The February Revolution in Petrograd

The right bank was a workers' area and the left bank was linked with power centres. Exam tip: connect geography with political process.

Workers' areas gave the movement its early energy. Exam tip: link the right bank with labour politics.

Moving towards the left bank was a direct challenge to power. Exam tip: understand the relation between location and power.

The governing historical concept is the conversion of a workplace dispute into a wider political movement. In Petrograd, the lockout affected workers who already faced shortages, poor working conditions and the pressures of war. Instead of remaining confined to one factory, it added to existing anger and encouraged workers to protest publicly, helping demonstrations spread through the city. It did not increase the Tsar’s popularity, end the First World War or distribute land to peasants. Thus option A correctly identifies the immediate revolutionary significance: the lockout helped transform accumulated labour unrest into collective action.

The strike in many factories widened the protest. Exam tip: read the number as evidence of spread.

The governing concept is the social breadth of the February Revolution. On 23 February, women workers’ demonstrations over bread and working conditions helped trigger wider strikes and protests. Their leadership shows that the movement was not merely an elite dispute or a palace conflict; ordinary workers, including women, actively shaped its direction. Option B is the opposite of the evidence. Options C and D introduce groups that did not provide the central leadership described in this event. Therefore option A is correct because it recognises both gender participation and working-class mobilisation as important social features.

The Women's Day strike made life crisis political. Exam tip: remember the date and role together.

Nevsky Prospekt made the protest more public and political. Exam tip: understand the role of public spaces.

The governing concept is spontaneous mass mobilisation caused by material and social hardship. If early demonstrations were not fully planned or controlled by a political party, their existence cannot be explained mainly as a party directive. It is more reasonable to connect them with real grievances such as food shortages, rising hardship, war pressure and dissatisfaction with autocratic rule. This does not mean organisation was irrelevant; it means that popular anger supplied the immediate energy of the movement. The Tsar’s secret plan, foreign armies and complete Duma control are unsupported alternatives. Hence option A is correct.

Curfew was a repressive measure to stop the movement. Exam tip: identify the movement's strength from government response.

The governing concept is the persistence and escalation of collective political action. When demonstrators return on successive days, repression has not removed the causes that brought them into the streets. Instead, repeated participation suggests that grievances were deepening, confidence was spreading and the movement was gaining momentum. This evidence contradicts the claim that Tsarism enjoyed complete support. It also shows that the Duma had not stopped the protests and that the food crisis had not ended. Therefore option A is the sound political conclusion: public unrest was growing despite attempts to suppress it.

The governing concept is the weakness of autocratic legitimacy when a government relies on coercion rather than consent. Calling police and cavalry to disperse demonstrators shows that the Tsarist state responded to food, war and labour grievances primarily with force. Such repression may control a crowd temporarily, but it does not resolve the causes of protest and can further reduce public trust. Option B describes empowerment, while C and D are not shown by the deployment of troops. Thus option A correctly identifies the limitation: the regime lacked an effective dialogic or representative response and depended on coercive authority.

The suspension of the Duma did not calm the crisis but deepened it. Exam tip: write the reverse effect of harsh steps.

A ruler’s legitimacy depends partly on the belief that important institutions and people accept his authority. During the February Revolution, disagreement among Duma leaders showed that opposition was spreading beyond workers and ordinary citizens. Even political elites were no longer giving unquestioning support to the Tsar. This made his position appear isolated and weak.

Option A is therefore correct. The disagreement did not strengthen the Tsar’s army, send people home, or create foreign rule. It was evidence of a political crisis within the existing system. When the Duma and other influential groups stop supporting a ruler, the ruler’s legitimacy becomes harder to maintain, especially during war, shortages, and public protests.

The left bank was linked with official power. Exam tip: connect 26 February with intensified political pressure.

The police headquarters was a symbol of repressive state power. Exam tip: connect it with anger against the state.

Working hours were linked with the harshness of workers' lives. Exam tip: connect labour demands with living conditions.

The demand for democracy gave the movement a political dimension. Exam tip: identify economic and political demands separately.

The governing concept is the role of military obedience in sustaining an autocratic state. A regime can use orders to suppress demonstrations only when soldiers are willing to carry them out. When cavalrymen refused to fire, the state’s coercive instrument became unreliable, and demonstrators gained confidence. This weakened a practical foundation of Tsarist authority and helped the revolution advance. The issue was not agricultural production, foreign trade or Church education. Those may relate to broader society, but none explains why refusal to shoot directly challenged the regime’s immediate power. Therefore option A is correct.

The governing concept is revolutionary escalation: a protest becomes a political crisis when the institutions that enforce state authority stop obeying the ruler. In Petrograd in February 1917, workers first organised demonstrations against shortages, war conditions and autocratic rule. The decisive development was the refusal of soldiers to fire on the demonstrators and the mutiny of infantry regiments. Because the army was the main instrument available to defend the tsarist government, this mutiny created a crisis in the state's military power and made the old regime unable to control the capital. Therefore option A correctly describes the transition. The other options mention unrelated religious, commercial or banking changes and do not explain the revolution's decisive military turning point.