July days

Question 1

What had happened between February and June 1917?

Answer 1

• Working class members of the Bolsheviks became difficult to manage
• prices had doubled
• shortages in fuel and raw materials saw 586 factories to close
• 100,000 people became unemployed

Question 2

What happened on the 3rd of July?

Answer 2

20,00 armed sailors from the Kronstadt naval base marched on Petrograd gaining support from workers who wanted price control and soldiers who began chanting Bolshevik slogans, attacking property, looting shops, seizing railway stations and other key buildings and tried to invade Tauride palace demanding for soviet power. Many Bolsheviks joined and started to fire shots in the street tarnishing Lenin’s reputation

Question 3

Why was Lenin in a difficult situation?

Answer 3

He couldn’t condemn the actions of the revolutionaries but he knew a premature revolution could be disastrous. When it happened, he was holiday so he had to claim it as spontaneous

Question 4

How were the July days resolved?

Answer 4

• The provisional government (supported by the Mensheviks and the SRs) called in reinforcements to crush the revolutionaries
• The Bolsheviks helped force demonstrators out of Peter and Paul fortress and played a part in negotiating the disarming and arrest of soldiers

Question 5

What happened to the Bolsheviks?

Answer 5

• Lenin did return but his reputation was damaged so much that he went into exile in Finland until October
• Bolshevik propaganda was burned
• Pravda newspaper offices were closed and arrest warrants were given to the leaders
• Stalin fled
• Trotsky and Kamenev were imprisoned
• The Bolshevik newspaper Izvestia (news) denounced the roles of their leaders suggesting Lenin was working in pay of the Germans against Russia’s best interests

Question 6

What happened on the 8th of July as a consequence?

Answer 6

Kerensky became prime minister