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GCSE History > Russia > Flashcards

Russia Flashcards

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1
Q

Roughly how many different nationalities were there in Russia at the turn of the century?

A

200

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2
Q

Who was Tsar from 1894-1917?

A

Nicholas II

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3
Q

What is an autocracy?

A

A system of government by one person with absolute power - e.g. the Tsar

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4
Q

Russia was rich in which raw materials?

A

Gold, silver, iron ore, coal, oil

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5
Q

What was russification?

A

The tsarist policy of making non-Russians in Russia speak Russian, wear Russian clothes and follow Russian customs.

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6
Q

What percentage of people were peasants, and what percentage were nobles?

A

80, 1

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7
Q

What were peasants known as before their emancipation (freeing) in 1861?

A

Serfs

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8
Q

What were better off peasants, who hired labour and rented land, known as?

A

Kulaks

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9
Q

Most soldiers in the army were:

A

Peasant conscripts, badly paid and poorly fed

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10
Q

Which group of people were known for their loyalty to the Tsar, fighting spirit and independence?

A

The Cossacks

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11
Q

How old was Tsar Nicholas when he had his “epic chestnut battle” with Prince George of Greece?

A

26

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12
Q

How did Tsar Alexander III (Nicholas’ father) refer to him, and what training did he give him in being Tsar?

A

Girlie and dunce; none

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13
Q

What was the main religion in Russia?

A

Russian Orthodox Christian

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14
Q

How did historian Orlando Figes describe Nicholas II’s abilities as Tsar?

A

“With his limitations, he could only play at the part of autocrat.”

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15
Q

Who did the Tsars believe had appointed them to rule?

A

God

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16
Q

How many people died in the 1891 famine?

A

400,000

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17
Q

Who was the “little father”?

A

The Tsar: it was a popular nickname for him, showing people’s affection and trust.

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18
Q

What was the family name of the Tsars at the turn of the 20th century?

A

Romanov

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19
Q

What was the name of the secret police under the Tsar?

A

The Okhrana

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20
Q

What was the Duma?

A

The Russian parliament

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21
Q

Who was Father Gapon?

A

The leader of the Bloody Sunday march

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22
Q

What was the exact date of Bloody Sunday?

A

22 January 1905

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23
Q

What were the four main demands of the Bloody Sunday marchers?

A

An eight hour working day, pay of one rouble a day, the vote, lower taxes.

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24
Q

To what did the the Tsar agree in the October Manifesto of 1905?

A

Civil rights, extending the franchise and that all laws had to be agreed by the newly established Duma

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25
Q

When was the Russo-Japanese war, who won, and why was it important?

A

1904-5; Japan; weakened people’s belief in the Tsarist regime.

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26
Q

What was the name of the Tsar’s ruthless prime minister between 1906 and 1911?

A

Petr Stolypin

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27
Q

What item of clothing might Stolypin have been likely to wear?

A

A necktie: “Stolypin’s necktie” was the nickname given to the hangman’s noose, a reference to Stolypin’s ruthlessness in the face of opposition.

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28
Q

What was the ratio of representatives to a) nobles and b) peasants in the first Duma?

A

One representative for every 2000 nobles, and one for every 90,000 peasants.

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29
Q

What could the first Duma not do?

A

Pass laws, appoint ministers or control finance in key areas such as defence. Also, the Tsar could dissolve it whenever he wished.

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30
Q

Who were the kulaks?

A

Wealthier peasants who were encouraged by Stolypin to buy up neighbouring strips of land.

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31
Q

What happened at the Lena goldfields in Siberia, in 1912?

A

A major strike lead to troops killing 170 workers and injuring 373.

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32
Q

There were 13,995 strikes in 1905. How many in 1910?

A

222

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33
Q

Who were the Bolsheviks?

A

A political party formed after the SDLP split, led by Lenin. Believed a small, elite group should spearhead the revolution.

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34
Q

Who were the Mensheviks?

A

A political party formed after the SDLP split, led by Trotsky. Believed in a mass membership party and prepared for slow change.

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35
Q

Ra-ra-Rasputin was, of course, Russia’s greatest love machine, but more importantly:

A

He was supposedly able to cure the Tsar’s son’s haemophilia.

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36
Q

Who were the proletariat?

A

The workers.

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37
Q

Where did Russia suffer two major military defeats in August 1914?

A

Tannenberg and the Masurian lakes.

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38
Q

What bizarre military decision did the Tsar make in September 1915?

A

Took control of the army himself

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39
Q

Who took over the reins of power while the Tsar was at the front?

A

The Tsarina

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40
Q

Within a year of the war starting, how many Russian soldiers had been killed?

A

1 million

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41
Q

True or false: Russian officers were appointed on merit rather than position in society.

A

False

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42
Q

By March 1915, roughly what percentage of Russian soldiers had to share a rifle?

A

25

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43
Q

What did the Tsar do the Duma in April 1915?

A

Dismissed it permanently

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44
Q

On 7 March 1917, what happened at the Putilov steelworks?

A

40,000 workers went on strike over wages.

45
Q

By 10 March 1917, how many workers were demonstrating in St Petersburg?

A

250,000

46
Q

What two bodies were set up on 12 March 1917?

A

The Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

47
Q

What did the Tsar do on the 15th March 1917?

A

Abdicated in favour of his brother Michael, who refused the throne.

48
Q

Who ruled the country after the fall of the Tsar, and of which party was it largely formed?

A

The Provisional Government; the Cadets.

49
Q

What phrase is given to the fact that any decisions the Provisional Government wanted to implement had to be approved by the Petrograd Soviet?

A

Dual power.

50
Q

In April 1917 Lenin returned to Petrograd, Into what were his speeches collated?

A

The April Theses.

51
Q

Give two key Bolshevik slogans from 1917.

A

Peace, Bread and Land; All Power to the Soviets.

52
Q

What is a soviet?

A

A workers’ co-operative - basically a trade union.

53
Q

June 1917: first elections to the Congress of Soviets. How do the Bolsheviks do?

A

105 seats; half that of the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries.

54
Q

What occurred on July 16-17 1917?

A

The July Days. Afterwards, Lenin fled and Kerensky took over the Provisional Government.

55
Q

Who launched a coup in September 1917, and who did the Provisional Government ask for help against it?

A

The Cossack General Kornilov; the Red Guard.

56
Q

In September 1917 the Bolsheviks won what, and what happened to Trotsky?

A

They won a majority in elections to the Petrograd Soviet, and Trotsky became its leader.

57
Q

When did Lenin return from post-July Days exile?

A

October 1917.

58
Q

7 November 1917:

A

The Russian Revolution begins.

59
Q

What did Lenin’s November Decrees promise?

A

Peace with Germany, 8 hour day and 48 hour week for workers, land given to peasants, non-Bolshevik newspapers banned.

60
Q

What happened in new elections to the Constituent Assembly, November 1917?

A

Bolsheviks came a distant second: 175 deputies to the SRs’ 370.

61
Q

What did Lenin’s December Decrees do?

A

The Cadets were banned, factories were placed under control of workers’ committees, church land was confiscated by the state.

62
Q

In January 1918 the Constituent Assembly met for the first time. What did Lenin do?

A

Shut it down for good within 24 hours.

63
Q

What was signed in March 1918, what was its main aim and what were its key terms?

A

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and Germany, which took Russia out of the war. Russia lost 27% of its arable land, 26% of its railways, 74% of its iron and coal; 50 million Russians displaced; reparations of 3bn roubles.

64
Q

When did Russian Civil War begin?

A

Spring 1918

65
Q

Who were the three sides in the Russian Civil War?

A

Reds (Bolsheviks), Whites (opponents of Bolshevism, including Tsarists, nobles, Mensheviks and SRs, supported by Britain, France, USA and Japan) and Greens (independent groups of nationalists, peasants and bandits).

66
Q

Why did the Reds win the Civil War (four reasons)?

A

Their military strength, white weaknesses, Red Terror and War Communism.

67
Q

What, in general, was War Communism?

A

The measures the Bolsheviks adopted during the Civil War to share out Russia’s wealth and keep the towns and Red Army well fed and equipped.

68
Q

Who mutinied in February 1921?

A

Sailors at the Kronstadt naval base.

69
Q

In March 1921, what replaced War Communism?

A

The New Economic Policy (NEP)

70
Q

What was collectivisation?

A

The enforced grouping of individual farmers’ land and livestock into larger,collective farms.

71
Q

What was a kolkhoz?

A

A collective farm.

72
Q

What percentage of the kolkhoz’s produce would be sold to the government?

A

90%

73
Q

What were the MTS?

A

The Motor Tractor Stations, whose tractor drivers toured the kolkhoz to do the ploughing.

74
Q

What is the significance of the numbers 30 million and 16 million?

A

They were the number of cows and horses respectively that peasants killed rather than give them to the kolkhoz.

75
Q

By how much did grain production fall between 1928 (the beginning of collectivisation) and 1934?

A

10%

76
Q

How many people died in the 1932 famine?

A

13 million

77
Q

What happened to state grain procurement (i.e. the amount of grain taken by the state from the peasants) 1929-32?

A

It doubled.

78
Q

What was Gosplan?

A

The Russian state planning organisation which drew up the 5 Year Plans.

79
Q

It might sound obvious that a five year plan should take five years. But how many did Stalin insist it should take?

A

4.

80
Q

On what did the first, second and third Five Year Plans focus, or plan to focus?

A

Major industry; mining; as before, but with added consumer goods.

81
Q

What was the name of the huge city built as part of the regeneration drive?

A

Magnitogorsk.

82
Q

Who was Stakhanov?

A

A legendary miner who other workers were encouraged to emulate.

83
Q

Give the coal and steel stats which suggest the 5YPs succeeded.

A

Coal production rose from 35m tonnes in 1927 to 150m in 1940.
Steel production rose from 3m tonnes in 1927 to 19m in 1940.

84
Q

What were gulags and what was built as a result of their existence?

A

Prisons where the punishment was forced labour. Prisoners built the Moscow Metro and Belomor Canal.

85
Q

What happened to workers’ wages under the first 5YP?

A

They fell by 50%.

86
Q

What is a totalitarian state?

A

One where the leader has total control.

87
Q

Of what is this a description? “The idea that one person is glorified above all others, as all things to all people.”

A

A cult of personality.

88
Q

Give three ways in which Stalin promoted a cult of personality.

A

His name and picture were everywhere, in a variety of outfits and poses; streets and cities named after him; poems and plays written about him; statues put up of him.

89
Q

What title were children encouraged to give to Stalin?

A

Great Leader.

90
Q

What was socialist realism?

A

The required style for artists, film makers and composers, dealing with working people and giving clear messages of how well communism was working.

91
Q

What was the League of the Godless?

A

A group which smashed churches as part of the overall attack on religion.

92
Q

What were the names of the three youth groups Russians joined, in ascending order of age at which people joined?

A

The Octobrists, the Young Pioneers, the Komsomol.

93
Q

What were the purges?

A

An attempt to cleanse Russia of perceived opposition to Stalin and communism.

94
Q

What happened at the 17th Communist Party Congress in 1934?

A

Sergei Kirov received more applause than Stalin after calling for the pace of industrialisation to slow down. He was killed soon after.

95
Q

According to a directive sent to all regional communist party branches, a good Bolshevik should:

A

“recognise an enemy of the party no matter how well he may be masked.”

96
Q

What were show trials?

A

Public trials, usually on trumped up charges, of senior old Bolsheviks who might oppose Stalin. They were broadcast on the radio.

97
Q

Name three high profile victims of show trials.

A

Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Yagoda.

98
Q

What fraction of churches were still holding regular services by 1939?

A

1 in 40.

99
Q

How many people went to the cinema each month in Magnitogorsk?

A

20,000

100
Q

What percentage of Moscow households had more than one room?

A

6%

101
Q

What happened to the average Moscow worker’s meat consumption during the 1930s?

A

It fell 80%.

102
Q

What was the Great Retreat?

A

A policy of returning to traditional, conservative family values.

103
Q

Give two policies associated with the Great Retreat.

A

Abortion was made illegal; divorced fathers had to pay maintenance for their children.

104
Q

In what way did Stalin improve workers’ work/life balance?

A

They were all allowed to take one holiday a year.

105
Q

A 1935 law allowed the NKVD to impose what penalty for youth crime?

A

Death (although there are no records of it having been used).

106
Q

After 1932, what did all citizens have to carry?

A

An identity booklet showing their nationality.

107
Q

What percentage of industrial workers were women by 1942?

A

42%

108
Q

Who were the nomenclatura?

A

Those at the very top of society, a special group loyal to Stalin who had the best jobs, housing, food and clothes.

GCSE History (8 decks)

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