2022 Exam: 4. The crushing of the Moscow Uprising

Question 1

Political situation in late 1905

Answer 1

• Govt felt strong enough to silence the increasingly belligerent St Petersburg Soviet
• The capital’s Soviet went down without a fight - its counterpart in Moscow did not
• Early December - Moscow Soviet called for general strike, urged by militant Bolshevik members - to overthrow ‘the criminal Tsarist government’

Question 2

Moscow Soviet general strike

Answer 2

• Distributed weapons to the city’s workers - armed uprising clearly in the making

Question 3

Govt response to Moscow Uprising

Answer 3

• Savage - army units cleared the barricades that had been erected on Moscow’s streets
• Used artillery fire to regain control of its working-class districts

Question 4

Aftermath of Moscow Uprising

Answer 4

• Armed engaged in reprisals - mass arrests, beatings and executions without trial
• More than 1,000 people died in the Moscow Uprising