Reasons for the October 1917 Revolution in Russia

Question 1

Give a brief introduction to what happened during the October 1917 revolution?

Answer 1

• in March 1917 the tsar abdicated and Russia was without a monarch
• Provisional government appointed itself to take the tsar’s place in running the Empire until elections could be held
• However in October 1917, another revolution broke out and the Provisional Government lost to the Bolsheviks

Question 2

What were the factors that contributed to the October 1917 revolution?

Answer 2

• Lenin’s leadership
• economic problems
• the Bolsheviks propaganda
• the land issue
• the Kornilov revolt
• the Provisional Governments decision to keep Russia in the war

Question 3

How did the Provisional Government’s decision to keep Russia in the war contribute to the October revolution?

Answer 3

• the war was unpopular and almost bankrupted the country
• despite this, the Provisional Government decided to continue with it
• this was a difficult decision because the ministers understood that pulling out of the war meant that Russia would no longer receive loans of supplies and money from other countries and the economy would collapse

Question 4

Why was the Provisional Government’s decision to keep Russia in the war an important factor?

Answer 4

• Russian people wanted the war to come to an end
• the country was exhausted and wouldn’t be able to cope, the people were done
• this gained the Bolsheviks support as they were seen as the only party that would take Russia out of the war
• less important than the land question as the land question only concerned the peasants whereas this factor involved the whole of Russia

Question 5

How did economic problems contribute to the October 1917 revolution?

Answer 5

• dire economic situation due to the continuation of the war
• inflation had reacher 100%, taxes had increased, and power cuts were common, as well as high unemployment rates
• long bread queues in the big cities

Question 6

Why was economic problems an important factor?

Answer 6

-population were hungry, poor and unhappy. The lack of help from the Provisional Government moved a lot of support for the Provisional Government to the Bolsheviks campaign.

Question 7

How did the Kornilov revolt contribute to the October 1917 revolution?

Answer 7

• General Kornilov was the commander in chief of the Russian army in 1917
• he wanted to take control of the Provisional Government and ordered his troops to march on Petrograd during September 1917. He was unsuccessful but the Provisional Government had to seek help from the Red guards to defend Petrograd

Question 8

How was the Kornilov revolt an important factor?

Answer 8

• support for Bolsheviks had increased amongst public in Petrograd
• it showed how weak the Provisional Government had become
• less important than keeping Russia in the war because that decision was fatal for Russia and almost sent the country into economic devastation

Question 9

How did Lenin’s leadership contribute to the October 1917 Revolution?

Answer 9

• Lenin totally dominated the Bolshevik party
• he was the driving force behind the takeover of power
• his April thesus of ‘all power to the Soviets’ and ‘peace, land and bread’ were hugely attractive to the workers, peasants and soldiers
• he convinced the Bolsheviks to launch a takeover in October 1917 when some of them feared that a civil war would break out

Question 10

Why was Lenin’s leadership an important factor?

Answer 10

• Lenin was a very focused individual who knew that policies and power were important to Russia becoming a socialist society
• He used issues such as the economic crisis to make his party more popular among the workers and soldiers in Petrograd where power was located

Question 11

How did the land question contribute to the October 1917 revolution?

Answer 11

• the peasants wanted the land that they had lived and worked on but the Provisional Government decided it would be best left to a democratically elected government to decide what happened to the land
• the peasants were unhappy with this and by the summer of 1917 were starting to take back the land from the landowners with violent outbreaks, the provisional government could not do anything to stop this

Question 12

Why was the land question an important factor?

Answer 12

• the failure of the provisional government to stop the peasant takeovers showed weaknesses of the government and the governments decision to not address the land issue caused chaos in the countryside pushing many peasants to side with the Bolsheviks who supported the peasant actions
• more important than the Kornilov revolt as the peasants were 84% of the population

Question 13

How did the Bolsheviks propaganda contribute to the October 1917 revolution in Russia?

Answer 13

• the Bolsheviks had been spreading propaganda in the trenches throughout the war, calling to overthrow the government and to end the war, and this continued when the provisional government came to power
• the Bolsheviks also had their own newspaper ‘Pravda’ (truth in Russian) which sold 250,000 copies

Question 14

Why was the Bolsheviks propaganda an important factor?

Answer 14

• propaganda both undermined the policies of the provisional government and highlighted what Russia could expect under Bolshevik rule
• less important than Lenin’s leadership because Lenin was completely focused on bringing his party to power and excluding all socialist parties, and therefore without propaganda would still have made power

Question 15

What was the most important factor and why?

Answer 15

• the provisional governments decision to keep Russia in the war
• crucial factor
• this was because this decision was against what the majority of Russia wanted and pushing Russia past the limit that they could handle. The war acted as a catalyst for the numerous problems that caused the population to support the Bolsheviks which is why they gained power in October 1917