The End of the Russian Empire

Book excerpt: THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION—FROM THE TSARS TO THE SOVIETS This economic, political, and social study by a distinguished Russian authority uses a wealth of contemporary evidence—state documents, memoirs, correspondence, statistics—to analyze “the forces which brought about the fall of the Tsars and paved the way for Bolshevism” in the crucial years 1914-1917. Beginning with a survey of the state of the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I, Professor Florinsky shows how the Imperial system failed to meet the challenges raised by that conflict and why the Bolsheviks were able to assume control of the national Revolution. Every aspect of the collapse is scrutinized, from the absolutist tradition inherited by Nicholas II to the estrangement of the intelligentsia, from the peasant masses, whose only aims were peace and land. The principals are strikingly portrayed—Tsar Nicholas, Tsaritsa Alexandra, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, and Rasputin—as are the breakdown of the ministerial bureaucracy, the impotence of the Duma and Union of Zemstvos, and the colossal losses of the army. This richly documented account of the Provisional Government’s failure to meet the nation’s Revolutionary goals and of the Bolsheviks’ spectacular success in formulating and giving voice to Russian aspirations is basic to an understanding of the origins of today’s Soviet state.