Causes of the October/November Revolution

Question 1

When did Lenin and Trotsky overthrow the PG?

Answer 1

24th-26th October 1917

Question 2

What did the PG launch in June/Summer and what was the outcome?

Answer 2

A renewed attack on the Austro-Hungary army and Germany- The June Offensive led by Brusilov was a disaster and led to mass desertions and a serious breakdown of discipline in the Russian army as they fraternised with the German troops

Question 3

What happened following the failure of the June Offensive?

Answer 3

The Kadet ministers resigned from government on July 3rd- this provoked a military uprising as Bolsheviks encouraged workers and soldiers to protest

Question 4

How many people joined the July days?

Answer 4

Around 70,000 soldiers and armed workers surrounded the Tauride Palace in Petrograd (which housed the PG and the Petrograd Soviet) - government forces tried to disperse the armed protesters leading to two days of riots

Question 5

What were the main consequences of the July Days?

Answer 5

The Government started a propaganda campaign accusing Lenin of being a German spy so Lenin and Stalin fled to Finland to escape arrest but Trotsky and Kamenev were arrested
Prince Lvov resigned leaving Kerensky to form a ‘ government of salvation of the revolution’
Office for Pravda were closed
Bolsheviks blamed for the bloodshed

Question 6

In August 1917 who did Keresky and the government appoint to take control of the army and why?

Answer 6

General Lvar Kornilov - in an attempt to restore domestic order (death penalty was reinstated as the only way of controlling the troops)

Question 7

What did Kornilov want?

Answer 7

With no sympathy for revolutionaries he demanded Petrograd be placed under military control and the death penalty was reinstated as way of controlling troops

Question 8

What was Kerensky’s reaction to Kornilov’s demands?

Answer 8

He refused (knowing the workers of Petrograd would resist)
He them dismissed Kornilov as Commander-in-Chief

Question 9

What was Kornilov’s response to his dismissal?

Answer 9

He ordered a detachment of troops to march on Petrograd - Kerensky presumed military takeover so was forced to ask the Petrograd Soviet to defend the capital (he didn’t have an army) - through this he agreed to arm red guards to defend the capital (many Bolsheviks were now released from prison and armed)
Kornilov’s supply lines were cut and coup leaders arrested

Question 10

What was the role of Trotsky?

Answer 10

He was head of the Petrograd soviet and had only joined Bolsheviks in June
He also headed the MCR (formed after Kornilov coup) = armed group along military lines that was formed to protect Petrograd from attempted military takeover

Question 11

In mid-October what did the PG attempt to do and what did Trotsky use?

Answer 11

Shut down the two Bolshevik newspapers based in Petrograd
Trotsky used fear about Kerensky’s orders as a pretext to get the MCR ready for ‘defensive action’ - in reality was preparing them to seize power

Question 12

What does MCR stand for?

Answer 12

Military Revolutionary Committee

Question 13

Since Lenin’s return how did he play an important role in undermining the PG?

Answer 13

April Theses=direct attack on its policies and authority -persuaded majority of Bolsheviks to abandon support for PG
Encouraged establishment of 41 Bolshevik newspapers across Russia (spread his radical message and books Bolshevik popularity
By end of September Bolsheviks dominated Petrograd Soviet and he continued to demand ‘all power to the soviets’

Question 14

In August what did the PG announce and what was Lenin’s reaction?

Answer 14

There would be elections for a new constituent assembly in November - Lenin knew Bolsheviks wouldn’t do as well as social revolutionaries - determined to seize power before then

Question 15

When and why did Lenin secretly return to Petrograd

Answer 15

10th of October in order to persuade the Bolshevik Central Committee to support an armed seizure of power in Petrograd

Question 16

Despite Lenin being the Bolsheviks recognised leader a Bolshevik uprising couldn’t take place without the approval of the Central Committee - why was Lenin’s return in October crucial?

Answer 16

He had written to the committee in September urging them to back a seizure of power and they had ignored Lenin’s proposal - when he returned (October 10th) - in disguise- he was able to persuade the Central Committee to endorse the plan (by threatening to resign) (despite bitter division on the BCC he persuaded the majority to back his plan)

Question 17

Who was given the role of planning the uprising in detail?

Answer 17

Trotsky

Question 18

Why was the PG’s minister of war (Milyukov) sacked in April 1917 and what was the outcome

Answer 18

He wanted to make territorial gains not just defend Russia and this outraged the socialists in the Soviet so he was forced to resign
PG was in crisis until reforms in May when five socialist leaders (including Chernov and Tsereteli) joined the coalition government

Question 19

Why was their joining of the government significant?

Answer 19

They would now be associated with war and therefore criticised if it went badly so risked losing support

Question 20

What were the reasons for the June offensive?

Answer 20

Britain and France requested strongly that Russia take the pressure off them - treaty obligations
Patriotic Russian society didn’t want to surrender to Germans
Kadets thought successful offensive might put officers back in control of armed forces and calm revolution
Some socialists felt it would out them in a better position to bargain with Germany in peace talks

Question 21

When was the June offensive?

Answer 21

16th of June for three days but began to fall apart as soldiers killed officers rather than fight

Question 22

What actions did the PG take on land?

Answer 22

Not a lot - they wanted to wait for CA to meet ad weren’t willing to just handover land so peasants began to seize it anyway

Question 23

What did the PG do about national minority demands?

Answer 23

Many places called for independence including Poles and Finns
Biggest problem = Ukraine - most valuable farmland however moderate socialists in the government granted them this

Question 24

How did the deteriorating economic situation affect the PG?

Answer 24

Railway system showed signs of collapse
Fuel shortages led to factories laying off workers (100,000 between Feb and Sep)
Food crisis = critical despite PG increasing price they would pay by 100% peasants wouldn’t bring it to centre

Question 25

How did PG attempt to deal with food crisis?

Answer 25

Sent out punishment brigades into countryside to requisition grain but only made peasants more hostile

Question 26

Why did the PG begin to lose the support of the workers?

Answer 26

They had expected social reform after Feb with higher wages, better conditions and shorter hours but instead wages were becoming worthless

Question 27

Why was Lenin torn in the July days?

Answer 27

The Kronstadt sailors organised their own demonstration - he could neither condemn the action nor fully support it as a premature revolution would risk defeat
Bolsheviks tried to make it a peaceful protest but shots were fired threatening to undermine Lenin

Question 28

Who crushed the July days demonstration?

Answer 28

The PG supported by Mensheviks and SR’s

Question 29

Who supported / opposed Kornilov?

Answer 29

Bolsheviks organised a general strike(having boycotted Kerensky’s Moscow State conference called to demonstrate political unity) , even Mensheviks and SR’s opposed Kornilov’s measures
Those on the right - especially landowners and businessmen who thought PG had done little to protect their rights - supported Kornilov as well as the moderate Kadets saw military takeover as preferable to socialist regime

Question 30

Why was the Kornilov Coup good for the Bolsheviks?

Answer 30

Many had been released from prison and they now had a reputation as the only ones able to save Petrograd from Kornilov and they began to get elected in an increasing number of urban soviets
Membership = 23,000 in Feb was 200,000 by start of October by which point the party was producing 41 newspapers and commanded a force of 10,000 red guards

Question 31

What happened in September in terms of Bolshevik support?

Answer 31

They won majority in both the Moscow and Petrograd soviets and Trotsky became chairman of the executive committee of Petrograd soviet

Question 32

Which Bolsheviks didn’t support the uprising and why?

Answer 32

Kamenev and Zinoviev as they didn’t think Russia was economically ready and wanted to wait for CA elections

Question 33

What was the MCR comprised of?

Answer 33

66 leaders - 48 of them Bolsheviks

Question 34

What did Trotsky do to prepare for revolution?

Answer 34

Sent Bolsheviks speakers round factories to gain support
Commissars sent to garrison units 15/18 declared allegiance to soviet not PG (commissars ensured loyalty as well as organising weapon supply)
Set up MCR on 16th October
Committee came to control 200,000 Red guards 60,000 Baltic sailors and 15,000 soldiers
State of mutiny and revolution was established even before it officially began on 25th Oct

Question 35

What did Trotsky manage to persuade Lenin to do?

Answer 35

Persuade Lenin to postpone the date of the uprising

Question 36

What is not clear about the July days?

Answer 36

Whether the rebellion was formed by the Bolsheviks as Lenin had been on holiday when it broke out and claimed the demonstration were spontaneous , he immediately returned but quickly fled in disguise remaining in Finland until October , Trotsky had not immediately committed himself to the Bolshevik cause having returned to Russia in May but he was elected to the executive committee of the All Russian … and was accused of stirring up the July days and was imprisoned (in prison he became a committed Bolshevik)

Question 37

What had happened leading up to the July days?

Answer 37

Feb - June, grain prices had doubled in Petrograd, while shortages of fuel and raw materials had forced the closure of 586 factories with the loss of 100,000
Workers demanded price controls but the PG was too scared to act against the industrialists so 20,000 armed Kronstadt sailors took to the street with workers and soldiers joining them attacking shops, seizing railway stations etc

Question 38

What was the situation in the summer of 1917?

Answer 38

PG had little support, food supplies chaotic in towns, although government granted an 8 hour day, real wages fell rapidly as prices rose. By October prices 755% above pre war levels
Workers hope that factory soviets would help them = ruined when factory owners given right to dismiss strikers
Continuation of war and failure to redistribute land = loss of support on countryside (seized land anyway)
Elections arranged for November but there was suspicion the bourgeois government was delaying further democracy to preserve own power
Bolsheviks benefitted most from this

Question 39

Who were the red guard?

Answer 39

Loyal volunteer soldiers mostly recruited from the factory workers, they were given a basic training and comprised old and young alike

Question 40

What did Kerensky do on the 5th of October and what was the outcome?

Answer 40

Sent some more of the more radical army units out of Petrograd to prepare for front line service
It was done out of fear of a Bolshevik uprising but inflamed political atmosphere as many claimed Kerensky was abandoning the capital to let it fall to the Germans

Question 41

What happened on the 9th of October and why was it significant ?

Answer 41

The soviet adopted a resolution written by Trotsky to create a ‘military revolutionary centre’ to protect Petrograd from the attacks being prepared by ‘civil Kornilovites’ - it played on the fear that government ministers might support a right-wing coup

Question 42

Despite Trotsky eventually backing Lenin’s plan who refused?

Answer 42

Zinoviev and Kamenev (they published their views in the Newspaper Novaia zhin declaring that if they took power now and were forced into a revolutionary war the majority of soldiers wouldn’t support them.

Question 43

As SR’s and Mensheviks refused to cooperate in October what did the troops Trotsky gathered become?

Answer 43

A Bolshevik force made up militias from the Bolshevik Red Guard, former soldiers and policemen

Question 44

What were some key causes of the October Revolution?

Answer 44

Weakness of the PG
Defeat in WW1
Deteriorating economic situation 
Resentment of soldiers, workers, and peasants
Political manoeuvres by Bolsheviks

Question 45

How did Kerensky attempt to take action against the Bolsheviks?

Answer 45

23rd October, ordered the printers of two Bolshevik newspapers Pravda and Izvestia to cease activities, to attempt to restrict the power of the MRC and to send troops to raise the bridges linking Petrograd to the city centre

Question 46

What prevented Kerensky from taking this action against the Bolsheviks?

Answer 46

Troops loyal to the Bolsheviks claimed that his actions were a betrayal of the soviet and an abandonment of the principles of the Feb/March revolution - this gave the Bolsheviks an excuse to act