The Tsarist Regime

Question 1

What was the population of Russia in 1900?

Answer 1

130 million

Question 2

How much of the worlds land did Russia cover in 1900?

Answer 2

One sixth

Question 3

How many times bigger was Russia than Britain in 1900?

Answer 3

Over 100

Question 4

Which railway connected the east and west of Russia?

Answer 4

The Trans-Siberian railway

Question 5

What percentage of people in Russia in 1900 spoke Russian as their first language?

Answer 5

40%

Question 6

Who were the Cossacks?

Answer 6

Savage warrior who fought on horseback and were loyal to the Tsar

Question 7

What was Russification?

Answer 7

The policy of making non-Russians speak Russian, wear Russian clothes and follow Russian customs

Question 8

What percentage of the Russian population did the peasantry make up in 1900?

Answer 8

84%

Question 9

What percentage of the Russian population did the nobles make up in 1900?

Answer 9

1%

Question 10

How much of Russian land did the nobles own in 1900?

Answer 10

Almost a quarter

Question 11

When did Nicholas II become the Tsar?

Answer 11

1894

Question 12

What family was Nicholas II from?

Answer 12

The Romanov dynathy

Question 13

Describe the structure of Nicholas II’s governance of Russia

Answer 13

1) Nicholas II was an autocrat and had absolute power
2) he had a council of ministers who ran the various government departments but ultimately reported to him
3) thousand of civil servants beneath them
4) no parliament to represent the peoples’s views

Question 14

What was the name of the secret police under Nicholas II?

Answer 14

The Okhrana

Question 15

How did the Tsar use violence to solidify his rule?

Answer 15

1) sent dissidents to jail or Siberia

2) Cossacks restored order with great brutality during riots or strikes

Question 16

What did Nicholas II censor?

Answer 16

All newspapers and books

Question 17

Who were the Startsky?

Answer 17

Holy men who were held on special regard by the Russian people

Question 18

Why did peasants refer to the Tsar as their ‘little father’?

Answer 18

Because the Orthodox Church preached that he was Gods chosen representative on earth

Question 19

Why was the fact that Nicholas II was deeply religious make him a poor leader?

Answer 19

He was a fatalist (someone who believed that events were due to God) so turned to prayer as opposed to actions in times of crisis

Question 20

Give an example of how Nicholas II allowed himself to get overly involved in the tiniest details of governance

Answer 20

Personally answered letters from peasants and appointed rural midwives

Question 21

Why was the Tsars choice of ministers bad?

Answer 21

1) he felt threatened my talented ministers (dismissed Witte 1906)
2) appointed family members and friends to important positions

Question 22

Who were the ‘liberals’?

Answer 22

The middle class opposition to the Tsar who wanted democracy based on the British model

Question 23

What did the Socialist revolutionaries want?

Answer 23

To divide up the large estates of the nobles between the peasants

Question 24

What percentage of Russians were orthodox Christians in 1900?

Answer 24

75%

Question 25

How did the socialist revolutionaries try to achieve their aims?

Answer 25

Assassinated several important government officials between 1901 and 1905

Question 26

When did the social Democratic Party split in two?

Answer 26

1903

Question 27

What were the two components that the social democrats split into?

Answer 27

The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks

Question 28

What was the difference between the Mensheviks and the bolsheviks?

Answer 28

The Mensheviks wanted slow change whereas the Bolsheviks wanted more violent sudden change

Question 29

How did the Tsar get money for industrialisation prior to the 1905 revolution?

Answer 29

1) places heavy taxes on grain and other everyday items | 2) kept workers’ wages low

Question 30

When was the industrial slump?

Answer 30

1902

Question 31

When were the poor harvests in Russia before the 1905 revolution?

Answer 31

1900 and 1902

Question 32

How did the peasants react to food shortage in 1902 and 1903?

Answer 32

Outbreaks of violence (e.g. burning landlords’ houses)

Question 33

How did the Tsar put down disturbances in the countryside in 1902 and 1903?

Answer 33

Used troops

Question 34

When did the Russo-Japanese war start?

Answer 34

1904

Question 35

When did Port Arthur fall to Japan?

Answer 35

1905

Question 36

Who was the priest who organised the march on Bloody Sunday?

Answer 36

Father Gapon

Question 37

How many people joined the Bloody Sunday March?

Answer 37

200,000

Question 38

What was the date of Bloody Sunday?

Answer 38

22nd January 1905

Question 39

Name four things included in the petition on Bloody Sunday

Answer 39

1) reduce the working day to 8 hours 2) provide a minimum wage of 1 rouble per day 3) reduce taxes 4) pull out of the Russo-Japanese war

Question 40

Why did the soldiers fire in the crowds on Bloody Sunday?

Answer 40

The Tsar was not in the winter palace and they panicked

Question 41

How many workers were on strike in January 1905?

Answer 41

400,000

Question 42

When was the Tsar’s uncle (grand duke Sergei) assassinated?

Answer 42

February 1905

Question 43

When did sailors of the battleship Potemkin mutiny?

Answer 43

June 1905

Question 44

When did the Russo-Japanese war end?

Answer 44

September 1905

Question 45

When was the st Petersburg Soviet formed?

Answer 45

26th October 1905

Question 46

When did the Tsar issue his October Manifesto?

Answer 46

30th October 1905

Question 47

What four things did the October manifesto promise the people?

Answer 47

1) a parliament of the duma 2) civil rights such as freedom of speech and conscience 3) uncensored newspapers 4) the right to form political parties

Question 48

When were land redemption payments stopped?

Answer 48

November 1905

Question 49

What did the Tsar do in December 1905?

Answer 49

1) used troops to close down the St Petersburg Soviet and crush an armed uprising in Moscow 2) sent out troops to take revenge on dissident workers and peasants

Question 50

How many strikers, protestors and revolutionaries did Stolypin exile to Siberia?

Answer 50

20,000

Question 51

How did Stolypin reform courts after the 1905 revolution?

Answer 51

set up military courts where people could be sentenced and hung on the spot ( so many were executed that the noose became known as ‘Stolypin’s Necktie’)

Question 52

How many nobles were represented by 1 representative in the first Duma?

Answer 52

2,000

Question 53

How many workers were represented by one representative in the first Duma?

Answer 53

90,000

Question 54

When was the first Duma set up?

Answer 54

1906

Question 55

Why were the first two Dumas dissolved within weeks?

Answer 55

They were very radical

Question 56

What couldn’t the Duma do?

Answer 56

1) pass laws 2) appoint minister 3) control finance 4) resist dissolution by the Tsar

Question 57

How did Stolypin change the way that member were elected to the third Duma?

Answer 57

To favour the nobles even more

Question 58

How long did the Third Duma last?

Answer 58

1907-1912

Question 59

How did Stolypin reform farming in the countryside?

Answer 59

Allowed kulaks (wealthier peasants) to buy neighbouring strips of land to create larger more efficient farms

Question 60

When did Stolypin’s reforms in the countryside lead to record harvests?

Answer 60

1913

Question 61

How many peasants did the government encourage to settle on new lands in the Trans Siberian Railway?

Answer 61

4 million

Question 62

What happened when peasants arrived at the new land on the Trans-Siberian Raikway?

Answer 62

They found the best land had already been taken by rich landowners

Question 63

How much did industrial production in Russia increase by between 1905 and 1914?

Answer 63

100%

Question 64

Why were workers dissatisfied in 1914?

Answer 64

1) wages were in real terms worth less than 1903 wages 2) cost of food and housing was high 3) living and working conditions remained appalling

Question 65

What was Russia the fourth largest producer of in 1914?

Answer 65

Coal, pig iron and steel

Question 66

When was the Lena goldfields strike?

Answer 66

1912

Question 67

What was the Lena Goldfields strike protesting?

Answer 67

1) low wages | 2) 14 hour working day

Question 68

How many were killed when troops broke up the Lena Goldfields strike?

Answer 68

170

Question 69

How many strikes were there in 1912 compared to 1905?

Answer 69

1912: 2,000 1905: 14,000

Question 70

Who was Rasputin?

Answer 70

A starets (holy man) who belonged to the religious sect called the Kylsty

Question 71

What was wrong with the Tsar’s son, Alexis?

Answer 71

He was a haemophiliac (his blood did not clot easily)

Question 72

How did the higher levels of Russian Society view Rasputin?

Answer 72

As a sex crazed peasant

Question 73

When did Stolypin banish Rasputin from St Petersburg?

Answer 73

1911

Question 74

When did Stolypin die?

Answer 74

1912

Question 75

What did the Tsar do to articles about Rasputin?

Answer 75

Censored them which the press viewed as an attack on their freedom

Question 76

What did Alexis do after a visit from Rasputin in 1907?

Answer 76

Began to recover enormously which made the Tsarina believe that Rasputin was sent by god to save her son

Question 77

How many do the officers in the Russian army had military training in WW1?

Answer 77

Less than half

Question 78

How many times more heavy machine guns did Germany have compared to Russia in WW1?

Answer 78

Ten times more

Question 79

How many soldiers were sharing a rifle in March 1915?

Answer 79

25%

Question 80

What percentage of army supply transports in WW1 were delayed by a week of more?

Answer 80

75%

Question 81

How many Russians died in the Battle of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes?

Answer 81

170,000 (due to incompetent orders)

Question 82

When was the battle of Tannenberg?

Answer 82

August 1914

Question 83

When was the battle of the Masurian Lakes?

Answer 83

September 1914

Question 84

How many Russians were killed or taken prisoner in the first year of fighting?

Answer 84

Over 1 million

Question 85

How many Russians had been killed or taken prisoner by March 1917?

Answer 85

8 million

Question 86

What was the average desertion percentage in the Russian army during WW2?

Answer 86

25%

Question 87

Who were Russian soldier in WW1?

Answer 87

Conscripts with little training

Question 88

What was the effect of millions of peasants being conscripted into the army?

Answer 88

There was a shortage of farm workers so less food was being produced which led to food shortages

Question 89

How much could the average daily wage buy in 1917 compared to 1914?

Answer 89

Wage in 1917 could buy a fifth of what it had done in 1914 (prices rising due to shortages)

Question 90

When did Nicholas II take personal control of the army?

Answer 90

September 1915

Question 91

Why was the Tar taking personal control of the army in WW1 a mistake?

Answer 91

1) Tsar was now blamed for defeats in the war | 2) Tsar handed over day to day running do the country to the Tsarina

Question 92

Why did the Russian people mistrust the Tsarina?

Answer 92

They believed she was a German spy

Question 93

Who did the Tsarina replace competent ministers with?

Answer 93

‘Our men’ (men who did what they were told and were friends of Rasputin)

Question 94

How did the Tsarinas rule worsen the situation in Russia during the war?

Answer 94

1) would not cooperate with the Duma 2) replaces able ministers 3) instability of government meant no one was organising food, fuel and other supplies to the city

Question 95

What happened to St Petrograd during the winter of 1916?

Answer 95

Railways iced over meeting little food could get there

Question 96

What happened on the 7th March 1917?

Answer 96

40,000 workers from the Putilov engineering works went on strike

Question 97

What happened on the 10th March 1917?

Answer 97

250,000 workers were demonstrating and industry came to a standstill

Question 98

What happened on the 12th March 1917?

Answer 98

Soldiers refused to fire on the crowds | Some regiments shot their own officers and joined the demonstrations

Question 99

What happened on the 15th May 1917?

Answer 99

The Tsar abdicated after workers refused to let his train enter the city

Question 100

What signs did protesters brandish during the March 1917 revolution?

Answer 100

‘Down with hunger!’ | ‘Bread for the workers!’

Question 101

What percentage of peasants were kulaks in 1905?

Answer 101

15%

Question 102

Describe events leading up to the abdication of the Tsar in 1917

Answer 102

1) on 7th March 40,000 workers from the putilov engineering works went on strike 2) on the 8th March thousands of women joined the protests as it was international womens’ day 3) on the 10th March 250,000 workers were demonstrating and industry came to a standstill 4) on the 12th March soldiers refused to fire on crowds and some regiments shot their own officers and joined the demonstration 5) on the 15th of March the Tsar abdicates after workers refuse to let his train into the city

Question 103

What measures did the Duma pass which benefited the people?

Answer 103

Matters to do with the army and navy and accident insurance for the workers