Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The economics of World War I: an overview
- 2 The pity of peace: Germany's economy at war, 1914–1918 and beyond
- 3 Austria-Hungary's economy in World War I
- 4 The Ottoman economy in World War I
- 5 Between the devil and the deep blue sea: the Dutch economy during World War I
- 6 Was the Great War a watershed? The economics of World War I in France
- 7 The United Kingdom during World War I: business as usual?
- 8 Poor Russia, poor show: mobilising a backward economy for war, 1914–1917
- 9 Italy at war, 1915–1918
- 10 Until it's over, over there: the US economy in World War I
- Index
- References
8 - Poor Russia, poor show: mobilising a backward economy for war, 1914–1917
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The economics of World War I: an overview
- 2 The pity of peace: Germany's economy at war, 1914–1918 and beyond
- 3 Austria-Hungary's economy in World War I
- 4 The Ottoman economy in World War I
- 5 Between the devil and the deep blue sea: the Dutch economy during World War I
- 6 Was the Great War a watershed? The economics of World War I in France
- 7 The United Kingdom during World War I: business as usual?
- 8 Poor Russia, poor show: mobilising a backward economy for war, 1914–1917
- 9 Italy at war, 1915–1918
- 10 Until it's over, over there: the US economy in World War I
- Index
- References
Summary
The war taught us much, not only that people suffered, but that those who have the best technology, discipline, and machinery come out on top; it is this that the war taught us, and it is a good thing it taught us
(V. I. Lenin, cited by Bailes, 1978: 49).Introduction
Russia's participation in the First World War began on 19 July 1914 and ended on 26 October 1917 (old style), when the Bolshevik Party seized power. In three and a quarter years Russia conscripted 10 per cent of its population and spent on average around 24 per cent of its national income in each year of war. Russia's premature departure from the war nevertheless brought but temporary respite from conflict. Civil war and foreign intervention erupted in the summer of 1918. Only at the very end of 1920 were peacetime conditions restored, by which time the political and socioeconomic system had undergone a profound transformation. Russia thus experienced a prolonged period of upheaval, characterised by the mobilisation of resources for war and revolution (Holquist, 2002). These processes were accompanied by demographic shocks, depletion of the capital stock, a rupture of external and internal trade, and (by 1918) the collapse of the currency. This chapter devotes particular attention to the behaviour of the major economic variables, providing a quantitative illustration of the impact of war up to and including the Bolshevik Revolution.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Economics of World War I , pp. 235 - 275Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
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