Social and psychological atmosphere of Russian society in 1914-1917: to the origin of rumors and phobias

In the article under analysis are transformations of mass consciousness of city and rural layers of Russia during World War I. The author begins research with the analysis of working disorders in the spring - summer of 1914, pays attention to the beginning of a revolyutsionization of society and makes a hypothesis according to which the revolutionary enthusiasm of inhabitants didn't run low after the announcement Germany of war of Russia, and was transformed to moods in which patriotism mixed up with a buntashestvo. As a result in the summer - fall of 1914 hooligan actions accompanied patriotic demonstrations. Thanks to it the psychological atmosphere favorable for distribution of a shpionomaniya and xenophobia was created. Also it is paid the attention to discrepancy of official promotion to the real relation to war of various segments of the population that undermined belief to official sources of information and created the soil for development of hearings. Thus it is noted that the enthusiasm concerning the beginning of World War I in the Russian village was much lower, than in the city. In mass consciousness of peasants local patriotism which didn't assume self-identification in empire borders, but only in borders of own district or province that promoted development of oppositional moods dominated and, eventually, the shpionomaniya encouraged with authorities turned back against them: among inhabitants rumors about treachery of representatives of Romanovs began to be spread. Thus the attention to certain differences of space of hearings in the city and the village is paid: so, unlike citizens, villagers didn't mention Rasputin, and also interpreted political events in a fantastic and mythological context. In an urban environment east mysticism, a spiritualizm, fortune-telling on cards and so forth was popular. The author considers that the irrationalization of mass consciousness of inhabitants was connected with such processes as increase in number of the insane during war, and also with dynamics of suicide activity. All this developed into the general system crisis which seized all spheres of public life, doing inevitable events of February, 1917. During revolution the hearings reaching the sizes of the mass phobias covering the population of the Russian capitals continued to play the leading role in sociopolitical life of Russia.