Russia 1894-1941

Question 1

What made Nicholas II an ineffective leader?

Answer 1

He lacked organisational skills, was deeply religious, preferred not to engage in politics and was deeply sentimental. He was deeply anti-Semitic and praised regiments that put down disorders.

Question 2

How much of the population did the peasants make up?

Answer 2

The peasants made up 80% of the population.

Question 3

What impact did the policy of Russification have on the culture of national minorities?

Answer 3

Russification meant that national minorities tended to not get jobs in government and limited the ability of them to be taught their own languages.

Question 4

What impact did the policy of Russification have on the religions of national minorities?

Answer 4

The Russians imposed the Russian Orthodox church onto the national minorities. The Polish and Georgians both had their own forms of Christianity.

Question 5

Autocracy

Answer 5

Rule by a single person who has total power over everybody and everything in the country. An autocrat’s word is law.

In Russia this was an inherited position for the Romanov Family since 1613. It was believed that Russian Tsars were appointed by God.

Question 6

Totalitarian Dictatorship

Answer 6

Absolute rule by one party which controls every aspect of the nation’s life.

In Russia this was established after 1917 by Lenin and further developed by Stalin 1928-53. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only party tolerated in Russia from 1921-1991.

Question 7

October Manifesto

Answer 7

The document designed by Sergei Witte and signed by Nicholas II to divide opposition and end the situation in 1905 caused by the failure in the Russo-Japanese War, widespread dissent and economic dislocation and the General Strike.

It promised a Duma, civil liberties like freedom of speech, press and association. Technically it meant that Russia had moved towards becoming a Constitutional Monarchy but in practice it remained an Autocracy.

Question 8

Opposition

Answer 8

There was no tradition of a legal opposition in Russia. It did not exist 1900-1905 & 1918-1991. Russia has a long history of intolerance towards any form of opposition, which is generally ruthlessly repressed by the army of the secret police.

Briefly between 1905-1917 political parties formed and participated in the Duma, but in October 1917 with the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks the flirtation with more democratic practices ceased. When the Constituent Assembly was closed in January 1918 opposition became anybody who opposed the Bolsheviks/Communists.

Question 9

Duma

Answer 9

There were 4 dumas between 1906-1917. It was a form of parliament, like the House of Commons, but it did not have the right to pass laws only to recommend them to the Tsar and the upper house - the State Council. Since the Tsar saw it as being too radical, because of the number of Kadets and Trudoviks elected to the First Duma, Stolypin was charged with changing the voting laws until a duma the Tsar liked more was created. The Third & Fourth Dumas broadly matched these criteria, but even then the Tsar was reluctant to accept their advice and always treated the duma with contempt e.g. the Progressive Bloc in 1915.

Question 10

Bloody Sunday

Answer 10

Events of 9 January 1905 (OS)/ 22 January (NS) in which at least 200 innocent protesters were shot by the army in St Petersburg. Led by Father Gapon thousands of lower class men, women and children were taking a petition to their ‘Little Father’ - the Tsar - to ask for better living and working conditions. The Tsar had been advised to leave St Petersburg and instead the army took the decision to fire on the peaceful crowd, (who were carrying icons and playing music), in various locations around the city to stop them all getting to Palace Square. The incident at the Narva Gate was particularly awful.

This incident fatally damaged Nicholas II’s relationship with his people and it led to a demystification of tsarism.

Question 11

Progressive Bloc

Answer 11

A coalition of moderate conservatives and liberals in the Fourth Duma that tried to pressure the government into adopting a series of reforms aimed at inspiring public confidence in the government and at improving the management of Russia’s effort in World War I. The bloc was formed in August 1915 under the leadership of Paul Miliukov. Nicholas II responded on Sept. 16, 1915, by suspending the session of the Duma. This was ill advised as the alternative he chose was to leave the Tsarina and Rasputin in charge of Petrograd once he decided to become Commander-in-Chief in September 1915 and move to the Eastern Front.

Question 12

Kadets

Answer 12

The Kadets, or the ‘Constitutional Democrats’ / ‘Party of the People’s Freedom’, was a liberal political party created in Russia after the October Manifesto 1905. They were the largest of Russia’s liberal groups, and wanted the existing Tsarist autocracy modified into a full constitutional monarchy in which the ruling Tsar would be restricted by an elected assembly. The Kadets believed this structure would solve many of Russia’s problems, social and economic, as well as being much needed political reform. Their leader was Paul Miliukov. They were very involved in the Provisional Government in 1917.

Question 13

SRs

Answer 13

The Socialist Revolutionary Party was founded in 1901/2 . The main policy of the SRs was the confiscation of all land. This would then be distributed among the peasants according to need. The party was also in favour of the establishment of a democratically elected constituent assembly and a maximum 8-hour day for factory workers. The SRs played an important role during the 1905 Revolution & were very active under Victor Chernov’s leadership in 1917. The controversial SR Combat Organisation was a secret terrorist group that acted independently of the party assassinating key government officials e.g. Grand Duke Sergei. Although the party officially boycotted the First Duma in 1906, 34 SRs were elected, while 37 were elected to the Second Duma in 1907; the party boycotted both the Third and Fourth Dumas in 1907-1917. The Trudovik Party instead represented the SRs in the dumas e.g. Alexander Kerensky.

Question 14

Reds

Answer 14

The term used during the Russian Civil War 1918-21 to represent the Red Army of the Bolsheviks and their supporters. Red is historically the colour of revolution and was used by the Bolsheviks in their flags, banners & the stars on their hats. The word red in Russian also shares meaning with the term ‘beautiful’, as in Red Square, which has nothing to do with the Soviets at all. The Reds primarily won because they were ruthlessly and effectively organised by Trotsky, they were supported by Lenin’s policy of War Communism, they controlled the core of the railway network around Moscow and they could claim they were fighting for Mother Russia because of the Interventionists fighting with the Whites.

Question 15

Whites

Answer 15

Name given to the disparate group of people who opposed the Reds during the Russian Civil War 1918-21. The Whites were made up of all those who opposed the Reds including monarchists, capitalists, liberals, SRs, Mensheviks & Foreign Interventionists. Leaders included Yudenich, Wrangel, Kolchak, Kornilov & Deniken. Their biggest problem was that they could not co-ordinate attacks on the Reds because they were all leading separate forces around the Red controlled centre of Russia and they lacked the same cohesion and railway advantages.

Question 16

Greens

Answer 16

The Green Army or Greens were armed peasant groups which fought against all governments in the Russian Civil War of 1918-21. The Green movement formed as a popular reaction after the Bolshevik government implemented War Communism (1918-21), sending officials through the peasant lands of central Russia to collect supplies that the state needed in order to sustain the military and to begin building a socialist economy. Common targets for official requisitioning included recruits for the Red Army, horses, and grain. Requisitioning units and agricultural overseers often overstepped their official duties, plundering households indiscriminately and harming innocent villagers. Bolshevik excesses encouraged peasants to devote themselves to anti-Communist activities

Question 17

Kornilov Affair

Answer 17

The Kornilov Affair was an alleged attempted military coup d’état by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov, in August 1917 against the Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky. The incident is confusing since Kerensky’s role can be construed as ‘ambiguous’ at best and Kornilov did not personally leave the Eastern Front, but instead sent Krymov and the Cossack Savage Division who stopped on the outskirts of Petrograd.

The significance of this fiasco is that Kerensky armed the Petrograd Soviet in anticipation of the attack; they later formed the Military Revolutionary Committee, with these same weapons, and then overthrew Kerensky’s Provisional Government i.e. Kerensky had alienated the army through his betrayal of Kornilov and armed his enemy. This directly facilitated the October Revolution.

Question 18

April Theses

Answer 18

The April Theses were a series of ten directives issued by Vladimir Lenin upon his return to Petrograd from exile in Europe via Germany in a sealed train. He called for ‘Peace, Bread and Land’, for the soviets (workers’ councils) to take power (as seen in the slogan ‘All Power to the Soviets’), denounced liberals and socialists in the Provisional Government, called for Bolsheviks not to cooperate with the government, and called for an end to the war. The April Theses influenced the July Days and October Revolution in the next months and are identified with Leninism.

They were a surprise to his fellow Bolsheviks because this was not an orthodox Marxist approach. Lenin was an opportunist however and did not wish to waste the chance to lead the revolution, even if it was via the soviets.

Question 19

Treaty of Brest Litovsk

Answer 19

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between the new Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia’s participation in World War I.

Aware that the Bolsheviks possessed no financial resources to pay indemnities/reparations, the German government decided to extract its pound of flesh in the form of territorial annexations. The Germans demanded that the Soviets cede the following territories to Germany (and Austria in some cases): Finland, Russian Poland, Estonia, Livonia, Courland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus (and some other territory to the Ottoman Empire). Russia lost huge areas of prime agricultural land, eighty per cent of her coal mines and half her other industries. A follow-up agreement in August committed Russia to pay six billion marks in reparations. It was a very harsh treaty. Trotsky did not want to accept it, but Lenin argued that it had to be signed to allow the Bolsheviks to focus on saving the revolution.

Question 20

Kronstadt Mutiny/Uprising/Rebellion

Answer 20

In March 1921 occurred a major unsuccessful uprising against the Bolsheviks. Led by Russian sailors, soldiers, and civilians who had previously been supporters of the Bolsheviks, the rebellion was one of the reasons for Vladimir Lenin’s decision to loosen its control of the Russian economy by implementing the New Economic Policy (NEP). The rebellion was a clear reaction to the harsh years of the Civil War, economic collapse, the huge famine caused by War Communism and widespread discontent with the lack of power being given to the soviets. Lenin called this ‘the lightning flash that lit up reality’. It was ruthlessly suppressed by Trotsky and Marshal Tukhachevsky. This was a major turning point for the Bolsheviks.

Question 21

Ban on Factions

Answer 21

The 10th Bolshevik Party Congress passed a ‘ban on factions’ to eliminate splits within the party in 1921. In 1920 Lenin became concerned about diverging views within the Communist Party. For example, the Democratic Centralists had been set up in March 1919 and by 1921 Alexander Shlyapnikov had set up the Workers’ Opposition. Lenin regarded these as distractions within the party when unity was needed in order to neutralise the major crises of 1921, such as the famine and Kronstadt Rebellion. As Lenin stated:

“all members of the Russian Communist Party who are in the slightest degree suspicious or unreliable … should be got rid of”

Factions were also commencing to criticize Lenin’s leadership. Purges of the Party followed in the autumn of 1921. Those who did not toe the party line would be expelled.

The Ban on Factions directly facilitated dictatorship and was anti-democratic. It helped Stalin rise to power too.

Question 22

Russo-Japanese War

Answer 22

The Russo-Japanese War ( February 1904 - September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. Nicholas held the Japanese in contempt as “yellow monkeys”, and he took for granted that the Japanese would simply yield in the face of Russia’s superior power. Russia lost Port Arthur in 1904 and there followed humiliating defeats at Mukden and Tsushima in 1905.

Witte negotiated the Treaty of Portsmouth in September 1905 after it had become clear that the war was very unpopular and that it had badly dislocated the Russian economy.

Although popular support for the war had existed following the Japanese attack on Port Arthur in 1904, discontent occurred following continued defeats at the hands of Japan. For many Russians, the immediate shock of unexpected humiliation at the hands of Japan, caused the conflict to be viewed as a metaphor for the shortcomings of the Romanov autocracy

Question 23

Mensheviks

Answer 23

The Mensheviks formed the minority of the Russian Socialial Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) when they split in 1903. Lenin had called for a small tightly knit elite who would lead the revolution on behalf of the people. The majority of Socialist Democrats went with Lenin and were called the Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks wanted to make their movement less elitist than the Bolsheviks in the belief that it would attract the support of the uneducated workers and peasants. How could a movement appeal to the workers and peasants if it was elitist, they argued? One of the Socialist Democrats most associated with the party’s early days, Plekhanov, joined the Mensheviks. Its first leader was Julius Martov.

The Mensheviks had a far less disciplined approach to the revolution, but it was this more open approach that initially got the Mensheviks far more support than the Bolsheviks, along with such slogans as “eight hours work, eight hours play, eight hours sleep and eight bob pay.”

The Mensheviks also had a major internal weakness. Their openness allowed Mensheviks to hold differing views to other Mensheviks within the party. Therefore there was open disagreement in the party that was not only tolerated but, in the spirit of democracy, encouraged. If the Mensheviks had one belief, it was the support of pure Marxism as laid down by Karl Marx in his publications.

They also made the mistake of working with Kerensky from May 1917 and supporting the war to ‘defend the revolution’. In November 1917 they won only 17 seats in the Constituent Assembly = 3.2% of the vote.

Menshevism was finally made illegal after the Kronstadt Uprising of 1921.

Question 24

Julian Calendar

Answer 24

Beginning in 1582, the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian in Catholic countries. This change was also implemented in Protestant and Orthodox countries some time later. Old Style (OS) and New Style (NS) are sometimes used with dates to indicate whether the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January (NS)

The Gregorian Calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. Its predecessor, the Julian Calendar (introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC), was replaced because it did not properly reflect the actual time it takes the Earth to circle once around the Sun, known as a tropical year. It produced too many leap years and by 1900 Russia was thirteen days behind the West as a consequence. However, the Russian Orthodox Church favoured the Julian Calendar.

Lenin, who hated Russian Orthodoxy and saw it as ridiculously mystical and backward, changed Russia to the Gregorian Calendar in February 1918. It was implemented in Soviet Russia on 14 February 1918 by dropping the Julian dates of 1-13 February 1918.

Question 25

Tannenberg

Answer 25

The Battle of Tannenberg was fought between Russia and Germany from 26-30 August 1914, during the first month of World War I. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army and the suicide of its commanding general, Alexander Samsonov.

The battle is particularly notable for fast rail movements by the Germans, enabling them to concentrate against each of the two Russian armies in turn, and also for the failure of the Russians to encode their radio messages.

Question 26

Rasputin