3.1 - Causes of Russian Revolution INTERPRETATIONS

Question 1

Interpretations
Weakness of Tsar Nicholas
x3

Answer 1

• “the source of all the problems” (Figes)
• “quite incapable of exercising power” (Figes)
• “inept political and military leader, incapable of providing the inspiration the nation needed” (Lynch)

Question 2

Interpretations
Economic Conditions in Tsarist Russia
x4

Answer 2

• “grave and intensifying agrarian crisis” (Pipes)
• Workers’ “Dissatisfaction turned into desperation… which made them more sympathetic to radical ideas” (Harcave)
• “crisis of modernisation… served to erode the foundations of the autocratic state” (Smith)
• “incompatibility of the Tsarist state with the demands of modern civilisation” (Hill)

Question 3

Interpretations
Political Conditions in Tsarist Russia
x2

Answer 3

• “Russian Empire was deeply fissured between the government and the Tsar’s subjects” (Service)
• “The various ministers the Tsar appointed were distinguished only by their incompetence” (Lynch)

Question 4

Interpretations
Witte
x1

Answer 4

• “in ability he towered above all other ministers and officials” (Lynch)

Question 5

Interpretations
Russo Japanese War
x1

Answer 5

• “made Tsarism totter” (Trotsky)

Question 6

Interpretations
Significance of 1905 Revolution / October Manifesto
x5

Answer 6

• “unsatisfactory to all those concerned” (Fitzpatrick)
• “it left political attitudes untouched” (Pipes)
• “It served to split the opposition” (Welch)
• “Although there were a few broken ribs, tsarism came out of the experience of 1905 alive and strong” (Trotsky)
• Liberals’ “appetite for reform was satisfied, at least temporarily” (Lynch)

Question 7

Interpretations
Impact of Bloody Sunday
x1

Answer 7

• “the monarchy’s fate hung by a thread” (Service)

Question 8

Interpretations
Weaknesses of Provisional Government
x4

Answer 8

• “weak to the point of impotence. It was conspicuously lacking in all the means by which a state normally enforces its authority.” (Chamberlin)
• “had come nowhere near to solving Russia’s problems or satisfying its needs” (Lynch)
• “Economically incompetent and militarily disastrous” (Lynch)
• “Preoccupation with the war prevented the government from dealing with Russia’s social and economic problems” (Lynch)

Question 9

Interpretations
Fundamental Laws
x1

Answer 9

• “made it clear that the tsarist regime had no intention… to diminish its absolute authority” (Lynch)

Question 10

Interpretations
Stolypin’s Reforms
x2

Answer 10

• offer “a sense of national purpose and hope” (Pipes)
• “deep conservatism of the Russian peasants made them slow to respond” (Lynch)

Question 11

Interpretations
Impact of Rasputin
x4

Answer 11

• “There would be no Lenin without Rasputin” (Massie)
• “Symptom of the fatal disease” (Lynch)
• “power to mobilise an angry public against the monarchy” (Figes)
• “all revolutions in part are based on myth” (Pipes)

Question 12

Interpretations
Ministerial Leapfrog
x1

Answer 12

• “ministers were selected by an ignorant, blind and hysterical woman” (Pares)

Question 13

Interpretations
Tsar as Commander in Chief
x1

Answer 13

• “unhelpful presence at military headquarters in Mogilvev left condict of affairs in the capital… in the hands of his neurotic wife” (Wood)

Question 14

Interpretations
Response of Liberals
x1

Answer 14

• “Liberals were patriots who objected to the Tsarist regime not because it was fighting an unjust war, but because it was not committed to winning it” (McMeekin)

Question 15

Interpretations
World War One and February Revolution
x5

Answer 15

• “World War One was a titanic test… that Tsarism failed in a singular and catastrophic way” (Figes)
• “War accelerated the development of revolutionary crises but their deep lying causes could not be wished away” (Hill)
• “the cumulative effort of a prolonged struggle proved overwhelming” (Lynch)
• “deep-seated cultural and political flaws… proved fatal under the pressure generated from World War One” (Pipes)
• “the Tsarist system proved much too rigid and unwieldly” (Figes)

Question 16

Interpretations
February Revolution
x2

Answer 16

• “one of the most leaderless, spontaneous, anonymous revolutions of all time” (Chamberlin)
• “Petrograd achieved the February Revolution. The rest of the country adhered to it” (Trotsky)

Question 17

Interpretations
Impact of April Theses
x2

Answer 17

• “Tailoring the Bolshevik programme so that it would reflect popular aspirations was one of Lenin’s most important contributions to the development of the revolution” (Rabinowitch)
• “The Bolsheviks’ strength was that they were the only party uncompromised by association with the bourgeoisie and the February Regime” (Fitzpatrick)

Question 18

Interpretations
Impact of Miliukov’s Note
x1

Answer 18

• “a marvellous opportunity to discredit the Provisional Government … by showing that the government continued to pursue imperialist aims” (White)

Question 19

Interpretations
Impact of July Days
x2

Answer 19

• “the experience of July, though traumatic, was highly instructive” (White)
• “Vast display of Bolshevik power” (Faulkner)

Question 20

Interpretations
Support for Bolsheviks
x2

Answer 20

• “exerted an influence out of proportion with its numbers” (Lynch)
• “became a political alternative for the disappointed and disenchanted” (Wade)

Question 21

Interpretations
Impact of Lenin
x3

Answer 21

• During the June Offensive, “Lenin had turned the armies Red” (McMeekin)
• “Bolshevism was finding its confidence again… [Lenin would] give clarity to Bolshevik ideas and add resolve to Bolshevik political campaigns” (Service)
• “Lenin was undeniably the inspiration behind the October Revolution” (Lynch)

Question 22

Interpretations
Impact of Trotsky
x1

Answer 22

• “Trotsky was indisputably the executive figure who organised the actual rising” (Lynch)

Question 23

Interpretations
October Revolution
x2

Answer 23

• “the Bolsheviks were pushing against an already open door” (Lynch)
• “October was a classic coup d’état… with a show of mass participation, but with hardly any mass involvement.” (Pipes)