The Russian Revolution

Question 1

What was the Russian Empire like?

Answer 1

The Russian Empire over which Tsar Nicholas II ruled was huge. It streched for more than 4000 miles from east to west. Around 130 million people lived within its borders.

Question 2

When and why was Russia celebratin 300 years?

Answer 2

In February 1913, Tsar Nicholas II and his people celebrated 300 years of rule by the Romanovs - the Tsar’s family.

Question 3

How was this anniversary celebrated?

Answer 3

St Petersburg, the capital, buzzed with excitement. Important visitors filled the hotels. The inhabitants of the city decorated the streets in the imperial colours of red, white and blue. They covered statues of the Tsar and his ancestors in ribbons and flowers.

Question 4

What did Nicholas II hope for?

Answer 4

That his family would continue to rule Russia for many centuries to come.

Question 5

How long did the Tsar’s rule last after the anniversary?

Answer 5

Only four more years.

Question 6

What happened in Russia during the first world war?

Answer 6

Russian people became angry and bitter as millions of their soldiers were killed. At home the war caused terrible shortages. Many ordinary Russians could not afford to keep warm or to feed their families.

Question 7

What did the people of Russia do as a result of the shortages?

Answer 7

By March 1917, people were desperate. Thousands of workers in St Petersburg once again filled the streets. This time they demonstrated against the government. The Tsar’s troops refused to fire on the people and joined in the demonstrations. This was now a revolution.

Question 8

What id Nicholas II do as a result of the revolution?

Answer 8

On March 16th Tsar Nicholas II abdicated.

Question 9

What happened after his abdication?

Answer 9

A new Provisional Government took control of Russia. All across the Russian empire people rejoiced at the end of the monarchy. In St Petersburg, statues of the tsars were smashed to pieces.

Question 10

What happened that continued the revolution?

Answer 10

In April 1917 Lenin returned to Russia. He was the leader of a political party called the Bolsheviks.

Question 11

What were Lenin and the Bolsheviks followers of?

Answer 11

Communism

Question 12

What did Lenin and the Bolsheviks believe?

Answer 12

They believed that:
- everyone should have an 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 13

When did the Bolsheviks take power?

Answer 13

The evening of the 25th October 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government in St Petersburg.

Question 14

What happened after the Bolsheviks gained power?

Answer 14

Lenin and his party began their work of transforming Russia into the world’s first communist state.

Question 15

Did everyone in Russia support the Bolsheviks in 1917?

Answer 15

No

Question 16

What happened between the supporters and opponents of the Bolsheviks?

Answer 16

Russians were bitterly divided. In the years between 1819 and 1921 there was a bloody civil war between the supporters (the Reds) and opponents of communism (the whites).

Question 17

How did the Bolsheviks gain power?

Answer 17

They ‘stormed’ the Winter Palace.

Question 18

How was the October Revolution shambles?

Answer 18

Some of the sailors who were expected to help the Bolsheviks arrived late. The huge field guns, like the one in the picture, were too rusty to firs. No one could find the red lantern which was to signal the start of the attack.

Question 19

Why did the Bolsheviks succeed in 1917?

Answer 19

Because hardly anyone came to the support of the Provisional Government. Even some of the soldiers in the Winter Palace decided to slip away. Instead of fighting they went to eat their evening meals in the restaurants of St Petersburg.

Question 20

What happened after the Bolsheivks seized power?

Answer 20

They were not yet in control. Many people opposed the new government. From the very beginning of the new regime, Lenin set out to destroy all opposition parties.

Question 21

How did Lenin destroy all opposition parties?

Answer 21

Bolshevik soldiers smashed up the offices of opposition newspaper and arrested their editors.
Lenin’s new secret police force, the Cheka, tortured and executed opponents of his new government.

Question 22

How was the new parliament decided?

Answer 22

The Provisional Government had promised the people that there would be an election to decide who should represent them in a new Constituent Assembly (parliament). Lenin was forced to go ahead with this election in November 1917. But the Bolsheviks did bady and were outnumbered in the Constituent Assembly. Lenin had nk intention of losing power. He was determined to make Russia communist.

Question 23

What did Lenin do with the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 23

In January 1918, he sent his soldiers to the Constituent Assembly and closed it down.

Question 24

What happened after Lenin shut down the Constituent Assembly?

Answer 24

Russia had become a one-party state.

Question 25

What had happened after the October Revolution?

Answer 25

People were desperate for peace with Germany. The war had caused enough suffering.

Question 26

How did the Bolsheviks deal with the desperation of the public?

Answer 26

In November 1917 a group of Bolshevik diplomats travelled to Brest Litovsk to begin peace talks. The Germans made very harsh demands. Lenin was afraid that if a peace treaty was not signed, German troops would capture Petrograd (which was the new name for St Petersburg). The Germans would then remove the Bolsheviks from power. In March 1918 the two sides finally signed the Treaty of Brest Litovsk.

Question 27

Why was Lenin afraid?

Answer 27

Lenin was afraid that if a peace treaty was not signed, German troops would capture Petrograd (which was the new name for St Petersburg). The Germans would then remove the Bolsheviks from power.

Question 28

How did Russians feel about the Treaty of Brest Litovsk?

Answer 28

Many Russians felt that it brought a shameful peace. Russia was forced to give up huge amounts of territory.

Question 29

What territory was Russia forced to give up?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

What did the communists know?

Answer 30

That if they were to remain in power they had to keep the promises which they had made to the Russian people.

Question 31

How did the communists keep their promises?

Answer 31

During the autumn and winter of 1917 they passed a number of decrees which aimed to make Russia a more equal society.

Question 32

What were the decrees the communists made?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

How did the Russians react to the new decrees?

Answer 33

Many rich and educated people escaped from the new regime. For many of those who stayed life became unbearable. Ordinary Russians were rude and hostile towarrds them. Armed gangs raided their houses. Aristocrats, factory directors, lawyers, artists, prieasts and teachers were rounded up. They were forced to do jobs like clearing rubbish and snow from the streets.

Question 34

What happened to the royal family after the Tsar abdicated?

Answer 34

The members of the Romanov family were placed under house arrest. In a palce near St Petersburg they spent their days reading, gardening, rowing and playing tennis - but they had no power. Guards patrolled the garden to make sure that they could not leave.

Question 35

What soo became a problem for the Bolsheviks?

Answer 35

The Romanovs soon became a big problem for the Bolshevik government. The Bolsheviks feared that if the Tsar escaped he might help the opponents of the new regime.

Question 36

What was the Romanov family to the Bolsheviks?

Answer 36

A symbol of centuries of unfair government.

Question 37

What were there rumours about?

Answer 37

In the early months of 1918 there was rumours of plots to free the imperial family.

Question 38

How did the Bolsheviks deal with these rumours?

Answer 38

The communists moved the Romanovs to a town called Ekaterinburg in the Ural mountains. It was there that the royal family would die.

On the night of the 16 July 1918, secret police officers awoke the Tsar and Tsarina together with their five children. They told them to move into the cellar. They said that there was unrest in the town and that the members of the royal family were unsafe in their bedrooms. When they were all in the cellar the officers opened fire. Bullets ricocheted off the stone walls. Blood covered the floor. When the smoke cleared two of the children were still alive. They were finished off with bayonets and bullets to the head.

The corpses were driven off in a lorry. The officers wanted to throw them down a deep mine shaft but on the way the lorry got stuck in mud. Instead, they were buried in the ground. The soldiers poured sulphuric acid on the faces of the dead family so that they could not be recognised.

Question 39

What did the communist government claim about the royal families murder?

Answer 39

For many years after they insisted that the decision to murder the Romanovs was made by the local Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg. We now know that the orders came from the communist leadership in Moscow however.