The plan
@Dorknought describes shows what happens when you drink too much vodka on a regular basis.
Absolutely! The financial receipts of the state monopoly of spirits contributed 28% of the state budget, the single largest source of revenue. Drink up!
Russian 1913 GDP shows a slightly bigger economy than GB and Germany and half that of the US. Arms races don't cause wars, economic recovery does and it was Russian recovery in the 1910-14 period from 1904-06 that alarmed the Germans. Rearmament was paid for partly by loans but more by increased indirect taxation. In trade terms, Russia imported and exported £200m per year, her largest trading partner was Germany at about 40% but Russia was only 10% of German trade.
The leading capital export countries were heavily invested in Russia. GB and Germany for £100m each and France at £417m, close to a 3rd of all French foreign investment but less than 1% for GB. The Agricultural sector accounted for 70% of the economy, double that of France or Germany and 7 times that of GB so there is significant potential and scope to industrialise. Even the service sector was tiny, a 10th of GB's and a 5th of the German and French. Another aspect to the rearmament efforts was that the 1904 German-Russian Commercial Treaty that gave generous access to Russian Agriculture and Industrial sectors was due to run until 1918. Russia had been strong-armed into signing in 1906 due to Germany exploiting Russia's weakness during the Russo-Japanese War where Russia was unable to redeploy units from Europe to Asia.
For the Russian Navy in it's June 1912 'Enhanced Programme', an extensive expansion was proposed and by 1914 the Russian ship construction budget was second only to that of the Royal Navy. Russia planned it's naval forces in 'Brigades'. Each Brigade was 8 battleships and 4 battle cruisers, 9 light cruisers and 36 destroyers. 3 Brigades (2 in the Pacific, 1 European) were envisaged for 24 BB and 12 BC by 1930. Only the Baltic Brigade was funded but the overall plan had been approved. The Borodinos were 45.5m r each (£4.55m 1914 price) and the Chesma trials forced changes that added £700k to each ship. However they benefited from the hull designs of a talented designer who's hull form, tested by Bremmerhaven, demonstrated a 10% saving in installed power. This was later realised with the design of the French liner Normandie. While observers had noted chaos and inefficiencies in Russian yards, a year later, the same observers noted enormous improvements.
The cost of the war was £4,635m or 182% of pre-war GDP. Based on pre-war defence spending (3.9% of GDP), this was about 46 years worth of spending crunched into 3 years. Russian economy took until 1927 to regain it's 1913 level of GDP. The building schedule for the Enhanced Programme matches the US rate of 2 per year but it is also on par with the likes of Japan and Italy.
The war took an enormous bite out of Russian potential.