100 Years Ago - Abdication of the Tsar

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-16/register/the-russian-revolution-spmtl6lh2


March 16, 1917

The Russian Revolution

A great Revolution has been accomplished in Russia. After nearly a week of chaos in Petrograd something like a Parliamentary Government controls the situation. The Tsar has abdicated in favour of his infant son, and his brother, the reforming Grand Duke Michael, is expected to act as Regent.
The news will hardly come as a surprise to those acquainted with the internal situation in the Allied Empire as it has recently developed, and who have observed the ominous suspension of telegrams from Russia within the last few days. It has become clear for some time past that the strained relations between the Duma and the Court could not last, and that, when the crisis came, the Duma would have the nation and the Army with it. The great danger was that the Tsar might fail to realize the position with sufficient promptitude, and that he might either resist the Revolution or defer his decision. He has had enough of wisdom and of unselfish patriotism not to take either of these courses. By laying down the supreme authority of his own free will, he has saved his people, we may trust, from civil war and his capital from an outbreak of social anarchy.
It cannot be pretended that all the perils inseparable from so profound a change have yet passed away; but, so far as the available information shows, the worst moment has been lived through, and there is strong reason to hope that the transition will be completed in an orderly and peaceable manner.
This expectation, we note with relief, is strengthened by the manifest eagerness of all parties that Russia should continue to wage the war with even greater vigour than she has displayed hitherto. The leaders, including the Labour leader, M Kerenski, see how fatal to this object civil dissensions of a serious character would be. They have worked hard to maintain unity, and they appear to have succeeded in a very remarkable degree. To the Tsar, in particular, the highest credit is due. Had he chosen to resist the demands of the Duma there were, doubtless, plenty of troops ready to support him. But he knew what such a choice would have meant for Russia and for the great European cause which he has served so well, and he has shrunk from the dread responsibility of making it.



http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-15/register/the-gates-of-bapaume-reached-jvsx9p77t

March 15, 1917

The gates of Bapaume reached

Our outposts are now against the immediate defences of Bapaume, north of Thilloy. That the defences are immensely strong we know. The German trenches are excellent in construction, well-placed, and protected by double lanes of wire in places. The enemy never expected the British war machine could exert its full power there so soon. If he stayed he would have provided us with another spectacle of the horrible litter he has left around Grandcourt, Miraumont, the Boom Ravine and right across those valleys and hills to Le Transloy. All of that country is as terrible a scene of war as ever anger and science have inflicted on this planet. It is possible that mankind will never see anything like it again. And he had not settled in his new positions in green country on the Loupart Ridge before our guns had found him. His trenches there are battered, his dugouts crushed, his protective wire cut, the trees splintered, and the ground in two days made the colour of ploughed land. One prisoner there was found hopefully waiting our arrival. On Monday afternoon a shell destroyed the dugout in which he was sheltering. Two hours later, he had dug himself out, the sole survivor. He did not hurry after his retreating friends. He explained that he knew we should soon be there, and sat down to wait patiently.
The ground across which our Army is now operating is in pleasant contrast to the shell-torn and water-logged zone they have left behind. Loupart Wood, although splintered by heavy bombardments, still bids fair to burst into foliage when the sun has ripened the buds. In spite of the destructive work of the enemy, the villages we have occupied since the middle of February are very much less “strafed” than anticipated. In many abandoned dugouts bottles of champagne and other wines and plenty of mineral waters and cigars have been discovered. All these are viewed with suspicion, however. One of the most amazing spectacles is the way our working parties are pushing forward in the wake of the receding troops. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that you can watch roads and railways creeping forward over the marshy ground. The promptitude with which we have been able to get up our guns and ammunition supplies must have very considerably disconcerted the Germans.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-14/register/the-russian-food-troubles-5h0vtdnrb

March 14, 1917

The Russian food troubles

The demand for a systematic organization of the food supply in Russia has this last weekend been reinforced by demonstrations in the streets of Petrograd. At the hour of going to press only the following portion of our Correspondent’s dispatch had come to hand: The authorities had taken every precaution to keep the strikers away from the centre of the city. The trams were stopped and troops were posted at the bridges and crossings over the Neva, with orders not to allow workmen to pass. But these precautions were only partly successful. Enormous numbers of hands from the mills and munition works filtered through the barriers. As their attention was being mainly devoted to the Nevsky, the manufacturing districts on the south side were fairly tranquil.
At the eleventh hour the Government has decided to agree to a commencement of the measures which have been repeatedly urged — namely, to hand over the food question to the local bodies. M Rittich, Minister of Agriculture, in a statement in the Duma yesterday, admitted that blunders had been made and that, so far as Petrograd was concerned, the Government assented to the passing of an urgent Bill endowing the Municipality with extraordinary powers in organizing the distribution of bread and introducing the card system. He pointed out that the present disorders were mainly due to a panic resulting from lack of confidence on the part of the public, who in many cases are hoarding bread.
This feature, combined with the delays in the arrival of grain and flour in consequence of the recent snowstorms, and the resulting necessity for diminishing the flour ration, lie at the bottom of the present crisis. In other words, Russia is paying for the delay in organizing a Government that enjoys public confidence and the crisis, with which the conduct of the war is closely concerned, calls for the transfer of the food problem to municipalities throughout the country. duma suspended Two Imperial Ukases have been issued today ordering the suspension of the sittings of the Duma and of the Council of the Empire. The sittings are to be resumed some time next month, unless extraordinary circumstances supervene.