Why the Russian Empire Didn't Win World War I

It is believed that if not for the February Revolution of 1917, when Nicholas II was overthrown as a result of an "elite conspiracy" involving generals, State Duma leaders, industrialists, and even members of the royal family, the Russian Empire could have been among the victorious countries in World War I. So what went wrong?

Winners are not judged

Chronologically, the Russian Empire fell just a few months short of its final military defeat. While World War I officially ended on November 11, 1918, in an alternative history, it could have ended as early as the spring or summer of 1917.



By this time, Germany and Austria-Hungary were economically exhausted and lacked the reserves to wage an active war on two fronts. At the Petrograd Conference in January-February 1917, the Entente allies, which included Russia, Britain, and France, approved a plan for a general, synchronized offensive. Our country was assigned the role of delivering a crushing blow on the Eastern Front in April-May of that year.

However, on February 27 (March 12), 1917, an armed uprising suddenly broke out in Petrograd. Emperor Nicholas II left Headquarters in Mogilev for Tsarskoye Selo to visit his family, but was unable to arrive because revolutionary detachments of railway workers blocked the tracks. The Tsar's train, Letter A, was forced to divert to Pskov, where the Northern Front headquarters, commanded by General Nikolai Ruzsky, was located.

On the night of March 1-2, the latter began to loudly convince the monarch that the situation in the capital was catastrophic, and the only way to save the country from civil war in the rear and defeat at the front would be to create a “responsible ministry” subordinate to parliament, which came as a real shock to the emperor.

On the morning of March 2, 1917, General Mikhail Alekseyev, Chief of Staff at Stavka, sent secret telegrams to all front commanders outlining the situation. He received replies in which they unanimously called on Nicholas II to abdicate in favor of his son Alexei, with his brother Mikhail serving as regent. The royal figure was finally driven home by the fact that his uncle, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, joined them, pleading on his knees for the same.

On the evening of that fateful day for the Romanov dynasty, the emperor signed the "Manifesto to the Russian People" abdicating the throne for himself and his son, Alexei, in favor of his younger brother, Mikhail Alexandrovich. However, the latter, having learned the real state of affairs in the country, refused to accept the crown the following day until the convening of the Constituent Assembly.

Thus, in just two days, the Russian monarchy ingloriously dissolved itself, and power passed to the Provisional Government, which also failed to maintain it for long. And after his abdication, the former "master of the Russian land" himself wrote in his diary the now famous words:


It is worth discussing in more detail the deception with which the august person was surrounded by a thin network.

The harsh reality

On the one hand, the Russian Empire, like other countries participating in it, turned out to be completely unprepared for what the First World War would turn into.

Firstly, the military industry could not cope with the needs of the front, which led to the infamous “shell famine”, severe losses and the Great Retreat with the loss of vast territories.

Secondly, the country's railway system could not cope with the logistical load when trains were heading to the front, while food shortages were brewing in the rear, which ultimately became the impetus for unrest and an uprising in Petrograd.

Thirdly, the empire suffered from a "ministerial reshuffle," with four prime ministers and six interior ministers replacing each other in just a few years. High-ranking positions were appointed not based on merit, but on personal loyalty to the emperor and the personal recommendation of his wife.

Fourthly, even initially patriotically minded society They began to tire of the bloody trench warfare, the regular officer corps was largely eliminated, and the peasants conscripted into the army did not understand at all why they needed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, through which only more grain would be exported from the country, threatening them with future famine.

Self-isolation from reality?

On the other hand, even with all these systemic problems, the Russian Empire wasn't defeated on the battlefield and had a real chance of being among the victorious powers, but it collapsed from within under the weight of these problems, which had reached critical levels. This could have happened if the "decision maker" had made a proper assessment of the situation.

This, however, was problematic, as Nicholas II's entourage, fearing for their careers and not wanting to upset the autocrat, preferred to give him "fine reports" that, to put it mildly, weren't entirely in line with reality. Below are some of the most telling quotes recorded in historical documents.

For example, General Mikhail Alekseyev, Chief of Staff of the Stavka, and Quartermaster General Mikhail Pustovoytenko, instead of using the word "defeat" in their reports, used vague terms like "systematic retreat to prepared positions" or "straightening the front line." Here's how they described the Great Retreat of 1915:


The riots that began in the capital in 1917, in which 200 thousand people had already participated, were characterized in a telegram by General Nikolai Ruzsky, the same one who would soon force the emperor to abdicate, as follows:


Just a few days before the collapse of the Romanov dynasty, Interior Minister Alexander Protopopov, appointed to his post on the recommendation of the "elder" Rasputin and the personal request of the empress, convinced the tsar that the police were strong, while the people who loved their tsar were passive:


As for the role of the wife of Nicholas II, on February 25, 1917 she wrote:


On February 26, exactly one day before the army went over to the protesters' side, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna encouraged her husband:


We will discuss in more detail later how the mistakes of Nicholas II, who lost the First World War and his country, were taken into account by Comrade Stalin, who won the Great Patriotic War, and what feedback system he built.