Interview
grade 9 notes from Edexcel GCSE history Russia and the Soviet Union
covers from 1917 to 1940s (entire course) detailed and sectioned relevantly structured to aid essay planning based off of the exam specification
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• Tsar Nicholas II had a large army, and also used his secret police (the Okhrana) to maintain power. The Russiaparliament (the duma – which was set up as a compromise to prevent unrest towards the tsar, though it didn’t
hold much authority) found it difficult to challenge the tsar.
• In 1917, around 80% of the population (which was increasing) was peasants – most peasant communities were
backward and farming methods available to them were highly inefficient so many lived in extreme poverty
• Many resented the fact that the government/tsar refused to help them by offering them land of their own,
uprisings against landlords and government officials were common (e.g. in 1905 many peasants burned down
landowner houses and stole their land, though this was brutally repressed by the army)
• Quality of life and standard of living was very poor for the majority in tsarist Russia, many who had moved from
the countryside to towns (were Russia's minimal industrialization was concentrated in large factories) lived in
overcrowded conditions and worked in unsafe environments for long hours
• If workers in factories went on strike, often demanding higher wages to keep up with the growing inflation during
WW1, they would either be fired or arrested by the police/army
• There were also a number of groups who were pressing for changes in Russia:
• The social revolutionaries (SRs) wanted a new society based on the peasant regime
• The social democrats, consisting of Bolsheviks – who believed they could lead the workers into a
revolution to help create communism on their behalf – and the Mensheviks – who though revolution
would have to wait until Russia was industrialized
• During WW1, although Russia had the largest army it was poorly led and badly equipped (three soldiers to 1 rifle)
and by 1917 large areas of western Russia had been given lost to German forces
• In august 1915, the tsar took command of Russia armed forces as commander-in-chief, leaving Petrograd in
September of that year putting his German wife tsarina Alexandra as his regent (head of state in his absence)
• The tsarina was unpopular with both the people and the Duma, she relied heavily on advice from Rasputin which
infuriated the duma – she was also accused of being a German spy.
• His actions caused a loss of respect for him among military officials and the nobility has he has no military
experience as so was directly blamed for further defeats and loss of life
• The war also caused Russia to face additional economic pressures: Germany blocked Russia's trading routes so
factories were starved of raw materials and economic activity dropped, taxes were raised to help cover the costs of
the war however this still wasn’t enough so to raise more money for the war effort, the government arranged loans
from its allies, increasing Russia’s national debt.
• After the WW1 broke out in 1914, food shortages increased and prices went up. Between 1914-1917, average
wage increased by 200% while the price of food and fuel increased by 400%. 15 million peasants were conscripted
and the horses that many relied on for farming (as techniques were not as advanced as the rest of the world) were
also taken by the army and peasant crops were also requisitioned by the army. These factors meant there was less
food for city as well as countryside populations thus leading to mass hunger and suffering (by 1917 daily bread
rations had fallen to 0.8kg and wagons of grain arriving in Moscow decreased from 2,200 to fewer than 700 in
1914-1917)
• Approximately 6 million fled from German territory into Russia and the government found it increasingly difficult to
found food and houses for them
• The February 1917 revolution occurred because of a mixture of long term discontent with the government/tsar and
short-term triggers, such as food shortages and demoralization of the army.
1. Feb 14th: demonstrations in support of the duma (80,000)
2. Feb 18th: strikes at Putilov steelworks
3. Feb 23rd: international women’s day marchers joined striking workers in anti-government demonstrations;
crowds grew larger when the government announced the possibility of further bread rationing
4. Feb 23rd-25th : 250,000 demonstrated in Petrograd – crowds became too big for police to control
5. Feb 26th: soldiers were ordered to fire on demonstrators (40 killed), soldiers became unhappy over these
orders and began to munity
6. Feb 27th: some regiments entirely refused to shoot, some even joined the demonstrations, protecting the
protestors
7. Feb 28th: a military report to the tsar declared that Petrograd was out of control (revolutionary crowds had
seized artillery supplies and railway stations in the city
• Due to his having to operate out of the army headquarters, the tsar was isolated from the real center of danger:
his own disillusioned soldiers and the people of Petrograd.
, • The February revolution of 1917 succeeded in forcing the abdication of the tsar.
1. As things began to fall apart in Petrograd, the members of the Duma sent a petition to the tsar, asking him to
create a cabinet that reflected the different parties represented in the Duma – the tsar refused this despite the
problems he was facing and ordered the duma to dissolve, leaving the Russian empire with no real functioning
government
2. One group of Duma members refused to stop meeting (the liberals mostly), they formed a group called the Duma
committee – and later went on to set up the provisional government
• Military commanders also withdrew support for the tsar, The tsars train headed for Petrograd was blocked by
mutinous troops, so it was diverted to Pskov where he was met by high ranking army officers and members of the
duma, urging him to abdicate in order to save Russia
• The tsar agreed, collapsing hundreds of years of tsarist rule, allowing Russia to become a republic
• The actual revolutionaries surprisingly had little to do with the February revolution
• The members of the duma formed themselves into a ‘provisional government’ on march 2nd which would govern
Russia until a general election had taken place and a new government could be formed.
• The provisional government was the government of Russia from feb-oct 1917 under the leadership of prince Lvov
• Some had hoped that the formation of this government would lead the way to Russia becoming a democracy,
however this belief was soon shattered as no elections were ever held (despite the fact that they were promised
along with full democratic freedom)
• Across Petrograd, factory workers, mutinous army and naval units elected representatives to the new Petrograd
soviet.
• The PG was also determined to continue fighting in WW1, despite this playing a major factor in the tsar’s original
downfall.
After the February revolution, the PG faced many problems:
• They shared ‘dual control’ with the network of soviet across Russia (that looked towards the Petrograd soviet)
• The Petrograd soviet controlled the railway, postal and telegraphs systems (as these were industries in which
workers supported the soviets)
• On march 1st , the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison published “order number 1”, which gave control of the
military to the Petrograd Soviet (the soviets later adopted the order) – this hugely undermined the authority of the
PG as in the event of a disagreement they were essentially left defenseless
• The PG also lacked legitimacy. People felt that it had no authority and shouldn’t be obeyed due to the fact that the
members which it consisted of did not represent the wider population yet they still claimed authority over all of
Russia – they also failed to provide elections as promised thus heightening their opposition.
• Alexander Kerensky was a member of both the PG and the Petrograd soviet. Within the PG he was the fist minister
of justice and in may 1917 became the minister of war. He decided to continue with the war despite the anger of
the soldiers and general public, loosing the support of his army officers by reducing their authority thus reducing
support from the conservatives
• At this time, the one thing peasants wanted most was land though the PG was reluctant to act on this (as members
were all of higher class and thus mostly ignorant to the needs of the majority). This reluctance proved a mistake
when many peasants just seized land for themselves and began to resent the soldiers the PG sent after them,
leading them to later give support to any political party who promised that their needs would be met (Bolsheviks)
• In June 1917, while Kerensky was still minister of war the PG ordered a new attack: dubbed the ‘June Offensive’.
The attack was a disaster – Russian soldiers refused to advance and there were 200,000 Russian casualties, the
army was driven backwards and the Germans advanced into Ukraine. In the aftermath, Kerensky took over
leadership from prince Lvov
• As support for the PG continued to drain away in to august- with soldiers still angry and the June offensive -
General Kornilov (recently made commander-in-chief) attempted to seize power, wanting to create a military
dictatorship in Russia
• On august 24th Kornilov sent troops to Petrograd with the orders to shut down the Petrograd soviet. To prevent
violence and further rage against the PG, Kerensky allowed the Bolsheviks to arm their supporters to defend
Petrograd from Kornilov’s troops – these armed supporters were named the ‘Red Guards’
• Another reason for Kornilov's failure was because his soldiers were no longer following orders
• The outcome of the revolt was that support for the Bolsheviks grew amongst workers and soldiers as they were
seen as the only group who had both not supported the PG as well as defended Petrograd (this support shone
when in august 31st Bolsheviks won the most seats in the Petrograd soviet election. Soldiers lost trust in their
officers and the then establishment of the red guard to defend Petrograd gave the Bolsheviks the military
advantage.
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