Patriotism and Culture during World War I

Abstract

During World War I, Russian officials seemed obsessed with assessing popular moods. The police were required to compile monthly reports that summarized the moods of the population under their jurisdiction, in addition to the separate incident reports that documented criminal activities.1 Starting in October 1915, the Ministry of the Interior ordered the empire’s provincial gendarme administrations (the secret police) to fill out a monthly questionnaire that solicited Russian subjects’ attitudes on a wide variety of issues connected with the war effort: the food supply situation, the resettlement of refugees, the presence of prisoners-of-war in the rear, and the spread of the cooperative movement, to name just a few.2