What did ruling as an autocrat mean for the way Nicholas II governed?

He held complete personal power as the ruler chosen by God, appointing and dismissing every minister himself and answering to no parliament, party or electorate.

What did the Social Revolutionaries want, and what methods were they willing to use?

They wanted the great estates broken up and the land given to the peasants, and they used terror, murdering government ministers and officials.

What happened on Bloody Sunday in January 1905?

Troops opened fire on Father Gapon's peaceful march to the Winter Palace, killing hundreds of unarmed petitioners and destroying the Tsar's image as the father of his people.

Besides strikes, what other forms did the unrest of 1905 take?

Mutinies such as that on the battleship Potemkin, peasant risings against landlords, and new workers' councils, including the St Petersburg Soviet chaired by Trotsky.

AQA GCSE History 8145

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Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism

Nicholas II’s autocracy and the court

3 things to know
Paper 1 section A

Overview

Autocracy and the institutions that upheld it, the Social Revolutionaries and the Bolshevik–Menshevik split, Bloody Sunday and the 1905 revolution, the October Manifesto and the Fundamental Laws, the Dumas and the political stalemate, and Stolypin's land reform, repression and record by 1914.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Which institutions held the tsarist system together before 1905?

Key term

What did the October Manifesto promise, and why did it save Nicholas II?

Key term

How did the Social Democrats split in 1903?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What did ruling as an autocrat mean for the way Nicholas II governed?
Model answer
He held complete personal power as the ruler chosen by God, appointing and dismissing every minister himself and answering to no parliament, party or electorate.
2
Which institutions held the tsarist system together before 1905?
Model answer
The army and the Cossacks, the Okhrana secret police, tight censorship, and the Orthodox Church, which taught that obedience to the Tsar was a religious duty.
3
What did the Social Revolutionaries want, and what methods were they willing to use?
Model answer
They wanted the great estates broken up and the land given to the peasants, and they used terror, murdering government ministers and officials.
4
How did the Social Democrats split in 1903?
Model answer
Into Lenin's Bolsheviks, who wanted a small tightly disciplined party of professional revolutionaries, and Martov's Mensheviks, who wanted a broad party open to all workers.
5
What happened on Bloody Sunday in January 1905?
Model answer
Troops opened fire on Father Gapon's peaceful march to the Winter Palace, killing hundreds of unarmed petitioners and destroying the Tsar's image as the father of his people.
6
Besides strikes, what other forms did the unrest of 1905 take?
Model answer
Mutinies such as that on the battleship Potemkin, peasant risings against landlords, and new workers' councils, including the St Petersburg Soviet chaired by Trotsky.

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America, 1840–1895: Expansion and Consolidation

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Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972

Conflict and Tension in Asia, 1950–1975

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