The February Revolution in Petrograd

The governing concept is the geographical beginning of the February Revolution of 1917. The uprising began in Petrograd, the capital of the Russian Empire, when women workers and other workers organised protests over bread shortages and worsening wartime conditions. Strikes expanded, and soldiers increasingly refused to fire on demonstrators or joined them. This combination of popular protest, labour action, and military defection forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. Paris, London, and Berlin were important European capitals, but none was the centre of this Russian uprising. Therefore, option C, Petrograd, is correct.

Food shortages and the hardships of the First World War were major causes of public discontent in Russia before February 1917. The war brought huge military losses, inflation, transport disruption and shortages of fuel and bread, especially in cities. Workers faced declining real wages and difficult living conditions, while peasants and soldiers also carried heavy burdens. These problems weakened confidence in Tsar Nicholas II and helped trigger strikes and demonstrations in Petrograd. Option A is therefore correct. The other choices describe conditions that would reduce unrest or contradict the historical situation: the Tsar was increasingly unpopular, wages were not generally very high, and peasants demanded more land rather than possessing too much.

The Petrograd Soviet was a council representing workers and soldiers, formed during the upheaval of the February Revolution in 1917. Delegates from factories and military units discussed political decisions, controlled important forms of local support and claimed to speak for ordinary people. Its existence alongside the Provisional Government created the situation known as dual power. Option A is correct because the Soviet’s social base was primarily workers and soldiers, although its influence affected wider groups. It was not a body of landlords, foreign monarchs or church officials; those groups did not define the Soviet’s representative character.

The governing historical concept is the February Revolution of 1917 and its urban setting. The revolution began in Petrograd, the city then known as St Petersburg and later renamed Leningrad during the Soviet period. In February, strikes and demonstrations—especially those involving workers and women protesting food shortages—spread through the city. Soldiers eventually joined the protesters, weakening the government and forcing Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. Therefore option B, Petrograd, is correct. Moscow was important in Russian history and later revolutionary events, but it was not the principal centre of the February uprising. Kazan and Kiev were significant cities but were not the main location of this revolution. The city’s name is a useful chronological clue for the 1917 events.

The governing historical concept is the February Revolution of 1917 and its immediate urban setting. The revolution began in Petrograd, the capital of the Russian Empire, when demonstrations over bread shortages, war conditions, and economic hardship developed into mass strikes. Soldiers in the city increasingly refused to suppress the crowds and joined the movement, which weakened the Tsarist government and led to Nicholas II’s abdication. Therefore, option B is correct. Moscow was important in later revolutionary events but was not the initial centre named in this question. Vladivostok is a distant eastern port, and Vienna was the capital of Austria-Hungary, not Russia.

In the winter of 1917 Petrograd faced food shortage and severe cold. Exam tip: treat winter as background to the February Revolution.

Workers' quarters and factories were on the right bank of the Neva. Exam tip: connect city layout with class division.

The Winter Palace and official buildings were in the fashionable part of the city. Exam tip: remember the class division of Petrograd.

Food shortage was strongly felt in workers' quarters. Exam tip: connect the demand for bread with the February Revolution.

According to the NCERT account of the February Revolution, a lockout occurred at a factory on the right bank of the Neva on 22 February 1917. A lockout means that the management closed the workplace and prevented workers from working, often during a labour dispute. This event contributed to the tense atmosphere in Petrograd and was followed by broader demonstrations, strikes, and demands for bread and political change. Therefore, option A is correct. A coronation, land distribution, and treaty signing are not the events described in this sequence and do not explain the immediate beginning of the February revolutionary movement.

The next day workers from many factories joined the strike. Exam tip: connect sympathy strike with spread of movement.

Women workers led strikes in many factories. Exam tip: connect women's role with the beginning of the February Revolution.

The strikes of 23 February were linked with International Women's Day. Exam tip: remember the role of women workers.

The February movement grew from spontaneous workers' unrest. Exam tip: connect it with people's spontaneous action.

Workers moved from the right bank toward the centre. Exam tip: connect movement of place with spread of protest.

The direct answer is option B, curfew. A curfew is an official order restricting people from going out during specified hours. In the Petrograd unrest, the government used restrictive and forceful measures to control the growing demonstrations; in the school-level account, curfew is identified as the measure in this question. Option A, tax relief, means reducing taxes. It is an economic concession, not a direct restriction on crowds. Option B is correct because a curfew limits movement and can prevent people from gathering. Option C, a new election, is a political process and would not immediately stop a street demonstration. Option D, land reform, changes land ownership or distribution and is unrelated to controlling an immediate protest. Exam cue: when the question asks for a measure used to stop demonstrations, distinguish a coercive restriction such as curfew from long-term economic or political reforms.

During the early days of the February Revolution in Petrograd, the government attempted to suppress the growing demonstrations by calling in the police and cavalry. These forces represented the state’s immediate effort to restore order through coercion rather than by addressing shortages, war-weariness, and political dissatisfaction. Thus option A is correct. Students and teachers were social groups, a peasant council was not the government’s regular enforcement force in Petrograd, and foreign traders had no such official role. The later refusal of some soldiers to continue firing and their movement toward the demonstrators helped weaken the government’s control.

Direct answer: Option A, the Duma. On 25 February 1917, during the crisis in Petrograd, the Russian government suspended the Duma, the representative legislative assembly of the empire. The Duma was important because it represented a limited form of elected political participation, even though the Tsar still held great power. The suspension showed that the government was losing confidence and trying to control the growing unrest. Option A is therefore correct. Option B, the Soviet Union, did not yet exist as a state in February 1917; soviets were councils of workers and soldiers. Option C, the Cheka, was a later Bolshevik security organisation formed after the October Revolution. Option D, the Red Army, was also organised later by the Bolsheviks and was not the representative body suspended on that date. Exam cue: February Revolution, Petrograd, 25 February and suspension of the Duma belong to the same crisis sequence.

Leaders criticised the government after Duma suspension. Exam tip: treat it as political opposition to Tsarism.

On 26 February 1917, demonstrators returned to the streets of Petrograd as the protest movement continued to grow. Their repeated presence showed that the earlier repression had not removed the causes of unrest, including food shortages, wartime hardship, poor working conditions, and opposition to autocratic rule. Therefore, option A is correct. The demonstrators did not collectively leave for villages, elect the Tsar, or end the war on that date. The event should be understood as part of a rapidly developing sequence in which strikes and street protests expanded, state authority weakened, and sections of the army eventually joined the people.

On 27 February the police headquarters was attacked and ransacked. Exam tip: see it as a sign of breaking state control.

Demonstrators demanded bread wages and better work conditions. Exam tip: connect slogans with people's needs.

Along with economic demands such as bread and better conditions, people in the February Revolution raised the political demand for democracy. This demand challenged the autocratic political system of Tsarist Russia, in which the Tsar held extensive authority and representative institutions had limited power. Consequently, option B is correct. Autocracy was the system that protesters opposed, not the reform they demanded. Expansion of the royal family was unrelated to the movement, and a church tax was not its defining political objective. The combination of economic hardship and demands for political representation helped turn industrial unrest into a major revolution.

When soldiers withdrew support Tsarism weakened. Exam tip: connect soldiers' mutiny with change of power.

As the February Revolution developed, sections of the soldiers who had been called by the government to control the demonstrations began to refuse orders and join the protesters. This was a decisive development because the government depended on the armed forces to suppress the uprising. When army loyalty weakened, the state could no longer rely on repression alone, and workers’ demonstrations gained much greater strength. Therefore, option C is correct. The question does not refer to foreign palace guards, soldiers selling bread, or only distant naval forces; those descriptions do not match the historical sequence in Petrograd.