In the first part of his illustrated talk, Professor Eric Lohr will first remind us how a complex combination of events contributed to the outbreak of World War I. He will then provide a general overview of Imperial Russia's mobilisation for World War I and its subsequent conduct of the war. He will correct the misconceived perception of Russia as being at that time a backward country: by1914 Russia had in fact developed into a relatively advanced country, from both the industrial and military point of view.
In the second part of his talk Professor Lohr will demonstrate how ‘The Story of Demobilisation is the Story of Revolution’. Given that the Russian Army was 13 million-strong, demobilisation would have been a massive logistical challenge in any event. But between March and October 1917 1-2 million soldiers deserted, and this unsanctioned demobilisation made things even more chaotic.
Professor Lohr will note that support for the Bolsheviks in the immediate aftermath of the October 1917 Revolution was low, and he will argue that it was the scale, speed and uncontrolled nature of the demobilisation in 1917 that facilitated the Bolsheviks' consolidation of power and enabled them to build a State from scratch. Finally, Professor Lohr will contrast the way in which Russians commemorate and revere Russia's participation in World War II – known by Russians as 'The Great Patriotic War' («Великая Отечественная война») - with the virtually total absence from Russia's collective national consciousness of World War 1, and he will explain to us why this is.
This promises to be a fascinating and thought-provoking talk, which will not only dispel a few myths and misconceptions but will also provide us with some illuminating insights into the close connection between Russia's involvement in the Great War and the two Revolutions of 1917, thereby enabling us to see each of these seismic events in a new light.
Professor Eric Lohr, who speaks Russian and German, is Chair of the History Department at American University, Washington DC. He holds an MA in Russian and East European Studies and PhD in History from Harvard University, where he taught as an Assistant Professor of History (2000-2003). Professor Lohr is the author of Russian Citizenship: From Empire to Soviet Union (Harvard University Press, 2012) and Nationalizing the Russian Empire: The Campaign Against Enemy Aliens during World War I (Harvard University Press, 2003). He is currently writing The Brothers Trubetskoi: Between Tsar and Revolution and Russian Autocracy: A History. And he is currently carrying out research on the subject of his talk to the Great Britain-Russia Society, namely Russia's involvement in World War I generally, along with a more focused analysis of (a) Russian mobilisation for the War and (b) demobilisation as the driver of the Revolutions in February and October 1917.