The Guards might add loyal manpower in the capital, but they draw from the same strained society and could create political trouble earlier by avoiding front-line service. Keeping Nicholas II away from front-line command might help politically, although the tsar's intervention exposed how poor the Russian General Staff had become. Improving the Archangel railway still leaves supplies too far from the cities and armies that need them. A decisive Jutland followed by a Royal Navy Baltic breakthrough might collapse Germany, but the timetable is too tight to guarantee that victory arrives before revolution.
Chapter · 6:39-9:25
Why the Guards and northern supply routes fall short
Keeping the Guards in the cities, improving the Archangel railway, or winning decisively at Jutland does not offer a sufficiently reliable route to saving the regime.