October Revolution

Question 1

Why was Stalin’s return in march significant?

Answer 1

he and Kamenev became the leading voices amoung the Petrograd Bolsheviks

Question 2

What did Lenin urge in his ‘letter from afar’? (2)

Answer 2

1. urged that the war Russia was fighting should be turned into a class war
2. that the Bolsheviks should not cooperate with the provisional government

Question 3

How did Lenin suggest Bolsheviks should turn the war Russia was fighting into a class war in his ‘letters from afar’

Answer 3

they should infiltrate the armies of the combatant nations and encourage soldiers to turn their weapons against their officers

Question 4

what is accommodationism and who was a proponent of it?

Answer 4

the idea that the Bolsheviks shouls accept the situation that followed the Feb. Rev.; cooperating with the provisional government and with other revolutionary parties. Kamenev was in favour of this (Stalin went along)

Question 5

when did Lenin return to Petrograd?

Answer 5

3rd of April

Question 6

who arranged for Lenin to return to Russia and why?

Answer 6

The German government as they thought the fall of the tsar would be the prelude to the collapse of the Russian government

Question 7

what did Lenin declare in his speech upon his return?

Answer 7

the February revolution had not been a genuine one and that it had created a parliamentary bourgeois republic

Question 8

what were the five main points of Lenin’s April theses?

Answer 8

1. abandon cooperation with other parties
2. work for true revolution
3. over through the provisional government
4. transfer power to the workers
5. all power to the soviets

Question 9

what were Lenin’s ulterior motives in demanding the soviets take over government?

Answer 9

the soviets were his base of power and they could offer his small party the means by which it could obtain power in the name of the proletariat

Question 10

what were the two Bolshevik slogans?

Answer 10

‘Peace, Bread and Land’ and ‘All power to the Soviets’

Question 11

where did Lenin’s sense of urgency come from?

Answer 11

his concern over two events that were due to take place in the autumn, which he calculated would seriously limit the Bolsheviks freedom of action:

1. the meeting of the All Russian Congress of Soviets in late October
2. Novemember election for the Constituent Assembly

Question 12

what was the problem for the Bolsheviks of the Constituent Assembly ?

Answer 12

once it came into being its moral authority would be difficult to challenge

Question 13

what emboldened Lenin to prepare his party to overthrown the provisional government

Answer 13

the Bolsheviks success in undermining the pre-parliament

Question 14

what did Lenin’s personal presence in Petrograd do for the Bolsheviks?

Answer 14

stiffened there resolve

Question 15

when did the central committee pledge itself to an armed insurrection?

Answer 15

10th of October

Question 16

what happened on the 10th of October?

Answer 16

after weeks of spending exhausting hourse at a series of central committee, he finally convinced them to commit to an armed insurrection

Question 17

who organised the revolution?

Answer 17

Trotsky

Question 18

what was the key to Trotskys success in organising the revolution?

Answer 18

his chairmanship of the Petrograd Soviet

Question 19

what was Trotsky the chair of from September onwards?

Answer 19

the petrograd soviet

Question 20

what did the MRC do

Answer 20

organise the defence of petrograd from possible german attack or another Kornilov style attack

Question 21

what did Trotsky being one of the trokia mean?

Answer 21

he had control of the only effective military forces in Petrograd

Question 22

why was the MRC a legitamite force?

Answer 22

it theoretically acted on the authority of the soviet

Question 23

what did trotsky direct the red guards to do when Lenin had ordered the beginning of the uprising?

Answer 23

seize key vantage points such as bridges and the telegraph offices

Question 24

what did Trotsky claim were the reasons for the Bolshevik success?

Answer 24

1. failure of the Petrograd garrison to resist

2. the existence of the MRC

Question 25

what was the paradoxical situation of the provisional government?

Answer 25

inherited a situation that any government would struggle with, they couldn’t withdraw from the war as they needed war credits but the strain it placed on society was unsustainable