CHP3.1Return `of Lenin

Question 1

How many members were there in the Bolshevik party at the time of the feb/march revolution?

Answer 1

small, only 23,000 members

Question 2

How many representatives of the Bolshevik party were there in the Soviet of 1500?

Answer 2

only had 40 representatives in the Soviet of 1500

Question 3

When did Stalin get back to Petrograd and what did he do?

Answer 3

mid March and took over control of the party newspaper ‘Pravda’ (The Truth)

Question 4

When did Lenin return to Petrograd from Switzerland?

Answer 4

3rd April 1917

Question 5

Why did the Germans allow Lenin safe passage from Switzerland ?

Answer 5

They were fond of the idea of his return in stirring up trouble and ending the war

Question 6

How long had Lenin been in exile?

Answer 6

Apart from a few months in 1905 -1906 Lenin had been in exile for 17 years

Question 7

What were the 3 main demands of Lenin’s ‘April Theses’?

Answer 7

• The war should be brought to an immediate end
• Power should be transferred to the Soviets
• All land should be taken over by the state and re-allocated to peasants by local soviets

Question 8

What was Lenin’s theses summed up as which was supported by the motto , “all power to the Soviets”?

Answer 8

“peace, bread, land”

Question 9

What were the reactions of Lenin’s proposals when they were first put to a meeting of the Social Democrats?
(4)

Answer 9

• Some Bolsheviks felt that Lenin had grown out of touch during his time in exile
• Allegations that Lenin was in pay with the Germans
• Mensheviks feared that Lenin would undermine their work and cause a rightwing reaction
• Some believed that Lenin’s proposal to oppose the PG was unrealistic as the Bolshevik party was still a minority

Question 10

How did Lenin succeed in gaining more support after the obvious unpopular reaction to his initial speech to the Social Democrats?
(2)

Answer 10

• Work a workers cap to look more Proletarian at factory meetings
• Abandoned his call for an immediate overthrow of the PG and so won over those scared of civil war

Question 11

What 2 things did Lenin wrongly claim credit for?

Answer 11

• Peasantry seizing land, which had already begun in the absence of any authority
• the massive anti-war demonstration in Petrograd in April, which was actually as a result of Milyukov’s announcement about the continuation of war

Question 12

What did Milyukov say in his announcement?

Answer 12

That Russia would continue fighting ‘until victory’

Question 13

How was Milyukov’s announcement positive for Lenin and the bolshevik party?

Answer 13

• Milyukov and Guchkov were forced to resign and were replaced by 2 socialists, Viktor Chernov + Alexander Kerensky as well as an additional 2 Mensheviks to the cabinet
• This meant that the PG took a move to the left

Question 14

By the end of April, what did Lenin achieve the majority in through force of his personalty ?

Answer 14

the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party

Question 15

When did the ‘All Russian Congress of Soviets” meet in Petrograd?

Answer 15

3rd June 1917

Question 16

At the “All Russian Congress of Soviets”, what was the votes of confidence in the PG?

Answer 16

543 votes - in confidence

126- no confidence

Question 17

In June, did the Bolshevik party to bad or good in the Duma elections?

Answer 17

good

Question 18

What happened in the June demonstrations?

Answer 18

the Petrograd Soviet called the June demonstrations in an attempt to outmanoeuvre the Bolsheviks however Bolshevik banners dominated the march

Question 19

How was Lenin put in a difficult position by the Kronstadt naval base demonstrations?

Answer 19

-he knew that a premature revolution risked defeat and therefore could neither give full support or condemn their actions

Question 20

Why did the Germans help Lenin return to Russia who they were fighting?

Answer 20

as they believed that the Bolsheviks would end the war with Russia on the eastern front

Question 21

Where was Lenin in exile?

Answer 21

Switzerland

Question 22

How man comrades did Lenin travel with on a sealed train through Germany?

Answer 22

31

Question 23

How was Lenin greeted on his arrival in Finland station in Petrograd?

Answer 23

by cheering crowds

Question 24

Where did Lenin land in Russia?

Answer 24

Finland station in Petrograd

Question 25

At the time, what did Bolsheviks and Mensheviks believe was needed which Lenin and Trotsky disagreed with?

Answer 25

That there needed to be a ‘bourgeois stage’ of revolution

Question 26

Why did Lenin and Trotsky not believe that there needed to be a ‘bourgeois stage’?

Answer 26

as this would hold back the proletarian revolution

Question 27

What was Lenin’s demands ‘peace, bread, land’ supported by?

Answer 27

‘All power to the Soviets’

Question 28

What the Bolshevik Party in April 1917 under Lenin’s tight control?

Answer 28

No

Question 29

Why did some of the Social Democrats when Lenin first proposed his ideas believe that his call to oppose the PG was unrealistic?

Answer 29

as the Bolsheviks were still only a minority among the Socialists