The February Revolution in Petrograd

The government imposed a curfew to stop demonstrations. Exam tip: understand curfew as a repressive step.

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.

The government suspended the Duma on 25 February. Exam tip: connect suspension of Duma with political crisis.

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.

The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was formed on 27 February 1917 during the February Revolution. A soviet was a council representing workers and, in this case, soldiers, and it became an important centre of political authority alongside the Provisional Government. Therefore, option A is correct. The council was not based in London, nor was it a church assembly or an organisation of nobles. Remembering the date and the groups represented by the Petrograd Soviet helps distinguish this revolutionary institution from older imperial bodies and from later developments associated with the October Revolution.

The correct answer is A because the Petrograd Soviet was a council formed to represent workers and soldiers during the crisis of the February Revolution in 1917. Workers expressed demands about wages, food, working conditions and political change, while soldiers represented the armed forces and increasingly opposed the Tsarist government. It was therefore a popular revolutionary body, not an institution of kings, foreign merchants or church officials. The word “Soviet” means a council, and in this context it refers to organised representatives of ordinary working people and soldiers. This distinction also helps separate the Petrograd Soviet from the Duma and from the old autocratic administration.

The February Revolution of 1917 ended the rule of the Tsar in Russia. Strikes, demonstrations, food shortages, wartime hardship, and the refusal of many soldiers to suppress the protesters created a crisis that Nicholas II could not control. He abdicated, and a Provisional Government was formed. Thus, the biggest political result was the fall of the monarchy, making option A correct.

The revolution did not increase the Tsar’s authority, begin rule by the Church, or create a foreign monarchy. It removed the Romanov autocracy, although it did not immediately solve Russia’s problems. The Provisional Government and the Soviets then existed together in a tense situation, leading eventually to the October Revolution.

The February Revolution overthrew Tsarism but Bolshevik power came in October. Exam tip: remember the sequence of both revolutions.

Workers' quarters and fashionable areas were separate. Exam tip: connect city layout with social division.

The correct answer is A because severe cold and heavy snow made an already serious wartime crisis worse in Petrograd. Transport and supplies were disrupted, food became more difficult to obtain, and long queues for bread reflected the hardship faced by urban workers and their families. The weather did not itself end the First World War, make factories prosperous or automatically strengthen the Duma; instead, it intensified public anger against the Tsarist government. These immediate difficulties combined with inflation, shortages, poor working conditions and dissatisfaction with the war, helping turn protests into a wider revolutionary movement. Thus the snow and cold were important aggravating conditions, not the only cause of the revolution.

In a sympathy strike workers stop work in support of other workers. Exam tip: remember it after the 22 February lockout.

After the lockout many workers went on strike in support. Exam tip: write it as an example of workers' unity.

The demand for bread was linked with the life crisis of common people. Exam tip: connect economic demands with mass movement.

Workers wanted better working conditions and shorter hours. Exam tip: connect workers' demands with labour reform.