Nicholas II was quite unequal to the Herculean
task of ruling Russia. He was more and more
dominated by his wife, Empress Alexandra,
devoted but equally narrow-minded, and she in
turn was influenced by the ‘magic’ of Rasputin,
whose spiritual healing was alleviating the agonies
of their son, the sick tsarevitch.
Yet, by the eve of the 1914 war a succession
of energetic ministers such as Witte and Stolypin
had brought about some change. Higher agri-
cultural prices and reforms did benefit rural Russia
and pacify the peasants, but in the towns the stan-
dard of living of the workers did not improve.
Workers had gained limited rights to form trade
unions. Bad conditions and an increasing polit-
ical awareness that change was necessary and pos-
sible led after 1900 to strikes. The only answer
the government knew was repression, which
reached its horrifying peak in the Lena goldfields
in 1912 when the troops killed 170 miners
striking for higher wages. The years 1913 and
1914 saw a renewal of massive strikes especially
in St Petersburg and Moscow and, significantly,
they became increasingly political.
Faced with these internal disorders, the tsar
and his ministers had to weigh, during that fateful
July of 1914, the question of war and peace.
Would war release a patriotic spirit that would
drown the voice of revolution or would it spark
off the great upheaval? The tsar’s agonising over
the fateful mobilisation order indicates vividly
how he was fully aware that he might be signing
the death warrant of his autocratic rule, perhaps
his dynasty. Certainly, during these last critical
weeks, decisions which required the utmost cool-
ness of judgement were being taken under the
daily tensions of unrest much more immediate
and severe than those facing the kaiser in Berlin.
How had the tsar allowed Russia to be brought
to so dangerous an international position in 1914
when what Russia most needed was peace?
Despite facing enormous problems at home,
Russia’s ambitions to expand did not slacken.
Having reached the borders of China, Russia
made a bid to dominate Manchuria. China was at
the mercy of the European powers who acquired
strategic outposts and dominated its trade, Britain
first and foremost. The disastrous Boxer rising of
1900 gave another blow to the ramshackle struc-
ture to which the Manchu dynasty had declined
and further opportunities to the Europeans to
seize more of its land. This time the Russians took
the largest bite, seeking to detach Manchuria.
This brought it into conflict with the growing
Japanese power and alarmed Britain. Japan and
Britain drew together in an alliance in 1902
and Britain paid the price of agreeing to support
Japanese ambitions in Korea. The outcome was
war between Japan and Russia in 1904 which the
Japanese famously won the following year, a giant
step in the growth of a new power in the Pacific.
Russia was checked in eastern Asia and turned its
interests back to the Balkans. To free its hand
it reached an imperial settlement, in the Middle
East and on the frontiers of India, with Britain
in 1907.
Russia’s statesmen tried to act in cooperation
with the Habsburg Empire, at first carving up
their spheres of interest. But in 1908 cooperation
broke down. The Austrians owned two Turkish
provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina which they
had already occupied since 1878.
In 1908 the Balkan fire was lit. The ‘Bosnian
crisis’ marks a turning point in the relations of the
powers before 1914. Slav Serbia, resenting the
annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, appealed to
Russia for support; Austria relied on Germany.
No one was ready to fight but good relations
between Austria and Russia were at an end. Also
ended was the Austro-Russian understanding to
settle their imperial rivalries in the Balkans. Now
they intrigued against each other and the fuse
leading to war in 1914 was lit.
Other European nations with their own ambi-
tions added to the breakdown of stability in the
Balkans. The Ottoman Empire was attempting to
reform itself after the Young Turk revolution of- But Turkey was weak. Italy attacked
Turkey in 1911 and annexed Tripoli. The small
Balkan states, equally greedy, wanted Turkish ter-
ritory in Europe and were ready to fight each
other over the spoils.
Turkish weakness, Balkan nationalism and the
rivalry of Austria and Russia destabilised south-
east Europe.