The February Revolution in Petrograd

The two revolutions brought different immediate political outcomes. The February Revolution of 1917 overthrew the Romanov monarchy after mass protests, strikes and the loss of military support. A Provisional Government was then formed, while the Petrograd Soviet also exercised influence, creating dual power. The October Revolution occurred later, when the Bolsheviks led an armed uprising and removed the Provisional Government, claiming power in the name of the soviets. Therefore option A is correct: February ended Tsarist rule, whereas October brought the Bolsheviks to power. Options B, C and D confuse the sequence or deny the major political changes.

The Provisional Government had formal administrative authority after the Tsar’s fall, but it did not control political life by itself. Soviets continued to represent workers and soldiers and possessed strong influence over public action and military opinion. This created competing centres of authority. The government had to function alongside the Soviets, so its decisions were contested and its power remained limited. The resulting arrangement made the new order unstable.

Option A is correct because continuing Soviet influence produced dual power. The Tsar did not immediately recover complete authority, workers did not leave politics, and Petrograd did not become empty. The problem was not the absence of a government but the presence of another powerful political centre beside it. This explains why the February settlement did not bring lasting stability.

Bread queues turned daily crisis into public political unrest. Exam tip: connect food crisis with crisis of rule.

Factories produced collective worker action. Exam tip: treat factories as centres of labour politics.

The role of women workers gave the movement a broad social base. Exam tip: write women as active participants.

Economic demands concern the conditions in which people live and work. In Petrograd, demands connected with bread, wages, shortages, and relief from hardship expressed the immediate suffering of workers and families. Political demands concerned rights, representation, and a change in the form of government. When these demands came together, the movement challenged both the material causes of dissatisfaction and the political system that people believed was unable or unwilling to solve them.

Option A is correct because it explains this combined character: the life crisis and the demand for a change in rule were connected. The movement was not religious, so B is irrelevant. It did not stabilise Tsarist rule; rather, it weakened that rule, making C wrong. The workers were active in political events, so D reverses the historical meaning. The best interpretation is that the revolution had several connected causes.

Soldiers changing sides weakened repression. Exam tip: write the army people relation as decisive.

On one side a symbol of repression broke and on the other a new people's council formed. Exam tip: treat 27 February as a decisive turning point.

The Petrograd Soviet became important because it brought workers and soldiers together in one representative body. Instead of remaining separate groups with limited influence, they could choose representatives, discuss urgent issues, and express their common demands. This gave ordinary people an organised political voice during the crisis of 1917. The Soviet therefore represented popular participation rather than rule by the Tsar or by a small privileged group.

The correct choice is A because it describes this process of organisation in a common representative council. Sending people to villages would not create a political institution, and making them the Tsar’s private army would strengthen the old regime. Removing them from politics would have the opposite effect. The important idea is that a scattered mass became a coordinated political force through representation.

The advice of military commanders shows the depth of power crisis. Exam tip: connect it with the final pressure on monarchy.

Events in Petrograd turned into a wider crisis of rule. Exam tip: write the link between local event and national result.

The Provisional Government represented a change in political authority, but it did not solve the main problems that had driven the February Revolution. Russia still faced food shortages, rising prices, unemployment and the enormous burden of the First World War. Peasants continued to demand land, workers sought better conditions and greater control, and soldiers wanted an end to the war. At the same time, the Soviets remained influential, so the question of who should exercise power was unresolved. Option A is correct because it brings together the central unfinished demands. Options B, C and D contradict the historical situation: Tsarism did not fully return, Soviets mattered, and workers did not abandon factories.

The Provisional Government and Soviets both became influential. Exam tip: understand dual power through both opportunity and instability.

The demand for democracy opposed the Tsar's autocratic power. Exam tip: see it as a key political side of the Revolution.

The February Revolution cannot be understood through one isolated event. Bread shortages and rising prices created anger among workers and families, while soldiers were tired, poorly supplied, and unhappy with the war and its conditions. When soldiers refused to continue defending the old order and joined the protesters, the government lost an important instrument of control. Economic suffering and military discontent therefore reinforced each other.

Option A is correct because it explains this combination. Trade policy alone, the Duma alone, or Church reform does not adequately account for the collapse of Tsarist authority. Bread protests showed the depth of social and economic crisis, while the soldiers’ mutiny weakened the regime’s ability to suppress it. Together, these developments helped turn demonstrations into a revolution and made the fall of the monarchy possible.

Women workers brought both labour and gender participation forward. Exam tip: write it with double significance.

The social layout on the banks of the Neva shaped the spread of the movement. Exam tip: write the relation between place and society.

The city centre had official buildings and symbols of power. Exam tip: connect visible protest with legitimacy crisis.

People returning despite curfew shows disagreement with rule. Exam tip: understand it as state society conflict.

Tsarism depended heavily on coercive institutions, especially the police and the army, to maintain autocratic rule. When protesters attacked symbols of police authority and soldiers mutinied or refused to obey orders, both major supports of the regime were weakening at the same time. This meant that the government could no longer rely confidently on force to suppress demonstrations. The events therefore revealed a breakdown of state control and military loyalty, making the continuation of Tsarist rule extremely difficult. Option A is correct. Option B reverses the evidence, option C is false because shortages continued, and option D is incorrect because the Duma did not simply end the popular movement.

In a few days the situation moved from lockout to soldiers' mutiny and Soviet formation. Exam tip: date sequence is important.

In February 1917, many soldiers sent to suppress workers and public demonstrators in Petrograd refused to fire and joined them. This weakened the Tsar’s main instrument of repression, the army, making regime change possible. Option C is incorrect because the New Economic Policy was introduced by Lenin in 1921, not by the Tsar. Exam tip: remember that the soldiers’ mutiny was decisive in the fall of Tsarism during the February Revolution.

The movement began spontaneously but later institutions and leaders emerged. Exam tip: understand leadership as a changing process.

Soviets became central in later dual power and October politics. Exam tip: study February and October together.

The direct answer is A: the Provisional Government gained legitimacy from Duma leaders and faced challenge from the Soviets. After the Tsar abdicated, leading members of the Duma formed a Provisional Government to run the state. Its connection with the representative Duma gave it an institutional basis and some public legitimacy. At the same time, workers and soldiers formed Soviets, especially the Petrograd Soviet, which had strong influence over people and troops. Therefore authority was divided: the Provisional Government officially governed, but the Soviets could support, pressure or challenge it. This situation is called dual power. Option A is correct. Option B is wrong because the Tsar had abdicated and the Church was not the main challenger. Option C is wrong because foreign banks did not provide the central political legitimacy, and the option misstates the main challenge. Option D is wrong because police and the palace were not the sources described. Exam cue: Duma-based government plus Soviets’ influence equals dual power.