key questions for discussion, week III

Base your answers on Suny and the Hickey Documents.  Be ready to refer to the specific sources of your information.

1. Some historians argue that Russia was on the path towards grater political and social stability, but was derailed by the First World War, which fostered a crisis that led to revolution; other historians argue that the war simply sped the inevitable collapse of the Tsarist regime.  What developments during WWI seemed to contribute to the collapse of public faith in the Tsarist government?
2. What developments during the war aggravated the existing  grievances of various social groups (e.g., peasants, urban workers, industrialists, educated professionals, ethnic minorities, etc.)
3. Most historians argue that the February 1917 was a spontaneous popular uprising; some argue that activists from the various socialist parties  provided the crowds with leadership, so that it was not really spontaneous.  What is your sense of the relationship between popular spontaneity and activist leadership in the February Revolution?
4. What was “dual power” and what developments seem to have undermined the possibility of any stable “dual power” arrangement in 1917?
5. What sorts of factors made it difficult for the Provisional government to establish stable order in 1917, and what seemed to be the government’s most important weaknesses?
6. How did peasants seem to understand the meanings of the 1917 Revolution and what were their basic aspirations (what did they want out of the Revolution?  (Did all peasants think alike and want the same things?)
7. How did urban workers understand the meanings of the 1917 Revolution and what were their basic aspirations?  (Did all urban workers think alike and want the same things?)
8. How did soldiers understand the meanings of the 1917 Revolution and what were their basic aspirations?  (Did all soldiers think alike and want the same things?)
9. How did various ethnic minority groups understand the meanings of the 1917 Revolution and what were their basic aspirations?  (Did all minority groups, or even all members of any one group, think alike and want the same things?)
10. What political, military, economic, and social factors seem to have been undermining popular support for the moderate socialist parties (the Mensheviks and SRs) between the time that they joined the Provisional government in Spring 1917 and aftermath of the failed Kornilov rebellion?