DEVELOPMENTS IN CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION

Question 1

When did the pressure to change begin to accelerate?

Answer 1

During the disastrous Russo-Japanese War.

Question 2

What did the Duma and Fundamental Laws do to the new government’s structure after 1905?

Answer 2

The Tsar, followed by the Council of Ministers, The State Council, The Duma and the Senate.

Question 3

Why did NII disband the first Duma?

Answer 3

Claimed the actions of the lower chamber were illegal.

Question 4

How long did the first Duma last?

Answer 4

42 days.

Question 5

What happened in the period between the closing of the first Duma and the opening of the second?

Answer 5

The trial and imprisonment of key Kadet and Labourist Party members who signed the Vyborg Manifesto.

Question 6

What was the Second Duma greatly affected by? Why was it eventually dissolved?

Answer 6

Affected by Stolypin’s policies. It was dissolved after a Social Democrat member of the Duma was framed for attempting to arrange an army mutiny.

Question 7

How many reforms did the third Duma pass?

Answer 7

2,200 of 2,500

Question 8

How did Stolypin attempt to dismantle the Duma?

Answer 8

By manipulating Article 87 to create an even greater bias towards autocracy.

Question 9

What did the fourth Duma’s rule coincide with?

Answer 9

Brutal repression of civil disorder, such as the Lena Goldfields Massacre of 1912.

Question 10

What was the consequence of the Duma system?

Answer 10

Very little difference made to the underlying nature of the Russian state.

Question 11

What had formed by 1915?

Answer 11

A ‘Progressive Bloc’ of Duma representatives who demanded a National Government to take charge of the war effort.

Question 12

What did NII do in August 1915?

Answer 12

Neglected duties in Russia to go and become Commander in Chief of the Russian army in August 1915.

Question 13

What did Lenin publish in April 1917?

Answer 13

His April theses, in which he condemned the PG for being bourgeois.

Question 14

What were the July Days a sign of?

Answer 14

Early Bolshevik insurrection.

Question 15

What happened after the July Days? How did the Bolsheviks strengthen their position?

Answer 15

Leading Bolsheviks were imprisoned or exiled. However, Kerensky strengthened them by involving them in the resolution of the Kornilov affair.

Question 16

What had occurred by 8th September 1917?

Answer 16

The Bolsheviks were in control of the Petrograd Soviet.

Question 17

What happened when the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met on 25th October 1917?

Answer 17

Right-wing SRs and Mensheviks, who favoured a coalition government, walked out of the congress in protest.

Question 18

What were the results of the elections to the Constituent Assembly in November 1917?

Answer 18

Bolsheviks only won 175 seats, while the SRs won 370.

Question 19

What did Lenin do in reaction to the results of the November 1917 elections? What did he claim?

Answer 19

Dissolved the Constituent Assembly at gunpoint, claiming that it was ‘elected on the old register’.

Question 20

What was established in January 1918?

Answer 20

The Russian Soviet federative Socialist Republic.

Question 21

What did Sokolnikov sign on the 3rd March 1918?

Answer 21

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ceded a huge portion of territory and Russian reparations of 3 billion roubles.

Question 22

How did the Bolshevik government contradict ideology?

Answer 22

It should have constituted a major break with the tsarist past, since genuine soviet rule would have revolved around freedoms and liberties.

Question 23

What were the three elements to the new Bolshevik structure of government?

Answer 23

1. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets and the Central Executive Committee.
2. The Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom).
3. The Cheka.

Question 24

What was the Politburo?

Answer 24

Small, elite group of Bolsheviks responsible for formulating policy.

Question 25

What was the Orgburo?

Answer 25

Office that organised party affairs.

Question 26

What was the Ogburo?

Answer 26

Responsible for maintaining order and dealing with opposition.

Question 27

What did the Bolsheviks promote the party as?

Answer 27

One that was working to create an egalitarian society based on democratic centralism.

Question 28

How many members were there of the Bolshevik party in 1928? How many had there been in 1921?

Answer 28

One million in 1928.

730,000 in 1921.

Question 29

What did many members find new careers and opportunities in?

Answer 29

The Nomenklatura.

Question 30

How had the party become very hierarchical under Stalin?

Answer 30

Early 1930s, nearly 10% of the party was made up of apparatchiki.

Question 31

What did Stalin’s constitution of 1936 suggest?

Answer 31

That there would be more freedom for the people of the USSR.

Question 32

What were the three elements of the USSR’s structure post 1936?

Answer 32

• Supreme Soviet of the USSR
• Soviet of the Union
• Soviet of Nationalities

Question 33

How was the Communist party domination made clear in Article 126 of the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 33

Stated that the party was the ‘nucleus of all the public and state organisations of the working people’.

Question 34

Who did AIII replace Loris-Melikov with as Interior Minister? What did this replacement demonstrate?

Answer 34

Nikolai Ignatiev, to strengthen the state and increase social support for Tsarism.