«Демократизация» офицерского состава Петроградского гарнизона в 1917 г.

История. Общество. Политика. 2019. № 3 (11). С. 102–115.

Tarasov K.

The article is devoted to the change of the social composition of the officer corps in the Petrograd garrison the before and during the Revolution of 1917 in Russia. The general trend during the First World War was that the officer vacancies required at the front were actively filled with graduates of short-term courses. These were mainly representa-tives of the middle urban strata who had at least basic education. For a large part of the peasantry, which remained illit-erate or semi-literate, access to the first officer rank was difficult. The “democratization” of the officers gained new mo-mentum after the February uprising in Petrograd. Many officers were refused to take back to military units by their subor-dinates. Their places were taken by the wartime officers. In view of the shortage of commanders from May 1917, with the approval of the leadership of the Petrograd Military District, ordinary soldiers were allowed to get the first officer's rank after suggesting by their comrades. As a result, these very different social categories had to influence rank-and-file sol-diers, to maintain discipline, and to fulfill the orders of their military commanders. This was often difficult to achieve, since after the revolution, for the servicemen, the very concepts of servility and unquestioning obedience to orders underwent significant changes.

Keywords: первая мировая война, русская революция 1917 года