Military and Civilian Governance in the Western Borderlands of the Russian Empire during the First World War

Abstract

On the whole, the civilian and military authorities were able to coordinate and compromise in governing Russia’s western borderlands during the First World War, despite constant military interference in civilian governance and a certain apathy in the center, both of which contributed to administrative disunity from the onset of the war.

Notes

1. M.F. Florinskii, Krizis gosudarstvennogo upravleniia v Rossii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny: Sovet ministrov v 1914–1917 gg. (Leningrad, 1988); R.Sh. Ganelin and Florinskii, “Ot I.L. Goremykina k B.V. Shtiurmeru: Verkhovnaia vlast’ i Sovet ministrov (sentiabr’ 1915–ianvar’ 1916 gg.),” in Rossiia i Pervaia mirovaia voina (Moscow, 1999), pp. 34–48; A.N. Kurtsev, “Bezhentsy Pervoi mirovoi voiny v Rossii,” Voprosy istorii, 1999, no. 8, p. 98–113; E. Lor [Eric Lohr], Russkii natsionalizm i Rossiiskaia imperiia: Kampaniia protiv “vrazheskikh poddannykh” v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (Moscow, 2012); S.G. Nelipovich, “Istochniki po istorii nemetskikh kolonistov v Rossii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (obzor dokumentov Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo voenno-istoricheskogo arkhiva),” in Rossiiskie nemtsy: istoriografiia i istochnikovedenie. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii (Moscow, 1997), p. 107; I.N. Novikova, “Velikoe kniazhestvo Finliandskoe v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny: ot avtonomii k nezavisimosti,” in Voina i obshchestvo v XX veke, bk. 1 (Moscow, 2008), pp. 186–231; I.G. Sobolev, Bor’ba s “nemetskim zasil’em” v Rossii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (St. Petersburg, 2004); A.S. Senin, Voennoe ministerstvo Vremennogo pravitel’stva (Moscow, 1995); Senin, Ministerstvo putei soobshcheniia v 1917 godu (Moscow, 2009).

2. Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii III, vol. 12 (St. Petersburg, 1892), no. 8757.

3. Ibid.

4. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (St. Petersburg, 1999). p. 35.

5. Sbornik uzaknonenii, a takzhe mer i rasporiazhenii pravitel’stva, izdannykh po Finliandii na vremia voiny, obnarodovannykh ili opoveshchennykh v Sobranii uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii pravitel’stva po 31 dekabria 1915 g. (Petrograd, 1916), p. 1.

6. So, for instance, Lieutenant General Aleksandr Fedorovich Bauer, commandant of the Sveaborg Fortress, declared that “the local laws remain in full force”: Narody i oblasti, 1914, nos. 6–7, p. 25.

7. Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA), f. 1932, op. 2, d. 56, l. 14.

8. RGVIA, f. 2005, op. 1, d. 101, l. 25.

9. P.G. Kurlov, Gibel’ imperatorskoi Rossii (Moscow, 1992), p. 205.

10. RGVIA, f. 2005, op. 1, d. 101, l. 8.

11. RGVIA, f. 2005, op. 1, d. 101, l. 7.

12. Kurlov, Gibel’ imperatorskoi Rossii, p. 205.

13. RGVIA, f. 2005, op. 1, d. 101, l. 26.

14. Kurlov, Gibel’ imperatorskoi Rossii, p. 205.

15. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 336.

16. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia v epokhu imperializma. Dokumenty iz arkhivov tsarskogo i vremennogo pravitel’stv. 1878–1917 gg, series 3, vol. 6 (Leningrad, 1935), p. 165. [Here and below, translated from the Russian.—Trans.]

17. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 102.

18. Ibid.

19. A.N. Iakhontov, ed., “Tiazhelye dni. Sekretnye zasedaniia Soveta Ministrov 16 iiulia–2 sentiabria 1915 g.,” in Arkhiv russkoi revoliutsii, vol. 18 (Berlin, 1926), p. 35; Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), f. 1276, op. 12, d. 1789, ll. 174–76.

20. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, vol. 8, pt. 2 (Leningrad, 1935), p. 9.

21. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 101.

22. Iakhontov, “Tiazhelye dni,” p. 35.

23. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 94.

24. RGVIA, f. 1276, op. 11, d. 1237, ll. 1, 3–6.

25. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 130.

26. Ibid., p. 178.

27. Ibid., p. 283.

28. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 12, d. 35, ll. 5–6, 11, 17.

29. Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire (AVPRI), f. 138, op. 467, d. 418/437, l. 19.

30. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 26, d. 66, l. 7.

31. I.N. Novikova, “Finskaia karta” v nemetskom pas’ianse: Germaniia i problema nezavisimosti Finliandii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (St. Petersburg, 2002), p. 66.

32. Ibid., p. 79.

33. I.N. Novikova, “Molodye finny obiazany byli ‘sluzhit’ Germanskoi imperii vsemi silami i na liubykh uchastkakh fronta,’” Voenno-istoricheskii zhurnal, 2004, no. 9, pp. 35–41.

34. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 12, d. 35, l. 16.

35. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 12, d. 35, ll. 1–5.

36. AVPRI, f. 138, op. 467, d. 421/440, l. 35 ob.

37. For further detail, see Novikova, “Finskaia karta.”

38. AVPRI, f. 134, op. 473, d. 220, l. 62.

39. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 334.

40. AVPRI, f. 134, op. 473, d. 220, ll. 76, 83.

41. Kurliandskie gubernskie vedomosti, 6 August 1914.

42. RGVIA, f. 1932, op. 2, d. 17, l. 2.

43. RGVIA, f. 2005, op. 1, d. 101, l. 80 ob.

44. RGVIA, f. 2005, op. 1, d. 101, l. 78 ob.

45. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, pp. 56–57.

46. Ibid., p. 57.

47. Ibid., p. 54.

48. “‘Vo imia svoego proshlogo, vo imia vsegdashnei vernosti…’ (Baltiiskie rytsarstva i rossiiskoe pravitel’stvo. Iz istorii vzaimootnoshenii. 1914–1917 gg.),” in Russkoe proshloe, bk. 8 (St. Petersburg, 1998), p. 207.

49. RGVIA, f. 1932, op. 2, d. 102, l. 82.

50. RGIA, f. 1282, op. 2, d. 1396, l. 405 ob.

51. Iu.N. Netesin, “Evakuatsiia promyshlennosti Latvii v Pervuiu mirovuiu voinu (1915–1917 gg.), in Problemy istorii, vol. 6 (Riga, 1962), pp. 27–75.

52. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 205.

53. Kurlov, Gibel’ imperatorskoi Rossii, p. 298.

54. Netesin, “Evakuatsiia promyshlennosti Latvii,” pp. 28–29.

55. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 43.

56. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 10, d. 896, l. 30.

57. A. Iakhontov, “Pervyi god voiny (iiul’ 1914–iiul’ 1915 g.). Zapisi: Zametki, materialy i vospominaniia byvshego pomoshchnika upravliaiushchego delami Soveta ministrov,” in Russkoe proshloe, bk. 1 (St. Petersburg, 1996), p. 286.

58. AVPRI, f. 135, op. 474, d. 54, l. 15.

59. AVPRI, f. 135, op. 474, d. 54, l. 38 ob.

60. Russkii arkhiv, vol. 18 (Moscow, 1991), p. 22.

61. Ibid.

62. Ibid.

63. Russkii arkhiv, pp. 22–23.

64. Stenograficheskii otchet Gosudarstvennoi dumy. 4-i sozyv. Sessiia IV (Petrograd, 1915), cols. 9–10.

65. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 20.

66. AVPRI, f. 138, op. 467, d. 43, l. 27.

67. AVPRI, f. 138, op. 467, d. 43, l. 26 ob.

68. AVPRI, f. 138, op. 467, d. 746/803, l. 68.

69. Russko-pol’skie otnosheniia v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (Moscow and Leningrad, 1926), pp. 86–87.

70. Sazonov’s plan was broken into several areas of national importance (international relations, defense, currency in circulation, the affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, state-contracted loans, the postal service, the telegraph service, the telephone service, the railroads, treasury monopolies, etc.), defined a procedure for legislative action (the emperor in close consultation with the Sejm), and for the functioning of the executive authorities (i.e., the emperor). The emperor could transfer his governmental powers to a vicegerent or some other institution. The Sejm and the emperor were authorized to initiate legislation in the kingdom.

71. AVPRI, f. 135, op. 474, d. 86, l. 89.

72. S.D. Sazonov, Vospominaniia (Paris, 1927), pp. 387–88.

73. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 10, d. 72, l. 3.

74. AVPRI, f. 135, op. 474 d. 86, l. 109 ob.

75. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 10, d. 72, ll. 26, 63–64.

76. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 10, d. 72, l. 1 ob.

77. RGIA, f. 1276, op. 10, d. 72, ll. 50–54.

78. A.N. Kurtsev, “Bezhenstvo,” in Rossiia i Pervaia mirovaia voina: Materialy mezhdunarodnogo nauchnogo kollokviuma (St. Petersburg, 1999), p. 131.

79. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 340.

80. Ibid., pp. 163–64.

81. Ibid., p. 224.

82. Ibid., p. 273.

83. Ibid., p. 277.

84. Ibid., p. 283.

85. Ibid., p. 266

86. Ibid., p. 271.

87. M.D. Bonch-Bruevich, Vsia vlast’ Sovetam. Vospominaniia (Moscow, 1957), p. 75.

88. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 305.

89. Ibid.

90. Ibid., p. 314.

91. Ibid., p. 303.

92. RGVIA, f. 2005, op. 1, d. 101, ll. 307–13 ob.

93. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, p. 110.

94. T.E. Kar’iakhiarm, Estonskaia burzhuaziia, samoderzhavie i dvorianstvo v 1905–1917 gg. (Tallinn, 1987), p. 139.

95. Ibid., p. 140.

96. Ibid., p. 141.

97. Sovet ministrov Rossiiskoi imperii, pp. 22, 148–49.