Russia- Tsardom

Question 1

When was Nicholas II coronated Tsar?

Answer 1

1896

Question 2

What percentage of Russian peasants lived in peasant communes?

Answer 2

80%

Question 3

What were prosperous peasant farmers called?

Answer 3

Kulaks

Question 4

What was the life expectancy of a peasant farmer?

Answer 4

40 years

Question 5

What were peasant councils called?

Answer 5

Mir

Question 6

What percentage of Tsarist Russia were aristocracy and how much of the land did they own?

Answer 6

1.5% of the population owned 25% of the land

Question 7

Why was Nicholas a poor Tsar?

Answer 7

• Managed his officials poorly
• Insisted on meeting his ministers 1 to 1 which encouraged rivalry between them
• Appointed family members and friends to important positions, many of whom were corrupt or incompotent
• Personally answered letters and appointed provincial midwives

Question 8

How was the Tsar initially able to keep control of Russia?

Answer 8

Using local councils such as the mir, which were in turn ruled by the zemstva (which were dominated by aristocrats) and then local governers whom the Tsar appointed.

Question 9

What did local governors have the power to do?

Answer 9

• order the police to arrest suspected opponents of the regime
• ban individuals from the zemstva, courts or any government organisation
• make suspects pay heavy fines
• introduce sensorship of newspapers, books and leaflets

Question 10

What was the name of the Tsar’s secret police?

Answer 10

the Okhrana

Question 11

What part of the army was very loyal to the Tsar?

Answer 11

The Cossack regiments

Question 12

Who were the 3 groups that opposed the Tsar?

Answer 12

• Liberals / Cadets- Middle class reformers from the Duma who wanted greater democracy, pointing at Britain as an example.
• The Socialist Revolutionaries- Wanted to carve up huge estates of the nobility and hand them over to the peasants. They had lots of support from in the countryside. Responsible for the assasination of 2 government officials and many Okhrana.
• The Social Democratic Party - Smaller party following Marxist ideas. In 1903 it split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. This party was illegal and many were forced to live abroad.

Question 13

How many peaceful protesters took part in the protest that became known as Bloody Sunday?

Answer 13

~200,000

Question 14

How many people were killed in Bloody Sunday?

Answer 14

At least 100 killed
Several hundred more injured

Question 15

When was the first revolution (that we study) in Russia?

Answer 15

1905

Question 16

What were the key events that occured in the 1905 revolution?

Answer 16

• January 1905- Bloody Sunday (200,000 protesters)
• Led to wave of strikes (100,000 on strike)
• June 1905- Mutiny on the Potempkin
• Tsar brings in October Manifesto
• May 1906- Tsar brings in Fundemental Laws → limiting power of Duma

Question 17

How did Duma split opposition?

Answer 17

Satisified many middle class and upper class and divided rest of opposition

Question 18

Key points on Stolypin and his policies

Answer 18

Stick-

• more than 20,000 strikers, revolutionaries + protesters exiled
• 1000 hanged
• noose → Stolypin’s necktie

Carrot-

• land → allowed Kulaks to opt out of Mir communes and buy land
• this led to larger more efficient farms, improving production
• 90% of Russia’s land was still farmed ineffectively

Question 19

Problems faced by the common people on WW1

Answer 19

Shortage of food:
* average worker’s wage in
1914→ 2 bags of flour
1917→ 1/3 of a bag of flour
* there was enough food, but the rail network couldn’t cope with supplying food to the cities and the front lines

Factory workers in the city:
* War created extra 3.5 million industrial jobs, but all jobs were underpaid
* Workplaces were overcrowded
* Poor working conditions → more accidents

Countryside:
* Widows who needed state pensions
* Peasants who used to work the land would be sent to war → less capable people working the land

Of the 13 million soldiers mobilised there were 9.5 million casualties

Question 20

Ways in which the lives of different people in Russia were affected by WW1

Answer 20

Aristocracy

• Discontent at the Tsar
• Junior officers taken devastating losses resulting in many young aristocrats being killed → future of aristocracy
• conscription of 13 million peasants → fewer workers on their states
• General dislike of Rasputin
  By late 1916, the Council of United Nobility was calling for the Tsar to step down

Workers in the city

• Workplaces were overcrowded
• Poor working conditions → more accidents
• average worker’s wage in
  1914→ 2 bags of flour
  1917→ 1/3 of a bag of flour
• there was enough food, but the rail network couldn’t cope with supplying food to the cities and the front lines

Question 21

What factors led to the 1905 revolution?

Answer 21

• Reform round Europe
• 1904 Russo- Japanese war → humiliation
• Bad living and working conditions

Question 22

How did Rasputin negatively impact the Tsar’s reputation?

Answer 22

• Disliked by aristocracy- siberian peasant
• Had influence in picking ministers
• Notorious womanizer
• supposedly helped Alexei’s haemophelia but also told doctors not to give him aspirin
• Rasputin means disreputable
• Oponents of the Tsar seized on Rasputin as a sign of the Tsar’s weakness

Question 23

What happened 1912-1913

Answer 23

Economic downturn in Russia and Romanov’s 300th anniversary

Question 24

Impact of WW1 on Tsar’s reputation

Answer 24

• Initially (1914) lots of patriotism
• Badly equipped and many losses (for example Tannenburg)
• Tsar took over the army in 1915 making himself personally responsible
• Leaves German Tsarina in charge alongside Rasputin
• 1916- Council of United Nobility asking for the Tsar to step down
• Tsar abdicated 1917

Question 25

When did the Tsar abdicate?

Answer 25

1917