The two revolutions of February/March 1917 and October/November 1917 were the result of Russia's involvement in the First World War

Question 1

LoA

Answer 1

For

Question 2

1) War brought economic chaos

Answer 2

• gov raised taxes and loans from abroad
• massive inflation
• damage done by industrial grain exports
• the rubel had collapsed by 1917
• prices rose more than wages
• Poland and other parts of Western Russia were overrun by Germans
• Naval blockade of Baltic and Black sea brought trade to a standstill
• strain on railways led to collapse
• trains to take men/amo to the front
• locomotive production halved between 1913 and 1916
• severe food shortages (foodstuffs rotted by tracks)
• bread shortages led to 1905 revolution
• unemployment as many nonmilitary factories were forced to close
• 300% rise in cost of living
• Jan 1917 = 30000 strikers in Moscow
• 145000 in Petrograd

Question 3

Counter

Answer 3

• Russia had been involved in the war for three years yet there hadn’t been a revolution

Question 4

2) War brough political disillusionment

Answer 4

• loss of confidence in Tsarist regime by Feb 1917
• anger and frustration was directed at those above
• strikes, riots and violence against employers and landlords
• Aleksandr Guchov (founder of the progressive bloc) attempted to talk to snr army officers about assassinating Nick 1916
• Paval Milyukov accused ministers of seeking peace with Germany behind Duma
• In Jan, Prince Lvov asked Grand Duke Mikhail if he was prepared to take the thrown
• Lenin stirred up trouble: ‘The war must turn into CV of the proletarian soldiers against their own gov’
• Tsar took over army and dissolved Duma
• Soldiers began to lose support
• Lenin promised peace in his AT
• Dual authority didn’t work - splits over war and Order No. 1

Question 5

Counter

Answer 5

• Kornilov affair in 1917 aided 2nd revolution
• Bolsheviks armed and motivated troops to seize power

Question 6

3) The war brought a decline in military conditions

Answer 6

• millions conscripted into imperial army
• shortage of men in countryside
• peasants weren’t trained in combat
• many didn’t see themselves as Russian
• military failure led to desertions
• soldiers would shoot their officers
• Tsar was a poor leader
• horrendous casualties on the front line
• winters of 1916/1917 saw temps trop to -35*C
• mutiny and lack of moral
• Brusilov Offensive (300000 Russian deaths)
• mutiny of soldiers is crucial in Feb rev
• Helped fuel ranks of red army for Oct rev

Question 7

Counter

Answer 7

• long tradition of political opposition
• Dual authority