The Level of the Readiness of Russia for World War I Assessed by Pre-Revolutionary, Soviet and Modern Scientists

Abstract

The article examines the problem of the readiness of Russia for World War I. The leading native pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern scientists suggest their vision of this problem. They agreed to the fact that plans of mobilization of the military-political leadership of Russia before the war were based on the idea of transient military campaign. As a result, the standards of mobilizational reserves were extremely defective under the conditions of the beginning long-drawn war. In their works the participants of the World War paid attention to unreadiness of pre-war Russia to total strengthening of material and moral forces. This was displayed in ineffective and unjust system of collecting sets of armed forces. As the result, the idea of obligatory military conscription was lost. The government lacked the sound policy connected with the usage of labour resources in the rear to satisfy the needs of the army in the field in case of the beginning war. The same situation was with organization of work of the whole industry to supply armed forces in case of the Great War. Instead of urgent technical rearmament of industry and improvement of the transport system, the ruling circles of the country made emphasis on peasant economy. They considered its half-subsistant character good for the country in case of war. The peasant economy had to ensure real self-sufficiency of the country in war time. To these strategic miscalculates of superior leadership of pre-war Russia we must add such a fundamental factor, as Russia’s considerable lagging behind the leading countries of the West in connection with the level of labour productivity.

DOI 10.14258/izvasu(2015)3.2-14