The extremist trend in Russian conservatism and the World War I

Many Russian conservative politicians, mainly of the right orientation, severely criticized the political order, defined by the Fundamental Laws of 1906. They did not limit themselves with the sheer critique of the status quo but insisted on its radical transformation. The conservative politicians of the right orientation suggested the limitation of the authority on the level of the representative chambers while increasing the Tsar’s prerogative. The representatives of this extreme tendency in the Russian conservatism used the World War I as a pretext to stop the process of political modernization. In 1914-1917 they elaborated a number of projects, aimed at eliminating Russian public life from liberal and democratic political institutions and practices. Their disappointment in the really existing political order led to their refusing to defend the Monarchy and the Monarch in February-March 1917.