3.1 - Causes of Russian Revolution PERSPECTIVES

Question 1

Perspectives
Weaknesses of Tsar Nicholas
x2

Answer 1

• “I am not prepared to be Tsar. I know nothing of the business of ruling” (Nicholas II)
• Democracy: “senseless dreams” (Nicholas II)

Question 2

Perspectvies
Kadets
x1

Answer 2

• “bourgeois political naïvity” (Lenin)

Question 3

Perspectives
Telescoping Revolution
x1

Answer 3

• “sometimes History needs a push ” (Lenin)

Question 4

Perspectives
Socialist Revolutionaries
x1

Answer 4

• “revolutionary pyrotechnics ” (Lenin)

Question 5

Perspectives
Russo-Japanese War
x3

Answer 5

• “The Japanese are infidels. The might of Holy Russia will crush them” (Nicholas II)
• Japanese are “little yellow monkeys” (Nicholas II)
• “a little victorious war to stem the tide of revolution” (Plehv, Interior Minister)

Question 6

Perspectives
October Manifesto
x3

Answer 6

• “‘freedom’ must become the slogan of government activity. There is no other way of saving the state” (Witte)
• “I cannot squander a legacy that is not mine to squander” (Nicholas II)
• “like a nightmare to me” (Nicholas II)

Question 7

Perspectives
Duma
x3

Answer 7

• “I have a constitution in my head, but as to my heart, I spit on it” (Witte)
• “Curse the Duma” (Nicholas II)
• “I created the Duma, not to be directed by it but to be advised” (Nicholas II)

Question 8

Perspectives
Stolypin’s Reforms
x2

Answer 8

• “derevolutionising of the peasantry” (Stolypin)
• “wager on the strong” (Stolypin)

Question 9

Perspectives
World War One
x1

Answer 9

• “headquarters has completely lost its head” (Polivanov)

Question 10

Perspectives
Nicholas as Commander in Chief
x1

Answer 10

• “nervous and did not know what to say” (Brusilov)

Question 11

Perspectives
Ministerial Leapfrog
x1

Answer 11

• “the Russian empire is run by lunatics” (Paleolgue, French ambassador)

Question 12

Perspectives
February Revolution
x3

Answer 12

• “hooligan movement” (Tsarina Alexandra)
• “The situation is serious. The capital is in a state of anarchy. The government is paralysed” (Rodzianko)
• Warnings were “some nonsense” (Nicholas II)

Question 13

Perspectives
Dual Authority
x2

Answer 13

• “The Soviet had power without authority; the Provisional Government had authority without power” (Kerensky)
• “the Provisional Government exists only so long as it is permitted by the Soviets” (Guchkov)

Question 14

Perspectives
April Theses
x2

Answer 14

• “produced the impression of an exploding bomb” (Trotsky)
• “rearming [of] the Bolshevik ranks” (Trotsky)

Question 15

Perspectives
July Days
x2

Answer 15

• “Damnation to those traitors who abandon their brothers who are shedding blood at the front” (Kerensky)
• “dark, difficult days” (Zinoviev)

Question 16

Perspectives
October Revolution
x2

Answer 16

• “We hardened the revolutionary energy of the Petersburg workers and soldiers… the masses followed our banned and our insurrection was successful” (Trotsky)
• On calls for a concession: “go back to where you ought to go: into the dustbin of history!” (Trotsky)