February 1917: did the Russian Empire have a chance?
Recently, historians exploring issues related to the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia have been divided into two opposing, and, almost, hostile camps. The dispute does not subside around the question of the presence or absence of underlying premises for it, and, consequently, the inevitability or accident of this cataclysm of all-Russian proportions. On both sides there are many convincing arguments, often extremely confusing and, moreover, mutually exclusive. Nevertheless, we will try to figure out this intricacies in order to try to find out: did the Russian Empire have a chance to withstand in 1917?
Supporters of the theory of the inevitability of February argue that with a fairly attractive external "facade" and undoubted success in the field economics, the Russian state "rotted from within" - from the most crowned "tops" to hopelessly vegetated in the miserable villages of the "bottom". And, accordingly, the collapse of the Empire was only a matter of time, and the revolution was an inevitable process that needed only a catalyst, which was the country's entry into the World War II. Their opponents, as a rule, using a huge number of statistical calculations that irrefutably testify to a well-fed, happy and almost fabulous life in tsarist Russia, try to prove that both February and the ensuing October are nothing more than a combination of fatal circumstances that destroyed Holy Russia. Or, at worst - the result of treacherous "intrigues" of some sinister "adversaries". A certain amount of truth is in both points of view. But let's think logically, starting with the simplest.
"Intrigues of adversaries"? Who do you want to blame? "A bunch of Bolsheviks" who ditched Russia for "German money"? Sorry, it doesn’t work out. In the February Revolution, those who were to become the creators of the country of the Soviets, played a miniscule role - if they played any at all. For the future leader of the world proletariat, who had settled in European emigration, the news of it sounded like thunder from a clear sky. According to the memoirs of his comrades-in-arms, Ilyich was firmly convinced that nothing like this would happen in Russia during his life. So - by. With the world "Zion conspiracy" - this is generally to psychiatrists. German intelligence, the motives of which are completely clear? Well, yes, she participated - that's just not her alone. It is known for certain that between those. who made numerous conspiracies against Nicholas II, of whom there were plenty before February, representatives of both Britain and France flickered — that is, countries categorically not interested in Russia’s withdrawal from the war. Again, something does not fit ...
Alas, if we want to remain objective and rely on facts, and not on emotions and conspiracy theories, we will have to admit: the Russian Empire was destroyed by the Russians themselves. And as for the “wonderful life in it” ... Well, yes - it was all in reality: almost the world's largest gold reserve, the flourishing of industry and trade, grain export to Europe and so on. Ah, yes - more rolls. French, it seems - or how is it stated in a modern sticky song? But the whole thing was that all this - and millions of gold pieces of gold with the profile of the Emperor, and luxurious Orlov trotters sweeping towards the Yar, and other charms of that life, belonged to, ten, God forbid, fifteen percent of the vast population of Russia! The rest, I am not afraid of this word, were writhing on tiny shreds of sweat and blood of their countrymen watered with them. For them, they, moreover, also paid completely unbearable redemption payments to the landlords, who, meanwhile, crunched appetizing rolls of wheat grown on this land.
There were also workers. The proletariat, yeah ... Which, if you believe all the same statistics, and earned good money - even by the standards of Europe, and the working and living conditions were not so bestial. But they were at the same time - no one. The main horror of the Russian Empire, inexorably killing it, and yet it finally killed the deadly virus, was called social inequality. The most severe division into estates, between which lay insurmountable chasms. And, by the way, do not forget that the very recent ancestors of these very ones are either 90, or 85%, on which, in fact, everything was kept in the state, were slaves! The most real. By 1917 there were still plenty of people who remembered how the "bar", being in their full right, was dragged to their mothers' hayloft, and their fathers were buried or hunted with greyhounds to death just for fun! And that’s all that swept away - first by February, and then by October.
The tragedy of the Empire was that in the presence of a great many talented people, true patriots, smart and honest, the country was ruled by absolute insignificance, who had pedigrees to the envy of thoroughbred horses or dogs. And - nothing more for the soul ... The rest, however, could not get through the wilds of centuries-old eerie estate system. The Minister of the Sea, who, with an unshakable hand, drew on his report on the need to buy abroad spark plugs for Russian submarines a resolution that would be more than enough for ordinary - stearin! How's that for you ?! And it was in 1905. After this, Tsushima is not “fatal accident”, but just the same inevitability. Like everything that followed.
Here, by the way, more about the military. From time immemorial, the nobility was not just a privileged class, but a caste of service people who were obliged to devote their whole lives to defending the Fatherland, defending their interests there and when the supreme overlord - the Sovereign deems it necessary. And what about Russia in 1917? Statistics mercilessly testifies - by the beginning of the First World War the officer corps of the Russian army consisted of nobles less than half! What can I say if among the leaders of its General Staff (we are talking exclusively about generals!) There were 43% of hereditary noblemen? With the course of the war, the share among the command staff of “elements extremely undesirable for the officer environment” was already 80%. The problem was so serious that it was personally reported to the Emperor. What, in Russia there were no noblemen of military age fit for military service? Yes, in abundance - hundreds of thousands. But they did not want to shed blood and rot in the trenches, sir.
It should be recognized the obvious - by 1917, the Russian nobility simply degenerated. Not without exception, of course, but for the most part. It was the stubborn reluctance of the landlords to part with at least some part of their land in order to continue to crunch buns, albeit a little less intensely, led to a revolutionary explosion. The reform of 1861, which freed the peasants from serfdom, released them “free”, practically without land, and in addition hung such unbearable bondage on the peasants’s neck that their grandchildren could not get out. The “ingenious” reform projects of Stolypin, which some modern historians are so fond of, were nothing more than empty dreams that categorically did not combine with reality - first of all, with the needs of the peasants. All of them failed, only spawning new landless farm laborers and proletarians.
In fact, the Russian empire could only be saved, as one good writer wrote, “a reasonable combination of terror and reform.” Before the February Revolution, Nicholas II was begging for only one thing - to play a little “constitutional monarchy”, allowing them to create the so-called “responsible cabinet”. This meant a government that seemed to report not to the Emperor, but to the State Duma. An intelligent person and a subtle politician would take advantage of this as a life buoy - they did not demand any denial or anything similar from the monarch at that time. Well, he would create this “responsible” government. Well, I would have blown all the troubles on him later on - and even to hell, he could have been along with the State Duma! Russia needed to hold out at all costs before leaving the war, which pushed it to the abyss. But no - Nikolai rested as he was rooted to the spot: as much as possible, he is an autocrat, anointed of God! So his "autocracy" ended with the basement of the Ipatiev House ...
Generally speaking, what the then representatives of the Romanov dynasty did to completely discredit the monarchist idea in Russia would not have been possible for any Bolsheviks in a hundred years. State embezzlement, theft, spicy scandals, to put it mildly ... It was not for nothing that some members of the royal family had to be sent into exile - not to the notorious “one hundred and first kilometer,” but much further. Well, and the wife of Nicholas is Empress Alexandra, nee Alice of Hesse ... Perhaps there was no tsar’s wife in Russia, to which almost all classes would have such a friendly dislike. It wasn’t even a matter of disgusting gossip about Grigory Rasputin and the most complete nonsense, like the fact that from the Empress’s bedroom (which had German blood) the “direct wire” was not laid somewhere, but to the “Wilhelm’s headquarters”, of course - to transmit the secret military data ... All these rumors, by the way, after February were investigated in the most thorough manner and, of course, did not receive the slightest confirmation. But here Alexandra's constant interference in state affairs (first of all, in matters of appointments to the most important posts), her influence on the Emperor, which affected him in far from the best way, was just that.
It is with great regret that we have to admit that the great triad “For God, the Tsar and the Fatherland”, which for centuries served as a support for the Russian people in any trials, disintegrated by 1917, lost its meaning and significance, turning into an empty phrase for most people of the Russian Empire. Almost everyone in the current way was stuffy, crowded, unbearable. If the Russian Empire did not enter the war, perhaps the explosion would not have happened - in any case, it was in 1917. In this option, there was a chance for a change of the Emperor, which would not have led to a breakdown of the state, for changing the country through reforms, rather than a “blood bath”. On the other hand, even replacing Nicholas II with a more active, decisive and authoritative monarch, what was to be done with the crowd of nobles who stubbornly did not want to make any changes at all, to sacrifice at least a crumb of their own boundless privileges? Only Lenin’s associates managed to untie this knot - alas, in the most radical and bloody way.
And, finally, about who, nevertheless, “arranged” the February Revolution in 1917. The hunger riot in Petrograd was raised by workers and the city’s uprising, peasants dressed in soldiers' greatcoats helped to inflate it to the scale of an armed uprising. But the political “engine” of the February revolution was not they at all, but the intelligentsia, wealthy “heterosexuals” and even nobles! Under the USSR, the February revolution bore the semi-dubious definition of "bourgeois." It's time to finally tell the truth, gentlemen! In February 1917, a classical liberal democratic revolution took place in Russia. It was this throaty audience, obsessed with the ideas of “universal freedom” and other “universal human values” that then got to the helm — for the first time in Russian history. With more than predictable results.
Sweeping away the monarchy, this company, obsessed with the destruction of everything "reactionary", did not stop - the army, the police, and, in general, practically the entire state administration system were destroyed in the shortest possible time. The empire began to rapidly fall apart, and its final destruction seemed inevitable. They saved Russia, paradoxically as it sounds to someone, the Bolsheviks. You can blame the Brest Peace, the “Red Terror” and much more, as much as you like, but the facts remain facts - only the “Reds” could return the profound territories of Russia profaned by the Provisional Government. Something like Ukraine and Transcaucasia - earlier, the same Baltic States - later. Only Poland and Finland were missed, for the separation of which “thank you” again to the liberals and democrats from the Provisional Government. If these figures, God forbid, had “ruled” longer, nothing would have remained of Russia! Almost everyone was going to separate from them - from the Kuban and the Don, to Siberia. And yesterday’s allies on the Entente already held conferences at which they cut fatter colonies from our land ...
One cannot but admit - the history of Russia did not go far along the worst of the possible paths. The February revolution, to which the Empire was led, indeed, by objective processes, and by a combination of tragic circumstances and subjective reasons, could well destroy Russian statehood, as such. But she only pushed Russia into the Time of Troubles, which she was able to survive - albeit at an incredibly high price. And yet - she showed once and for all what the consequences of liberal-democratic experiments on our land are, and what incredibly harsh power they have to subsequently compensate for. This is the lesson we should learn first of all.
Supporters of the theory of the inevitability of February argue that with a fairly attractive external "facade" and undoubted success in the field economics, the Russian state "rotted from within" - from the most crowned "tops" to hopelessly vegetated in the miserable villages of the "bottom". And, accordingly, the collapse of the Empire was only a matter of time, and the revolution was an inevitable process that needed only a catalyst, which was the country's entry into the World War II. Their opponents, as a rule, using a huge number of statistical calculations that irrefutably testify to a well-fed, happy and almost fabulous life in tsarist Russia, try to prove that both February and the ensuing October are nothing more than a combination of fatal circumstances that destroyed Holy Russia. Or, at worst - the result of treacherous "intrigues" of some sinister "adversaries". A certain amount of truth is in both points of view. But let's think logically, starting with the simplest.
"Intrigues of adversaries"? Who do you want to blame? "A bunch of Bolsheviks" who ditched Russia for "German money"? Sorry, it doesn’t work out. In the February Revolution, those who were to become the creators of the country of the Soviets, played a miniscule role - if they played any at all. For the future leader of the world proletariat, who had settled in European emigration, the news of it sounded like thunder from a clear sky. According to the memoirs of his comrades-in-arms, Ilyich was firmly convinced that nothing like this would happen in Russia during his life. So - by. With the world "Zion conspiracy" - this is generally to psychiatrists. German intelligence, the motives of which are completely clear? Well, yes, she participated - that's just not her alone. It is known for certain that between those. who made numerous conspiracies against Nicholas II, of whom there were plenty before February, representatives of both Britain and France flickered — that is, countries categorically not interested in Russia’s withdrawal from the war. Again, something does not fit ...
Alas, if we want to remain objective and rely on facts, and not on emotions and conspiracy theories, we will have to admit: the Russian Empire was destroyed by the Russians themselves. And as for the “wonderful life in it” ... Well, yes - it was all in reality: almost the world's largest gold reserve, the flourishing of industry and trade, grain export to Europe and so on. Ah, yes - more rolls. French, it seems - or how is it stated in a modern sticky song? But the whole thing was that all this - and millions of gold pieces of gold with the profile of the Emperor, and luxurious Orlov trotters sweeping towards the Yar, and other charms of that life, belonged to, ten, God forbid, fifteen percent of the vast population of Russia! The rest, I am not afraid of this word, were writhing on tiny shreds of sweat and blood of their countrymen watered with them. For them, they, moreover, also paid completely unbearable redemption payments to the landlords, who, meanwhile, crunched appetizing rolls of wheat grown on this land.
There were also workers. The proletariat, yeah ... Which, if you believe all the same statistics, and earned good money - even by the standards of Europe, and the working and living conditions were not so bestial. But they were at the same time - no one. The main horror of the Russian Empire, inexorably killing it, and yet it finally killed the deadly virus, was called social inequality. The most severe division into estates, between which lay insurmountable chasms. And, by the way, do not forget that the very recent ancestors of these very ones are either 90, or 85%, on which, in fact, everything was kept in the state, were slaves! The most real. By 1917 there were still plenty of people who remembered how the "bar", being in their full right, was dragged to their mothers' hayloft, and their fathers were buried or hunted with greyhounds to death just for fun! And that’s all that swept away - first by February, and then by October.
The tragedy of the Empire was that in the presence of a great many talented people, true patriots, smart and honest, the country was ruled by absolute insignificance, who had pedigrees to the envy of thoroughbred horses or dogs. And - nothing more for the soul ... The rest, however, could not get through the wilds of centuries-old eerie estate system. The Minister of the Sea, who, with an unshakable hand, drew on his report on the need to buy abroad spark plugs for Russian submarines a resolution that would be more than enough for ordinary - stearin! How's that for you ?! And it was in 1905. After this, Tsushima is not “fatal accident”, but just the same inevitability. Like everything that followed.
Here, by the way, more about the military. From time immemorial, the nobility was not just a privileged class, but a caste of service people who were obliged to devote their whole lives to defending the Fatherland, defending their interests there and when the supreme overlord - the Sovereign deems it necessary. And what about Russia in 1917? Statistics mercilessly testifies - by the beginning of the First World War the officer corps of the Russian army consisted of nobles less than half! What can I say if among the leaders of its General Staff (we are talking exclusively about generals!) There were 43% of hereditary noblemen? With the course of the war, the share among the command staff of “elements extremely undesirable for the officer environment” was already 80%. The problem was so serious that it was personally reported to the Emperor. What, in Russia there were no noblemen of military age fit for military service? Yes, in abundance - hundreds of thousands. But they did not want to shed blood and rot in the trenches, sir.
It should be recognized the obvious - by 1917, the Russian nobility simply degenerated. Not without exception, of course, but for the most part. It was the stubborn reluctance of the landlords to part with at least some part of their land in order to continue to crunch buns, albeit a little less intensely, led to a revolutionary explosion. The reform of 1861, which freed the peasants from serfdom, released them “free”, practically without land, and in addition hung such unbearable bondage on the peasants’s neck that their grandchildren could not get out. The “ingenious” reform projects of Stolypin, which some modern historians are so fond of, were nothing more than empty dreams that categorically did not combine with reality - first of all, with the needs of the peasants. All of them failed, only spawning new landless farm laborers and proletarians.
In fact, the Russian empire could only be saved, as one good writer wrote, “a reasonable combination of terror and reform.” Before the February Revolution, Nicholas II was begging for only one thing - to play a little “constitutional monarchy”, allowing them to create the so-called “responsible cabinet”. This meant a government that seemed to report not to the Emperor, but to the State Duma. An intelligent person and a subtle politician would take advantage of this as a life buoy - they did not demand any denial or anything similar from the monarch at that time. Well, he would create this “responsible” government. Well, I would have blown all the troubles on him later on - and even to hell, he could have been along with the State Duma! Russia needed to hold out at all costs before leaving the war, which pushed it to the abyss. But no - Nikolai rested as he was rooted to the spot: as much as possible, he is an autocrat, anointed of God! So his "autocracy" ended with the basement of the Ipatiev House ...
Generally speaking, what the then representatives of the Romanov dynasty did to completely discredit the monarchist idea in Russia would not have been possible for any Bolsheviks in a hundred years. State embezzlement, theft, spicy scandals, to put it mildly ... It was not for nothing that some members of the royal family had to be sent into exile - not to the notorious “one hundred and first kilometer,” but much further. Well, and the wife of Nicholas is Empress Alexandra, nee Alice of Hesse ... Perhaps there was no tsar’s wife in Russia, to which almost all classes would have such a friendly dislike. It wasn’t even a matter of disgusting gossip about Grigory Rasputin and the most complete nonsense, like the fact that from the Empress’s bedroom (which had German blood) the “direct wire” was not laid somewhere, but to the “Wilhelm’s headquarters”, of course - to transmit the secret military data ... All these rumors, by the way, after February were investigated in the most thorough manner and, of course, did not receive the slightest confirmation. But here Alexandra's constant interference in state affairs (first of all, in matters of appointments to the most important posts), her influence on the Emperor, which affected him in far from the best way, was just that.
It is with great regret that we have to admit that the great triad “For God, the Tsar and the Fatherland”, which for centuries served as a support for the Russian people in any trials, disintegrated by 1917, lost its meaning and significance, turning into an empty phrase for most people of the Russian Empire. Almost everyone in the current way was stuffy, crowded, unbearable. If the Russian Empire did not enter the war, perhaps the explosion would not have happened - in any case, it was in 1917. In this option, there was a chance for a change of the Emperor, which would not have led to a breakdown of the state, for changing the country through reforms, rather than a “blood bath”. On the other hand, even replacing Nicholas II with a more active, decisive and authoritative monarch, what was to be done with the crowd of nobles who stubbornly did not want to make any changes at all, to sacrifice at least a crumb of their own boundless privileges? Only Lenin’s associates managed to untie this knot - alas, in the most radical and bloody way.
And, finally, about who, nevertheless, “arranged” the February Revolution in 1917. The hunger riot in Petrograd was raised by workers and the city’s uprising, peasants dressed in soldiers' greatcoats helped to inflate it to the scale of an armed uprising. But the political “engine” of the February revolution was not they at all, but the intelligentsia, wealthy “heterosexuals” and even nobles! Under the USSR, the February revolution bore the semi-dubious definition of "bourgeois." It's time to finally tell the truth, gentlemen! In February 1917, a classical liberal democratic revolution took place in Russia. It was this throaty audience, obsessed with the ideas of “universal freedom” and other “universal human values” that then got to the helm — for the first time in Russian history. With more than predictable results.
Sweeping away the monarchy, this company, obsessed with the destruction of everything "reactionary", did not stop - the army, the police, and, in general, practically the entire state administration system were destroyed in the shortest possible time. The empire began to rapidly fall apart, and its final destruction seemed inevitable. They saved Russia, paradoxically as it sounds to someone, the Bolsheviks. You can blame the Brest Peace, the “Red Terror” and much more, as much as you like, but the facts remain facts - only the “Reds” could return the profound territories of Russia profaned by the Provisional Government. Something like Ukraine and Transcaucasia - earlier, the same Baltic States - later. Only Poland and Finland were missed, for the separation of which “thank you” again to the liberals and democrats from the Provisional Government. If these figures, God forbid, had “ruled” longer, nothing would have remained of Russia! Almost everyone was going to separate from them - from the Kuban and the Don, to Siberia. And yesterday’s allies on the Entente already held conferences at which they cut fatter colonies from our land ...
One cannot but admit - the history of Russia did not go far along the worst of the possible paths. The February revolution, to which the Empire was led, indeed, by objective processes, and by a combination of tragic circumstances and subjective reasons, could well destroy Russian statehood, as such. But she only pushed Russia into the Time of Troubles, which she was able to survive - albeit at an incredibly high price. And yet - she showed once and for all what the consequences of liberal-democratic experiments on our land are, and what incredibly harsh power they have to subsequently compensate for. This is the lesson we should learn first of all.
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