You can watch this and other American History programs on our website where all of our videos are archived. That is cspan. Org history. The novembere of 7, 1917 Russian Revolution, about 2. 5 million russians had been killed in the great war and some 6 million had been wounded are taken prisoner. Up next on American History tv, russian history professor Olga Porshneva discusses how the russian soldiers believed and their attitudes towards the war and how it contributed to their unrest and the revolution and birth of the soviet union. Was hosted by the kansas city war museum. It was part of a twoday symposium on the war. Olga porshneva is a professor of russian history at the university in russia. She has given she has been given the highest distinction in russia of the best doctoral thesis in the field of russian history in 2000. She is the author of more than 250 published monographs and articles. Is a memberrshneva of the Russian Association for the First World War studies and the expert toward for history of the highest committee of the ministry for education and science of the russian federation. Tooke so grateful that she through istanbul to be here. And also, we are so grateful for our partnerships with the center for russian coming Eastern European and eurasian studies. At the university of kansas for making her appearance on this stage possible. You to the thank university of kansas and the command and general staff college. We have the best partners and the best audience. All you now join me in welcoming dr. Porshneva. [applause] dr. Porshneva dear colleagues, friends, let me welcome you all here. And express my gratitude for the invitation to this scientific symposium. And i will talk about russian soldiersbeliefs and attitudes as a factor of the Russian Revolution of 1917. First of all, i would like to present some important features of the modern history situation. That shows us that modern research is focused on anthropological aspects of during thisopment period. Behaviorcularly on the of soldiers, workers, and whoe who presented represented most of the russian population of this period. The most important thing is the necessity of a closer look at behindchological motives ae behavior that played crucial role in the advance of the 1917 revolution. To present an evaluation of two key questions. And to provide my own vision of these questions. As you may already know, soldiers constituted one of the most numerous groups of the russian society. And it heavily determined the russian stage. Prior to and during the 1917 revolution. Army come a once and the russian army, the social composition of the army necessarily reflected that of russia as a whole. Supposedthe army was to be a pillar of the state, protecting it from internal and external enemies, by the beginning of the third year of war, the army had turned into a potential threat to the and acal system destabilizing factor. Slide,you can see on the of the soldiers and to the valuered system of the present mentality or consciousness. Which means the traditional peasant community. Beliefs underwent some transformation during the war but the ideas of political and social justice and of the allocation of land remained central to the mindset. First of all, i would like to soldiers were that a question had to be salt in their favor after the war. Quote one of the soldiers letters. One soldier wrote. We hear that no regiment is going to fight until people are given land. We shall not fight until they give us land and they are sure that we must take the land away from land owners and we are waiting here on it is all done. If it does not happen, we shall soon go and take all of the land ourselves. Pointed out that everyone is saying that without , it will be just the same. Czar of the new government. Just before february, according to a military census, soldiers was a believed that there treason spreading across the country. Be concluded that the feeling of social injustice and the feeling of being the trade by the leaders of the country provided a Fertile Ground for the growth of retaliatory aggression. In autumn of 1916, the situation deteriorated. And according to the military censor according to the data, ensus soldiers expected in the spring peace,en by the hope for by the middle of january 1917, hold 187had managed to enemy divisions on the front 49 ofich accounted for the adversary adversarial forces. In autumn of 1916, as you can see on the slide. We can get an idea of the prevailing attitudes and sentiments in the army by frontlineamples of correspondence which was intercepted by military census. I conducted content analysis of the letters that were stopped by the military censorship, betweenin the 1915 and the beginning of 1917 discontent of the soldiers and how it developed during this time. I can show you the results of this content analysis. And you can see that the peace and the fatigue and the desire for peace came to the foreground. Sentiment was directed against the wars was a. Bourgeoisie. He wars wa it wasious the hitters not so much the critical opinions of this group. You can see also that the prominent sentiment was the retribution in inparison to the situation january of 1916. The sentiments became the hierarchy. Was comments on social injustice. They were found more frequently. And another development and ge you can see it can be evaluated as a feature of growing dissatisfaction. Led to dissent among on the eve of the revolution. And the army became a potential threat to the political system. And became a major destabilizing factor. Just before the evolution the revolution, soldiers believed and andre was a treason they demanded a redistribution of land. Solve this action as a key condition to continue fighting. Solve this action as a they y condition to continue fighting. It is very interesting that the rose again iniasm 1914 at the beginning of the war. Connected with waiting for the democrat the and connectedce necessity feeling of for the revolutionary government and revolution. And patriotic enthusiasm expressed in declarations and and the behavior of the soldiers. Of thesend such signs feelings in numerous letters written by soldiers. Them and not only , there were calls for Democratic Peace dominating the public mood in this period. And soldiers supported the document issued by petrograd soviet. , thee peoples of the world need for peace without indemnity. But it is interesting to stress that soldiers associated the tod to victory with the need denounce all claims to foreign territory. Evaluated asbe they are prone to support utopian slogans. That coincided with their ideas of social justice. Picture of the soviet soldiers. And this crisis revealed organization between democrats and socialists on the one hand and liberal parties and other educated persons. I made an analysis of the content of the lord of the letters between the firsti and second soldiers. The results were very remarkable. We can trace an evolution of of theions of this soldiers of the government. That theike to stress image of internal enemy was concentrated on the figure of the despot, it nicholas the second. Bourt was removed to the geoisie which concentrated the future on the unjust regime. You can see the yearning for peace dominated all of the soldiers letters. And the second place was occupied by antipersian antibourgeois sentiment. Interestingally that 51 of the letters connected antibourgeois sentiment with deep disillusionment with the alliance. Like to vote some sentences from soldiers retters which demonstrate thei feelings of disillusionment in the alliance. You can see them on the slide. Very important notion was their whichf the peoples power which was expressed in different ways and popular slogans such as democracy is the people, power to the people. And others. This ideal includes notions that on state should concentrate in defense of the government. And organize equitable distribution of land. And other resources. Another important expression of the soldiers behavior was violence. Provoked which was proved by the weakness of the government. Which was provoked by the weakness of the government. Washe autumn, the situation very bad and soldiers voted with their feet. Morale was at its lowest. Soldiers expressed the condition that if the war was not terminated until november, they would be deserting from the front. From the camp. If soldiers this not , the soldiersea not to the notion it was acceptable. Soldiers demonstrated uncontrollable peace, replacing. Ther interests one of the soldiers letters. Military committees started to. Emobilize units it happened after the revolution. Politicale soldiers clearences, which became according to the results of the election. Soldiers in rare regimens supported bolsheviks. I can present my conclusion. Em on the slide. Thank you for your attention. Sorry. [applause] thank you. After 20 hours of travel, prof. Porshneva i am sorry. No, we are so deeply appreciative. We have people who are fluent in russian as well. Another some questions for q a. Scottot know, it is eric is still in the audience. We will he has some questions. We can continue the conversation. Question will come from the other side of the auditorium. Hello, can you hear me . Thank you for that clear presentation. Mood ofyou brought the how the soldiers changed. I wanted to ask your opinion about the influence of two factors. First of all, what was the purpose of the gretzky offensive in june of 1970 anchorage meeting to this change in morale . The second is the effect of land seizures stopping in the villages and interrussia. Was it important in changing the mood among the present shoulders in the army . That mightve been a little fast. One question at a time. [translating into russian] prof. Porshneva thank you for your question. Of offensive, the offensive because after the failure of the offensive, it the russian army could not get victory through the offensive actions. The failure of this ascension offensive, of this offensive demonstrates the russian army. They are not able to fight. They are not able to fight. There was anarchy in the army. Situation the russian army was not able to continue to fight this offensive. It clearly showed the situation. , after that, would want to make defections. They onlyto were able to provide defensive operations in defense of work. They were not used to offense. The second question about land distribution. Great influence on soldiers because they were peasants. Go to the village and divide land. They wanted to participate in land redistribution. Summer was a period of land distribution developing in the village. Thank you very much. Question . My question is about the letters forming the basis of the analyses. By definition, the men who wrote them are literate and better educated than those who would not be able to write letters home. Do we have any idea of the percentage of men who have been literate and able to write the letter versus the letters versus those who may express the same feelings, but were not able to do so because they were not literate . Prof. Porshneva thank you for the question. Wrote letters were literate. But some of the soldiers used helped from literate communists. The letters were stopped by the censorship committee, expressing frankst painful, whichents, which was and hisd the dissent illusion meant and dis illusionment. They knew it was prohibited to situationsritique about shortages. This, it was about actions of dissent. Very remarkable in this sense, but and a majority of thought similar thoughts. In the letters we can read, the same is the mood of other soldiers. We are not writing about this. Say how to say . Absolutely, but i think most they know it is prohibited. They cannot write about it, but many severenced conditions. In many letters, soldiers comply situation. Ed of the physicaly after , evolution of this punishment, the situation deteriorated. Between officers and soldiers. There are many complaints about this in the letters. Thank you. Next question . Question involves the role checka the cheka. Could they checked the ranks . For the rest of our audience who may not be familiar, the wanted spring but it is do you want to explain what it is . They were the forerunners of the czars secret police. I am notshneva the answer because i did not research involving this. I think that they participated and try to make control. They make control and provided censorship expressing different kinds of some of them i read and it is very interesting. Agentslution of the notions ofith soldiers. The evaluated they evaluated critical notions. Thank you. Thank you. In theinterested literacy question. When the letters were written ife, who read the letters the recipient was not literate . How were the letters collected and preserved . Prof. Porshneva thank you very much. Collect in thets house of a literate peasants who could read for other members of the peasant community. They read letters sent home. They discussed the contents of the letters collectively. It became it made influence of critical views. Strong peasants newspaperscussed , which wereether read by literate peasants. Influence was greater when an article about negative events political government affairs. , expressed critical was from secret agents. Historians can read the which werens, particulary a department of justice. Such denunciations and they expressed the influence of such collective written and collective discussions. Our last question is going to come from this gentleman. I do not know whether you would have study this or if there is much documentation to study on it, but as a main incentive was land distribution for soldiers. Was there anything saying about the collectivism imposed under stalin . [translating into russian] prof. Porshneva it was wasants collectivism traditional in its nature. On conditional mentality. Easants mentality and worldview. Stalin period was collectivism. It was a new collectivism. It was expressed in many aspects. Ofwas a new type collectivism, which was of ted with the idea of social beings use society. Period, stalinists values of new communistess, consciousness, communist values. Peasants adhered to their private property. They struggled for private party private property. Sense. Vate in a whole in all of their representations not private in a whole sense in all of their representations. S period, the ideal collective of state property, not private property. New it is why it is a new type of collective. Notme dominated shortlived. This mentality was not ideal. Complicated. Combined traditional and withn ideas connected. Rganization, education science n, education. Was used by bolsheviks. It had a great influence on the consciousness. Was another type of collectivism. Thank you. Yes, indeed. Thank you very much. [applause] this weekend, on American History tv on cspan3, tonight at 8 00 eastern on lectures in history, aaron bell talks about privacy laws and federal surveillance of civil rights leaders. Sullivan shortly after the march on washington after the famous i have a dream speech. we must mark we must mark king negro league and national security. Sunday at 4 30 p. M. Eastern, former members of congress and get him for what reflect on Lessons Learned and ignored during the war. We learned the limits of military power during the vietnam war. We learned it as i society, as a culture that as a society, as a culture that you cannot kill an idea with a bullet. Is taken on cspan3. This weekend on cspan3. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend featuring museum tors, archival films, and programs of the presidency. Here is a clip from a recent program. It a very historic spot. There is a bar in this corner going back to hundred years. Henry clay came to washington in 1808. Along with henry clay came with whiskey, known as bourbon. They were stamped with Bourbon County for tax reasons. That is how the name evolved to bourbon. He discovered washingtonians drinking their juleps, mint juleps with rum or brandy. He was appalled. He decided to show people the proper way to make a southern style mint julep. Use the relish he used to relish in showing people how to mint julep with kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. We continue to practice that legacy here. We use henry clays original recipe. He traditionally, in every beginning session of congress, what invite would invite members of congress on both sides of the aisle and join them and toasting the new legislative session. The tradition continues to this day. Recently, we had a group of distillers from Bourbon County in kentucky come here. With the assistance of the delegation of senators and congressmen from kentucky, honor the senator and the legacy started in the early 1800s here. He was known as a great copper miser. Compromise way to after a legislative day of battling on capitol hill than to retire to the bar at the Willard Hotel and have a mint julep . You can watch this and other American History programs on our website, where all of our video is our is archived. Cspan. Org history. Atmonday, christmas day, 10 00 a. M. Eastern, Queen Elizabeth delivers for annual christmas message. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern, the debate of israel and their impacts of middle east peace. What kind of Merrill Corker of moral character are we willing to promote, are we going to forget . In gaza andreality west bank. If you look at the human today, there is one country in the world that is the focus of 90 of human resolutions. That is israel of u. N. Resolutions. That is israel. Yellenr yellen jerry recalls the bombing over japan in his book. The squadron took off. We let into a front. 27 fighter planes went down. 25 guys were killed. It is hard for me to tell you the truth of how i felt then, but i miss my airplane. Ourere there to protect freedom. We were there to fight. We did that. It was after the war i suffered. On American History tv on cspan3 at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. When mel Miranda Lin Manuel Miranda accepts the 2017 freedom award. When you are a theater kid, you make friends in different grades in different social groups. For the sake of making something great, you learn to trust her passion and let it lead the way. Watch monday, christmas day, on the cspan networks. War, john the civil hennessy talks about Union General use of hooker, describing him as about Union General joseph hooker. This talk is part of pamplin historical parks symposium, generals we love to hate. Looking at the Controversial Military leaders of the civil war. Bob wanted me to mention today is the 100th anniversary to the day that the first u. S. Troop went into line into france during world war i. [applause]
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.