St Petersburg in war and revolution

There are so many reasons to visit St Petersburg. Some people come in search of culture, others seek inspiration from its literary associations. For some, it’s the architecture that’s top of their list, while others simply come to experience a different way of life.

One thing that’s certainly not in short supply in St Petersburg is history. The city may only have been founded in 1703, but the last 300 or so years provide a fascinating insight into the changes which have shaped this incredible city.

Here, we look at how the fall of the Romanov Dynasty, the First World War and the Revolution affected the city (1913-1918)…

On the eve of the First World War, St Petersburg was riding high on a wave of prosperity and patriotic sentiment, celebrating 300 years of the Romanov dynasty. Within five years, however, the city had been plunged into hunger, deprivation and revolution.

On the frosty winter morning of 21 February 1913, a twenty-one gun salute rang out from St Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress. Three hundred years earlier, the dynasty’s rise to power brought an end to the Time of Troubles which had ravaged the land. Now, in May 1913, as Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children embarked on a two-week celebratory tour of major Russian towns, they were greeted by cheering crowds.

One year later, as World War I broke out, Nicholas and Alexandra stood on a balcony of the Winter Palace, and waved at the crowds who’d gathered in Palace Square to cheer their monarchs and their country. In a further burst of national enthusiasm, the city’s name was changed to Petrograd, a russified version of the German-sounding Sankt-Peterburg.

The war, however, started badly for Russia and the situation on both the home and the battle fronts took a turn for the worse. By January 1917, over a million Russian soldiers had died. Petrograd suffered from hunger, fuel shortages, war weariness, and an array of social and economic problems that gave rise to suffering and discontent.

On 18 February, workers at Petrograd’s Putilov steel works went on strike. By 22 February, over half a million people were protesting. The next day, women standing in line for their daily bread rations were told there would be none. A spontaneous protest erupted. Demands for peace and an end to the autocracy rang out. By 25 February, a general strike had gripped the city. Troops were commanded to restore order, but instead of firing on the crowds, they broke ranks and joined the protesting mobs.

Faced with the uncontrollable chaos, Nicholas was forced to abdicate on 2 March 1917, bringing 304 years of Romanov rule to an end. In place of the disintegrating autocracy, an uneasy dual regime emerged consisting of the Provisional Government (political liberals, reform-minded nobles and business interests) and the populist, radical Soviet (workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors). Power might have changed hands, but the problems of food supply, land reform and war could not be easily resolved, especially as the Provisional Government rejected outright any proposal for a separate peace with Germany and its allies.

One of the last people who posed a threat to this state of affairs was Vladimir Lenin. Sitting in exile in Switzerland, the professional revolutionary was distraught. Revolution – the goal to which he’d dedicated his life and the cause for which he’d been imprisoned and exiled – had unexpectedly occurred in his native Russia … and he wasn’t there to be part of it. But Germany stepped in to help, arranging a train to take him back to Petrograd in the hope he would stir up internal problems on their enemy’s home territory.

Arriving at the city’s Finland Railway Station on 4 April, Lenin was met by an ecstatic crowd. This triumphant entry was followed by six months of ups and downs, but uncompromising ruthlessness, combined with the Bolsheviks’ platform of peace, bread and land reform, enabled the relentless Lenin to rouse a fervour that on 25 October culminated in a blank shot fired from the Cruiser Aurora: this was the revolutionary signal. The Winter Palace was ‘stormed’, the Provisional Government barricaded inside was arrested, and Petrograd became the capital of the worldwide socialist revolution. Lenin, who just six months earlier was writing revolutionary tracts in Switzerland, was now ruler of the largest country on earth, while Nicholas, former Tsar of All the Russias, was held captive with his family in Siberia, where he passed the time sawing wood.