2. Study sources A, B and C.
Do sources B and C support the evidence given in source A about the situation in Petrograd in early 1917? Explain your answer with reference to each of the sources.
Source B supports what we were told about the food shortages in Petrograd. This is because we find that people are so desperate for food that they are willing to openly steal for food, as the woman in source B did.
B also is an example of what we were told in source A about the ‘slightest explosion’ resulting in uncontrollable riots. In source B, simply an army general telling off a woman resulted in the people smashing a car and parading through the streets. It also shows in B that again the military is very important. This is similar to what was stated in source A. However, source A tells us that the military was undecided about whose side they were on, but source B shows that the military supported the Tsar. This seems to be only the generals though and this is because they were members of the aristocracy and so were very close to the Tsar.
Source C is a photo of a march in Petrograd on ‘International Women’s Day’. It is similar to source A because both show people protesting against food shortages in this case. The difference from source A is that source C shows a planned protest and this goes against A, because source A tells us that nothing was planned. We know it was a planned event because the people are carrying banners and so we know what they were doing. Source C shows a planned peaceful protest and not a riot.
I think that source B supports source A more strongly than C. this is because it confirmed a lot of what was said in source A about food shortages and riots that started off very easily and spontaneously.
3. Study sources C, D and E.
How useful are these sources as evidence of growing unrest in Petrograd in February 1917?
Unrest was growing rapidly in Petrograd in February 1917 and sources C, D and E all show growing unrest in some way.
Source C doesn’t directly show growing unrest in Petrograd, as it was an organised march for a worldwide event that was ‘National Women’s Day’. However, they are marching for food shortages instead of directly about women. This shows how bad the situation was in Petrograd, as they feel so strongly against the government that they feel they should use the occasion to protest against the government instead of about women. It doesn’t however show growing unrest, just unrest.
Source D shows that unrest was growing extremely rapidly in February 1917. it is very useful to us because it shows just how rapidly people were stopping working and striking. We are given numbers in this source so we can see exactly how much unrest there is with the people of Petrograd. The problem with this source is that it was compiled in the 1980’s and so it was a long time after the events actually happened. The numbers are also ‘estimated’ and so very rounded off making the source less accurate.
Source E is very useful. This is because it shows the actual strikes in action. We also see who the protestors are, and these are the proletariat and women. The soldiers have also now sided with the people. We know this because they are ‘exchanging friendly words’ with the women. This helps us to identify who the people protesting are. We also see in source E, how the protest has turned from just wanting ‘bread’ to a political protest. The slogans have turned from ‘bread’ to ‘down with autocracy’. This shows us how much the people have turned against the Tsar and his way of running the country. The problem with this source however, is that it is extremely biased. The person who wrote it worked very closely with Lenin who was against the Tsar and the autocracy. He was a leading revolutionary and so he would want to make it look like the autocracy wasn’t working.
I think that the strongest source to show growing unrest in Petrograd is source D. This is because it shows us just how quickly people were going on strike and how in just a few days this number rose extremely quickly. Although the source is not completely reliable as it was made a long time after and the numbers are rounded, the source was made by a historian so it shows he must have done a lot of research to get these numbers and they must have been based on reality.
