Russian Revolution

1. Which of the following factors made autocracy unpopular in Russia?(1)

(a) The German origin of the Tsarina Alexandra

(b) Poor advisors like the Monk Rasputin

(c) The huge cost of fighting in the World War I

(d) Both (a) and (b)

2. Which of the following statements is incorrect about the Socialists till

1914?(1)

(a) They helped various associations to win seats in the parliaments in

Europe

(b) Socialists, supported by strong figures in parliamentary politics, shaped

and influenced legislation

(c) They succeeded in forming a government in Europe

(d) Governments continued to be run by conservatives, liberals and radicals

3. How can you say that the ‘liberals’ were not ‘democrats’?(1)

(a) They did not believe in universal adult franchise

(b) They felt that only men of property should have a right to vote

(c) Women should not have right to vote

(d) All the above

 4. Which of the following statements is not correct about the ‘radicals’(1)

(a) They supported women’s right to vote

(b) They opposed the privileges of great landowners

(c) They were completely against the existence of private property

(d) They wanted a government based on the majority of a country’s

population

5. Match the following: (5)

I. Alexi a) Signed in March 1918 and pulled

Russia out of WWI.

b) Son of Nicholas II and

II. Rasputin Alexandra, has Haemophilia, not
a normal boy.

c) Was an international communist

III. Great Purge organization founded in March of
1919 by Lenin.

d) Launched by Stalin, got rid of old

IV. Comintern Bolsheviks, industrial managers,
writers, and ordinary citizens, 4
million people purged.
V. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
e) Greasy, healer, became powerful
in Russia, healed Alexi,
eventually killed

6. Differentiate between the ideas of the liberals and radicals in Europe. (3)

(i) The liberals did not believe in universal franchise. In contrast, radicals
wanted a nation in which government was based on the majority of a
country’s population.
 (ii) Liberals felt men of prosperity mainly should have the vote. They did
not want the vote for women. On the other hand the radicals supported
women’s suffragette movements and opposed the privileges of great
landowners and wealthy factory owners.

(iii) They were not against the existence of private property but disliked
concentration of property in the hands of a few.

7. What was the immediate consequences of the Russian Revolution?

(i) Most industries and banks were nationalised in November 1917. This
meant the government took over the ownership and management.

(ii) Land was declared social property.

(iii) Peasants were allowed to seize the land of the nobility.

(iv)In cities, Bolsheviks enforced the partition of large houses according

to family requirements.

(v) They banned the use of old title of aristocracy.

8. What was the basic principle of the Marxist theory?

 Marx believed that the condition of workers could not improve as long as
profit was accumulated by private capitalists.
 Workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of private property.
 Workers must construct a radically socialist society where all property
was socially controlled. This would be a communist society and a
Communist Party was the natural society of the future.

9. Comment on the role of Vladimir Lenin in the revolution and his

contribution to the economic policy.
 Vladimir Lenin played an important part in the Russian Revolution of
1917. Lenin led the revolutionaries after the fall of the Tsar under Lenin’s
leadership; the Bolshevik Party put forward clear policies to end the war.
 Transfer land to the peasants and advance the slogan ‘All power to the
Soviets’.
 He was of the opinion that no genuine democracy could be established
unless all the non-Russians were given equal rights.
 These were the real objectives of the Russian Revolution and he fulfilled
all these objectives. That is why Lenin’s name has become inseparable
from the Russian Revolution.

10.What conditions led to the Russian Civil War in 1918-1920? Any four
points.
 The Russian army began to break up after Bolsheviks ordered land
redistribution. Soldiers who were mostly peasants wished to go home for
the land redistribution.
 Non Bolshevik Socialists, Liberals and supporters of autocracy
condemned the Bolshevik uprising. Their leaders organised the troops to
fight the Bolsheviks.
 During 1918 and 1919, the ‘greens’ (Socialist Revolutionaries) and
‘whites’ (pro-Tsarists) controlled most of the Russian empire. They were
backed by French, American, British and Japanese troops. As these
troops and the Bolsheviks fought a civil war, looting, banditry and famine
became common.
 Supporters of private property among ‘whites’ took harsh steps against
peasants who had seized land.

11.Comment on the global influence of the Russian Revolution.

 Existing socialist parties in Europe did not wholly approve of the way the
Bolsheviks took power and kept it.
 Still the possibility of a workers’ state fired their imagination across the
world. In many countries communist parties were formed.
 Bolsheviks encouraged colonial people to follow their example. Many
non-Russians received education in the USSR’s University of the Peoples
of the East. By the time the Second World War broke out, the USSR had
given socialism a global face and world stature.

12.“Women played an essential role in both the revolutions of 1917 and the
development of the new Soviet state.” To what extent is this statement
true?
 Women had participated in revolutionary work and also played an
important role in the revolutionary events during the nine months
between February and October.
  in the revolution of 1905, Women workers also participated.
 The February Revolution toppled the tsarist regime and established
a provisional government. Women were highly visible in this
revolution, gathering in a mass protest on International Women's
Day to call for political rights. They gained rights under the
provisional government, including the right to vote
 From the early hours on International Working Women’s day in
1917, women workers came out on strike and organised mass
rallies in the Russian capital of Petrograd, appealing to the male
workers to join them.
 The Bolsheviks came to power with the idea of liberation of
women and transformation of the family.
13.Compare and contrast the February and October Revolutions.
The February Revolution grew from a street demonstration gone out of control;
there was no single political force behind it, and it was not a strategically
planned event. Once the military mutinied and the situation had become
uncontrollable, the Duma recognized that the tsar’s abdication was the only
likely way to quell the unrest. The Duma was Russia’s officially sanctioned
parliament, and while it certainly had conflicts with the tsar on many issues, it
did not have an agenda to remove him from power, nor was it intent on ending
the monarchy. When the Duma requested the tsar’s abdication, they wanted him
to do so only in order to enable his son to take the throne in his stead.
The October Revolution, on the other hand, was a planned coup, designed and
brought about by Lenin and the Bolshevik Party. This second revolution was a
deliberate attempt to overthrow the current Russian government, seize power,
and institute a Communist state in place of the monarchy. While the Bolsheviks
did not have a detailed plan for how the new government should be run, they
unarguably had a clear vision for what they wanted it to achieve.
14. What was Lenin's April Theses? Why were some members of the
Bolshevik Party surprised by the April Theses? What made them
change their attitude? What were the main objectives of the Russian
Revolutionaries?
Ans. The three demands of Vladimir Lenin, after his return to Russia in
April 1917' were :
(i) He and the Bolsheviks had opposed the war since 1914. He felt in
1917 that was should be brought to a close.
(ii) Land should be transferred to the peasants.
(iii) The banks should be nationalised and the party should be renamed
"Communist Party". These three demands were called Lenin's "April
Theses".
Most of the members of the Bolshevik were initially surprised as they
thought the time was not yet ripe for a socialist revolution and t he
provisional government needed to be supported. The developments of the
subsequent months made the party change its attitude the workers
movement spread, trade divisions grew in number the power of the
provisional government grew weaker factories and reprised them. In the
countryside peasants pressed for redistribution of land and encouraged by
socialist revolution's ideas peasants seized land between July and
September 1917. This led to the change of view and the Bolsheviks
decided to seize power.
15.By mid-nineteenth century Europe, socialism was a well-known body of
ideas that attracted widespread attention. Discuss these ideas that defined
socialism in mid nineteenth century Europe and examine how different are
these ideas compared to today’s socialism in Europe.
 Co-operatives could not be built on a wide scale only through individual
initiative. They wanted that governments must encourage co-operatives
and replace capitalist enterprise.
 They said that cooperatives were to be associations of people who
produced goods together and divided the profits according to the work
done by members.
 The ideas were added by Karl Marx and Fredric Engels. Marx argued that
industrial society was capitalist. Capitalists owned the capital invested in
factories.
 The profit which came to them through these factories was produced by
the workers. The workers contributed to the profits but did not gain
anything.