Russia’s fighting front and home front in the First World War: mutual perception and interaction

The article provides a generalized presentation of the patterns of mutual perception and interaction between Russia’s fighting front and home front during the First World War. The work challenges the concept of a “stab in the back” on the eve of the 1917 revolution as poorly consistent with historical reality. Opposed to it as more productive is the concept of a modern war, which Russia’s efforts in 1914-1918 did not correspond to. The main attention is paid to the major stages of the struggle for the creation of a single center for organizing the country for defense between military and civilian authorities, the State Duma and public organizations. The attempts of the army command, the headquarters of the Northern and Western Fronts to withdraw from the subordination of the Petrograd Military District, and the central authorities in general, are assessed. The measures taken by the military command to mobilize home front resources, its attempts to counteract various manifestations of socio-political destabilization and socio-economic destruction at the fighting and home front are analyzed. The conclusion is made about the failed attempts to create the country’s single center for defense, the failure to establish cooperation between state and public forces, as well as the growing resistance of traditionalist, bureaucratic forces to efforts to mobilize the population, the loss of the fighting front’s mobilizing functions.