Russian Revolution

Question 1

For how long did the Russian Empire stretch from east to west?

Answer 1

4000+miles

Question 2

How many people lived within the boarders of the Russian Empire?

Answer 2

130 million

Question 3

What happened in February 1913?

Answer 3

The Tsar and his people celebrted 300 years of Romanov rule.

Question 4

When did Tsar Nicholas II rule?

Answer 4

1894-1917

Question 5

What caused Russians to revolt?

Answer 5

They were angry because millions of soldiers were killed.
The war caused terrible shortages at home.
Many ordinary Russians could not afford to keep warm or feed their families.

Question 6

What were the signs of it being a revolution?

Answer 6

By March 1917, people were desperate.
Thousands pf St Petersburg workers filled the streets, now demonstrating against the government.
The Tsar’s troops refused to fire at the people and joined in the demonstrations.

Question 7

When was Tsar Nicholas II abdicated?

Answer 7

16th March 1917

Question 8

Whathappened after Nicholas II was abdicated?

Answer 8

A new provisional government took control of Russia.
People rejoiced at the end of the monarchy.
In St. Petersburg, statues of the Tsar were smashed to pieces.

Question 9

When did Vladimir Lenin return to Russia?

Answer 9

April 1917

Question 10

Of what party was Lenin the leader?

Answer 10

The Bolsheviks

Question 11

What did Communists believe?

Answer 11

Everyone should have ana equal share in Russia’s wealth.
Peasants should have a share of the land.
Workers should own a share of the factory where they worked.
The war should be ended immediately.

Question 12

What happened on the evening of 25th October 1917?

Answer 12

The Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government. They then began their work in turning Russia into the world’s first Communist State.

Question 13

Where did the Bolsheviks seize control from government ministers and their soldiers?

Answer 13

The Winter Palace

Question 14

Why did the Bolsheviks succeed in 1917?

Answer 14

Sailors who were expected to aid the Bolsheviks were late.
Huge field guns were too rusty.
No one could find the red lantern to signal the start of the attack.

BUT

Hardly anyone came to the support of the Provisional Government.
Even some of the soldiers in the Winter Palace decided to slip away. Rather than fighting, they chose to eat their evening meals in the restaurants of St. Petersburg.

Question 15

What did Lenin set out to do from the very beginning?

Answer 15

Destroy all opposition parties.
Soldiers smashed up the offices of opposition newspapers and arrested their editors.
His secret police tortured and executed opponents of his new government.

Question 16

What was Lenin’s new sceret police force?

Answer 16

The Cheka

Question 17

What happened in November 1917?

Answer 17

The Provisional Government had promised an election to decide who should represnt the people in a new Constituent Assembly, and Lenin was forced to go ahead with it.
The Bolsheviks were then outnumbered by the Constituent Assembly.

Question 18

What happened in January 1918?

Answer 18

Lenin sent his soldiers to the Constituent Assembly and closed it down.
Russia had now becoe a one-party state.

Question 19

When did a group of Bolshevik diplomats travel to Brest Litovsk to begin peace talks.

Answer 19

November 1917

Question 20

If a peace treaty wasn’t signed, what was Lenin afradi would happen.

Answer 20

German troops would capture Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), thereby removing them from power.

Question 21

When did Russia and Germany finally sign the Treaty of Brest Litovsk.

Answer 21

March 1918

Question 22

What was involved in the huge amount of territory Russia had to give up for the Treaty of Brest Litovsk?

Answer 22

34% of Russia’s population,
32% of Russia’s agricultural land,
54% of Russia’s factories,
89% of Russia’s coal-mines.

Question 23

What did the number of decrees Russia passed during the autumn and winter of 1917 aim to do?

Answer 23

Make Russia a more equal society.

Question 24

What were the decrees Russia passed during the autumn and winter of 1917?

Answer 24

Women were declared equal to men.
Peasants who had a surplus of grain were forced to hand it over to the government so that people in the cities had enough bread.
Factories were taken away from their owners and placed under the control of worker’s committees.
Wll land was taken from the Tsar and the old landlords.
A maximum 48-hour working week was deckared for factory workers.
Money and hewelery in rich people’s bank accounts were taken by the state.
Rich people were forced to share their houses with poor families.

Question 25

What happened to the members of the Romanov family after the Tsar was abdicated?

Answer 25

The were put under house arrest.

Question 26

Where did the Royal family stay after the Tsar was abduacted?

Answer 26

A palace near St. Petersburg - where they had no power.

Question 27

What did the Bolsheviks fear about the Tsar?

Answer 27

If he escaped the palace, he might help opponents of the new regime.

Question 28

What happened in the early months of 1918?

Answer 28

Rumours spread of plots to free the imperial family.
So the communists moved them to a town called Ekatinberg in the Ural mountains.

Question 29

What happened on the night of 16th July 1918?

Answer 29

Secret police officers woke the family and told them were unsafe in their rooms and had to move to the cellar. When they got to the cellar, the officers opened fire upon the family.
The corpses were driven off in a lorry. While the men wanted to throw them down a mineshaft, the lorry got stuck in mud, so they were buried in the ground instead. The soldiers then poures sulfuric acid on their faces to make them unrecognisable. For many years, the government insisted the decision was made by local Bolsheviks, but we now know it came from Communist leadership in Moscow.