Why did the government call soldiers against demonstrators?

Correct answer: To suppress the strikes

When strikes and demonstrations spread through Petrograd, the Tsarist government viewed them as a threat to public order and its authority. It called soldiers to disperse crowds, stop the strikes and restore governmental control. Therefore, option A is correct. The government was not initially sending troops to distribute bread, organise elections or redistribute land; those alternatives do not explain the repressive purpose of the deployment. A crucial development was that many soldiers were themselves exhausted by war, affected by shortages and sympathetic to the protesters. As a result, some refused to fire and later joined the movement, weakening the government and accelerating the collapse of Tsarist rule.