Nature of the Tsarist rule

Question 1

How did autocrats rule?

Answer 1

They held absolute power in a country and did not have to explain themselves to anyone

Question 2

Whose support did the Tsar rule with?

Answer 2

He had the support of the aristocracy (landowners), the Church, the army and the civil service.

Question 3

What are subject nationalities?

Answer 3

Non-russian people living in Russia

Question 4

What were the various groups in Russia?

Answer 4

Peasants, Industrial workers and Subject nationalities

Question 5

Who were the peasants?

Answer 5

They are 80% of Russia’s population.

They often lived in poverty and wanted their own land.

Question 6

Who were the industrial workers?

Answer 6

They were workers who often lived in Moscow and Petrograd in overcrowded conditions and worked long hours for little pay.

Question 7

What groups made up the Tsar’s opposition in Russia?

Answer 7

The Social Revolutionaries
The Bolsheviks
The Mensheviks
The Constitutional Democrats.

Question 8

What were the wants of the Social Revolutionaries?

Answer 8

They wanted to carve up the huge estates of the very rich and hand them over to the peasants

Question 9

What were the wants of the Bolsheviks?

Answer 9

They wanted to overthrow the Tsar and set up a mass communist party.

Question 10

What were the wants of the Mensheviks?

Answer 10

They wanted to create a mass communist party which would eventually overthrow the Tsar.

Question 11

What were the wants of the Constitutional Democrats?

Answer 11

They wanted to keep the Tsar but make him share power with a Parliament or Duma.

Question 12

What was the Duma and why was it formed?

Answer 12

A representative assembly that the Tsar consulted, but which had very little power.

It was formed to be a compromise in the October Manifesto to show that the Tsar would change his ways.

Question 13

Why was there a revolution in 1905?

Answer 13

Russia had gone to war with Japan and suffered heavy defeats

There were protests in many Russian cities

Peasants began to riot and law and order began to breakdown

Question 14

What was the most famous riot of 1905?

Answer 14

Bloody Sunday, January 1905

Rehearsal for 1917 revolution

Question 15

What happened on Bloody Sunday, January 1905?

Answer 15

Russian troops opened fire on a column of unarmed people in St Petersburg, killing hundreds of women and children.

Question 16

What did the 1905 Revolution force the Tsar to do?

Answer 16

Tsar was forced to accept some changes including the Duma being set up and the October manifesto being published.

Question 17

Why was the Tsar able to keep control during the 1905 Revolution?

Answer 17

The army stayed loyal as most soldiers were peasants from the countryside who were instinctively conservative and loyal to the Tsar.

Question 18

What did the October Manifesto do?

Answer 18

It introduced some reforms including allowing the peasants more land and abolishing the fees the peasants were paying to landowners.

Question 19

Why was Queen Alexandra unpopular in Russia?

Answer 19

German background led people to not trust her

She was heavily under the influence of a Russian monk, Gregory Rasputin.

Question 20

Why was Tsar unpopular in Russia?

Answer 20

He was weak, indecisive and easily influenced by others

The rumours about Rasputin and Alexandra made him look worse.

The continued military defeat. Soldiers were poorly equipped due to shortages of weapons and ammunition, resulting in a series of defeats.

Question 21

Why was Tsar unpopular in Russia with the army?

Answer 21

No military experience meant he was unfit for the position

Taking personal command of the army in 1915 meant that he could be held directly to blame for any defeats.

Question 22

Why did leaving the Government of Russia in Alexandra’s control cause problems?

Answer 22

She dismissed capable ministers and refused to accept the advice of the Duma.

She misled the Tsar about the extent of the opposition in Petrograd.

Question 23

What effect did the war have of Russia’s economy?

Answer 23

There was greater overcrowding in towns and cities as well as low wages and rising prices.

The transport was inadequate and food often failed to reach towns and cities.

Question 24

Why was there discontent in Russia?

Answer 24

There were too few peasants to work on land in the countryside due to conscription

They suffered from increasing food shortages.

The conditions in the army were so bad. It resulted in am increasing number of soldiers deserted.

Question 25

Why were the people angry about the war?

Answer 25

Suffered defeats at the hands of the Russians = Tannenburg and the Maursian Lakes in 1914.

Question 26

Why were the Russians at a disadvantage?

Answer 26

Russian Army relied on old-fashioned tactics = bayonets instead of the new machine guns that could fire for hundreds of meters.

Question 27

Why did food shortages begin to develop in Russia?

Answer 27

Inadequate railway network + most just went to major cities instead of border areas

Most railways were taken over by the army = fewer trains to transport food.

Question 28

What was the Brusilov Offensive ?

Answer 28

They captures large areas of Austria-Hungary taking around 400,000 prisoners

Question 29

What were the advantages and disadvantages of the Brusilov Offensive?

Answer 29

It was successful. It used specialised shock troops instead of massed attacks

It was unsuccessful because more than 58,000 troops deserted at the time

The discipline in the army began to collapse as the authority of officers were undermined