camp, there were 8 (17%). All in all, out of 177 people in the "Retinue of His Majesty", 37 were Germans, that is, every fifth (20, 9%).
Of the highest positions - corps commanders and chiefs of staff, commanders of military districts - the Germans occupied a third. In the navy, the ratio was even greater. Even the atamans of the Tersk, Siberian, Trans-Baikal and Semirechensk Cossack troops at the beginning of the 20th century were generals of German origin. So, on the eve of 1914, the Terek Cossacks were headed by the Ataman Fleischer, the Trans-Baikal Cossacks by Ataman Evert, and the Semirechye Cossacks by Ataman Folbaum. All of them were Russian generals of German origin, appointed to the ataman posts by the Russian tsar from the Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp dynasty.
The share of "Germans" among the civil bureaucracy of the Russian Empire was somewhat smaller, but also significant. To all of the above, it is necessary to add close, ramified Russian-German dynastic ties. At the same time, the Germans in the Russian Empire accounted for less than 1.5% of the total population. It should be said that among persons of German origin there was a majority who were proud of their origin, strictly adhered to the family circle of national customs, but no less honestly served Russia, which was, undoubtedly, their Motherland for them. The difficult experience of the war showed that the chiefs with Germanic surnames, who held responsible posts of the commanders of armies, corps and divisions, were not only not lower in professional qualities than the chiefs with Russian surnames, but often significantly higher than them. However, in the interests of not quite respectable patriotism, a persecution of everything German began. It began with the renaming of the capital of St. Petersburg to Petrograd. The commander of the 1st Army, General Rennenkampf, who showed at the beginning of the war the ability to take initiative in difficult conditions, like the other commander Scheidemann, who saved the 2nd Army from a secondary defeat at Lodz, were removed from the command. An unhealthy psychology of leavened patriotism was created, which rose to the very top and later became the reason for accusing the reigning family of national treason.
Since the fall of 1915, after leaving for Headquarters, Nicholas II took much less part in governing the country, but the role of his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who was extremely unpopular due to her character and German origin, increased dramatically. Power, in essence, was in the hands of the empress, the tsarist ministers and the chairman of the State Duma.
Tsarist ministers, due to numerous mistakes, miscalculations and scandals, quickly lost their authority. They were ruthlessly criticized, summoned to the Duma and General Headquarters, and constantly changed. For 2, 5 years of war in Russia, 4 chairmen of the Council of Ministers, 6 ministers of internal affairs, 4 ministers of war, 4 ministers of justice and agriculture were replaced, which was called "ministerial leapfrog". The liberal Duma opposition was especially irritated by the appointment of an ethnic German B. V. Sturmer as prime minister during the war with Germany.
The State Duma of the IV convocation, which was in force at that time, actually turned into the main center of opposition to the tsarist government. As early as 1915, the moderate liberal majority in the Duma united in the Progressive Bloc, which openly opposed the tsar. The core of the parliamentary coalition was the parties of the Cadets (leader P. N. Milyukov) and the Octobrists. Both the right-wing monarchist deputies who defended the idea of autocracy and the sharply oppositional left radicals (Mensheviks and Trudoviks) remained outside the bloc. The Bolshevik faction was arrested in November 1914 as not supporting the war. The main slogan and demand of the Duma was the introduction in Russia of a responsible ministry, that is, a government appointed by the Duma and responsible to the Duma. In practice, this meant the transformation of the state system from autocracy into a constitutional monarchy modeled on Great Britain.
Russian industrialists have become another important unit of the opposition. Major strategic miscalculations in military construction before the war led to an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition in the army. This required a massive transfer of Russian industry to a war footing. Against the background of the helplessness of the regime, various public committees and unions began to appear everywhere, taking on their shoulders the daily work that the state could not properly deal with: caring for the wounded and maimed, supplying cities and the front. In 1915, major Russian industrialists began forming military-industrial committees - independent public organizations in support of the empire's war effort. These organizations, headed by the Central Military-Industrial Committee (TsVPK) and the Main Committee of the All-Russian Zemstvo and City Unions (Zemgor), not only solved the problem of supplying the front with weapons and ammunition, but also turned into a mouthpiece for the opposition close to the State Duma. Already the II Congress of the military-industrial complex (July 25-29, 1915) came out with the slogan of a responsible ministry. The famous merchant P. P. Ryabushinsky was elected chairman of the Moscow military-industrial complex. A number of future leaders of the Provisional Government came forward from the military-industrial complex. In 1915, the leader of the Octobrists, A. I. The tsarist government's relations with the military-industrial complex movement were very cool. Particular irritation was caused by the Working Group of the Central Military District, close to the Mensheviks, which, during the February Revolution, actually formed the core of the Petrosovet.
Beginning in the autumn of 1916, not only left-wing radicals, industrialists and the liberal State Duma, but even the closest relatives of the tsar himself, the grand dukes, who at the time of the revolution numbered 15 people, stood in opposition to Nicholas II. Their demarches went down in history as the "Grand Ducal Fronde". The general demand of the grand dukes was the removal of Rasputin and the German queen from governing the country and the introduction of a responsible ministry. Even his own mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, stood in opposition to the tsar. On October 28 in Kiev, she directly demanded the resignation of Sturmer. The "Fronda", however, was easily suppressed by the tsar, who by January 22, 1917, under various pretexts, had expelled the Grand Dukes Nikolai Mikhailovich, Dmitry Pavlovich, Andrey and Kirill Vladimirovich from the capital. Thus, the four grand dukes found themselves in royal disgrace.
All these increased state forces gradually approached the high military command, having the imperial power among themselves and creating the conditions for the day of its complete absorption under the weak emperor. Thus, little by little preparation for the great drama of Russia - the revolution - proceeded.
The history of Rasputin's pernicious influence on the Empress and her entourage completely undermined the reputation of the royal family. From the point of view of flawed morality and cynicism, the public did not stop even before accusing the empress of intimate relations with Rasputin, but in foreign policy in connection with the German government, to which she allegedly transmitted secret information about the war from Tsarskoye Selo by radio …
On November 1, 1916, the leader of the Cadet Party P. N. Miliukov made his "historic speech" in the State Duma, in which he accused Rasputin and Vyrubova (the Empress's maid of honor) of treason in favor of the enemy, taking place before the eyes, and therefore with the knowledge, of the Empress. Purishkevich followed with a spiteful speech. Hundreds of thousands of speeches were distributed throughout Russia. As grandfather Freud said in such cases: "The people believe only in what they want to believe in." The people wanted to believe in the betrayal of the German queen and received "proof." Whether it was true or false is the tenth thing. As you know, after the February Revolution, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry of the Provisional Government was created, which from March to October 1917 carefully searched for evidence of "treason", as well as corruption in the tsarist government. Hundreds of people were questioned. Nothing was found. The commission came to the conclusion that there could be no question of any betrayal of Russia on the part of the empress. But as the same Freud said: "Wilds of consciousness is a dark matter." And there was no ministry, department, chancellery or headquarters in the rear and at the front in the country, in which these speeches, which were scattered throughout the country in millions of copies, were not rewritten or reproduced. Public opinion recognized the mood that was created in the State Duma on November 1, 1916. And this can be considered the beginning of the revolution. In December 1916, at the Hotel France in Petrograd, a meeting of the Zemsky City Union (Zemgora) was held under the chairmanship of Prince G. Ye. Lvov on the subject of saving the Motherland through a palace coup. It discussed questions about the expulsion of the tsar and his family abroad, about the future state structure of Russia, about the composition of the new government and about the wedding to the kingdom of Nicholas III, the former Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Member of the State Duma, leader of the Octobrists A. I. Guchkov, using his connections among the military, gradually began to involve prominent military leaders in the conspiracy: Minister of War Polivanov, Chief of Staff General Alekseev, Generals Ruzsky, Krymov, Teplov, Gurko. In the history of mankind, there have not been (no, and will not be) revolutions, in which truth, half-truth, fiction, fantasy, falsehood, lies and slander were not densely mixed. The Russian revolution is no exception. Moreover, the Russian liberal intelligentsia, which from time immemorial has lived and lives in the world of manilovism and social "fantasy", densely mixed with traditional intellectual chips, "disbelief and doubt, blasphemy and sneak, ridicule of customs and mores …" and etc. And who can distinguish fantasies and inventions from slander and lies in the murky waters of the pre-revolutionary bedlam? Slander has done its job. Within just a few months of 1916, under the influence of slanderous propaganda, the people lost all respect for the Empress.
The situation was no better with the authority of the emperor. He was portrayed as a man exclusively concerned with the intimate side of life, who resorted to stimulants supplied to him by the same Rasputin. It is characteristic that the attacks directed at the honor of the emperor came not only from the upper command layer and the advanced public, but also from the numerous imperial family and the closest relatives of the king. The personality of the sovereign, the prestige of the dynasty and the imperial house served as objects of unrestrained lies and provocations. By the beginning of 1917, the morale of the Russian public showed pronounced signs of pathological conditions, neurasthenia and psychosis. All layers of the political community, most of the ruling elite and the most prominent and authoritative persons of the dynasty were infected with the idea of changing the state government.
Having assumed the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the emperor did not show the talents of a commander, and, having no character, lost his last authority. General Brusilov wrote about him: “It was common knowledge that Nicholas II absolutely did not understand anything in military affairs … by the nature of his character, the tsar was more inclined to positions indecisive and uncertain. He never liked to dot the i…. Neither figure, nor ability to speak, the king did not touch the soldier's soul and did not make the impression that is necessary to lift the spirit and attract the soldiers' hearts to him. The tsar's connection with the front consisted only in the fact that every evening he received a summary of the events at the front. This connection was too small and clearly indicated that the tsar was little interested in the front and in no way took part in the performance of the complex duties assigned by law to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. In reality, the tsar at Headquarters was bored. Every day at 11 o'clock in the morning, he received the report of the chief of staff and the quartermaster general on the situation at the front, and this was the end of his command and control of the troops. The rest of the time he had nothing to do, and he tried to travel to the front, then to Tsarskoe Selo, then to different parts of Russia. Assuming the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief was the last blow that Nicholas II inflicted on himself and which brought about the sad end of his monarchy."
In December 1916, the most important meeting of the highest military and economic leadership on planning the 1917 campaign was held at Headquarters. The emperor was remembered by the fact that he did not participate in the discussions, he constantly yawned, and the next day, having received the news of the murder of Rasputin, he left the meeting altogether before its end and went to Tsarskoe Selo, where he remained until February. The authority of the tsarist power in the army and among the people was finally undermined and fell, as they say, below the plinth. As a result, the Russian people and the army, including the Cossacks, did not defend not only their Emperor, but also their state, when an uprising against the autocracy broke out in Petrograd in February.
On February 22, despite the grave condition of his son Alexei, his daughter's illness and political unrest in the capital, Nicholas II decided to leave Tsarskoye Selo for Headquarters in order to keep the army from anarchy and defeatist moods with his presence. His departure served as a signal for the activation of all enemies of the throne. The next day, February 23 (March 8, new style), a revolutionary explosion took place, which marked the beginning of the February revolution. Petrograd revolutionaries of all stripes used the traditionally celebrated International Women's Day for rallies, meetings and demonstrations to protest against the war, the high cost, lack of bread and the general plight of women workers in factories. There were indeed interruptions with bread in Petrograd. Due to snow drifts, there was a big traffic jam on the railways, and 150,000 carriages stood motionless at the stations. There were large food warehouses in Siberia and other outskirts of the country, but there was a shortage of food in the cities and the army.
Rice. 3 Queue for bread in Petrograd
From the workers' outskirts, columns of workers excited by revolutionary speeches headed to the city center, and a powerful revolutionary stream formed on Nevsky Prospekt. On that tragic day for Russia, 128 thousand workers and women workers went on strike. In the center of the city, the first skirmishes with the Cossacks and the police took place (the 1st, 4th, 14th Don Cossack regiments, the Guards Consolidated Cossack Regiment, the 9th Reserve Cavalry Regiment, the reserve battalion of the Kexholm Regiment participated). At the same time, the reliability of the Cossacks themselves was already in question. The first case of the refusal of the Cossacks to shoot at the crowd was noted back in May 1916, and in total nine such cases were recorded in 1916. The 1st Don Cossack Regiment, when dispersing the demonstrators, showed a strange passivity, which the regiment commander, Colonel Troilin, explained by the absence of nuts in the regiment. By order of General Khabalov, the regiment was allocated 50 kopecks for a Cossack for acquiring whips. But the chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko categorically forbade the use of weapons against the protesters, thus, the military command was paralyzed. The next day the number of strikers reached an unprecedented level - 214 thousand people. There were continuous mass meetings on Znamenskaya Square, here the Cossacks refused to disperse the demonstrators. There were other cases of disloyal behavior of the Cossacks. During one of the incidents, the Cossacks chased away a police officer who had hit a woman. In the evening, robberies and pogroms of shops began. On February 25, a general political strike began, paralyzing the economic life of the capital. Bailiff Krylov was killed on Znamenskaya Square. He tried to push through the crowd to rip off the red flag, but the Cossack struck him several times with a saber, and the demonstrators finished off the bailiff with a shovel. The departure of the 1st Don Cossack Regiment refused to shoot the workers and put the police detachment to flight. At the same time, there was propaganda among spare parts. The crowd opened the prison and released the criminals, which gave the leaders of the revolution the most reliable support. Pogroms of police stations began, the building of the District Court was set on fire. In the evening of that day, the tsar, by his decree, dissolved the State Duma. The Duma members agreed, but did not disperse, but took up even more energetic revolutionary activity.
The tsar also ordered the commander of the Petrograd military district, Lieutenant General Khabalov, to immediately stop the riots. Additional military units were brought into the capital. On February 26, bloody clashes between the army and the police and demonstrators took place in several districts of the city. The bloodiest incident took place on Znamenskaya Square, where a company of the Volynsky Life Guards regiment opened fire on demonstrators (only here there were 40 killed and 40 wounded). Mass arrests were made in public organizations and political parties. The opposition leaders who survived the arrests appealed to the soldiers and called on the soldiers to make an alliance with the workers and peasants. In the evening, the 4th company of the reserve (training) battalion of the Pavlovsk Guards regiment raised an uprising. The army began to go over to the side of the rebels. On February 27, the general political strike developed into an armed uprising of workers, soldiers and sailors. The first to speak were the soldiers of the training team of the Life Guards of the Volyn Regiment. In response to the order of the head of the training team, Captain Lashkevich, to patrol the streets of Petrograd to restore order, non-commissioned officer of the regiment Timofey Kirpichnikov shot him. This murder was the signal for the beginning of the violent reprisals of the soldiers over the officers. The new commander of the Petrograd military district L. G. Kornilov regarded Kirpichnikov's act as an outstanding feat in the name of the revolution and awarded the St. George Cross.
Fig. 4 The first soldier of the revolution Timofey Kirpichnikov
By the end of February 27, about 67 thousand soldiers of the Petrograd garrison had gone over to the side of the revolution. In the evening, the first meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies took place in the Tauride Palace. The council began to create a workers' militia (militia) and the formation of regional authorities. From that day a new era began in the history of Russia - Soviet power. On February 28, the empress sent two telegrams to the emperor, informing him of the hopelessness of the situation and the need for concessions. On March 1, the Petrograd Soviet issued Order No. 1, which provided for measures to democratize the troops of the Petrograd garrison, and the transition to the election of company, regimental, divisional, and army committees by prior arrangement. On this democratic wave, excesses began in army units, disobeying orders and expelling unwanted officers from units. Subsequently, such uncontrollable democratization allowed the enemies of Russia to finally disintegrate and destroy not only the Petrograd garrison, but also the entire army, and then lay bare the front. The Cossack army was a powerful and well-organized military mechanism. Therefore, despite the order No. 1 of the Petrograd Soviet, which provoked massive non-observance of orders and desertion in the army, military discipline in the Cossack units was maintained at the same level for a long time.
The chairman of the government, Prince Golitsyn, refused to fulfill his duties, as a result of which the country was left without a government, and the streets were dominated by the crowd and masses of disbanded soldiers of the reserve battalions. The emperor was presented with a picture of general rebellion and discontent with his rule. Eyewitnesses painted Petrograd, demonstrations in its streets, slogans "Down with the war!" The sovereign was at Headquarters.
Tsar Nicholas II, being in Mogilev, followed the events in Petrograd, although, to tell the truth, not quite adequately to the impending events. Judging by his diaries, the entries for these days are basically the following: "I drank tea, read, walked, slept for a long time, played dominoes …". It can be quite reasonably asserted that the emperor simply slept through the revolution in Mogilev. Only on February 27 did the emperor become worried and by his decree he again removed the commander of the Petrograd military district and appointed an experienced and loyal General Ivanov to this post. At the same time, he announced his immediate departure to Tsarskoe Selo, and for this it was ordered to prepare letter trains. By this time, for the implementation of revolutionary goals, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma was formed in Petrograd, which was joined by the union of railway workers, most of the senior command staff and the highest part of the nobility, including representatives of the dynasty. The committee removed the tsarist Council of Ministers from governing the country. The revolution developed and won. General Ivanov acted indecisively, and he had no one to rely on. The numerous Petrograd garrison, consisting mainly of reserve and training teams, was extremely unreliable. The Baltic Fleet was even less reliable. In the pre-war period, gross strategic mistakes were made in naval development. That is why, in the end, it turned out that the extremely expensive battleship fleet of the Baltic Sea stood in Kronstadt at the "wall" for almost the entire First World War, accumulating the revolutionary potential of the sailors. Meanwhile, in the north, in the Barents Sea basin, since there was not a single significant warship there, it was necessary to re-create the flotilla, buying back the old captured Russian battleships from Japan. In addition, there were constant rumors about the transfer of some of the sailors and officers of the Baltic Fleet to form crews of armored trains and armored detachments, followed by sending them to the front. These rumors excited the crews and aroused protest moods.
General Ivanov, being near Tsarskoe Selo, kept in touch with the Headquarters and waited for the approach of reliable units from the front line. The leaders of the conspiracy, Prince Lvov and Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko, did everything to prevent the tsar from returning to Petrograd, knowing full well that his arrival could radically change the situation. The Tsar's train, due to the sabotage of the railway workers and the Duma, could not travel to Tsarskoe Selo and, having changed the route, arrived in Pskov, where the headquarters of the commander of the Northern Front, General Ruzsky, was located. Upon arrival in Pskov, the sovereign's train was not met by anyone from the headquarters, after some time Ruzsky appeared on the platform. He went into the emperor's carriage, where he did not stay for long, and, going into the carriage of the retinue, declared the hopeless situation and the impossibility of suppressing the rebellion by force. In his opinion, one thing remains: surrender at the mercy of the winners. Ruzsky spoke on the phone with Rodzianko, and they came to the conclusion that there was only one way out of the situation - the abdication of the sovereign. On the night of March 1, General Alekseev sent a telegram to General Ivanov and all the front commanders with the order to stop the movement of troops to Petrograd, after which all the troops assigned to suppress the rebellion were returned back.
On March 1, from authoritative members of the Duma and the Provisional Committee, the Provisional Government was formed, headed by Prince Lvov, whose contours were outlined in the fashionable room of the France Hotel in December. Representatives of big business (capitalist ministers) also became members of the government, and the socialist Kerensky took the post of Minister of Justice. At the same time, he was a comrade (deputy) of the chairman of the Petrosovet, formed two days earlier. The new government, through the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko, telegraphed the tsar's demand to abdicate the throne. At the same time, the Chief of Staff of the Supreme High Command, General Alekseev, organized a telegraphic poll on the same topic for all the commanders of the fronts and fleets. All commanders, with the exception of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Kolchak, repulsed telegrams about the desirability of the tsar's abdication in favor of his son-heir. Taking into account the incurable illness of the heir and the rejection of the regency of the Grand Dukes Mikhail Alexandrovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich, these telegrams meant a sentence to the autocracy and the dynasty. Generals Ruzsky and Alekseev exerted special pressure on the tsar. Of all the generals, only the commander of the 3rd Cossack Cavalry Corps, Count Keller, expressed his readiness to move the corps to protect the tsar and reported this by telegram to Headquarters, but he was immediately removed from office.
Rice. 5 Cossacks of the Keller corps
Members of the Duma, Shulgin and Guchkov, came to Ruzsky's headquarters demanding their abdication. Under pressure from those around him, the sovereign signed an act of abdication for himself and for the heir. This happened on the night of March 2, 1917. Thus, the preparation and implementation of the plan to overthrow the supreme power required a complex and lengthy preparation for many years, but this took only a few days, no more than a week.
Power was transferred to the Provisional Government, which was formed mainly from members of the State Duma. For the army, as well as for the provinces, the sovereign's abdication was "a thunderbolt in a clear sky." But the manifesto of abdication and the decree on the oath of allegiance to the Provisional Government showed the legitimacy of the transfer of power from the sovereign to the newly formed government, and demanded obedience. Everything that was happening was calmly accepted by the army, the people, and the intelligentsia, who had been promised a new, better structure of society for so long and so persistently. It was assumed that people who knew how to arrange the latter came to power. However, it soon became clear that the new rulers of the country turned out to be not state people, but small adventurers, completely unsuitable not only to govern a vast country, but unable even to provide a quiet work in the Tauride Palace, which turned out to be filled with an influx of rabble. Russia embarked on the path of lawlessness and anarchy. The revolution brought completely worthless people to power, and very quickly this became very clear. Unfortunately, in the course of the Troubles, people who are not very suitable for effective activity and are not able to prove themselves in personal work almost always come to the public arena during the Troubles. It is this part that rushes, as usual, in a dashing time towards politics. There are not many examples when a good doctor, engineer, architect, or talented people of other professions will leave their work and prefer to engage in political affairs.
The Cossacks, like the rest of the people, also calmly, even indifferently, greeted the emperor's abdication. In addition to the above reasons, the Cossacks had their own reasons to treat the emperor without due reverence. Before the war, the Stolypin reforms were carried out in the country. They virtually eliminated the privileged economic position of the Cossacks, without in the least weakening their military duties, which were several times higher than the military duties of the peasants and other estates. This, as well as military failures and the stupid use of the Cossack cavalry in the war, gave rise to the indifference of the Cossacks to the tsarist power, which had great negative consequences not only for the autocracy, but also for the state. This indifference of the Cossacks allowed the anti-Russian and anti-people forces to overthrow the tsar, and then the Provisional Government, with almost impunity, liquidating the Russian state. The Cossacks did not immediately understand what was what. This gave the anti-Russian power of the Bolsheviks a respite and the opportunity to gain a foothold in power, and then made it possible to win the civil war. But it was in the Cossack regions that the Bolsheviks met the strongest and most organized resistance.
Already shortly after the February Revolution, a polarization and demarcation of political forces took place in the country. The extreme left, led by Lenin and Trotsky, sought to transfer the bourgeois-democratic revolution to the socialist track and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. The right-wing forces wanted to establish a military dictatorship and restore order in the country with an iron fist. The main contender for the role of dictator was General L. G. Kornilov, but he turned out to be completely unsuitable for this role. The most numerous middle of the political spectrum was just a great crowd of irresponsible chatterboxes-intellectuals, generally unsuitable for any effective action. But that's a completely different story.
