Key Topic 1: The Tsarist Regime and its Collapse 1914 -1917 COPY COPY

Question 1

Write a definition of a ‘zemstva’.

Answer 1

A local assembly, dominated by landowners – therefore a tool the Tsar could use to control the country.

Question 2

What word, beginning with ‘p’ describes the industrial working class?

Answer 2

Proletariat

Question 3

Describe why the quality of life was low for industrial workers in big Russian cities like Petrograd and Moscow in 1917. Give three reasons.

Answer 3

• Low pay,
• Exploitation by employers,
• No protection from e.g. unions,
• Dangerous and filthy working conditions,
• Overcrowded accommodation

Question 4

Name at least one of the Tsar’s closest advisers (not Rasputin).

Answer 4

Stolypin, Rodzianko or Witte.

Question 5

Name the Tsar’s secret police.

Answer 5

Okhrana

Question 6

Give one policy/belief of the SRs.

Answer 6

To educate the peasants to enable a revolution.

Question 7

Describe the SRs main support base.

Answer 7

Peasants.

Question 8

Give one policy/belief of the Mensheviks

Answer 8

Russia was not ready for a revolution as it needed a period of capitalism. They would not cooperate with other parties.

Question 9

Give one policy/belief of the Oktobrists.

Answer 9

Keep the Tsar – use him as a figurehead for a constitutional monarchy like the one in Great Britain.

Question 10

Describe the Oktobrists main support base.

Answer 10

Professionals, middle and upper classes, aristocracy

Question 11

Describe ‘Order No. 1’

Answer 11

No laws are valid unless ratified by the Petrograd Soviet.

Question 12

What was the Petrograd Soviet?

Answer 12

A worker’s council dominated by the Bolsheviks.