The aims and membership of the Petrograd Soviet

Question 1

The Petrograd Soviet was established in…

Why?

Answer 1

late February 1917 in order to co-ordinate striking workers across Petrograd.

Question 2

In what was the Petrograd Soviet similar to the St Petersburg Soviet of 1905?

Answer 2

• The Soviet was elected regularly and directly by factory workers and soldiers living in Petrograd
• Delegates could be recalled by the factories or army units that elected them
• Delegates received the same pay as ordinary workers

Question 3

What was the difference between the Soviet of 1905 and 1917?

Answer 3

In 1917, intellectuals could become full members.

Question 4

The Soviet’s aims were to defend the rights of…

Answer 4

workers under the new ‘bourgeois government’.

Question 5

In each town the Soviet and the local government were forced…

Answer 5

to work together.

Question 6

When did Soviets from across the whole of Russia meet for the first time?

Answer 6

June 1917 - met for the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

Question 7

How many delegates were there in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets?
Who made up the majority?

Answer 7

1,090.

- The majority were SRs and Mensheviks

Question 8

What did Lenin argue from April 1917 about the Soviets?

Was this view popular?

Answer 8

He argued that the Soviets should take over the government of Russia, replacing the undemocratic bourgeois Provisional Government.
- By late 1917 this view was extremely popular

Question 9

What was Lenin’s book, written in late 1917, that won the Bolsheviks considerable support?
Why?

Answer 9

State and Revolution.

- Due to its vision of a new democratic Russia in which workers and peasants ruled themselves

Question 10

What political reforms were made in March 1917?

Answer 10

• Freedom of expression - including freedom of the press

- Freedom of assembly - including the freedom to protest against the government

Question 11

What changes to the legal system were made by the Provisional Government?

Answer 11

• Equal political and legal right were guaranteed for all people regardless of religion or ethnic or national background

Question 12

How did the March reforms promise a truly democratic Russia?

Answer 12

• The new government promised universal suffrage for all adults, including women

Question 13

What radical changes to the nature of state were made by the Provisional Government?

Answer 13

• The Okhrana was abolished
• The death penalty was abolished
• There was an amnesty for political prisoners, including people convicted for terrorism

Question 14

The reforms in March 1917 reflected a…

Answer 14

radical transformation of Russian government - autocracy and police repression were swept away.

Question 15

What was the limits of the March 1917 reforms?

Answer 15

• A maximum 8-hour day was a long-standing demand of working people
• Peasants wanted land reform
• However, the Provisional Government argued that reforms to work and property should wait until the Constituent Assembly was elected, as it would have a genuine democratic mandate from the Russian people

Question 16

Who returned to Russia as result of the abolition of the political police?

Answer 16

• Joseph Stalin arrived in Petrograd in March 1917
• Lenin returned in April along with Grigori Zinoviev and Lev Kamanev
• Nikolai Bukharin returned to Moscow in May
• Felix Dzerzhinsky

Question 17

Who were the Menshevik leaders who returned to Russia?

Answer 17

Fyodor Dan and Julius Martov.

Question 18

From March 1917 leading Bolsheviks campaigned against…

Answer 18

the continuation of the war.

Question 19

From April 1917 leading Bolsheviks campaign for…

Why?

Answer 19

a second revolution - early political reforms helped to destabilise the new government.