Page - 697 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Fall of the Tsar 697 an explosive, revolutionary mood to emerge. If there had been 183 strikes in 1914, most of them for economic reasons, the industrial actions and demonstrations escalated and became increasingly political. In 1915, there had been 1,946 strikes, in 1916 it was 2,306, in which around 1.7 million people already participated, and in the first weeks of 1917 there were 751 strikes, of which 412 already had a political background.1582 Along the entire Russian front, reports multiplied to the effect that the troops no longer obeyed orders as they had before, and that, for example, the VII Siberian Corps had refused to leave the trenches south-east of Ternopil (Tarnopol).1583 The rear areas of the front and, above all, the cities suffered from enormous supply difficulties. Then desertion began. Thousands, tens of thousands of soldiers poured into the hinterland and into the territories and cities that were undersupplied as a result of the scarcity of foodstuffs and the collapse of the transportation system, and in turn increased the problems there.1584 The deserters took a wave of violence with them to the rear. They knew that the penalty for desertion was death, and were prepared to fight back and to sell their life as dearly as possible. They furthermore transferred the feeling of the hope- lessness of their struggle into the hinterland and the cities. The flame spread to the re- placement personnel and to those who had scraped by with a particular type of military existence, namely the sailors in the Baltic Sea. They had been drafted at the beginning of the war, but since there had hardly been any naval war to speak of in the Baltic Sea, their service had only been characterised by drill, chicanery and, finally, poor provisions. Here, for the first time, we observe the phenomenon that the non-utilisation, the long idle periods and the fact of being enclosed on the ships in the ports had caused condi- tions to emerge in the navy that created a revolutionary climate like scarcely anything else. One year later, very similar phenomena could be observed in Kotor and, then, in Wilhelmshaven.1585 The Russian Revolution originated as a revolution of the base zone and the hinterland, was communicated to the front and passed on from there in two directions : further to the rear, but also forwards to the enemy positions, those of the Germans as well as the Imperial and Royal troops. At the beginning of March 1917, the workers in Petrograd went on strike. It was intended that the Petersburg garrison be deployed against them. The bulk of the sol- diers refused to shoot at the demonstrating workers. The Speaker of the House in the State Duma, the Russian parliament, suggested to the Tsar that a new government be formed. The Tsar declined and wanted to adjourn the Duma. The Duma, however, established itself on a permanent basis. At this point, the Tsar departed from Petrograd and sought refuge in the headquarters of General Rusky, who commanded the north- ern front. On 15 March, the Tsar abdicated in favour of his brother, Grand Duke Mi- chael, who shortly thereafter likewise passed over the throne. Under the leadership of Duke Georgy Lvov, a provisional government was formed, which, however, confirmed its alliance loyalty to the Entente and called for the fight against the ‘reactionary’ Cen-