itch.io

As a Russian, I can confirm that you have conveyed the essence correctly.

I would also add that an important specificity of expansionism, which Russian liberals actually had, was quite spontaneous and not very structured. That is, yes, they had the logic of 19th century imperialism: Russia must get the Bosphorus Strait in order to sell grain to the foreign market more effectively (No kidding - Milyukov said this at one of the Duma sessions). But it was during the First World War that the liberals went to the right on this issue. Before that, for example, in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, they promoted "defeatism", only in a liberal legend.

What is the idea: After the victory over Napoleon, reaction and strict conservatism set in in Russia, after the defeat in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, Tsar Alexander II began the Great (liberal) reforms. As a result, for the sake of reforms, liberals must desire defeat in the war. However, suddenly, this turned out to be extremely unpopular among the army and many patriotically minded strata of the population. And already during the years of the First World War, the tactics of "expansion and war" were extremely important in order to secure the support of conservative officers and generals. In fact, the generals agreed to hand over power to the provisional government because the liberals convinced them that in this way they would be able to continue the imperial war more effectively and better! Milyukov spoke about this in his famous 1916 speech "Stupidity or Treason" (Глупость или измена). In it, he referred to the statement of one loyal tsarist general: "I may be a fool, but I am not a traitor." And Milyukov spoke of "traitors or idiots" in the tsar's inner circle, who were hindering the country and victory in the war. Thanks to this, by the beginning of the February Revolution, literally only one general in all of Russia supported the Tsar. All the rest were ready to hand over power to the liberals.

In general, In that way Kadets attracted the right-wing electorate (the Black Hundreds became somehow irrelevant after the disappearance of the tsar) and people from the Military Command. As one Russian proverb says: "If you can't beat them, lead them".

Social patriots were more prone to nationalism. A rather sad example of this is the Marxist-Menshevik Georgy Plekhanov. After the war began, he stood up for Tsarist Russia even before any revolution. And about that he didn’t really use much of “Marxist arguments,” and even sometimes said horrifying things. I remember reading how he quarreled with German internationalists after the outbreak of the World War, because he told them at a meeting that “as a Russian, I can’t wait to see your German flesh on a Russian army bayonet!”

I guess in 1914 almost everyone in Europe went nuts

Revolutionary defencism, I think, is the most obvious. In Russia, the democratic revolution has won, Russia's allies are democratic England and France, in Germany and Austria-Hungary - the authoritarian imperial regime of the Kaiser and Emperor, so we need to defend our young revolution in a single democratic alliance from foreign reactionary occupiers.

In Germany, for example, the SPD took this position immediately after the war began.

1. Kaiser's Germany is more democratic than Tsarist Russia (true), so Germany should be supported as a more progressive force.

2. In Germany, everyone thought that Germany was defending itself. I know that this sounds strange today. I mean, World War I literally began with Germany declaring war on Russia. But in Germany, this was successfully presented as "defense against Russia, which was preparing to attack us first." Why did this sound convincing to the Germans: Russia was mobilizing at the time of the declaration of war. Why? Of all the countries participating in the war, Russia had the longest time to mobilize (a large country, bad railways). And the German Blitzkrieg Plan (Schlieffen Plan) implied a quick capitulation of France even before Russia had time to finish mobilizing. By that time, Austria-Hungary had already declared war on Serbia and begun its occupation - in response to this, Russia began mobilization and said that Austria-Hungary should immediately withdraw its troops from Serbia. The German General Staff began to panic - if they did not start first now, then after Russia's mobilization was over, it would be too late. So they conducted a media campaign about "military provocation on the part of Russia". Incidentally, it was precisely because the Germans sincerely thought that the war was defensive that the post-war conditions were such a shock and humiliation for them. Official recognition of the start of the First World War as Germany's fault? But we were the ones who defended ourselves! We were taken in by Wilson's fourteen points and promises of a fair peace! A bit off-topic, but I hope it was interesting and informative