The Impact World War 1 Had on Russia

Military
• Some Russians saw this ad indicative of a new mood in the country.
• Although, not everyone in Russia had such optimism and enthusiasm about the war.
• In February 1914, Peter Durnovo, the 70-year old ex Minister of Internal Affairs, and the leader of the Conservative group in the state council, wrote a memorandum in which he argued that a war with Germany would be disastrous for Russia.
• He dreaded the economic outcome of war, arguing that Russia did not have the financial resources to engage in a major European conflict and that either victory or dear would bring unfavourable economic consequences.
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• The first winter of war was one of stalemate.
• Russias communications with its allies was hampered by the entry of Turkey into the war, alongside Germany and Austria.
• This meant that the Russian Black Sea ports were useless, not just for naval traffic but also for normal commerce.
• Warsaw fell to the Germans in August and Russia lost control of all its industrially important Polish provinces.
• The Navy minister himself has doubts about the ability of Russias Baltic fleet to take on the German navy.
• Any success was short-lived or limited.
Economy
• Fighting a European war placed great strains on the Russian economy.
• Before 1914, Germany had been Russia’s largest trading partner.
• The market for Russian exports disappeared overnight and Russian industry was deprived of imports from Germany.
• Trade was severely disrupted by the blockade of the Baltic, the closure of the Black Sea and the limitation placed by the Swedish government on trade in arms across its territory.
• The only possible outlets for Russian trade were the arctic ports of Archangel and Murmansk and the Far Eastern ports at the end of the Trans-Siberian railway.
• There was a great difficulty of access for Russian business, as each was located at the end of a long and inadequate railway line.
• The volume of Russia’s foreign trade declined sharply. During...