FINANCIAL STATUS OF RUSSIA. 1914–1917. (NOTES ON THE MARGINS OF HISTORICAL WORKS). PART 1

Author(s):  I.M. Pushkareva, Dr., Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, pushkarev@mail.ru

Issue:  Volume 45, № 4

Rubric:  Topical issues of russian history

Annotation:  The author studies historical researches dedicated to the finances as a central point of Russian economic history of the First World War period. The historiographical analysis lets the author join the discussion on the certitude or accidentality of the revolutionary storm. The main idea is to confirm the primacy of studying the finances and financial policies of imperial and provisional governments in Russia, to take part in the discussions about the problem of the inevitability (or randomness) of a revolutionary explosion in early February 1917. In the domestic historiography prevails «positive» point of view concerning the financial position of Russia in the war. It proceeds from the general state of the country at the beginning of the war, which was assessed as «quite stable» by contemporaries; it darkens what was happening, shifting responsibility for the collapse of the country to a revolutionary explosion and social policy. The history of Russian finances during the First World War allows us to find out the roots of modern problems in the past.

Keywords:  historiography; First World War; Ministry of Finance of Russia

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