Russia in early 1917 Flashcards
Which family ruled Russia for 300 years?
Romanov family
Who was the Tsar in 1917 Russia
Tsar Nicholas II
What was Tsar Nicholas’s secret police force called and what was it used for?
Okhrana
To maintain power
What was the Russian parliament called?
The Duma
What other name was Tsar Nicholas often called?
‘Little Father’
By 1917 which 5 groups where discontented with the way that Russia was governed by the Tsarist regime and what did they want
- peasant - wanted more land
- workers - wanted better conditions
- liberals - wanted more political freedom
- nationalists - wanted independence form the empire
- radicals - wanted to overthrow the regime, revolution
Which 4 groups where supportive of the Tsarist regime in 1917
- the army
- the Okrana
- Conservatives
- the Church
in 1917 what percentage of the Russian population were peasants/
80%
When was the revolution that overthrew Tsar Nicholas II
February 1917
Describe the community and farming methods of the peasants in 1917
Community
- very backwards
Farming Methods
- modern farming equipment unknown :
- still used horse-drawn ploughs
Describe the living conditions of peasants in 1917
- Houses lacked running water and flushing toilets
- Many homes: animals + humans shared house
Were peasants able to read and state which groups?
Most Illiterate - especially women, older people
Reasons for Discontent:
Explain why resented landowners and what events show this and how where they then perceived?
- peasants believed the answer to poverty was **more land
- wanted land of landowners redistributed amongst peasants
- 1905 - peasant unrest swept through rural Russia:
- peanuts burning down landowners houses + taking their land
- brutal repression by army to end unrest
Made peasants a dangerously violent group in society, who at times of difficulty to unhappiness turn to violence
How did the event of the First World War make situations for Russian peasants even more difficult?
- over 15 million peasant men where recruited for Russian army —> huge loss of manpower
- many horses seized by military to haul guns + waggons —> massive impact on farms where horses used for ploughing
-
harder to get chemical fertilisers —> industry focused on making explosives + weapons
*All contributed to decline in food production in towns + countryside
What happened to the availability of food due to the effects of war in 1916 and what was it caused by?
food shortages grew worse- army took control of railways+ roads , took large amounts of food to feed army
- Russian railway system virtually collapsed under pressure of moving huge amounts of soldiers
- food supply to town + cities suffered
Why was the food shortage particularly bad in Petrograd. Give statistic examples
- Petrograd was far from food-producing areas
- also struggling to cope with many refugees from affected war areas
- Jan 1916**: daily bread ration = **1.2kg** —> early **1917**: decreased to **0.8kg
Example of food shortages in Moscow due to WW1
- before 1914= 2,200 Waggons of grain a month arrived in Moscow
- Feb 1917 = fallen to fewer than 700
What were the living conditions for town workers in cities?
- living in overcrowded barracks and slums
- houses built badly - many Russian cities had grown so quickly in yrs before WW1
- poorer areas overcrowded
Between which 2 years did Petrograd triple in size
1881 and 1917