The Russian Revolution

During the First World War, much of Russia’s railway and transport system was used to move soldiers and war supplies. This disrupted raw-material supplies to factories and food and fuel supplies to towns, reducing production and raising prices. Therefore, option A is correct. Option C is the opposite of the situation, as food shortages in cities became severe. Exam tip: Remember wartime economic crisis through transport disruption, inflation and food shortages.

During the First World War, the Russian army suffered enormous casualties. Soldiers faced harsh frontline conditions and shortages of food, weapons, and other essential supplies, which increased their opposition to the war. Option C is the opposite of the historical situation, as shortages were a major cause of discontent. Exam tip: Link anti-war feeling in Russia with heavy losses, supply shortages, and the demand for peace.

In the First World War, Russia was fighting against Germany. Therefore, Alexandra’s German origin made many Russians suspicious, and she was accused of sympathising with Germany. She was not a Bolshevik leader; the Bolsheviks were led by Lenin. Exam tip: During wartime, foreign origin or foreign connections can easily create public suspicion.

Rasputin was believed to have strong influence over Tsar Nicholas II's family, especially the Tsarina. His alleged interference in state affairs and the scandals around the court increased public criticism and distrust of Tsardom. The Duma did not gain power because of Rasputin. Exam tip: link Rasputin with the declining credibility of the Tsarist regime and the crisis of governance.

In February 1917, Russian cities, including Petrograd, faced severe food shortages because of the war, disrupted supplies, and rising prices. Thus, the demand for bread reflected hunger and the food crisis in cities. The land issue was mainly associated with peasants, whereas this demand focused on urban food supply. Exam tip: Remember food shortage, discontent over war, and autocratic rule as key causes of the February Revolution.

On International Women’s Day, 23 February 1917 in the Russian calendar, women workers in Petrograd began a strike demanding bread and peace. The strike quickly grew into mass demonstrations and marked the beginning of the February Revolution. The Duma was not dissolved on that day. Exam tip: remember the February Revolution through women workers’ demand for “bread and peace.”

A government depends partly on the obedience of its army. During the February Revolution, some soldiers refused to fire on protesting people and began to support the workers instead. This was a major sign that the Tsar could no longer rely on the military to maintain order. Once soldiers stopped obeying commands, the authorities lost an important instrument of repression, and the revolutionary movement became much stronger. The event showed that the crisis had reached the structure of Tsarist power itself.

Option A is correct because refusal to obey orders showed that Tsarist control was weakening. Option B says the opposite of what happened. Option C is incorrect because workers’ protests and demands continued rather than ending. Option D is also incorrect: the Provisional Government emerged after the old authority collapsed, not before this loss of military obedience. The soldiers’ change of allegiance was therefore a crucial reason the February Revolution succeeded.

The February Revolution ended the Tsar’s rule, but it did not immediately create one undisputed authority. The Provisional Government handled formal state administration, while workers’ and soldiers’ Soviets retained strong popular influence. This coexistence is called dual power. Therefore, option A is correct; the other options wrongly suggest a restored monarchy, church rule, or foreign control.

After the February Revolution, people expected the Provisional Government to address the urgent problems of war, food shortages, and social reform. Workers and soldiers wanted peace, while peasants wanted land and ordinary families needed reliable food supplies. The government’s decision to continue the First World War and its inability to solve shortages weakened public confidence. Therefore, option A correctly identifies a major public expectation.

The other choices contradict the political situation. People did not want the Tsar’s power restored, nor did they demand more land for nobles. Destroying the Soviets was not a popular public expectation; the Soviets represented important groups of workers and soldiers. The slogan of peace, bread, and reform explains the answer.

Option A is correct. In the April Theses of 1917, Lenin argued that the Bolsheviks should give no support to the Provisional Government because it continued the war and did not solve the urgent problems of land, food and workers’ rights. He demanded that power pass to the Soviets and called for a new stage of revolution rather than cooperation with the existing government. Full support would have contradicted his programme. Bringing back the Tsar was a reactionary demand, while closing the Duma was not the central position expressed in the April Theses. The important link is ‘no support to the Provisional Government’ and ‘all power to the Soviets.’

Option A is correct because Soviets were councils representing workers and soldiers, and in many places peasants as well. The slogan ‘All power to the Soviets’ expressed the Bolshevik demand that political authority should move away from the Tsarist state and the limited Provisional Government and be placed in these popular councils. The Tsar’s court represented the old autocratic order, the Orthodox Church was a religious institution, and a foreign parliament could not represent Russia’s revolutionary population. The slogan therefore reflected confidence in directly organised workers’ and soldiers’ bodies as instruments of revolutionary power.

Option A is correct because the slogans addressed the main grievances of three large and politically important groups. ‘Bread’ appealed to hungry urban workers and families facing shortages; ‘land’ appealed to peasants who wanted estates redistributed; and ‘peace’ appealed especially to soldiers and civilians exhausted by the First World War. By combining these demands, the Bolsheviks built support beyond a small circle of party members. The Tsar’s family, foreign kings and nobles were not the mass constituencies that these slogans targeted. Their appeal worked because it connected revolutionary politics with immediate material needs.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and a Provisional Government was formed in Russia. It promised political change but continued the country’s participation in the First World War and did not fully solve demands for land, food, and peace. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, organised an armed uprising in Petrograd during October 1917 and seized key government buildings. They then removed the Provisional Government and transferred authority to councils dominated by Bolsheviks. Thus option A is correct. The Tsar’s government had already fallen in February, while France and Britain were foreign states rather than the government overthrown in Russia.

After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government issued the Decree on Land. Large estates of nobles, landlords and the Church were taken over, opening the way for land to be redistributed among peasants. Therefore, the measure favoured peasants, not landlords and nobles whose landholding privileges were abolished. Exam tip: Remember the Decree on Land as “land for the peasants.”

The Bolshevik government abolished old noble titles and the privileges connected with them. This was intended to end birth-based inequalities of the Tsarist social order and create a more equal society. Option B is the closest distractor but is incorrect because the Bolsheviks did not retain hereditary privileges. Exam tip: Link post-Revolution reforms with the abolition of Tsarist privileges.

After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik government adopted a policy of dividing large houses according to the needs of families. This aimed to reduce the old privileges of the wealthy over housing and other resources. Retaining such property for the Tsar's family would have been contrary to this policy. Exam tip: Remember post-revolutionary Russian policies as measures for social equality and redistribution of resources.

The Russian Revolution made socialist thought powerful in world politics. Link it with global impact.

Studying events in correct order makes causes and results clear. Timeline is very useful in exams.

The ruler of Russia immediately before the 1917 Revolutions was Tsar Nicholas II, the last Romanov monarch, so option B is correct. He headed an autocratic empire in which the Tsar retained extensive political authority, despite the existence of limited representative institutions. Military defeats in the First World War, shortages of food and fuel, inflation, social unrest and opposition to autocratic rule weakened his government. Lenin later led the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution; Kerensky became a leading figure in the Provisional Government after the February Revolution; Stalin rose to power later. Their chronology rules them out.