- The next questions are 6 marks questions.
- You should spend roughly 10 minutes on each one.
- These questions require you to explain your ideas.
- This is how the marks are allocated.
4. Why did Tsar Nicholas survive the 1905 Revolution? (6)
The main reason that Tsar survived was October Manifesto. October Manifesto consisted of three things. The three things were the Duma, freedom of speech and the non censorship. The Duma meant a parliament, which was being demanded by the workers and the peasants for a very long time. They didn’t have their freedom of speech, which they had now. Before there was a lot of censorship, which means that the media doesn’t show any bad things happening to their country, or anything bad said about any noble or the Tsar. All they would show is the good things. In the October Manifesto, Tsar promised to give all this. One more reason was that he ended the war with Japan by signing a peace treaty with them. This meant that all the soldiers that were gone in the war would be back and would help the Tsar to crush the Revolution. One more reason was that he arrested all the leader of the Revolution parties and exiled them to Siberia. The leaders were the main reason why the Revolution started in the first place. So the Tsar thought that it would be wise to arrest them. This was why the Tsar survived the 1905 Revolution.
5. Explain why the 1905 Revolution was unsuccessful? (6)
There are many reasons why the 1905 Revolution was unsuccessful. On of them is that the Tsar introduced the October Manifesto. By the three things that the workers and the peasants got, they were happy. So the Revolution started to go less. So the Tsar had less to worry about. One more of the reasons were that he ended the war with Japan. This allowed the Tsar to bring back his strong forces of the soldiers so he can crush the Revolution. And another reason was that the Tsar appointed Stolypin as the prime minister to stay in power. Stolypin appointed him because he used the carrot and stick method. The carrot system meant to do some good things. For example, he improved the education in Russia; he made it easier for the peasants to buy lands and also cleared their debts. The stick system meant that he would do things that were not good. For example, he introduced a policy like ‘Russification’, which meant that any one who was not Russian, had restrictions put on use of their native languages. By this the other ethnic groups lost their rights. These are the reasons why the 1905 Revolution was unsuccessful.
- The next question is a 7 mark question.
- You should spend roughly 12 minutes on this.
- This question requires you to use the source and your own knowledge to explain something.
- This is how the marks are allocated:
Source
Again that cursed question of the shortage of artillery and rifle ammunition stands in he way of an energetic advance. If we should have three days of serious fighting we might run out of ammunition altogether. Without new rifles, it is impossible to fill up the gaps.
A private letter from Tsar Nicholas to his wife Alexandra, July 1915. Two months before he took personal control on the Russian army
6. How far does this source explain why the Russian army was defeated in the First World War?
Use the source above and you own knowledge to explain your answer. (7)
This source does explain many problems of the Russian army, but it does not say all the problems that were faced by the Russian army. Surely the problem shown in the source is the main reason why the Russian army was getting weak, there are more reasons. Firstly the problems of the first aid, many soldiers were wounded very badly and were not attended to for days and days. There were soldiers who were complaining that they were wounded too much to even get up, but no one came to attend them for five days. They were left to rot in the cold weather. By seeing this many soldiers were leaving the army. This led to fewer soldiers in the army. Secondly, they were not advanced enough for the German army. The German army had many types of ammunition like rockets, missile launchers, updated machine guns, and many others. While the Russian army’s main ammunitions were the machine guns. This did not look good for the Russian army. So because of this almost every soldier lost their morale toward their country. They were also losing badly because of these problems. This also caused the soldiers to lose their morale. After some time about one third of the soldier didn’t have rifles to fight with. Before the war even the Tsar said that ‘If we had a serious fight for three days then we will run out of ammunitions altogether’. Thirdly, the soldiers were badly led by their officers. Most of the officers didn’t even care about what happened in the war. The soldiers didn’t like that, as a result of this and the shameful loses, 1917 many of the soldiers joined the Revolutionary Bolsheviks party. These were the many more reasons that this source does not explain.
- The following question is a 10 mark question.
- You should spend roughly 18 minutes on this.
- The question requires you to explain the contribution of three factors and then to compare their importance.
- This is how the marks are allocated;
7. The following were reasons why Tsarist rule ended in 1917:
- The influence of Rasputin
- The collapse of the army
- Strikes and food shortages
Which of these reasons do you think was the most important? Explain your answer, referring to (I), (II) and (III).
It was very early in the morning when the driver of the train stopped and refused to go any further. Someone came in his compartment and told him that the whole country was demanding to the Tsar to abdicate. The Tsar didn’t believe this but, in the end he abdicated. There are many reasons why the Tsar abdicated.
The influence of Rasputin was one reason why Tsarist rule ended. He was born in Pokrovskoye, Siberia. Rasputin was uneducated and lived as a peasant until about 1901, when he left his family to become a wandering holy man. He became very close to the Tsar and the Tsarina because he seemed to be the only one who was able to heal the Tsar’s son, Alexis, who had a blood disease called haemophilia. Soon Rasputin became the most influential person in the tsarina's entourage. When the Tsar took control of the command of the armed forces in September 1915, he left Tsarina in charge of Russia. This made the people of Russia feel discontent because actually Tsarina was a German. This was also partly the reason why the Tsarist rule ended. After the Tsar was gone, the Tsarina made Rasputin, sort of a minister. Rasputin used advice the Tsarina to sack the ministers who indented to work as the Tsar said, and keep those who obeyed what the Tsarina said. This made the people feel very angry which led to strikes. This also made the reputation of the Tsar to drop. So this was also the reason why the Tsarist rule ended.
World War One and the collapse of the army was another cause of the March Revolution which led to the end of the Tsarist rule. The Russian army was in very bad conditions during the war. They were short of ammunitions and artilleries. They also didn’t have advanced weapons like their enemies. They also had the problems of first aids. Many soldiers were left to rot and were not attended for days. After tsar took the command, any thing wrong happening would be blamed on the Tsar. before the war even the Tsar said that if they had a serious fight for 3 days then they would run out of ammunition altogether. This was big problem for the Russian army. They were also badly led by their officers, which did not make the soldiers feel good. These led to soldiers loose their morale and join the Revolutionary Bolsheviks party. And as the Tsar was the commander and took blame of any wrong things happening, he had to take the blame of defeats of the Russian army. This made the soldiers desert the Tsar. These were the main reason why the Tsarist rule ended.
Adding to this the strikes and the food shortages in the towns made this situation worse and contributed toward the abdication of the Tsar. The first strike was the Bloody Sunday. Even thought his strike was stopped by the open firing, the people still didn’t cool down. This was partly what caused the revolution of March 1917. The strikes were broken all over Russia in January 1917 because of the food shortages and the living conditions of the peasants and the workers. People had been complaining a lot. Even after the introduction of the October Manifesto, they were not happy. The Duma’s didn’t give right to the peasants and the workers. Even after the freedom on no censorship, the government were censoring a lot which weren’t even necessary. The food shortages were too much. As the Russian army were needed for troops, most of the farmers including workers and peasants were gone for battle. Because of this there weren’t enough people to grow food which led to food shortages. Most of the farmers were hardly able to grow food for themselves. The government tried to force them to give food but they were afraid that it might grow up the strikes that were already a pain for them. And because of the food shortages, there was too much inflation. The workers back home didn’t get enough wages to buy food. Because of this most of the peasants and the workers were joining the March Revolution. In February the strikes were spread. This revolution was also supported by the members of the army. The Tsar’s best troops were dead because of their lack in the Russian army. So the Tsar was unable to do anything. On 7 March the workers of the factories in the capital city went on strikes. They were all joined by thousands of women as it was women’s day. And soon this strike spread and refused the government and also the Tsar, to stop this strike. Soon they started taking over the food supplies and even the army, the Okhrana (the Tsar’s secret police) helped them.
On the 15 of March, the Tsar issued the statement saying that he had abdicated. The whole of Russian was happy this day. Firstly it started because of the influence of Rasputin which led to the collapse of the army because of the wrong advice he gave to the Tsarina, which then led to the unstoppable strikes, which were even strong for the Tsar and then forced him to abdicate. According to me the strikes and the food shortages were the main reason why the Tsarist rule ended because all the reason were led to it.