Matthew Rendle
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199236251
- eISBN:
- 9780191717154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236251.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the impact of the First World War on the tsarist elite, arguing that concerns over Russia's military performance and over Nicholas II fostered a desire for political change. The ...
More
This chapter examines the impact of the First World War on the tsarist elite, arguing that concerns over Russia's military performance and over Nicholas II fostered a desire for political change. The roots of this alienation from the monarchy lay in the 1905 revolution, which saw elites adopt new political methods: creating unions, congresses, and publications. After a disastrous start to the war, the formation of the Progressive Bloc, a coalition of conservative and liberal parties in the Duma, prompted huge arguments among elites in arenas such as the United Nobility over whether to support the Bloc's calls for political change. The feeling that only change would result in military victory, alongside a recognition that the war was dramatically affecting landownership and the composition of the officer corps, prompted the majority of elites to favour some degree of political change by early 1917.Less
This chapter examines the impact of the First World War on the tsarist elite, arguing that concerns over Russia's military performance and over Nicholas II fostered a desire for political change. The roots of this alienation from the monarchy lay in the 1905 revolution, which saw elites adopt new political methods: creating unions, congresses, and publications. After a disastrous start to the war, the formation of the Progressive Bloc, a coalition of conservative and liberal parties in the Duma, prompted huge arguments among elites in arenas such as the United Nobility over whether to support the Bloc's calls for political change. The feeling that only change would result in military victory, alongside a recognition that the war was dramatically affecting landownership and the composition of the officer corps, prompted the majority of elites to favour some degree of political change by early 1917.
Matthew Rendle
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199236251
- eISBN:
- 9780191717154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236251.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the Russian nobility from February to late summer 1917. Initially, the nobility played a prominent role in national and local government, and this was something that its main ...
More
This chapter examines the Russian nobility from February to late summer 1917. Initially, the nobility played a prominent role in national and local government, and this was something that its main body, the United Nobility, sought to promote. Increasingly, however, the popular movement forced nobles out of local government as the former privileged classes, whilst their prominence in the Provisional Government declined. The increasing social conflict and attacks on former elites forced the United Nobility to focus on preserving the nobility. Yet nobles seemed unconvinced that this class‐based body was effective, and instead favoured new, professional unions that represented particular interest groups within the elites, such as the Union of Homeowners. An attempt to transform the United Nobility into such a group, the Society of Nobles, to safeguard its property was a hesitant process.Less
This chapter examines the Russian nobility from February to late summer 1917. Initially, the nobility played a prominent role in national and local government, and this was something that its main body, the United Nobility, sought to promote. Increasingly, however, the popular movement forced nobles out of local government as the former privileged classes, whilst their prominence in the Provisional Government declined. The increasing social conflict and attacks on former elites forced the United Nobility to focus on preserving the nobility. Yet nobles seemed unconvinced that this class‐based body was effective, and instead favoured new, professional unions that represented particular interest groups within the elites, such as the Union of Homeowners. An attempt to transform the United Nobility into such a group, the Society of Nobles, to safeguard its property was a hesitant process.
