World War I and the Revolution

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, it was decided to change the name of the Russian capital from its Germanic St Petersburg to the Russian equivalent Petrograd. As Germany was now Russia’s enemy, the city’s industry began to work to support the war effort, and many of the building including the Winter Palace were converted into hospitals. Most construction across the city stopped.

The war did not go well for Russia. The government of the Tsar discredited itself and political tensions rose. By the end of 1916, food supplies to the city had deteriorated due to the railway networks breakdowns during the war. The New Year brought infuriation to the inhabitants as they cued in long lines to buy food at the city’s stores. The combination of social unrest and the wartime grievances brought about a nationwide crisis, which led to the democratic revolution in February 1917 when Emperor Nicholas II abdicated. At the time of the revolution the Tsar was at the army headquarters in Mogilev and his family at the Imperial Estate of Pushkin.

As a single effective government could not be established, the country was ruled by two entities, the moderate Provisional Government and the radical leftist Soviets of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants.  The political and economic crisis continued throughout 1917, and in the autumn the Bolshevik party led by Vladimir Lenin grasped political power. On the 25th October 1917 a single shot was fired from the revolutionary battleship Aurora signalling the waiting workers and soldiers to attack the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was in conference. Most of the ministers were arrested and thus began 73 years of Communist rule.

Civil War (1918 – 1922) broke out at the beginning of 1918 and the revolutionary soldiers and workers of Petrograd became the core of the Red Guard, later to be called the Red Army. The communists soon began a reign of terror that drove most educated and propertied classes from the city. While men were leaving the city for the fronts of the Civil War, a significant portion of the population left for the countryside where it was easier to provide for their families. The population dropped from 2.3 million in 1917 to 722 thousand by the end of 1920.

As German troops began to close in on Petrograd, the Bolshevik government under the leadership of Lenin decided to move the capital to Moscow, which was still a long way from the German front. During this time many of the street names were changed to the revolutionary fashion of the day. Palace Square became Uritski Square, named after an assassinated Bolshevik politician, and Nevsky Prospect became Prospect of 25th October, named after the October Revolution. A number of poorly designed Revolutionary monuments were erected, but did not last long.

After the end of the Civil War, the New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced by the Bolsheviks, and allowed certain elements of a market economy to operate. Under the NEP the city of Petrograd started to recover. In 1924, the name Petrograd was changed to Leningrad as a symbol of its transition to a Socialist city.

Next: The Socialist City (1924 - 1941)