Public Consolidation of Subjects of the Russian Empire during the First World War

The article examines the forms of consolidation of Russian society during the First World War based on the material of large industrial cities, where the interaction between society and government was most intense. The author concludes that despite all the efforts of the enlightened public, including the bureaucrats, the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia, it failed to achieve a high degree of unity with the lower strata of urban society. Moreover, the very powerful consolidation impulse of the first months of the war, based on emotional upsurge and inflated expectations, began to evaporate quite quickly. The consolidation of the "enlightened" layers of Russian society, although preserved, in 1915-1916, took largely inertial forms. A clear mental distance was visible and even increased between the political elites, the intelligentsia and the bulk of the population of the Russian Empire. The cultural and psychological split between the "tops" and "bottoms" of Russian society most clearly manifested itself during the anti-alcohol campaign, which, instead of "sobering up society," led to the accumulation of negative energy in it. It should be recognized that in 1915-1916. A very effective and popular form of behavioral (rather than declarative) consolidation of various segments of the population were public collections for various military needs, but their organization fell entirely on the shoulders of the intelligentsia and bureaucrats, while the workers in this case acted exclusively as the object of influence. Taking over some of the functions of the state, the public gradually accumulated political energy, while the government gradually lost its former authority in its eyes due to managerial inefficiency and the inability to both achieve decisive successes at the front and formulate an acceptable domestic political agenda that would meet the interests of the broad masses.