Chapter 21 -- Russian Revolution
1. Why were the peasants of Russia unhappy?
noblemen who owned the land
difficult life, little food, working hard for
2. What was the life of the royal family? Romanovs – Nicholas II and wife Alexandra, 5
children – huge palace, servants, lots of food
3. What angered many Russians? wealth of the Romanovs
4. What else made the Romanovs unpopular? influence of Rasputin?
5. Why did the royal family spend time with this monk? sick son, Aleksei – Rasputin claimed to
have special powers to hear
6. What kind of man was Rasputin? strange, unpopular monk – drank too much – wild parties –
lived for money
7. What did the Russian people not know? about Aleksei’s illness
8. What did the people think Rasputin had done to czar? spell on him
9. What happened to Rasputin? killed by 3 Russian noblemen
10. In what other way was Nicholas Ii unpopular? put Russia immediately into WWI
11. What problems did Russian army have? not enough weapons
12. How many soldiers died in the first year? two million
13. What two men commanded the Russian army? first Grand Duke Nicolai, cousin of czar –
then czar himself
14. How good was Nicholas as commander of army? very bad – had not been trained to be
army leader, made bad decisions, more and more Russian soldiers died
15. What happened on March 8, 1917? women waited all day for bread – then told there was
none – began to riot
16. What did the people demand? that Nicholas give up his throne
17. What did Nicholas do? gave up his throne – took family to one of their homes
18. Who now controlled Russia? a provisional government (temporary)
19. Who was the leader of the provisional government? Aleksandr Kerensky
20. What order did Kerensky give? Romanov family to be taken to Siberia
21. What did Kerensky do to Russia? change laws so country would be better
22. What did Kerensky refuse to do? pull Russia out of World War I
23. What response did the army have to his orders? almost 2 million left the army
24. What did the ex-soldiers then do? many killed landowners and took over the land
25. What did the Kerensky government do in response? nothing – they were helpless
26. Who seized control of Russia? the Bolsheviks led by Lenin
27. What did Lenin believe? the peasants had right to take land
land should be for whole nation – not just the rich
28. What happened on October 24, 1917? 25,000 followers of Lenin stormed government
offices in St. Petersburg and took over – Kerensky’s men were arrested – Kerensky
escaped
29. Why were the Bolsheviks called the Communist Party? party working for common good
30. What did the Communist Party stand for? Christianity was false; therefore, city names were
changed – St. Petersburg became Petrograd
31. What two problems were left after Russia got out of World War I? what to do with czar and
the people were so poor
32. What happened to the czar? Nicholas II and family killed on July 17, 1918
33. What did Lenin do about the poor people? government would control all the land;
government would control and own businesses – “communism” was making sure that the
government controlled Russia, not a small group of people; however, the government was a
small group – Lenin and his followers