The Russian Revolution

“Bread, Peace and Land” expressed urgent demands during the crisis of 1917: workers and townspeople needed food, soldiers wanted an end to the First World War, and peasants wanted land from large estates. The Bolsheviks used these demands to gain popular support. Kings, merchants as a class, and colonizers did not represent the main groups targeted by this slogan.

The governing concept is dual power after the February Revolution. The Provisional Government formally controlled the state and attempted to administer Russia, but the Petrograd Soviet and other soviets represented workers and soldiers and exercised major practical influence. The two institutions had different bases of authority and often disagreed, especially over continuing the war, land redistribution, and political legitimacy. This unstable arrangement is called dual power and helped create the conditions for the Bolsheviks’ October seizure of power. A king and church, nobles and merchants, or Britain and France were not the two competing Russian centres. Thus option A is correct.

The governing concept is the broad social character of the Russian Revolution. It was not merely a change inside the royal palace or a struggle among elite rulers. Workers organised strikes, women began important demonstrations over bread, soldiers refused to suppress protesters and sometimes joined them, and peasants demanded land. These groups created pressure that weakened and finally ended Tsarist authority. Palace politics and military decisions mattered, but they cannot explain the scale or outcome of the revolution by themselves. The other options deny popular participation or reduce the event to religion or foreign war. Hence option A is correct.

Tsarism imposed Russian language and culture on non Russian peoples. Exam tip: connect Russification with national discontent.

A large part of Russia's population was peasant and lived in villages. Exam tip: remember Russian society as mainly agrarian.

Mir was a village community institution related to land and village affairs. Exam tip: connect Mir with peasant community.

Rapid but late industrialisation increased pressure on workers. Exam tip: connect workers' unrest with industrial conditions.

This party was influenced by Marxist ideas and linked with workers' politics. Exam tip: connect it with the socialist movement.

The Socialist Revolutionaries were linked with peasants' land demands. Exam tip: remember this party with peasant politics.

Bolsheviks favoured a small disciplined party while Mensheviks wanted a broad party. Exam tip: identify them by organisational difference.

Option B is correct. Lenin believed that a successful revolution required a committed group of professional and active revolutionaries rather than a loosely organised mass association with very open membership. Such a party would maintain discipline, follow a common political line and work continuously among workers to prepare for revolutionary change. This organisational model became a major feature of Bolshevism. A landlords’ council and a committee of royal advisers represented privileged or monarchical interests, which Lenin opposed. The important distinction is not simply that the party should be large or small, but that it should be tightly organised, politically committed and disciplined enough to lead a revolution.

Prices rose but wages did not rise in the same proportion. Exam tip: treat inflation as a cause of workers' unrest.

After Bloody Sunday demand for reforms became stronger. Exam tip: connect 1905 with pressure on Tsarism.

The Tsar tried to keep the representative body under his control. Exam tip: understand the Duma as a limited reform.

Defeats and crisis in war exposed the Tsar's weakness. Exam tip: see the war as a cause of Tsarism's fall.

Food shortage pushed urban people toward protest. Exam tip: connect the demand for bread with the February Revolution.

Women workers' action widened the movement. Exam tip: see women as an active force in the February Revolution.

When army support broke the Tsar's power weakened. Exam tip: connect soldiers' mutiny with the end of monarchy.

On one side was the Provisional Government and on the other was the influence of Soviets. Exam tip: understand dual power as a weakness of 1917.

People were tired of war so discontent increased. Exam tip: connect the weakness of the Provisional Government with war policy.

The direct answer is A: Lenin proposed withdrawal from the First World War. The April Theses were Lenin's programme after his return to Russia in 1917. He argued for “peace, land and bread,” opposed support for the Provisional Government, and demanded that the war be ended. Russia's soldiers and workers were suffering from deaths, shortages and economic hardship, so continuing the war was unpopular. Option A is correct because ending the war was a central demand. Option B is wrong because Lenin opposed the Tsarist war policy and did not want to continue the war for the Tsar. Option C is wrong because permanent rule over Germany was not his proposal. Option D is wrong because the Duma was a political assembly, not an army. The reasoning is: imperial war caused suffering; Lenin wanted peace; therefore he demanded withdrawal. Memory cue: April Theses—peace, land, bread.

Lenin wanted to solve the peasants' land problem. Exam tip: connect land demand with peasant support.

The Bolsheviks wanted Soviets to become the base of power. Exam tip: connect this slogan with opposition to the Provisional Government.

After the July events the Bolsheviks faced difficulties. Exam tip: remember it as a crisis before October.

The Kornilov Affair increased Bolshevik influence. Exam tip: connect it with Bolshevik strengthening before October.