The euphoria of the initial period of the First World War and the first stage of the "struggle against German domination"
n the eve of the First World War, 18 July, 1914 [1], the capital of the Russian Empire, St Petersburg, along with its surroundings, was declared under martial law. The Governor General had been granted broad powers. He was able to: make regulations relating to the prevention of violations of public order and national security; forbid either public or private meetings; shut down commercial and industrial enterprises; stop the publication of periodicals; banish individuals from the city; close educational institutions; impose, from the date martial law was declared, the sequestration of property and the seizure of movable property along with any income from such, remove officials of all departments from office. Violation of the regulations meant the threat of a fine of up to three thousand roubles or incarceration for up to three months, and furthermore the perpetrator could be brought before a tribunal [2]. On 19 July the German Ambassador, Pourtales, delivered a note to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, S. D. Sazonov, declaring war. For the first time in the history of the country the order was given for general conscription and, on the same day, conscripts were sent to assembly points [3]. Civilian and military officials were assembled at the Winter Palace, awaiting the arrival of Emperor Nicholas II to declare a state of war, and a religious service was held with the icons of the Saviour Not Made by Hands from the Chapel of the Saviour and Our Lady of Kazan from Kazan Cathedral. A crowd that had spontaneously formed on Nevsky prospect headed to Kazan Cathedral, where a prayer service took place in the garden in front of the cathedral. Demonstrators appeared wielding national flags, portraits of the Emperor and patriotic posters. People arrived in Palace Square singing the anthem "God save the Tsar".The former health system continued to function, on-call doctors and pharmacies were working, and "ambulances" provided medical assistance, although often, due to a lack of petrol, "ambulance cars" could not set off even in cases where emergency assistance was needed. On 3 March, 1918, the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was signed by the Soviet regime in Russia [33]. With the ensuing anarchy, the cancellation of State loans, the closure of banks and the absence of official quotations of stock prices, it was impossible to compile estimates of expenditure by organisations. Following the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, chaos in Petrograd intensified and the city was gripped by panic. This contributed to the government's move to Moscow on 11 March. Famine broke out in Petrograd. With the steady reduction in living standards, unemployment and bread shortages, there was increasing discontent with the new government, which was supported by the bayonets of the Red Guard. Protest speeches took on a dynamic character, but they were strictly suppressed and victims appeared. The arrests of strike organisers provoked new demonstrations. The peak of the protest speeches, linked to hunger, occurred in May 1918. There were mighty rallies and then strikes at the Obukhov, Russo-Baltic, Arsenal, Siemens-Schuckert, Semyanikov and other plants. They all had a political focus against the Soviets. The authorities declared the strikes to be counter-revolutionary riots. Armed Red Guards were sent to the factories and brutally suppressed the workers. On 28 June, the Nationalisation Decree was agreed. It affected not only industry, but also libraries and theatres. Most theatres were visited by Bolshevik commissars, who described the property and sorted things out with the owners or tenants. Under the guise of nationalisation, searches, arrests and looting flourished in the city. There were more frequent thefts from jewellery stores and apartments, where thieves stole money and valuables. The end of the year became a time of rapid destruction of all industries in Petrograd. Industrial production decreased sevenfold and the number of workers decreased almost twofold. Paradoxically, only the onset of civil war allowed the Bolsheviks to deal with protest movements. Most businesses switched to the production of military goods, thanks to which unemployment began to go down [34]. Everything was intensifying in Petrograd and in the whole country the fight against the "enemies of the people" and the exposure of a "counter-revolutionary conspiracy" against Soviet authority, became the harbingers of a future "of great terror" in the country.At the same time, however, new enterprises were established inPetrograd, for example the "Russian Renault" car company opened with a capital of one million roubles. The International Commercial Bank made a significant profit. In the context of the fight against drunkenness in Petrograd, a number of inns, restaurants, wine cellars, etc. were closed down, but wine was left for Church sacraments. Refugees and many inhabitants from the countryside, whose husbands had left for the front, turned up in Petrograd, attempting to find positions as servants, nannies, cooks or maids. To replace the men who had left for war, there were now women telegraphists. As many women were now starting to work, there was an increase in child neglect and consequently higher levels of juvenile delinquency. Cases of theft became more frequent. A theft of soldiers' boots from a military warehouse provoked a strong response in the city [8]. A series of auctions took place in Petrograd, the funds from which were transferred to hospitals. An art auction, provided 6,000 roubles which were sent to the hospitals. Following the auction, some of the confiscated property of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians (horses, carriages, harnesses, equestrian sports items) was transferred to the army. At the end of 1914, the dismissal of Germans and Austro-Hungarians from companies and organisations continued. An order was issued to evict from Petrograd Austrian and German nationals aged 17 to 60 to a distance of 100 verst [9]. Those who failed to comply were condemned to permanent forced labour. At a meeting of the Duma, Deputy Levashov posed the question "about German domination" and a Special Committee was set up to deal with this struggle.The streams of alcohol from the broken barrels flowed down the dirty gutter on the street and the crowd of men, women and even soldiers became completely brutal, rushing to the gutter with caps or some random piece of tableware to scoop up the wine, but most simply pressed their lips against the current in the muddy gutter of alcohol, in an attempt to drink it" [17]. In the second half of 1916, the crisis escalated in all areas of Russian society and by autumn it had reached its peak. This manifested itself in the collapse of food supplies and the accelerated breakdown of authority. Furthermore, the influence of the Bolsheviks on events in Petrograd became more open. The growing crisis demanded that the authorities take more decisive action, but they did not [18]. Due to inflation and problems with food and fuel, discontent spread among the workers. In Petrograd, due to interruptions in the food supply and high prices, queues appeared and gave rise to spontaneous speeches by women. On 14 October, the government asked the military to distribute food from military warehouses. At the end of 1916, the situation in Petrograd was aggravated by the outbreak of a political crisis. Of primary concern was the food issue, with the city facing an impending famine [19]. In relations between the authorities and the people, Rasputin [20] was the "connoisseur of the people".2 weeks later, the ministers of the interior and of war obtained the right to close all meetings and congresses, and even after a few days they were granted exclusive rights to the fight with those "undermining the foundations of the State and threatening revolutionary freedom" [27]. They directed the reorganisation of education and participated in the selection of directors of schools and educational councils. The interim Government made the decision to remove royal portraits from all public and educational institutions. In primary schools, religious instruction was abolished. In high schools, domestic workers demanded that teachers be evicted and they occupy their accommodation. The watchman at one of the schools, based on the support of the Soldiers' Committee, announced his wish to become director. At the university faculties of law, departments of industrial and work law opened. In view of the military conscription of boys, it was decided that technical institutes would accept girls graduating from high school. From the former women's courses, women's universities were organized. After the revolution, a member of Parliament, A. V. Bellegarde, wrote in his memoirs: "The Duma also seems to have lost its head.This was called "ministerial leapfrog". Conflicts intensified between ministers, the Council of Ministers and Headquarters due to confusion over supplies to the army and the need to regulate its provisions. All this did not help solve the critical domestic problem of capital. The build-up of the political crisis and the weakness of the authorities
1916 started with a new price rise and a fight against looters, but these measures were only on paper and did not affect real life. In an attempt to rectify the situation and increase supplies to the city, passenger transport was stopped for a few days between Petrograd and Moscow. Only two trains with 1st and 2nd class coaches were left for the transportation of mail and officials, urgent cases and for those with special certificates. This allowed a brief increase in the flow of supplies of food and fodder to Petrograd [14]. In addition, since the wagons containing meat and fish that had not been unloaded had stood for a long time, their contents began to go bad. In the workers' districts, traders started to sell rotten fish and "sausage-makers sold sausages covered in mould".The new revolutionary system is costing the State treasury far more than the old system" [29]. The inability of the authorities to deal with the growing political and economic problems paved the way for the revolution. On 24-25 October, the provisional government was overthrown and the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was established. On the evening of 25 October in Smolny, the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened and Russia was declared a Republic of Soviets. The new government was not coping with a drop in production, the non-payment of wages, unemployment, bread shortages and bad medical care. All this had caused popular indignation. An eyewitness to the events wrote: "Our food situation is not just distressing or hard, but downright disastrous, because each day we do not know what will happen tomorrow, each day we live under the threat of an impending famine, each day we wait, maybe for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or in two or three days' time when there will be no bread at all and nothing to live on and we will start to die of hunger" [30].In all the city churches, prayers were said "to award victory to Russian and Allied weapons". Public organisations collected donations to help the wounded. Even in prisons the production of cotton wool was organised to assist hospitals. However, many residents of Petrograd carried on their life as before. They continued to attend the city's two racecourses, where turnover increased considerably. They attended football matches as the Football League opened its autumn season. Theatres continued operating in the city. At the end of August they were putting patriotic performances into their repertoire. Within the context of the struggle against "German domination", there was a ban on musical performances and season tickets for the German composer Wagner.In an attempt to curb the increasing drunkenness among the lower echelons of society, the "Special Preparatory Commission under the City Commission was established to deal with the question of the fight against drunkenness among the population and measures in the fight against abuse through sales by pharmacies of alcohol along with medicines and cosmetics containing alcohol". 119 pharmacies in the town, over the course of 3 months were found to have used 504 buckets of alcohol, but for the 3 months following the ban on the use of alcohol this amounted to 1,111 buckets. An eyewitness to the events recalled: "A crowd of rampaging workers laid siege to a wine warehouse.Nationalisation, the protest movement and a harbinger of the "great terror"
With the arrival of the Bolsheviks to power, new decrees began to be issued. In January, an announcement was made about the creation of a "Workers battalion of the bourgeoisie"."White spots" appeared in the newspapers, caused by censorship edits.Inflation escalated.