What Happened To Russia's Role In World War I After The Bolsheviks Took Control Of Russia?

World War I saw the crumbling of empires, and amongst those to collapse was the Russian empire of Czar Nicholas II. When Nicholas declared war against Germany and Austro-hungarian empire in July 1914, he was absolute ruler of a realm of nearly 150 million people that stretched from Central Europe to the Pacific and the edge of Afghanistan to the Arctic.

Less than iii years later, in March 1917, subsequently soldiers in Petrograd joined striking workers in protest against Nicholas' rule, the czar was forced to abdicate. The post-obit July, he and his family unit were herded into a cellar past Bolshevik revolutionaries and shot and stabbed to death, ending the Romanov dynasty's three centuries of rule. Soon, among the ruins of the Russian empire, the Soviet Marriage arose to become a globe power.

Lookout: Secrets of the Romanovs on HISTORY Vault

Whether Globe War I was a game-changer that caused the Russian Revolution, or merely hastened the inevitable collapse of an outdated monarchy unsuitable to compete in the modern earth, is a question that historians continue to debate.

"Russia was more unstable, and had more serious internal dilemmas than many other groovy powers, and then the degree to which the shock of war resulted in chaos was correspondingly more intense," explains Steven Miner, a history professor at Ohio Academy who specializes in Russia, the Soviet Matrimony and Eastern Europe. "Plummet minus state of war was possible, just in my view not certain. Involvement in the calamity of war made it nearly inevitable."

World War I Exposes Russia'due south Weaknesses

Prior to the state of war, Russian federation was at a crucial crossroads. "Some contend that Russia was slowly evolving more than modern political and social institutions, that it had a vibrant culture, a highly educated aristocracy, that it had survived the upheaval of the 1905 revolution, and that it had the fastest-growing economic system in the globe before 1914," Miner says. But equally he notes, the Czarist authorities faced enough of threats to stability, from dire urban working conditions to labor strife that the Czar's soldiers tried to put down by massacring gold miners in Siberia in 1912. To make matters worse, Nicholas Ii was starting to roll back the limited democratic reforms that he had agreed to in 1905.

The antiquated czarist regime's decision to hang onto power hindered modernization efforts, as a result, "the Russian Empire trailed backside the balance of Europe in terms of economic and industrial force," says Lynne Hartnett, an acquaintance professor of history at Villanova University and an expert on the Russian Revolution.

That fabricated Russia vulnerable in a state of war, because its factories just couldn't produce enough arms and armament to equip the Czar's i.4 meg-human being army. At the start of the war, the Russians had 800,000 men in uniform who didn't even have rifles to railroad train with, and those who did often had to make do with obsolete weapons that were nearly 40 years one-time, according to Jamie H. Cockfield's 1999 book, With Snow on Their Boots. Some soldiers had to go into boxing unarmed, until they could pick up a rifle from another soldier who had been killed or wounded. And Russia's output of bullets initially was just 13,000 rounds a day, so they had to make every shot count.

Russian Military Loses Confidence in Monarch

To chemical compound the lack of preparedness for war, Nicholas Ii too led the Russian military, a position that he didn't take the training or feel to do.

"He fancied himself a military strategist, but he was not," says Mayhill Fowler, a Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies professor at Stetson University. As she notes, Nicholas disregarded a prewar memorandum from i of his advisors, warning that in the event of a defeat by Germany, "social revolution in its most farthermost class is inevitable."

It also didn't assist that when Nicholas left St. petersburg to join the troops, he left backside his High german wife, Czarina Alexandra, whose brusque demeanor and distaste for Russian culture made her unpopular with the Russian populace.

The Romanovs, WWI — The Romanovs visiting a regiment during World War I, c. 1917. L-R: 1000 Duchess Anastasia, K Duchess Olga, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and Chiliad Duchess Maria, along with Kuban Cossacks.

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The war quickly turned into a disaster, with Russia suffering a brutal defeat at the Boxing of Tannenberg only a few weeks into the war. Some 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, and virtually 100,000 were taken prisoner by the Germans.

"Things didn't Improve as the months dragged on," Hartnett says. "Past the end of the year, the Russian empire had lost more one million men." Russia's ammunitions were all but wearied and the country's infrastructure was not equipped to efficiently resupply troops.

Though peasant soldiers suffered the about casualties, "for government stability, the virtually serious losses were among the officer corps," Miner explains. Their loss weakened the army so much, he notes, "that when push came to shove in 1917, the army was not a reliable defender of the monarchy."

READ More: World War I Battles: Timeline

Russians Retreat

By the spring of 1915, Russian troops had to retreat before a combined German language-Austrian onslaught. "Along with the horrifying big number of Russian soldiers killed and wounded, this great retreat led to a massive number of refugees," Hartnett notes. Those hordes of desperate people streamed into Russian cities that already were struggling under the burden of the state of war effort.

"Store shelves were emptied of their products and inflation soared," Hartnett says. "With losses mounting on the front and hunger and desperation growing at home, the Russian government felt the pressure."

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But Nicholas II somehow didn't grasp just how bad of a situation he was in. As Hartnett notes, he clung to the conventionalities that he and the Russian people had an unshakeable mystical bond.

As the czar saw things, "his family had been in ability for 300 years, and he was appointed by God," Fowler explains. His obliviousness is apparent in letters that he wrote to his wife, in which he mentions news of protests against his regime with mundane family unit matters. "He'due south only not aware that his empire is in trouble," Fowler says.

Breadlines Pb to Rebellion

Wartime Russia still produced sufficient food during the war to feed its population, but fifty-fifty so, Russians still went hungry. "The problem was not production," Miner notes, "only rather distribution and send, which led to periodic shortages." The inefficiency of the czarist state began to hollow out political support.

The Duma, Russia'south elected legislature, couldn't do much most Nicholas' mismanagement of the land, since he had the ability to dissolve it if members dared to disagree with him. Nevertheless, "prominent members wondered aloud if the recent decisions fabricated past the czar's government were the consequence of stupidity or treason," Hartnett says.

By early 1917, Russia was in throes of a crisis and then severe that Nicholas could no longer ignore it.

"Breadlines grew in many cities and most notably in the capital letter of Saint petersburg," Hartnett explains. At the massive Putilov mill in St. petersburg, workers went on strike in the early days of March, enervating college wages to compensate for the high cost of nutrient. Rather than meeting the workers' demands, he says, the factors responded with a lock out, prompting thousands of workers to continue the strike.

A few days subsequently, on International Women's Solar day, tens of thousands of people marched in the streets of Petrograd, with striking manufactory workers joining forces with mothers who demanded food for their children.

A Russian bread line guarded by the Imperial Police, March 1917. — A Russian staff of life line guarded past the Purple Police, March 1917.

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"This led to the showtime of the finish of the Romanov autocracy," Harnett says. Three days into the protests, the czar'southward officials ordered the military and policy to break up the proests—using whatever ways. The ensuing violence, says Harnett, claimed the lives of nigh 100. And on the next twenty-four hours, soldiers joined the demonstrators.

The army had plenty. Arbiter Nicholas' generals convinced him to stride downwardly. Three days afterward, Nicholas II abdicated in favor of his blood brother, Michael, who refused the crown. The reign of the Romanovs was over.

READ More: Why Czar Nicholas Ii and the Romanovs Were Murdered

Germans Adjust Return of Vladimir Lenin

The war had led to Nicholas losing his grip on power, but the February Revolution (which has that name because nether the former Russian calendar, its events occurred in February) was just the start. The czarist regime was replaced by the Provisional Authorities, equanimous of moderate Duma deputies, socialists and liberals who bickered among themselves as they tried to get Russia under control again. The new government tried to continue the war and honor the alliances made by the monarchy, while it searched for an exit strategy.

The Germans, eager to get Russia out of the war so that it could concentrate on fighting France and Britain, decided to destabilize the Provisional Government. They arranged for Vladimir Lenin, a communist revolutionary who headed the Bolshevik party, to return from European exile to Russia in a secret sealed train. When he arrived, his slogan was "Peace, Land, Bread," an entreatment to Russians who were tired of the war.

Vladimir Lenin, Lenin and Manifestation, 1919, State History Museum, Moscow — Vladimir Lenin, 1919. Found in the collection of Moscow's State History Museum.

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"The war also helped requite Lenin a platform for his coup in Oct," Fowler says.

Alexander Kerensky, the final head of the provisional government, didn't help his side by leading what turned out to exist a disastrous offensive confronting the Germans and Austrians in July of 1917. "Casualties soared and so did desertions, helped by regular Bolshevik propaganda among armed forces units," Hartnett explains.

When Kerensky tried to send pro-Bolshevik units to the front end, soldiers took to the streets in an insurgence against the Provisional Authorities that became known as the July Days. While that insurrection failed, Kerensky and the Provisional Regime were doomed. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power.

The following March, the new Bolshevik government of Russian federation signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany, Austro-hungarian empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, giving up ane million square miles of territory to appease the Germans.

World War I, the conflict that had ended the Czarist government, was over for Russia, just there still wouldn't exist peace. Civil war bankrupt out afterward that twelvemonth betwixt the Bolsheviks and opponents to the regime. Ultimately, the Bolsheviks prevailed, and in 1922, a treaty was signed to establish the Spousal relationship of Soviet Socialist Republics.