On the evening of August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire following suit six days later. The cultural shock to the Russian Empire, whose identity hinged so much on German influence, was profound. As the border closed, Russia gave in to a wave of anti-German sentiment. The Russian capital was renamed from the Germanic sounding St. Petersburg to its literal Russian equivalent, Petrograd. Musical life too felt the consequences. Cases were reported of German and Austrian musicians in the large Russian cities being arrested and expelled. Boycotts, violence, and destruction started to affect German businesses across the board, including those of high repute such as the eminent Moscow-based music publisher Anton Gutheil, a German émigré, who decided his best option was to sell the business to Serge Koussevitsky's Editions Russes de Musique (Rossiyskoye muzikal’noye izdatel’stvo), and leave the country.

Throughout the course of his life, Neuhaus was reluctant to express how his family was affected by these unfolding political events. The only issue he ventured to raise in passing was that of his personal and unanticipated “war complications.” He was released from a brief period of conscription with a “white ticket” on health grounds. It was, however, not the end of his problems:

Thus, having just celebrated the end of his student years, Neuhaus was forced to prove himself one more time. In the spring of 1915 he made his way to Petrograd where his uncle, Felix Blumenfeld, was a professor of piano and had arranged for Neuhaus to take the final exams without the need to attend lectures or classes to earn the required distinction of becoming a “free artist” (svobodnïy khudozhnik) which would see him officially recognized as a professional, rather than a gifted amateur musician.