The First World War doomed the efforts of these
two empires to reform their institutions, mod-
ernise and solve tensions within. The outcome of
war was revolution not evolution. For half a
century their rivalry and conflicts in the Balkan
cauldron had, at times by a narrow margin, been
adjusted without resort to force until the break-
down of 1914. The circle of conflict in this one
region of Europe then spread to engulf the whole
continent.As the world entered the twentieth century there
was a big question mark over the largest Western
state, the Russian Empire. The total size of
Russia’s population remained ahead of the US.
But in industrial development Russia lagged
behind the Western world. It was what would
be termed today a vast underdeveloped country,
stretching from the European frontiers with
Germany and Austria-Hungary through the
Middle East and Asia to the shores of the Pacific
Ocean. The only nation larger than Russia was
China, which in 1900 seemed on the verge of dis-
integration. Would Russia also disintegrate in the
new century? Would revolution sweep away the
Romanov dynasty, or would Russian autocracy
prevail and continue to send the largest army in
the world to conquer more and more territory
and continue to incorporate more and more
nationalities into the Russian Empire? Russia pos-
sessed all the resources of iron and coal to turn it
into a major industrial power. How would itsneighbours be able to resist Russian expansion as
it modernised?
Russia’s potential threat to the interests and
security of the countries surrounding it hung over
them all, and increased in proportion to the actual
growth of Russian power in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
By 1914 around 100 distinct national peoples
had been incorporated into Russia. This made it
the largest and most varied multinational empire.
Government was highly centralised and absolute
loyalty to the tsar was demanded of every national
group. The predominant Russian people, the
largest single population group by far, believed in
the superiority of their culture, their orthodox
form of Christianity and the superiority of Slavs.
The tsar sought to impose Russification on the
other peoples and to suppress other religions. The
Orthodox Church also formed a pillar of the tsar’s
autocracy and justified it as ordained by God. The
most persistently persecuted minority were the
Jews, who were deliberately made scapegoats for
the ills besetting Russia. Anti-Semitism and dis-
crimination, and even persecution of Jews, were(^1) Chapter 3
THE LAST DECADES OF THE
MULTINATIONAL RUSSIAN AND
HABSBURG EMPIRES
Population (millions)
1880 1900 1910 1920 1940
Russia 97.1 132.1 155.7 145.3 195.0
US 50.2 84.4 102.4 118.1 150.6