The Russian Army in 1917: The Officer Corps and High Command Face Revolution

Abstract

Of all the factors that led to the fateful events of 1917 in Russia, the war situation was one of the most significant. World War I formed the historical background and catalyst of the revolution. The government’s ineffective policy, the failure of a number of military operations, the colossal material and human losses, and the enormous strain under which the country functioned that was caused by the mobilization of the armed forces and the economy engendered widespread dissatisfaction among large swaths of the population. In this situation, the army began to represent a powerful social force, and the higher military command became an influential participant in political processes. After the February Revolution, the question of war and peace was one of the most difficult problems facing the Provisional Government, and it was the failure to resolve this issue that led to a new coup d’état. The decision to continue to pursue the war and to mobilize an army of millions of soldiers helped to rapidly escalate the political conflict until it eventually erupted into a prolonged and bloody civil war. Modern historians have released promising studies of this sprawling and relevant topic, significantly expanding the problematic field of the history of the Russian Revolution of 1917. These studies have provided opportunities for specialists to use new approaches, and they have, in particular, identified participants in the revolutionary process, determined the role and fate of individual social groups in the revolution, and revealed special types of