IMPERIAL RUSSIA, 1689–1917 - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 32

rival European alliances, led to the outbreak of a continent-wide war in August
1914, later known as World War I.
The war brought irreversible change to Russia. The most significant devel-
opment was the unmanageable strain that the conflict put on the political,
social, and economic system. On the battlefield, Russia suffered an early and
catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Germans at Tannenberg. This set a pat-
tern for consistent Russian defeats in encounters with German forces. In the
political sphere, the war was marked by the failure of the monarchy and its
ministers to direct the military effort adequately. Meanwhile the major institu-
tion to gain prestige during the war was the Duma.
By the close of 1916, the country was in a severe crisis. For the average Rus-
sian, especially in the cities, every day brought shortages of food and fuel. For
soldiers near or at the front, the war seemed a futile effort directed by inept mil-
itary and political leaders. The monarchy in particular found itself discredited by
the war. Nicholas II, never a popular monarch and who in 1915 moved to the
front to be in personal command of his troops, was increasingly seen as weak,
incompetent, and under the influence of his domineering wife and the monk
Grigorii Rasputin. In December 1916, a group of noblemen, including a cousin
of the czar, took matters into their own hands and assassinated Rasputin, the
symbol to many Russians of the monarchy's corruption and decay. But the
assassination failed to stem the disintegration of authority that had set in dur-
ing the war. A harsh winter, ongoing military setbacks, and mounting food
shortages by the first months of 1917 produced a social upheaval of unprece-
dented consequences.