Russia in Revolution 1894-1924 Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. 1894, when Russia's last Tsar ascended to the Russian throne reluctantly and began his doomed rule. What was the name of this Russian Emperor?

Answer: Tsar Nicholas II (Romanov)

Tsar Nicholas II grudgingly accepted power at the age of 26 in November of 1894. His nepotistic practices, extreme repression and general distaste for rule would all contribute to his downfall in the early 20th century.
Alexander III, Nicholas II's father, whom he replaced as Tsar, is credited with increasing repression throughout Russia, lowering the democratic freedom of peasant communities and initiating increased action against political opponents.
Alexander II, known as the Tsar Liberator due to his emancipation of the serfs (enslaved peasants) in 1864 was the grandfather of Nicholas II. Despite his unique wish to increase liberal freedom in Russia, he was assassinated by the terrorist organisation The People's Will in 1881 causing Alexander III to increase repression on his succession.
Tsar Peter the Great was Tsar in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, being great due to his construction of St. Petersburg, a Russian navy and vast administrative reforms to modernise Russia. Not only that, but he was the first Russian emperor who established the Romanov family as the absolute rulers of the largest nation by land in the world.

2. When Tsar Nicholas II ascended to the throne, he had to contend with the issues of land hunger (the desire for good quality land) for the peasantry named the 'dark masses' by his wife, Tsarina Alexandra. What percentage of the Russian population consisted of these peasants when Nicholas II became Tsar, illustrating the difficulty of pacifying them?

Answer: 82%

82%! Russia was still an incredibly backward nation in terms of how its population lived compared to its European acquaintances in Britain, France and Germany still maintaining many village communes throughout the entirety of Russia. If you guessed 45%, that is the percentage of the population consisting of national minorities, which also made Nicholas II's reign difficult. An extra nugget of knowledge is that Nicholas II pursued the policy of 'Russification' which sought to enforce the Russian culture and language on them, leading to many Jews, Muslims and non-Slavs to join radical parties against the Tsar.

3. In 1905, Russia saw two humiliating events demonstrating the weakness and repressive attitudes of the government. Can you tell me which war and which strike in a major Russian city evidences this?

Answer: The Russo-Japanese War and Bloody Sunday

The Russo-Japanese War, which ended after the devastating Russian naval defeat at Tsushima and land defeat at Mukden, told the people of Russia that the Tsar was too weak to fight against Japan, a nation still considered a second-class nation by Europeans. Bloody Sunday of January in 1905 saw a peaceful strike and a demonstration for workers' rights led by Father Gapon, who made a point of holding pro-Tsar symbols to show his loyalty to him, gunned down by tsarist soldiers leading to hundreds of people dying and many more becoming injured.

This would all culminate in massive public discontent for Nicholas II, causing the infamous 1905 Revolution seeing a general strike across Russia.

4. The 1905 Revolution passed and the Tsar survived mainly due to the loyalty of his armed forces which put down rebellions in his name. Tsar Nicholas II and his close advisor Sergei Witte however did enact some concessions to appease some of the liberal opposition in Russia. What legal document was this?

Answer: The October Manifesto

The October Manifesto acted on the promises of the August Manifesto, establishing Russia's first Parliamentary body, the Duma which, despite having very limited power still showed some form of democratic change in Russia.
The Statute of State Security in 1881 allowed the tsarist government to pursue revolutionaries more harshly and still was in effect when Tsar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto.
The Fundamental Laws of 1906 are extremely important as they practically make the October Manifesto and the Duma symbolic bodies. This law allowed the Tsar to rule by decree, retaining his autocratic power and securing his position as absolute ruler.

5. We now focus on the period between 1906 and 1911 where the Tsarist government attempted to use the relative stability after the 1905 Revolution to secure its rule. One man, the Minister of Internal Affairs, had a profound impact on the political situation of Russia and attempted to modernise the peasantry. What was this man's name?

Answer: Pyotr Stolypin

Stolypin, a man whose motto was 'repression then reform' reflective of his attitude towards the peasantry. The well-known 'Stolypin's neckties' linked to the mass hangings he committed alongside establishing travel military courts to punish rebellious peasants without trial. His most important reform was to the electoral system, allowing the Russian elite to vote disproportionally for conservative ministers supportive of the Tsar, even though this was illegal according to the Fundamental Laws. He attempted to modernise the peasantry by eradicating the Mirs (village communes) and create a new class called 'Kulaks' who were wealthier peasants. He overall had little impact though as he was assassinated in 1911 by a Social Revolutionary before his reforms could make lasting changes.
Sergei Witte was no longer part of the government at this point, since he was rather outspoken in his views that the Tsar was too repressive and ignorant in his rule. Before this, he had helped the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and written the October Manifesto for Tsar Nicholas II.
Konstantin Pobedonostev was Tsar Nicholas II's childhood tutor and advisor who had been a friend of the Romanovs for decades and was considered an arch-imperialist. He had unwavering loyalty to the absolutist Tsarist system and encouraged Nicholas II to do the same.
Aleksandr Guchkov was the leader of the Octobrist Party during the meetings of the Duma. This party recognised the October Manifesto as a very good foundation for the constitutional monarchy they wished to see enshrined in the Russian Empire and were seen as the more moderate of liberal parties.

6. Before we arrive at the chaotic year of 1917, we need to first consider the origins of two radical parties who would alter the fate of Russia forever. They were once united as the Social Democratic Party of Russia but split in 1903. What were these two parties?

Answer: Bolsheviks and Mensheviks

The Bolsheviks under Lenin and the Mensheviks under Martov (and later under Trotsky) split in 1903 due to disagreements on how to follow Karl Marx's theory of Communism. Bolsheviks wanted revolution immediately and a swift seizure of power while the Mensheviks wished for Russia to undergo the capitalist stage before Communism in order to fully follow Marxist theory. They would be rivals up until 1917 when one of them seized power.
The Social Revolutionaries are a separate party already mentioned as being responsible for Stolypin's death. They were radicals as well yet focused on the peasantry as they believed the Mirs (village communes) would help Russia become Communist quicker. They received less popularity however as they only appealed to the peasantry and the peasants did not like their terrorist activities.
Members of the Kadets can be seen as radicals but of a democratic rather than Communist nature. They were the ones who repeatedly disagreed with absolutism taking a stand with the Vyborg Manifesto which, even though it was a failure as the Kadets who issued the manifesto telling the people to stop paying taxes were all arrested, but it showed the determination of their beliefs.

7. One final and abysmal decision Tsar Nicholas II made must be considered before the revolutions of 1917 are. In 1915, he made a stupid decision regarding the armed forces fighting against the Germans and Austro-Hungarians in the First World War which would turn his nation against him. What was it?

Answer: He personally took control over the armed forces

When Nicholas II took control over the armed forces, everything that went wrong in the war, such as the Munitions Crisis of 1915 which saw soldiers have no ammunition and the people suffer economically. To the people all this was his fault and it turned almost everybody against him.

As well as this, Tsar Nicholas II had left Petrograd (previously named St. Petersburg) under the care of his wife and the 'holy' peasant Rasputin who was supposedly curing their son's (Aleksey's) haemophilia. All they did however was commit what historians call 'ministerial leapfrog' with them constantly dismissing ministers they didn't like, which turned the elites of Russia against the Tsar and his family. Retreating further into Russia was not a command by the Tsar but a necessity, with Russia losing essential resources in the Ukraine, Baltic States and Poland which destroyed the economy and stability of the nation.

8. Now we arrive at February 1917, the first of the two revolutions to rock the Russian nation to its core. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in March, 1917 at the behest of his closest advisors and now those who have seized power consolidate their rule. Two institutions now share power in Russia: who are they?

Answer: The Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet

The army was too busy fighting on the front line to have any true effect on the politics of the nation. The Petrograd Soviet most likely could have assumed direct control of the entire nation if it wished, as it had the popular support of the people, yet they recognised that they had no experience at ruling the nation. Members of what would be the Provisional Government however did lead to the 'Dual Authority' of Russia.

The Soviet passed Soviet Order No. 1 immediately, which meant the Provisional Government had to consult the Soviet concerning military matters, ensuring the Soviet still had most power in Russia.

9. The 'Dual Authority' lasted for eight months, with the strains of war and the discontent of the people reaching a breaking point in October. There were many different groups who could have perhaps seized power but which one was it in the end that would seize power and maintain it for decades?

Answer: Bolsheviks

Under Lenin, the Bolsheviks seized power from the now famous President Kerensky and his Provisional Government which would led to the establishment of a 'proletarian dictatorship'.
I thought it would be interesting to include how such a minority party in politics was able to seize power:
After the June Offensive which Kerensky led in 1917 resulted in a pyrrhic victory (one where the results don't justify the cost) the people of Russia started to realise that they were suffering too much for a war that really they didn't get much out of. Lenin came forward with his slogan of 'Peace. Bread. Land' simply appealing to practically everyone in the entire nation. He still was unpopular however especially after the July Days where Kerensky led a vendetta against the Bolsheviks and, in many people's eyes, destroyed them entirely. It was the Kornilov Affair though, where General Kornilov led some of his troops to Petrograd to create a military dictatorship to prevent the rise of socialism that they sky rocketed in popularity. It was the Bolsheviks who infiltrated Kornilov's forces and sabotaged railway lines meaning they couldn't march on the city allowing them to declare themselves as 'defenders of the revolution.' The Bolsheviks used this in October to seize Petrograd and declare themselves the Communist Party of Russia. Lenin, the recently defected Trotsky, Stalin and the other members of the Revolutionary Committee now ruled Russia.
Others would try to stop them, but the recently formed Cheka (secret police) initiated the Red Terror a new secret police policy to eradicate all opposition as the Tsar had tried to do with the Okhrana under his rule.

10. The most important event after the October 1917 Revolution we need to consider in our ten questions is the Russian Civil War and the attempt to remove the Bolsheviks from power. It is widely considered that the Bolsheviks had many advantages that allowed them to conquer their rivals. Which of these is NOT an advantage the Bolsheviks had during the Civil War.

Answer: The support of foreign expeditionary forces

There was, at the time and in fact never, any foreign nations that actually supported Russia. The Communists in China disliked the Russians and there were no other nations communist to support them. Despite this, the Entente's desire to aid the tsarist-democrat coalition of armed forces (the Whites) didn't really result in anything more than a few troops and supplies which secured interests in the rural parts of Russia.
The Bolsheviks (Reds) could wipe out the Whites and anarchist peasants (Greens) due to the fact they held the industrial parts of Russia while their opponents held villages and the occasional town. Bolshevik soldiers had more training, supplies and better leadership with Trotsky ensuring extremely strict discipline by killing disobedient soldiers to create a hardened veteran force. The Whites were also divided between loyalties with some wishing for the return of the Provisional Government and some wishing for the Tsar to return.
The Bolsheviks won out in 1921-222 and have never had such direct opposition against their rule in Russia again until its collapse in 1991, 69 years after it quelled the insurrectionist Whites and Greens.

Source: Author Maxybillion

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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This tumultuous period of European history would have a far-reaching and profound effects: The Russian Revolutions. From peasant rebellions to the infamous Communist seizure of power, delve into this challenging quiz to gain insight into 1900s Russia.

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