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The Russian Quality of Life, 1914–1917

 

Abstract

Contrary to the views of some historians, prices during the First World War rose faster than wage increases, leading to declining living standards and fueling popular unrest, thus contributing to the 1917 revolutions.

Notes

1. A.F. Kiselev and E.M. Shchagin, eds., Noveishaia istoriia Otechestva. XX vek (Moscow, 1998), vol. 1, pp. 163, 166, 181.

2. O.S. Porshneva, “Problemy voiny i mira v obshchestvennoi bor’be na Urale, 1914–1918,” in Pervaia mirovaia voina. Prolog XX veka (Moscow, 1998), pp. 467–68.

3. L. Kheimson [Leopold H. Haimson], “Ob istokakh revoliutsii,” Otechestvennaia istoriia, 1993, no. 6, pp. 3–15; A.B. Ulam [Adam Ulam], Bol’sheviki: prichiny i posledstviia perevorota 1917 g. (Moscow, 2004); R. Paips [Richard Pipes], Russkaia revoliutsiia, 3 bks. (Moscow, 2005), bk. 1: Agoniia starogo rezhima, 1905–1917; M. Levin [Moshe Lewin], Sovetskii vek (Moscow, 2008); Sh. Fitspatrik [Sheila Fitzpatrick], “Klassy i problemy klassovoi prinadlezhnosti v Sovetskoi Rossii 20-kh godov,” Skepsis: nauchno-prosvetitel’skii zhurnal, http://scepsis.ru/library/id_543.html. [All URLs accessed September 2016.—Trans.]

4. E. Kheresh [Elisabeth Heresch], Nikolai II (Rostov on Don, 1998), pp. 216–17, 255–56, 279–80 [translated from the Russian—Trans.].

5. Michael Kort, The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001), p. 34.

6. See, for example, P. Gregori [Paul Gregory], Ekonomicheskii rost Rossiiskoi imperii (konets XIX–nachalo XX v.): Novye podchety i otsenki (Moscow, 2003), p. 36.

7. Mirovye voiny XX veka, 4 bks. (Moscow 2002), bk. 1: Pervaia mirovaia voina: istoricheskii ocherk [n.p., n.d.], p. 399.

8. I.V. Narskii, “Frontovoi opyt russkikh soldat, 1914–1916 gody,” Novaia i noveishaia istoriia, 2005, no. 1, pp. 201–2.

9. S.A. Tolstoguzov, “Finansovyi krizis i revoliutsiia v Rossii,” in Padenie imperii, revoliutsiia i grazhdanskaia voina v Rossii (Moscow, 2010), p. 43.

10. V.M. Rynkov, “Pervyi god Pervoi mirovoi voiny—sel’skoe khoziaistvo Tomskoi gubernii vo vtoroi polovine 1914–pervoi polovine 1915 g.,” in Sibirskaia derevnia: istoriia, sovremennoe sostoianie, perspektivy razvitiia. Materialy VI mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, 30–31 marta 2006 g.(Omsk, 2006), pt. 1, p. 254.

11. A.A. Il’iukhov, Zhizn’ v epokhu peremen: material’noe polozhenie gorodskikh zhitelei v gody revoliutsii i Grazhdanskoi voiny (1917–1921 gg.) (Moscow, 2007).

12. See S.Iu. Shishkina, “Patriotizm i tolerantnosti v obshchestvennykh nastroeniiakh v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (na materialakh Zaural’ia),” Sibirskii istoricheskii zhurnal, 2006, no. 7, p. 62; Shishkina, “Linii konfliktov v rossiiskoi provintsii v period Pervoi mirovoi voiny (na primere Zaural’ia),” in Lokal’nye soobshchestva imperskoi Rossii v usloviiakh sotsial’nykh konfliktov (podkhody i praktika v sovremennykh regional’nykh issledovaniiakh) (Omsk, 2009), p. 179.

13. I.I. Krott, “Sel’skoe khoziaistvo Zapadnoi Sibiri, 1914–1917 gg.,” Voprosy istorii, 2001, no. 11, pp. 103, 114–15.

14. See O prichinakh russkoi revoliutsii (Moscow, 2010); B.N. Mironov, Blagosostoianie naseleniia i revoliutsiia v imperskoi Rossii, XVIII–nachalo XX veka (Moscow, 2010); and Mironov, “Revoliutsiia kak zerkalo kachestva zhizni?,” Rodina, 2010, no. 9, pp. 88–95.

15. B.N. Mironov, “Strasti po istoricheskoi antropometrii,” Voprosy istorii, 2011, no. 4, p. 136.

16. B.N. Mironov, “Uroki revoliutsii 1917 goda, ili Komu na Rusi zhit’ plokho,” Rodina, 2011, no. 12, p. 11.

17. Mironov, Blagosostoianie naseleniia, p. 274.

18. S.A. Nefedov, “Uroven’ zhizni naseleniia v dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii,” Voprosy istorii, 2011, no. 5, p. 132.

19. B.N. Mironov, “Dostatochno li proizvodilos’ pishchevykh produktov v Rossii v XIX–nachale XX v.?,” Ural’skii istoricheskii vestnik, 2008, no. 3 (20), pp. 83–95; Mironov, “Modernizatsiia imperskoi Rossii i blagosostoianie naseleniia,” Rossiiskaia istoriia, 2009, no. 2, pp. 137–55; Mironov, Blagosostoianie naseleniia; Mironov, “Strasti po istoricheskoi antropometrii,” pp. 122–39; M.A. Davydov, “K voprosu o potreblenii naseleniia v Rossii v kontse XIX–nachale XX v.,” Rossiiskoi istoriia, 2009, no. 2, pp. 168–76; S.A. Nefedov, Demograficheski-strukturnyi analiz sotsial’no-ekonomicheskoi istorii Rossii, konets XV–nachalo XX veka (Ekaterinburg, 2005), pp. 242–386; Nefedov, “Vliianie revoliutsiia 1917 g. na dinamiku protrebleniia pishchevykh produktov,” Ural’skii istoricheskii vestnik, 2008, no. 3 (20), 96–107; Nefedov, “O sviazi demograficheskikh pokazatelei i potrebleniia v Rossii kontsa XIX–nachala XX v.,” Rossiiskaia istoriia, 2009, no. 2, pp. 155–62.

20. G.D. Alekseeva and A.V. Manykin, Istoricheskaia nauka v Rossii XXI veka (Moscow, 2011), p. 148.

21. Andrei Markevich and Mark Harrison, “Great War, Civil War, and Recovery: Russia’s National Income, 1913 to 1928,” Journal of Economic History, vol. 71, no. 3 (2001), pp. 672–703.

23. See Rossiia v mirovoi voine, 1914–1918 goda (v tsifrakh) (Moscow, 1925), p. 18.

24. Vestnik sel’skogo khoziaistva, 1917, no. 7, p. 7; Rossiia v mirovoi voine, 1914–1918 goda, p. 49.

25. A.M. Anfimov, Rossiiskaia derevnia v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny (1914–fevral’ 1917 g.) (Moscow, 1962), pp. 188–89.

26. Naselenie Rossii v XX veke (3 vols.; Moscow, 2000), vol. 1, p. 41.

27. Naselenie Rossii v XX veke, p. 50.

28. S.A. Klepikov, Pitanie russkogo krest’ianstva (Moscow, 1920), pt. 1: Normy potrebleniia vazhneishikh pishchevykh produkutov, p. 25.

29. See V.B. Bezgin, Krest’ianskaia povsednevnost’ (traditsii kontsa XIX–nachala XX veka) (Moscow and Tambov, 2004), p. 26; and V.A. Berdinskikh, Krest’ianskaia tsivilizatsiia v Rossii (Moscow, 2001), p. 11.

30. Quoted from V.I. Binshtok and L.S. Kaminskii, Narodnoe pitanie i narodnoe zdravie (Moscow and Leningrad, 1929), p. 14.

31. R.M. Kabo, Potreblenie gorodskogo naseleniia Rossii (po materialam biudzhetnykh i vyborochnykh isledovanii) (Moscow, 1918), p. 35.

32. S.G. Strumilin, Na planovom fronte (1920–1930 gg.) (Moscow, 1958), pp. 40, 45.

33. E.K. Rozina, “Vyplata prodovol’stvennogo posobiia semeistvam nizhnikh chinov v Kamyshinskom i Tsaritsynskom uezdakh v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny,” in Voinskii podvig zashchitnikov otechestva: traditsii, preemstvennost’, novatsii. Materialy mezhregional’naia nauchno-prakticheskaia konferentsiia (Vologda, 2000), pt. 2, p. 289.

34. E.K. Maksimov and V.P. Totfalushin, Saratovskoe Povolzh’e v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (Saratov, 2007), p. 8.

35. Reguliruiushchie meropriiatiia pravitel’stvennoi i obshchestvennoi vlasti v khoziaistvennoi zhizni za vremia voiny (Petrograd, 1917), p. 27; A. Diks, Voina i narodnoe khoziaistvo: po opytu Germanii v mirovuiu voinu 1914–1919 gg. (Moscow, 1926), p. 68.

36. M.V. Os’kin, “Russkaia armiia i prodovol’stvennyi krizis v 1914–1917 gg.,” Voprosy istorii, 2010, no. 3, p. 146.

37. R.E. Vaisberg, Den’gi i tseni (podpol’nyi rynok v period “voennogo kommunizma”) (Moscow, 1925), p. 47.

38. Ermak (Tiumen), 28 July 1914, 6 January 1915.

39. Ocherki istorii Moskovskoi organizatsii KPSS, 1883–1965 (Moscow, 1966), p. 182.

40. Anfimov, Rossiiskaia derevnia v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny, p. 142.

41. N.D. Kondrat’ev, Rynok khlebov i ego regulirovanie vo vremia voiny i revoliutsii (Moscow, 1991), p. 146.

42. Ibid., pp. 344–45, 351.

43. P.I. Liashchenko, Istoriia narodnogo khoziaistva SSSR, 4th ed. (Moscow, 1956), vol. 2: Kapitalizm, p. 647.

45. Ia.A. Golubinov, “Prodovol’stvennyi vopros v Srednem Povolzh’e v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny” (abstract of Candidate of History diss., Samara State University, 2009), pp. 9–10.

46. Dvizhenie tsen na predmety massovogo potrebleniia v gody voiny (Samara, 1916), pt. 1, p. 10.

47. Statisticheskii obzor Orenburgskoi gubernii za 1910 god (Orenburg, 1911), pp. 41–42; Tseny na produkty sel’skogo khoziaistva na bazarakh Orenburgskoi gubernii za 1910 god (po soobshcheniiam dobrovol’nykh korrespondentov) (za aprel’ 1917 goda) (Orenburg, 1917), pp. 5–6.

48. See Tseny na produkty sel’skogo khoziaistva, pp. 2–3; V.F. Glukhovskii, “Razvitie khlebnoi torgovli na Iuzhnom Urale v kontse XIX–nachale XX veka i ee znachenie v prodovol’stvennom obespechenii naroda,” in Agrarnoe i prodovol’stvennoe razvitie Rossii v XVIII–XX vekakh: porogi bezopasnosti. Sbornik statei (Orenburg, 2008), p. 58.

49. M.A. Tolstaia, “V gody Pervoi mirovoi…,” in Stranitsy istorii Podmoskov’ia: uchebnoe posobie (Kolomna, 2001), pt. 3, pp. 39–40.

50. N.F. Tagirova, “Tseny na khleb v Srednem Povolzh’e v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny,” in Istoriki i istoriia v meniaiushchemsia mire: materialy konferentsii, posviashchennoi 110-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia professora E.I. Medvedeva (Samara, 2003), p. 72.

51. Russkii rubl’. Dva veka istorii, XIX–XX vv. (Moscow, 1994), p. 178.

52. Russkii rubl’, p. 179.

54. Tomskii oblast’: istoricheskii ocherk (Tomsk, 1994), p. 226.

55. Volzhskii den’ (Samara), 1 January 1917.

56. Tomskii oblast’: istoricheskii ocherk, p. 224.

57. Quoted from M.P. Iroshnikov and A.Z. Vakser, Rossiia v XX veke: narod, vlast’, voiny, revoliutsii, obshchestvo (St. Petersburg, 2005), pp. 161–62.

58. “Bezhenskii vopros i obshchestvennye organizatsii v Rossii,” Obshchestvennyi vrach, 1916, no. 2, pp. 89–90; “Zhertvy velikoi evropeiskoi voiny,” Obshchestvennyi vrach, 1916, no. 2, p. 95; Pirogovskii s’’ezd vrachei i predstavitelei, vrachebno-sanitarnykh organizatsii zemstv i gorodov po vrachebno-sanitarnym voprosam v sviazi s usloviiam nastoiashchego vremeni, Petrograd, 13–18 aprelia 1916 g. (Zhurnaly i postavleniia) (Petrograd, 1916), pp. 35, 85.

59. Central State Archive of Samara Region, f. 3, op. 132, d. 58, l. 137.

60. Krott, “Sel’skoe khoziaistvo Zapadnoi Sibiri,” p. 107.

61. Volzhskii den’ (Samara), 11 January 1917.

62. See S.Iu. Shishkina, “Trudovye resursy kak faktor stabil’nosti ekonomicheskogo razvitiia sel’skogo khoziaistva Zaural’ia v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny,” Tiumenskii istoricheskii sbornik (Tiumen, 2002), pt. 5, p. 111.

63. Iu.P. Gorelov, “Priem bezhentsev v Sibiri v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny,” in Sibir’: XX vek (Kemerovo, 2002), pt. 4, pp. 66, 70.

64. N.L. Pushkareva and P.P. Shcherbinin, “Organizatsiia prizreniia semei nizhnikh chinov v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny,” Zhurnal issledovanii sotsial’noi politiki, vol. 3, no. 2 (2005), pp. 157–58; M.G. Lapaeva and A.P. Lapaev, Ekonomika Orenburgskoi oblasti (1743–2004 gg.) (Orenburg, 2006), p. 60; http://www.siberia-cossack.org/?pid=111.

66. Volzhskii den’, 19 July 1917.

67. Pamiatnaia knizhka Samarskoi gubernii na 1916 god (Samara, 1916), p. 32 (separate pagination).

68. B.B. Veselovskii, Kommunal’noe khoziaistvo v tsifrakh i diagrammakh, 1917–1927 gg. (Moscow, 1928), p. 41.

69. M.A Bravina, “Povsednevnaia zhizn’ Simbirska v usloviiakh revoliutsii i grazhdanskoi voiny (1917–1922 gg.)”, (abstract of Candidate of History diss., Cheboksary, 2008), p. 15.

70. http://www.nadzor.ru/topics/improvement/diseases/current/448826 [“Account suspended” as of September 2016—Trans.].

71. Quoted from Ocherki istorii Moskovskoi organizatsii KPSS, p. 182.

72. A.N. Sysin, “Sanitarnye meropriatiia Vserossiiskogo Soiuza gorodov (s nachala voiny do 1 marta 1916 g.),” Isvestiia Vserossiiskogo Soiuza gorodov, 1916, nos. 29–30.

73. http://vivovoco.rsl.ru/VV/PAPERS/HISTORY/HEALTH/HEALTH.HTM [site not found in September 2016—Trans.].

75. “Ulichnye besporiadki i vystupleniia rabochikh v Rossii: po dokumentam Departamenta politsii, 1914–fevral’ 1917 g.,” Istoricheskii arkhiv, 1995, no. 4, p. 93.

76. Novosibirsk. 100 let. Sobytiia. Liudi (Novosibirsk, 1993), pp. 99, 105.

77. O.V. Chudakov, “Sotsial’no-kul’turnaia deiatel’nost’ organov gorodskogo samoupravleniia v Zapadnoi Sibiri v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (1914–fevral’ 1917 goda),” Kul’turologicheskie issledovaniia v Sibiri (Omsk), 2005, no. 3, pp. 70–71.

78. See V.A. Skubnevskii, “Obsledovanie pitaniia naseleniia Omska v 1916 g,” in Problemy istochnikovedeniia istorii Sibiri (Barnaul, 1992), pp. 125–26.

79. Arkhiv istorii truda v Rossii (Petrograd, 1923), bk. 9, pp. 58–59.

80. Trudy I Vserossiiskogo s’’ezda Sovetov narodnogo khoziaistva, 25 maia–4 iiunia 1918 g. (Stenograficheskii otchet) (Moscow, 1918), pp. 382–83.

81. “Biudzhet moskovskikh rabochikh,” Golos truda (Samara), 21 June 1916.

83. S.G. Strumilin, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, 5 vols. [Moscow, 1964], vol. 3, pp. 374–75. In his Wages and Labor Productivity in Russian Industry, 1913–1922 [see note 84], however, Strumilin, however, put a worker’s average monthly wage in 1916 at 92 percent (p. 28).

84. Strumilin, Zarabotnaia plata i proizvoditel’nost’ truda v russkoi promyshlennosti v 1913–1922 gg. (Moscow, 1923), p. 14.

85. Trudy I Vserossiiskogo s’’ezda Sovetov narodnogo khoziaistva, pp. 382–83.

86. See Rabochii klass Sibiri v dooktiabr’skii period (Novosibirsk, 1982), pp. 374–76.

87. Samara Regional State Archive of Sociopolitical History, f. 3500, op. 1, d. 197, ll. 5–6, 11.

88. Binshtok, Kaminskii, Narodnoe pitanie i narodnoe zdravie, p. 54.

89. Voina i obshchestvo v XX veke, 3 bks. (Moscow, 2008), bk. 1: Voina i obshchestvo nakanune i v period Pervoi mirovoi voine, p. 140.

90. See O.N. Znamenskii, Intelligentsiia nakanune Velikogo Oktiabria (fevral’–oktiabr’ 1917 g.) (Leningrad, 1988), p. 27.

91. Istoriia gosudarstva i prava SSSR (Moscow, 1972), pt. 1, p. 622.

93. Povolzhskii vestnik (Kostroma), 28 January 1917.

94. See M.V. Rodzianko, Krushenie imperii (Moscow, 1992), pp. 215–16; A.P. Pogrebinskii, “Sel’skoe khoziaistvo i prodovol’stvennyi vopros v Rossii v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny,” Istoricheskie zapiski (Moscow, 1950), vol. 31, pp. 57–58; A.L. Sidorov, Ekonomicheskoe polozhenie Rossii v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny (Moscow, 1973), p. 493.

95. Politicheskie partii i obshchestvo v Rossii 1914–1917 gg (sbornik statei i dokumentov) (Moscow, 2000), p. 113.

96. Iu.A. Petrov, Dinastiia Riabushinskikh (Moscow, 1997), p. 99.

97. “Tsarskaia okhranka o politicheskom polozhenii v strane v kontse 1916 g.,” Istoricheskii arkhiv, 1960, no. 1, p. 204.

98. “Politicheskoe polozhenie Rossii nakanune Fevral’skoi revoliutsii v zhandarmskom osveshchenii,” Krasnyi arkhiv, 1926, no. 4 (17), pp. 10–11.

99. Quoted from P.N. Miliukov, Vospominaniia (Moscow, 1991), p. 556.

100. Iu.I. Kir’ianov, Sotsial’no-politicheskii protest rabochikh Rossii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (iiul’ 1914 g–fevral’ 1917 gg.) (Moscow, 2005), p. 139. Anfimov, however, provided different data on peasant unrest caused by rising prices in 1916: see Anfimov, Rossiiskaia derevnia v gody pervoi mirovoi voiny, p. 362.

101. M.V. Shilovskii, “Sotsial’no-politicheskie protsessy v sibirskom gorode vo vremia Pervoi mirovoi voiny (iiul’ 1914–fevral’ 1917 g.),” in Sovremennoe istoricheskoe sibirevedenie (Barnaul, 2005), p. 287.

102. “Tsarskaia okhranka o politicheskom polozhenii v strane v kontse 1916 g.,” p. 205.

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