What did World War 1 do to Russia?

Answer 1

The Russian Empire was a great colonial empire, covering about 1/6th of the globe. It was ruled by arguably the most intolerant, autocratic ruler class in the world - the Romanov Czars. The oppression of the common Russian people and the colonial populations was such that revolt was always near the surface. Russian losses in WWI were large both in manpower and money, putting great strain on this already crumbling system.

German leaders noted the shabiness of the Russian government and took steps to hasten its demise, mainly by assisting Lenin in his return to Russia to lead the revolution.

With the Russian revolution in late 1917, peace was finally secured on the 'eastern front'. Germany offered Russia very benign and generous terms in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

In this treaty Germany really asked for nothing from Russia except for her to stop shooting at Germans. Additionally Germany used her position to enable a few (but hardly all) of the enslaved colonial people of Russia a little freedom. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, and Ukraine all secured freedom from Russian tyranny due to the efforts of Germany.

Unfortunately, Germany quickly was faced with a new adversary, America. Instead of securing the political/military stalemate desired in the west, the Germans were forced into a hideous treaty that virtually guaranteed future conflict. Germany lost 15% of her land, land that was populated almost entirely by ethnic Germans. Her colonies were stripped away, not just a few as in Russia's case, but 100%. Unlike Germany's lenient treatment of Russia, Germany was forced to pay reparations, reduce her army, scuttle her navy, give up all patents and trademarks, and (incredibly) be forced to accept full responsibility for the war (the French and British knew that Serbian sponsored terrorists had triggered the war and that Russia was first to start the military movements, but they still insisted Germany sign this lie).

This left Germany in no position to enforce the Russian treaty of 1917. The Russian Red Army quickly crushed all opposition and swiftly moved to retake their lost colonies. Ukraine was first, seized in the 1920's. It would not regain independence for 70 years. In 1939, Poland was stripped of 50% of her land by Russia. Finland was attacked and forced to cede huge amounts of land. Estonia, Latvia and Estonia were re-occupied using force.

The Russian empire of the Czars thus became the new Russian Empire of the Communists/Soviets. Its new rulers were just as bad or worse than before in the persons of Lenin and Stalin.

It is one of the great anomalies of history that the liberal thinking nations of France, Britain, and the USA allied themselves to this monster nation not just once in WWI, but twice, through WWII. Certainly, Germany in 1914 was one of the most progressive nations on earth. The alliance of democratic Britain with tyranical Czarist Russia to destroy the German nation remains to this day a very strange alliance, near without historical precedent.

Well, the above, while certainly true in many senses, is overtly sympathetic to Germany and a bit overly harsh on Russia.

Germany in 1914 was no democratic place. It was a highly autocratic, aristocratic de-facto military Dictatorship, run by the Kaiser. The treaty of Brest-Litovsk is NOT a benign, nice little treaty. Perhaps, compared to the Treaty of Versailles, it is, but otherwise, it's a rather demanding treaty, stripping Russia of considerable amounts of territory. Germany did not do this out of the kindness of their heart, rather, it did it for reasons we would now call realpolitik. Having buffer states next to a large regional power was of significant advantage to Germany.

As to the question at hand - World War One exposed the corrupt and incompetent administration of Czar Nicholas for what it was. Nicholas was a completely useless leader, unable to run an efficient bureaucracy or military, and the massive losses of the Russian Army emphasized this fact. The end result of his complete mismanagement of the country was his overthrow in 1917, by mostly democratic elements from within Russia.

Unfortunately, this Transition Government (which was set up as a Parliamentary representative democracy) made the horrible mistake of acceding to Allied pressure and continuing the War with Germany. The War was incredibly unpopular amongst the Russian public, and the continued poor showing of the Russian Army did nothing to instill confidence in the new government.

Into this volatile mix was thrust Lenin, at the instigation of the German High Command, who saw the revolutionary as a means to instill chaos in Russia, allowing Germany to force Russia out of the war. As a short-sighted strategy, this worked wonders.

Lenin arrive in St Petersburg, and promptly began organizing a resistance to the Transitional Government. A few months after his arrival, the dissatisfaction with the ongoing war and Lenin's efforts led directly to the start of the Russian Civil War, which was eventually won by the Communists.

In the end, WW1 completely remade Russia politically, turning it from an autocratic monarchy into a dictatorial Communist state. Sadly, little changed for the common peasant; the change in government merely replaced one strongman for another, both keeping their boot firmly pressed on the neck of the peasantry. The new Communist government was, however, much more efficient at industrializing the country, which quickly resulted in Russia becoming a top-five industrial power, whereas previously, it was an industrial non-entity.
The First World War led to the end of Tsarist Autocracy in Russia and ultimately led to the November Revolution of 1917 in which the Communist (Bolshevik) Party took control of the Russian Government. Although the Russians were at first very patriotic in their participation of the war, the social conditions in most of the major cities soon started to deteriorate as the war dragged on. The Tsar made a fatal mistake by assuming control of the Russian army on the front, which ultimately made him responsible for any setbacks the Russian army suffered. With the Tsar away the Tsarina, a German Princess by birth, was increasingly viewed with suspicion by the masses. She also became quite unpopular for her association with Rasputin, a mystic, who claimed to have healed the Tsar's son from haemophilia. However, due to food becoming scares, rapid price increases and very harsh weather conditions revolts broke out in Petrograd. The Tsar ordered his soldiers to crush the revolts, but the soldiers joined up with the masses and the Tsar abdicated after realising he had lost the support of the military - brining to an end 300 years of Romanov rule in Russia. A Provisional Government was set up, but the new government had no success in implementing a liberal-democratic constitution in Russia during the period March to November 1917. The Provisional Government, under pressure from the Allied European countries also continued Russia's participation in the war - leading to greater antagonism among the people, especially the soldiers. Thus, it was relatively essay for Lenin and Trotsky to seize power from the Provisional Government, ultimately leading to the formation of the USSR.

Answer 2

WW1 ---- German hostile attack land ruined homes ruined homeless starving people TAXES population dropped due to death higher taxes paranoia fear weapon use alies higher taxes to buy more machinery angry people strikes/demonstrations = RIOTS

more damage to land less money for basic living needs deaths due to starvation and freezing challenging the tsar angry leaders assaaination Siberia

Answer 3

it Put an end to the Russian Empire and gave Birth to the USSR

Answer 4

after world war one (actually, even before the end of world war one) Russia fell into civil war. the Tsars were disposed by communists.