Q1. What were the ideas of the conservative people?
Ans. 1) In 18 centuries, the conservatives opposed the idea of any change but by the 19-century accepted that some change was needed.
2) They also believed that the past had to be respected and change had to be brought about through a slow and gradual process.
Q2. What did the socialists do in order to make change to the private property?
Ans. The socialists felt that if society as a whole controlled property rather than single individuals, more attention would be paid to social interests. So, they wanted this change and campaigned for it.
Q3. What solution did Karl Marx give to free the workers from the capitalist exploitation?
Ans. The solution that Karl Marx gave was that the workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of private property. He believed that to free themselves from capitalist exploitation, workers had to construct a radically socialist society where all property was socially controlled. This would be a communist society.
Q4. Which socialist parties were formed in Germany, Britain and France?
Ans. (i) The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Germany.
(ii) Labour Party in Britain
(iii) Socialist Party in France.
Q5. Which countries did the Russian empire of 1914 included?
Ans. Current-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus were included in the Russian Empire of 1914.
Q6. What was the majority religion of the Russian Empire? What were the other religions included in the empire?
Ans. The majority religion was Russian Orthodox Christianity and the other religions were Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Buddhists.
Q7. Why some workers formed associations?
Ans. Some workers formed associations to help members in the times of unemployment or financial hardship but such associations were very few.
Q8. Who were the Russian peasants?
Ans. Russian peasants were deeply religious and were also divided just like the workers. But they didn’t have any respect for the nobility.
Q9. What way did some Russian socialists find out to make Russia a socialist country more quickly?
Ans. Some Russian socialist felt that the Russian peasant custom of dividing land periodically made them natural socialists. So, they made peasants not workers the main force of the revolution.
Q10. What did the Socialist Revolutionary Party do in Russia?
Ans. Socialist Revolutionary Party struggled for peasants’ rights and demanded that land belonging to nobles be transferred to the peasants.
Q11. Why did Lenin felt that peasants couldn’t be all a part of a socialist movement?
Ans. Lenin felt that peasants couldn’t be all a part of a socialist movement as they were not united group. Some were poor and others rich, some worked as labourers while others were capitalists who employed workers.
Q12. Who was Vladimir Lenin? What did he think about the Tsarist Russia?
Ans. Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik group and thought that in a repressive society like Tsarist Russia the party should be disciplined and should control the number and quality of its members.
Q13. What did the Liberals in Russia do to demand a constitution?
Ans. The liberals in Russia together with Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, worked with the peasants and workers during the revolution of 1905 to demand a constitution.
Q14. Who all supported the Social Democrats and Socialists Revolutionaries in their work?
Ans. Social Democrats were supported in the empire by nationalists and in Muslim-dominated areas by jaldidists who wanted modernized Islam to lead their societies.
Q15. Why did workers in St. Petersburg went on strike?
Ans. Nearly, 10,000 workers in St. Petersburg went on strike demanding a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and improvement in working conditions.
Q16. How many Dumas were made by the Tsar?
Ans. There were 3 Dumas elected by the Tsar. He dismissed the first Duma within 75 days and re-elected second Duma within 3 months.
Q17. What did the Tsar do in order to prevent questioning of his authority or reduction in his power?
Ans. The Tsar didn’t want any questioning of his authority or any reduction in his power, so he changed the voting laws and packed the third Duma with conservative politicians. Liberals and revolutionaries were kept out.
Q18. In 1914, a war broke out between which 2 European alliances?
Ans. In 1914, war broke out between 2 European alliances- Germany, Austria and Turkey (the Central powers) and France, Britain and Russia (later Italy and Romania).
Q19. Who was Rasputin?
Ans. Rasputin was a monk who made the autocracy unpopular along with the Tsarina Alexandra’s German origins and poor advisers.
- The First World War I on the ‘eastern front’ differed from that on the ‘western front’.
Q20. How did the armies fought the war on the east and west?
Ans. In the west, armies fought from trenches stretched along eastern France.
In the east, armies moved a good deal and fought battles leaving large causalities.
Q21. What was the result when able-bodied men were called up to fight the war?
Ans. When able-bodied men were called up for the war, there was labour shortages and small workshops producing essentials were shut down.
Q22. What problem occurred when large supplies of grains were sent to feed the army?
Ans. When large supplies of grains were sent to feed the army, bread and flour became scarce for the people in the cities. Due to this, riots at bread shops were common.
Q23. Describe what was located at the right and left banks of River Neva?
Ans. The workers’ quarters and factories were located on the right bank of River Neva.
And on the left bank were located the fashionable areas- the Winter Palace and the official buildings including the palace where the Duma met.
Q24. What led to the forming of International Women’s Day?
Ans. On 22 February, a lockout took place at a factory on the right bank. The next day, workers in 50 factories called a strike in sympathy. In many factories, women led the way to strikes. This came to be called the International Women’s Day.
Q25. Why did the government imposed a curfew?
Ans. The government imposed a curfew because the demonstrating workers crossed from the factory quarters to the centre of the capital- the Nevskii Prospekt. The fashionable buildings were entirely surrounded by workers.
Q26. What happened when the government-imposed curfew?
Ans. When the government imposed the curfew the demonstrators dispersed by the evening but came back on the 24th and the 25th. As they came back in large numbers, so the government called out the cavalry and police to keep an eye on them.
Q27. What was the Petrograd Soviet?
Ans. On the evening of 27th February 1917, soldiers and striking workers had gathered to form a ‘soviet’ or ‘council’ in the same building as the Duma met. This was called the Petrograd Soviet.
Q28. How did Petrograd succeeded in bringing down the monarchy in February 1917?
Ans. When a delegation went to see the Tsar and the military commanders advised him to abdicate. Tsar abdicated on 2 March. Soviet leaders and Duma leaders formed a provisional government to run the country. Russia’s future was decided then by a constituent assembly, elected on the basis of universal adult suffrage.
Q29. What happened when the Tsar abdicated?
Ans. 1) Army officials, landowners and industrialists were influential in the Provisional Government.
2) But the Liberals as well as the socialists worked towards an elected government.
3) Restrictions on public meetings and associations were removed.
4) ‘Soviets’ like Petrograd Soviet were set up everywhere, though no common system of election was followed.
Q30. What were the Lenin’s ‘April Theses’?
Ans. The demands of Vladimir Lenin were called the ‘April Theses’: –
1) He declared that the war be brought to a close.
2) Land to be transferred to the peasants.
3) He also demanded banks to be nationalised.
Q31. Why did Lenin feared that the provisional government would set up a dictatorship?
Ans. Lenin feared that the provisional government would set up a dictatorship as the conflict between the provisional government and the Bolsheviks grew.
Q32. On 16 October 1917, for what did Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and the Bolshevik Party?
Ans. On 16 October 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and the Bolshevik party to agree to a socialist seizure of power.
Q33. Where was heavy fighting going on?
Ans. There was heavy fighting going on especially in Moscow but by December, the Bolsheviks controlled the Moscow-Petrograd area.
Q34. Who introduced firm emergency measures?
Ans. Stalin, who headed the party after the death of Lenin introduced firm emergency measures.
Q35. What did Stalin felt about the rich peasants and traders?
Ans. Stalin believed that rich peasants and traders in the countryside were holding stocks in the hope of higher prices.
Q36. What did the Party members do while touring the grain-producing areas in 1928?
Ans. In 1928, Party members toured the grain-producing areas, supervising enforced grain collections, and raiding ‘kulaks.
Q37. What happened to those who resisted Collectivization?
Ans. Those who resisted Collectivisation were severely punished and many were deported and exiled.