A very polite and considerate revolution: the Scottish women's hospitals and the Russian revolution 1916-1917

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Description/Abstract

Members of the Russia Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals (SWH) provide valuable accounts of the situation in Russia from 1916 to 1917. Their diaries confirm the popular nature of the overthrow of Nicholas II and reflect the gulf between the masses and the privileged minority: the 'Scottish women', like the upper classes, were onlookers, hopeful of a more effective Russian military performance, yet anxious lest the crowd had found its voice in the spread of 'democracy'. The SWH's initial euphoria, subsequent unease and eventual disillusionment paralleled both the growing radicalization of the people after February-March 1917 and the collapse of the Russian military forces in the summer of that year.