Between two revolutions

The February Revolution and the peasantry

Together with the authorities, after the overthrow of the monarchy, the Provisional Government received a whole tangle of problems, including the peasant issue. It was impossible to solve them quickly. There was no program for the development of the village in the new conditions (there was no time to develop it). From March to October 1917, four ministers were replaced in the agricultural department, who had nothing to do with either the countryside or agriculture.

The food issue was difficult. In March 1917, due to interruptions in the supply of bread to major Russian cities, the Provisional Government was forced to adopt a law on the grain monopoly, which allowed the state to set fixed prices for purchases in the countryside. In wartime conditions, the grain monopoly was supposed to help improve the supply of the urban population.

In 1917, the soldiers of the Russian army got tired of fighting. Desertion has become a mass phenomenon. So, in the first half of March, 3,000 soldiers voluntarily left the spare parts of the Western Front. In the armies of the Northern and Western Fronts, from April 1 to April 7, the number of deserters amounted to 7,688 people. Most of the deserters were peasants (the same ones who used to go to die "For the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland"). Previously, the peasants hoped that after the victory the tsar would endow them with land, but now victory in the war has become a mirage. It seemed to the peasant soldiers that "the land would be divided without them." In addition, "land committees" were created on the ground simply spontaneously, without any instructions from the center. Therefore, the peasants fled from the front, taking their weapons, hoping to solve everything "justly" at home. According to General N.N. Golovin, in 1917, one in four escaped from the army.

The Bolsheviks addressed one of their five slogans to the village: "Land to the peasants." But in reality, the whole land became the property of the state. The peasants were deceived again.

Between February and October 1917

The February Revolution gave people hope for a change in their lives for the better.

The peasants hoped to receive the land promised to them many times. On the ground, "land committees" were created spontaneously, without any instructions from the center. Siberians have plowed more land. If in the whole country in the spring of 1917 there was a decrease in acreage, then in the Tobolsk province they increased by 6.1% compared to 1916. Thanks to the good weather conditions in summer and autumn, it was possible to harvest a rich harvest.

The Provisional Government has restructured food affairs. A grain monopoly was introduced. All stocks of bread in excess of the established norm were subject to surrender to the state. Fixed prices for bread have been set. Cards have been introduced in the country.

Siberian peasants met this decree coldly and hid the bread from the authorities. The food situation in the cities has deteriorated significantly, especially in Tyumen and Kurgan. This caused discontent among the poorest segments of the population and soldiers. On April 11−12, in Tyumen, several dozen soldiers illegally searched the grocery warehouses of merchant Kolmakov. The city authorities decided not to interfere.

The mood of the village was warmed up by soldiers returning from the front. They often acted as agitators, setting up peasants against the administration, merchants and well-to-do villagers. In Pyatkovsky parish of Yalutorovsky district of Tobolsk province, peasants and soldiers seized forestry. In the village of Pokrovsky, soldiers destroyed the house of Grigory Rasputin’s widow.

The economic crisis in Russia, which was provoked by the World War, affected the mood of the population of Western Siberia. The situation was especially alarming in the southern regions, where thousands of hungry people from the European part of the country arrived daily in search of food. Dealers bought up bread in huge quantities, and deserter soldiers seized it. Despite the good harvest, food prices have jumped sharply.

In the autumn of 1917, in many places, the peasants did not recognize any authority other than the "people's right". The Bolsheviks, who came to power in October 1917, skillfully played on the feelings of the peasantry.

Rasputin: a look after a hundred years

On December 16, 1916, a native of St. Petersburg was killed in Petrograd. Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin of the Pokrovsky Tyumen District of Tobolsk province. Over the past hundred years, Gregory’s name has been overgrown with all sorts of myths and legends.

There was no boy in the family of Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna for a long time — there were four girls: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia. On the advice of knowledgeable people, the Romanovs visited many monasteries and holy places. In 1903, they were in Sarov for the canonization of St. Seraphim. On June 30, 1904, the Empress gave birth to a boy, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich.

Alexey was born with hemophilia (a genetic disease that is transmitted only through the male line). This happened because by the beginning of the twentieth century, all European rulers were relatives.

The birth of a sick heir to the throne made the royal family very closed in their grief. Information about Alexei Nikolaevich’s illness was a state secret.

Various shamans, fortune tellers, and clairvoyants began to appear at the court of Emperor Nicholas II. In 1905, Elder Gregory was introduced to Emperor Nicholas II. No one was surprised by Rasputin’s appearance at court, especially since Grigory had lived in St. Petersburg since 1904 and was already famous. There were legends about Rasputin: he visited the Holy Mount Athos, wandered through Russia and acquired the gift of a healer.

From the numerous testimonies of contemporaries, it can be concluded that Grigory Rasputin really had the gift of healing to some extent. He successfully coped with various nervous disorders, relieved tics, stopped blood, easily relieved headaches, banished insomnia. He explained his exceptional abilities by the fact that God’s will works through him. However, many contemporaries considered the reason for Rasputin’s phenomenal effect on those around him to be his extraordinary hypnotic power.

It is known that in Siberia it is not customary to say "conjures". They say about such people — "he knows." Apparently, Rasputin "knew" something, that’s why he helped Alexei during bouts of illness (the Rasputin family had certain healing skills, they were good at talking blood).

In a short period of time, Grigory Rasputin acquired enormous power at the court. He influenced Alexandra Feodorovna, and she influenced Nicholas II. One of Gregory’s notes "milai, pamagi!" ("dear, help!") was enough for the ministers to be displaced. The Minister of Internal Affairs, and then Chairman of the Council of Ministers Stolypin, had a sharply negative attitude towards Rasputin.

At home, Rasputin was treated in two ways: Grishka Rasputin, and Grigory Efimovich. Someone considered him a holy elder, someone — a drunkard, a womanizer, a thief and a sorcerer. In those years, there was a song in the Siberian villages, where there were such words as "Grishka Rasputin walks with the queen …".

On December 16, 1916, Rasputin was murdered in the house of Felix Yusupov. Rasputin’s body was dumped into the Neva River. Then it was discovered and buried in Tsarskoye Selo. After the February Revolution, by order of the Provisional Government, Rasputin’s corpse was dug out of the ground and burned on March 11, 1917. Neither water nor earth accepted the body of the "elder", but only fire…