The Experience of Restructuring the Russian National Economy and Management during the First World War

Abstract

The article analyzes the content and the main ideas of the monograph by I. V. Potkina “On the eve of a catastrophe. The state and the economy of Russia in 1914–1917”, which was brought out by the publishing house “Nestor-Istoriia” in 2022. The presented topic is not among those fully and comprehensively researched by the Russian historiography. Quite a large number of issues related to the transition of the Russian economic system from a peaceful to a military state and the formation of a mobilization model of the economy require additional research. Individual aspects of the formation and development of the military economy have been studied by Russian scholars quite well, but before the publication of this monograph, this problem had not been considered comprehensively. The author of the monograph set a goal to analyze the complex of legislative and administrative documents of the central executive authorities in the field of socio-economic policy and, on this basis, to determine the priority directions by year. The reviewed documents made it possible to show the changes taking place in the sectoral structure of the country’s economy and the management system. The author comes to the conclusion that, despite mistakes and miscalculations, the Imperial government, unlike the Provisional Government, generally managed to cope with the difficulties that arose. This is evidenced by the legislative acts of the government, statistical data of state institutions and public organizations provided by the author. The definition of the main features of the mobilization economic model is innovative.