Russian Revolution quiz: 8 questions

Witte used tariffs, loans and railways to build a modern great power; the interior ministry used police to protect rule by one man. These policies supported the same ambition. Yet industry also brought forth workers and professionals who had no place in that political order.

Nicholas promised a Duma and liberties under pressure. Those concessions divided an opposition that had stood together, leaving him able to crush the Moscow rising and recover most of what he had promised. The concession helped preserve the power it appeared to limit.

The decisive change came when soldiers joined the crowds instead of defending the autocracy. The revolution had not first defeated the army; the regime had lost the force on which its three centuries of rule depended.

Lenin refused all compromise, and in April his demand sounded like madness. By autumn the war was still grinding on and the soviets had gone Bolshevik. What had seemed unthinkable now sounded like a program.

Trotsky’s “neither war nor peace” bluff failed, and Germany advanced. Lenin then signed away Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine and the Caucasus. The agreement bought the revolution breathing space, but at a terrible price.

The Reds controlled the center, with its population, factories and railways. Their interior lines and unified command helped them face the divided White armies one front at a time. Peasants resented Red requisitioning, yet feared the return of landlords behind the Whites still more. Military skill could not make up for that political disadvantage.

Tukhachevsky’s armies had extended themselves too far. Piłsudski’s counterstroke against their flank routed them, ending the Bolshevik attempt to carry revolution into Europe by force.

“We are retreating in order to make a better leap.” With Kronstadt still smoking and the Volga starving, NEP relaxed economic controls. The retreat had a political limit: at the same congress, the Party banned dissent within its ranks.