Shuvayev replaces Polivanov

The British chronology of the war records under 29 March 1916 a change in the post of Russian Minister of War. General Aleksei Polivanov was replaced by General Dmitry Shuvayev, until then the army’s chief field quartermaster. The decision itself had been taken a few days earlier. Tsar Nicholas II wrote a letter to Polivanov at Headquarters in Mogilev on 13 March by the Julian calendar, that is 26 March by the Gregorian calendar. The Tsar signed the ukases dismissing the minister and appointing his successor on 15 (28) March, and the Petrograd and Moscow newspapers announced them on 17 (30) March. The date in the chronology thus falls between the signing of the ukases and their publication.

The Tsar’s letter

Polivanov had headed the ministry since June 1915, when he replaced Vladimir Sukhomlinov. He opened the packet with the Tsar’s letter in Petrograd on 14 (27) March. According to his memoirs, Nicholas II wrote that he had “with regret” come to the conclusion that he must part with him. In a great war, the Minister of War is in reality the chief of the army’s supply and must also direct the work of the war industries committees. Their activity, the Tsar wrote, “does not inspire his confidence”, and Polivanov’s direction of them was “insufficiently authoritative”. The Tsar thanked the minister for nine months of work and expressed the hope that he would continue to serve the country as a member of the State Council. The next day, however, he withdrew the official thanks for his service that had been announced earlier. The published ukase spoke, as was customary, of dismissal “at his own request”.

The real reasons were political. The war industries committees, which brought together industrialists and public figures, were led by the Octobrist leader Alexander Guchkov, who was hated at court and had for years been a friend of Polivanov. The minister cooperated with the Duma and with public organisations, and in the summer of 1915 he had opposed the Tsar’s assumption of the supreme command. The Empress, Alexandra Feodorovna, who hated Guchkov for his attacks on Grigori Rasputin, had long regarded the minister as a man of the opposition. According to Russian historians, right-wing politicians also lobbied her for his removal. On the day Polivanov opened the letter, the Prime Minister, Boris Stürmer, complained to the Tsar that Polivanov, against his request, had allowed the Special Council for State Defence to discuss workers’ wages and to make public its dispute with the government. On this report the Tsar added a note that the general had already been dismissed.

The new minister

The Tsar had written to his wife about his choice of successor as early as 10 (23) March. Shuvayev was in his view a man he could “trust completely”. A few days later he added that the new minister was honest, absolutely loyal, “not at all afraid of the Duma” and knew all the weaknesses of the committees. Shuvayev was 61. He was born in 1854 in Ufa, graduated from the Nicholas General Staff Academy and for many years taught at military schools. From 1909 he headed the Main Quartermaster Directorate, responsible for the army’s food, uniforms and equipment. In December 1915 he became chief field quartermaster at Headquarters. He was appointed minister straight away, and not, as was usual, merely “acting head of the ministry” for a trial period.

The dismissal coincided with the failure of the offensive at Lake Naroch, which once again showed the weaknesses of Russian supply. In the same days the Tsar also decided to give command of the South-Western Front to Aleksei Brusilov instead of Nikolai Ivanov.

Reactions

According to Polivanov’s memoirs, the head of the Main Artillery Directorate, General Aleksei Manikovsky, who was at odds with the minister, crossed himself three times on hearing of his departure. The liberal press bade him a warm farewell and suggested that “hostile influences” lay behind the dismissal, and the Japanese ambassador came in person to express his regret. The British military attaché, Alfred Knox, later called Polivanov’s departure a disaster and described him as the ablest military organiser in Russia. Under his tenure the arms industry began to increase its output of rifles, guns and ammunition markedly, though he shared the credit for this with many others.

Shuvayev remained minister until January 1917. After the revolution Polivanov worked with the Bolsheviks, and in 1920 he died of typhus in Riga, where he was a military expert of the Soviet delegation in the peace talks with Poland.