Chapter 12

Question 1

When did Lenin return to Russia?

Answer 1

3rd April 1917

Question 2

What were the demands of the April Theses

Answer 2

Power transferred to the Soviets, war brought to an immediate end, land redistributed to the peasants

Question 3

What can the April Theses be summed up as?

Answer 3

Peace, bread and land

Question 4

What was the reaction to Lenin’s April Theses?

Answer 4

Some Bolsheviks feared Lenin was out of touch, Mensheviks believed he would cause a right-wing reaction and the Bolsheviks were divded whether to support the Provisional Government

Question 5

Which notable Bolsheviks supported the Provisional Government?

Answer 5

Stalin and Kamenev

Question 6

What was the support for the Provisional Government in June 1917?

Answer 6

543 to 126 votes

Question 7

What was the reason for the July Days?

Answer 7

Grain prices had doubled in Petrograd and shortages of resources caused the loss of 100,000 jobs

Question 8

How many members of Kronstadt supported the July Days?

Answer 8

20,000

Question 9

What was the impact of the July Days on Bolshevik reputations?

Answer 9

Bolshevik propaganda was burned and Pravda offices were closed - Lenin’s reputation fell

Question 10

How did the Kornilov Coup positively affect the Bolsheviks?

Answer 10

Kerensky supplied them with arms and they organised bands of workers

Question 11

How much did Bolshevik support increase by from June to December

Answer 11

164%

Question 12

How did the Bolshevik membership grow from February to October?

Answer 12

From 23,000 members to 200,000

Question 13

Who became the Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet?

Answer 13

Trotsky

Question 14

What did Lenin begin to demand from mid-September 1917?

Answer 14

He demanded to stage a revolution and seize power

Question 15

Who were the strongest opposition to Lenin’s demands?

Answer 15

Zinoviev and Kamenev

Question 16

How did Trotsky suggest the Bolsheviks gain absolute power?

Answer 16

By working through the Petrograd Soviet and wait for the Congress of Soviets

Question 17

When did Lenin secretly return to Petrograd?

Answer 17

7th October

Question 18

Why did the Bolshevik-controlled Soviet establish a ‘Military Revolutionary Committee’?

Answer 18

Kerensky sent radical Bolshevik units outside of the capital

Question 19

Who governed the ‘Military Revolutionary Committee’?

Answer 19

Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky

Question 20

What did the ‘Military Revolutionary Committee’ control?

Answer 20

200,000 Red Guards, 60,000 Baltic sailors and 150,000 Petrograd soldiers

Question 21

How did Kerensky try to restrict power?

Answer 21

By trying to close down two Bolshevik newspapers and restrict the Military Revolutionary Committee’s power

Question 22

What key positions did the Red Guards take on the 24th-25th October?

Answer 22

Around the telephone exchange, post office, railway stations, news agency, state bank, bridges and power stations

Question 23

How many did Trotsky claim were actively involved in the revolution?

Answer 23

25,000 to 30,000

Question 24

How many were really present at the Winter Palace on 25th October?

Answer 24

10,000-15,000 (most are presumed to be bystanders)

Question 25

Why would the Bolsheviks claim a larger number were actively involved?

Answer 25

The legitimacy of their regime was based on the idea of a popular revolution

Question 26

How many delegates arrived for the first session of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets?

Answer 26

670

Question 27

Why were the Mensheviks and right-wing SRs disappointed by the result?

Answer 27

The majority of seats for the executive committee went to Bolsheviks and left-wing SRs

Question 28

What did Trotsky claim that the moderates belonged to?

Answer 28

The ‘dustbin of history’

Question 29

What did this executive committee establish on 26th October?

Answer 29

The ‘Soviet of People’s Commissars’ or Sovnarkom

Question 30

What decrees were established on the 27th October?

Answer 30

Decree on peace and an end to war and a decree on land which abolished private ownership and legitimised peasant seizures

Question 31

What decrees were establised in November 1917?

Answer 31

Workers’ control decree gave workers right to ‘supervise management’, nationality decree to promise self-determiation to the countries within the former empire, decree of elected peoples’ courts, outlaw of sex discrimination and right for women to own property

Question 32

What decrees were established in December 1917?

Answer 32

Military decree removed class-ranks and military decorations, decrees on the church nationalised church land and removed marriage and divorce from church control, nationalisation of banks ended private flow of capital

Question 33

In what ways was the Bolshevik government’s support limited?

Answer 33

Civil servants refused to serve under them and bankers refused to provide finance

Question 34

What was Kerensky’s opposition to the Bolshevik government?

Answer 34

He formed an army of 18 Cossack regiments - there were 10 days of fighting between the troops before Kerensky’s troops were convinced to defect

Question 35

How did Lenin deal with other socialist parties?

Answer 35

He did very little; his only concession was that left-wing Social Revolutionaries were allowed to join Sovnarkom

Question 36

What were Lenin’s methods against his political and ‘class’ enemies?

Answer 36

A propaganda campaign, closure of anti-Bolshevik newspapers, a purge of the civil service, establishment of the Cheka and leading opposition was arrested

Question 37

How many seats did the Bolsheviks recieve at the Constituent Assembly elections, and how many did the SRs?

Answer 37

Bolsheviks recieved 175 while the SRs recieved 410 seats (including 40 left-wingers)

Question 38

How long did the Constituent Assembly meet for before it was dissolved?

Answer 38

One day only - 5th January 1918