Year 10 summer revision

Question 1

Describe how Russia was ruled under the Tsar before the February Revolution 1917

Answer 1

Russia was an autocracy- Tsar had complete power. He could appoint or sack ministers or make any other decisions without telling anyone else.A weak Parliament (Duma) that failed to represent the people’s views.The Tsar used his secret police (Okhrana) to get rid of anybody who went against him. These people were usually exiled to Siberia.

Question 2

Explain why the Tsar was a weak leader

Answer 2

He avoided making important decisions. In a country as huge as Russia where tasks had to be delegated (shared out) this was a problem because the Tsar tried to getting involved in everything!The system of autocracy (unlimited rule by one person) worked only if the Tsar was strong but Nicholas was not a strong character.He showed little understanding of in politics and how to run a country. For example, he appointed family members and friends to important positions. Many where incompetent and corrupt and accepted bribes.

Question 3

Describe the problems of ruling Russia in 1917

Answer 3

Causes:Bad harvests in 1900 and 1902.Russia was at war with Japan (1904-05). This was disastrous and humiliated both the Tsar and Russia. The war produced food shortages. Peasants and workers were forced to join the army.People were fed up of a poor life- bad working conditions and low wages.

Question 4

Describe the key features of political parties in Russia before World War I

Answer 4

200,000 people protested outside the Tsar’s Winter Palace. The demonstrators wanted the war with Japan to end, better working conditions and a higher wage.The Tsar’s soldiers fired on the crowd without warning and killed hundreds and wounded thousands.

Question 5

Explain the effects of the First World War on Russia in 1917.

Answer 5

Chaos spread throughout the country- There were Strikes, riots and mutiny (revolt) in the navy. Strikers formed Soviets- worker’s council to organise strikes. Tsar issued the October Manifesto (1905) to stop further chaos. He promised: freedom of speech, a national parliament (Duma), an end to censorship, the right to form other political parties.

Question 6

Explain why there was a revolution in Russia in February 1917?

Answer 6

Russian empire in 1917 was HUGE! (92 times as big as Britain). Its size made it hard to rule. Communications were difficult. Roads were unpaved and slow. Even the new railways only connected a fraction of the country.Farming methods were old-fashioned and slow. Population was rising so more food was needed and food shortages were common.

Question 7

What were the key features of the February Revolution?

Answer 7

Constitutionalists (Cadets)- Wanted a democratic style government. They wanted the Tsar’s power LIMITED by a constitution and an elected parliament.Revolutionaries believed in the OVERTHROW of the Tsar. The largest group was the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), who believed in a revolution by the peasants. The Social Democrats believed in a revolution led by the workers in towns. Split into two groups.Bolsheviks (led by Lenin) - wanted a small party who would organise the revolution. Mensheviks - wanted a mass party and were prepared for slow change.

Question 8

What were the effects of the February Revolution?

Answer 8

In 1915 the Tsar took personal command of the army. The Tsar became unpopular as Russia faced many humiliating defeats. The Tsar left the Tsarina in charge of Russia. Many didn’t trust her (she was German) and did not like the influence Rasputin had. This made the Tsar MORE UNPOPULAR.There were shortages of fuel and food because workers and Farmers were sent to fight the war. This made it harder to grow enough food and keep factory production up. The army also took horses from farms which made it hard to plough the land.

Question 9

Explain why the February Revolution succeeded.

Answer 9

Russia was at war. This caused food shortages. Tsar left his wife in charge- and the Tsar was out of touch with the growing anger of the people. Very cold winter affected food supplies to cities and towns. Prices got high and food had to be rationed- people got hungry and angry.

Question 10

Explain the effects of the Kornilov Affair.

Answer 10

Kerensky (leader of PG) had to give weapons to the Bolsheviks to save his government from a military takeover. These weapons were later used by the Red Army against the Provisional Government in the October revolution.The PG had lost support of the army and the Bolsheviks were now the real power in Russia. Lenin encouraged Trotsky to prepare plans for seizing power.

Question 11

What was the Tsar’s nickname at the start of his rule?

Answer 11

The ‘Little Father of Russia’

Question 12

What did the Tsar set up in 1906?

Answer 12

The Duma

Question 13

What was the approximate population of Russia by 1917?

Answer 13

170 million

Question 14

What percentage of the population could speak Russian in 1917?

Answer 14

40%

Question 15

What was the name of the railway that crossed Russia from West to East?

Answer 15

Trans-Siberian Railway

Question 16

Give three reasons why it was a bad decision by the Tsar to leave the Tsarina in charge of Russia.

Answer 16

1. Tsarina wasn’t trusted as she was German, 2. She fell under the influence of Rasputin, 3. She was also autocratic and didn’t listen to the people and gave the Tsar bad advice.

Question 17

What was the ‘Progressive Bloc’?

Answer 17

A coalition of moderate conservatives and liberals in the fourth Russian Duma (elected legislative body) that tried to pressure the imperial government into adopting a series of reforms aimed at inspiring public confidence in the government and at improving the management of Russia’s effort in World War I.

Question 18

Give a definition of a ‘mir’.

Answer 18

A peasant council

Question 19

Write a definition of a ‘zemstva’.

Answer 19

A local assembly, dominated by landowners – therefore a tool the Tsar could use to control the country.

Question 20

What word, beginning with ‘p’ describes the industrial working class?

Answer 20

Proletariat

Question 21

Describe why the quality of life was low for industrial workers in big Russian cities like Petrograd and Moscow in 1917. Give three reasons.

Answer 21

1. Low pay, 2. Exploitation by employers, 3. No protection from e.g. unions, 4. Dangerous and filthy working conditions, 5. Overcrowded accommodation

Question 22

Name at least one of the Tsar’s closest advisers (not Rasputin).

Answer 22

Stolypin, Rodzianko or Witte.

Question 23

Describe ‘Order No. 1’

Answer 23

No laws are valid unless ratified by the Petrograd Soviet.

Question 24

What was the Petrograd Soviet?

Answer 24

A worker’s council dominated by the Bolsheviks.

Question 25

What happened to Lenin from 1922 to 1924?

Answer 25

Lenin had a stroke in May 1922 and a second stroke in December 1922. The second stroke meant he was unable to run the party or the country. He dictated his Political Testament to his wife - telling her it must be read at the Congress of Soviets after his death. He had a third stroke in March 1923 that left him completely paralysed and unable to speak. He died in 1924.

Question 26

How did Stalin use Lenin’s funeral to his advantage?

Answer 26

Stalin presented himself as Lenin’s close follower. For example, he made himself chief mourner at the funeral. He also gave Trotsky the wrong date so that Trotsky would appear arrogant and disrespectful for not attending.

Question 27

What did Lenin’s Political Testament say?

Answer 27

He saw two main candidates for the leadership of the Communist Party after his death: Stalin and Trotsky. However, he did not want any single candidate to dominate so he asked that the whole Politburo (the committee that ran the party) would take over.

Question 28

Who was in the Politburo?

Answer 28

Seven members: Trotsky, Stalin, Rykov, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Tomsky

Question 29

What were Stalin’s strengths as a contender for power?

Answer 29

He was an excellent planner and organiser and extremely ambitious and had been planning to take over from Lenin for some time - by 1922, he was a member of the Politburo and General Secretary of the Communist Party. He made sure his work kept him in Moscow, close to Lenin. He did all he could to seem Lenin’s favourite and his job as Secretary meant he chose who got jobs (in the Party and the government) so people wanted to please him. Stalin’s policies were more popular than Trotsky’s - such as ‘Socialism in One Country’ instead of Trotsky’s idea of spreading communist revolution worldwide.

Question 30

What disadvantages did Trotsky have as a contender for power after Lenin’s death?

Answer 30

Trotsky did not work in Moscow, so the rest of the Politburo didn’t know him well. Some members of the Poliburo didn’t trust him because he seemed to be Lenin’s favourite.

Question 31

What happened to Lenin’s Political Testament?

Answer 31

Kamenev and Zinoviev, who supported Stalin, managed to persuade the Politburo not to sack Stalin as Secretary and not to read the Testament to the Congress of Soviets.

Question 32

Which contender was strongly in favour of the NEP?

Answer 32

Bukharin.

Question 33

How did Stalin remove Bukharin as a competitor in the struggle for power?

Answer 33

Stalin persuaded Bukharin to encourage the continuance of the New Economic Policy within the Politburo. Next, he declared that it was Lenin’s last wish that the NEP be discontinued because it was anti-communist. This made Bukharin look disloyal to Lenin and a traitor to the communist ideals.

Question 34

How was Trotsky removed as a contender for power?

Answer 34

Apart from missing Lenin’s funeral, Trotsky wrote a book criticising Lenin and the NEP in a book published in 1924.Combined with this, Stalin and his supporters spread rumours that Trotsky never had Lenin’s support and that he disrupted the work of the Politburo. Trotsky also scared people by insisting on trying to spread communism across the world - people were afraid he would drag Russia into more conflicts. Trotsky lost jobs and power gradually:1925 - resigned as Commissar of War1926 - Expelled from the Politburo1927 - Expelled from the Communist Party1928 - Exiled to Kazakhstan1929 - Exiled from the Soviet Union(1940 - Assassinated in Mexico)

Question 35

How did Stalin establish the most effective and ruthless dictatorship of the twentieth century?

Answer 35

He combined a systematic programme of propaganda, culminating in the ‘Cult of Stalin’ with a systematic use of terror to remove any potential threats to his position. This led to the deaths of millions of people in the Soviet Union.

Question 36

What were the Purges?

Answer 36

In the 1930s, Stalin embarked on series of purges, which led to the death and imprisonment of millions of Soviet people. No one was immune. Stalin purged anyone who delayed, criticised or opposed his plans for collectivisation and industrialisation. Most of the accused were deported or imprisoned. Some were shot. The Purges can be interpreted as including the Show Trials of senior Communist Party members.

Question 37

How did the Purges start in 1928?

Answer 37

The first purge was of 55 engineers from the Shakhty mines in Donbas. They were put on trial accused of sabotaging the first 5-Year plan. Five were shot and the rest imprisoned.

Question 38

What happened to Ryutin in 1932 as part of the Purges?

Answer 38

Ryutin, a senior Communist Party member, criticised Stalin’s economic policy. Stalin was furious and had Ryutin and his supporters arrested and put on trial. Ryutin was expelled from the party and sent into exile.

Question 39

When was Kirov murdered?

Answer 39

In 1934, after giving a speech that criticised Stalin’s policy of industrialisation. The speech was warmly applauded and there was even talk of Kirov replacing Stalin as leader. It is quite likely that Stalin had him shot.

Question 40

How did Stalin use the murder of Kirov in his Purges from 1934 to 1936?

Answer 40

Stalin used it as an excuse to arrest thousands of Communist Party members in 1934 - 40,000 members in Leningrad alone.In 1935, thousands of Communist Party members who had supported Trotsky were expelled from the party.In 1936, Stalin got rid of the ‘old Bolsheviks’ by accusing them of Kirov’s murder and also of plotting to assassinate him. Zinoviev, Kamenev and other Left Opposition leaders were tortured by the NKVD and confessed in full view of the world.

Question 41

How did Stalin purge the army in 1937?

Answer 41

The Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army, Tuchachevsky, along with seven other generals, were arrested and shot. By 1941, 13 of the top 15 generals had been purged.

Question 42

How did Stalin end the Purges?

Answer 42

By 1938, almost every party and state leader in every one of the Soviet republics had been purged. Things were getting out of control, with about a million dead and 7 million imprisoned. Stalin called a halt to the Purges in his usual style: He blamed them on the secret police, and purged them as well to remove any knowledge of what had happened - this included Yezhov, who had been the head of the secret police!

Question 43

Why did Stalin introduce the Purges?

Answer 43

1. Threats to his position: Stalin was concerned about anybody who might plot to overthrow him - especially the ‘old Bolsheviks’.2. Stalin was not 100% responsible: Some historians believe that once they were started - they had a snowball effect. Stalin lost control at a local level.3. They were needed to create the mass forced labour needed for Stalin’s industrialisation policy.4. Stalin was paranoid and had a ‘persecution complex’ - he believed everyone was out to get him. The murder of Kirov was an example.

Question 44

What happened to people who were ‘purged’?

Answer 44

They were either sent to a gulag (labour camp), executed (usually shot) or exiled abroad.

Question 45

What are the years 1936-1938 known as?

Answer 45

The Great Terror. Millions of people were purged in these years by the OGPU (secret police).

Question 46

How many people were sent to the gulags?

Answer 46

In 1928, there were about 30,000 people in the gulags. By 1938, there were about 7 million.

Question 47

What were the different secret police organisations through this period?

Answer 47

Before the revolution - the Okhrana1917-1922 - the Chekha1922-23 - the GPU, part of the NKVD (which included the ordinary police and the prisons)1923-34 - the OGPU1934-45 - the GUGB, part of the NKVD

Question 48

What were the Show Trials?

Answer 48

The Moscow Trials were a series of three show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. They included the Trial of the Sixteen, the Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center, and the Trial of the Twenty-One. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police. Most defendants were charged under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code with conspiring with the western powers to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, dismember the Soviet Union, and restore capitalism. The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, and the trials are generally seen as part of Stalin’s Great Purge

Question 49

What were the effects of the use of terror by Stalin on the USSR?

Answer 49

1. It created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion - this enforced obedience, but also resentment.2. The Purges killed about a million people and sent about 7 million to the gulags.3. The state lost useful people at most levels: 1 million out of the 3 million members of the Communist Party, 93 out of 139 Central Committee members and 13 of the 15 top generals in the Red Army.4. Removed skilled workers from industry, so factory production reduced.

Question 50

Do we have 100% accurate statistics about the Purges?

Answer 50

No - secret police records have not all been released, so we only have rough estimates. For example, historians disagree about the percentage of Red Army officers purged - estimates range from 10% to 50%.