The February Revolution in Petrograd

Workers' areas were on the right bank and power centres were on the left bank. Exam tip: connect location with the direction of the Revolution.

The lockout brought workers to the streets and created political pressure. Exam tip: identify the political result of an economic cause.

The governing concept is the widening social base of the February Revolution. On 23 February 1917, women workers in Petrograd factories and textile mills played a prominent role in strikes and demonstrations, especially around bread shortages, wartime hardship and poor working conditions. Their leadership showed that women were not merely passive victims or observers; they could organise collective action, influence male workers and enter mass politics directly. Option C is correct because it connects women’s participation with both labour protest and broader political mobilisation. Options A, B and D are unrelated: noble loyalty, foreign traders and church control do not explain the factory strikes or the revolutionary role of women.

The Women's Day strike turned household crisis into a public political issue. Exam tip: remember the date and role together.

Nevsky Prospekt was a public and politically important place. Exam tip: understand the relation between streets and power.

The early movement came from people's real hardships. Exam tip: do not confuse spontaneity with weak significance.

Curfew was a measure of repression and control. Exam tip: identify the strength of a movement from government response.

The governing idea is revolutionary continuity: repeated mobilisation can transform a protest into a political crisis. When demonstrators returned to the streets on 24 and 25 February, the movement did not disappear after the authorities attempted to control it. Instead, participation expanded and different groups of workers joined together. This persistence revealed that discontent over food shortages, war, working conditions and autocratic rule was deep and widespread. Option D is correct because the repeated demonstrations showed growing public unrest despite repression. Options A, B and C contradict the evidence: the Tsar was losing control, the war continued, and the movement was concentrated in the capital rather than being confined to villages.

Calling cavalry and police against protesting people shows that the Tsarist government relied on coercion to preserve its authority. It treated public protest as a threat to be suppressed rather than as a problem to be discussed with representatives. This reflects the autocratic character of Tsarist rule, in which political power was concentrated at the top and ordinary people had limited influence over government decisions. The use of armed forces also reveals the government’s fear of mass mobilisation.

The correct choice is A because cavalry and police are instruments of force, not methods of negotiation or democratic sharing of power. The action did not mean that the government wanted to empower workers, stop the war immediately, or distribute land to peasants. Those choices describe unrelated policies. In this context, the government’s response clearly demonstrates dependence on repression rather than dialogue.

The governing concept is the political isolation of an autocratic ruler during a revolutionary crisis. By suspending the Duma on 25 February, the Tsar removed an important representative institution instead of addressing the growing unrest. This decision made his government appear hostile to constitutional consultation and further alienated deputies and other political leaders. Their disagreement became more visible, while the streets remained unsettled; therefore the measure strengthened opposition rather than restoring authority. Option B is correct because the suspension clarified and intensified representative resistance to Tsarism. Option A has no connection with the decision, while C and D are false: demonstrations did not stop and the suspension did not abolish the Petrograd Soviet.

Disagreement among Duma leaders increased the Tsar's political isolation. Exam tip: connect declining support with power crisis.

The governing concept is the political importance of revolutionary space. The return of protesters to the left bank on 26 February was not merely a movement across a river. It brought mass pressure closer to important centres of authority and government institutions in Petrograd. Location therefore had political meaning: the demonstrators were challenging the state where its power was concentrated, making it harder for officials to treat the unrest as an isolated workplace disturbance. Option D is correct because it interprets the movement geographically and politically. Options A, B and C miss the context; the event was not ordinary travel, foreign trade or a seasonal agricultural activity.

The governing concept is the breakdown of legitimacy between the state and its population. A police headquarters represented the coercive machinery used to enforce Tsarist authority, monitor dissent and suppress demonstrations. Its attack on 27 February therefore showed that popular anger had moved beyond petitions or peaceful complaints and was directed against visible institutions of repression. Option A is correct because it identifies open hostility to the state’s coercive symbols. This did not prove the Tsar’s religious popularity, foreign control of the Duma or military success. Options B, C and D are unrelated to the meaning of an attack on a police institution during a revolution.

Bread was an economic demand and democracy was a political demand. Exam tip: read slogans as double demands.

Working hours were linked with everyday exploitation of workers. Exam tip: connect labour demands with class position.

The demand for democracy was linked with political rights. Exam tip: identify economic and political demands separately.

The governing concept is the dependence of autocratic power on obedience by armed forces. Tsarism could issue orders, but it could survive only if soldiers carried them out, especially when confronting crowds in the capital. The cavalry’s refusal to fire meant that a direct instrument of repression had failed at a critical moment. It also suggested that military loyalty was weakening and encouraged protesters to continue. Option A is correct because the order could not be enforced. Options B, C and D are unrelated: the refusal did not stop foreign trade, raise a peasant tax through the Duma or begin the war.

The governing concept is the conversion of a popular protest into a crisis of state power. Before the mutiny, the government could still hope that loyal troops would disperse demonstrators and restore order. When infantry regiments refused obedience or joined the uprising, the state lost confidence in its most important coercive instrument. The revolution therefore moved from strikes and street demonstrations to a direct challenge to the government’s military authority. Option B is correct because it identifies this decisive transformation. Option A is opposite to the evidence, C is false because the mutiny weakened the Tsar, and D invents an unrelated claim about the Soviets.

The governing concept is revolutionary legitimacy based on popular representation rather than dynastic authority. As workers and soldiers gathered in the Duma building, they helped form the Petrograd Soviet, a council claiming to speak for organised workers and soldiers. Its authority came from participation and representation in the revolutionary movement, not from the Tsar, foreign commercial interests or the Church. Option C is correct because it identifies the new worker-soldier representative institution and its political legitimacy. Option A refers to the old autocratic principle, while B and D have no connection with the formation of the Soviet or the social forces driving the February Revolution.

The governing concept is the social base of a revolution: the groups that participate, organise and claim political representation. The Petrograd Soviet was formed through the involvement of workers and soldiers, the two forces that had become central to strikes, demonstrations and the collapse of Tsarist authority. Its structure therefore reflected urban labour and military participation rather than the interests of the royal family, foreign traders or landlords alone. Option D is correct because it directly links the institution to organised worker and soldier representation. Options A, B and C wrongly identify elite or foreign groups as the foundation of the Soviet.