How significant was the role of war in the development of modern Russia in the years 1856 to 1964?
I'm guessing you're doing the OCR Course 'Russia and it's Rulers 1856 - 1964' :P. The way OCR want you to answer these question to achieve any respectable mark is thematically. The standard three themes that I use for these questions are Economy Society and Politically. Look at the main wars of the period and split the change they brought to Russia.
Crimean war
Social change = emancipation of the Serfs
Political = show's the weakness of the Russia army
1905 revolution (Russo-Japanese war 1904-5)
Social change = october manifesto
political change = Duma, first time political parties were legal in Russia (stopped in 1921), show's the weakness of the Russia army
First World War
Social change = The land the peasants worked on became their own
Poltical = massive change, moved from one diametrically opposed ideology to another, but the actual change in the day-to-day running of the country minimal? also soured the relationship with the West
---> pre-Cold War tensions?(good link)
economic = 1/5 of the pre-war industrial output, but the soviets which were brought in, brought a change in approach from agriculture to industry --> allowed the industrialisation of Russia in the 1930's, never of happened under Tsarism
Civil War
Social = The requisition squads destroyed the agriculture / mass hunger
Political = The agricultural sector resented Communism as it took all their produce seemed unjust to them attempted to hide it and were killed
Economical = Russia refused to pay the US / UK for the goods given in the war hard to get imports, the economy of the USSR was in turmoil because it couldn't produce itself
World War Two
Social = destroyed most of Eastern European part of Russia, 27million died
Political = great victory for the USSR, the first time Russia 'Won' a war for a century
Economic = shifted the heavy industry of Russia from west to more central and east
Cold War
Economic = made the USSR focus on showing it's industrial skill, space race
Political = frosty reception with the West made it more self reliant
Draw all these together into 3 different paragraphs and then say which war was the most important in each, and hopefully you'll have the same war twice or more, then this would be the most significant.
My general argument would be along the lines of war was the integral factor in Russian development; the First World War was the most significant of these as it brought not just a physical change, but a change in attitudes. It facilitated the quickest industrialisation of a country to date, bringing it from a mediocre menace to arguably the strongest and most influential country in the world. Furthermore the change in approach and attitude improved agriculture by the 1950's Russia was rivaling the US for grain produced per capita. Socially it also was key in changing the focus from agriculture to industry.
I hoped this helped, these are only a few basic changes brought by each war, there will be many more, if you need any more help feel free to post back,
Tom
