a level history coursework russian revolution

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Russia history a level notecards, tags: a level exams , a level russian history , entrance exams, top a level russian history flashcards ranked by quality.

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AQA A Level History Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-1953 (2N)

By: magda reichenbach.

A Level History Unit 2 Y219: Russia 1894-1941

By: mr t hopkins-burke.

A-Level History: Tsarist And Communist Russia - 1855-1964

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A Level History Russia

By: olivia carter.

OCR A Level History: Russia 1894-1941 Y219

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Edexcel A level History Russia 1917-91 Lenin to Yeltsin

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A-level History Russia 1(Dissent and Revolution)

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A level History - Russia

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A-LEVEL RUSSIA

By: billy radford.

A-level History Russia 6(Great Patriotic War + Stalin's Dictatorship 1941-53)

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The Russian Revolution, c.1894-1917

Tsar nicholas ii and prelude to revolution (1894-1914).

• The reign of Tsar Nicholas II started in 1894, marked by strict maintenance of autocracy and disregard of growing demands for political reform.
• Industrialization and urbanization from 1894 to 1914 led to the rise of a discontented proletariat, working in harsh conditions with little political representation.
• The disastrous effects of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) exposed Russia’s military and administrative shortcoming and led to social and political unrest.
• Bloody Sunday in Jan 1905, when peaceful demonstrators gathered at the Winter Palace were shot down by the Imperial Guard, turned popular opinion against the Tsar.
• The subsequent, widespread revolt forced Nicholas to issue the October Manifesto , granting civil liberties and introducing legislative assembly, the Duma .

First World War and February Revolution (1914-1917)

• Military disasters in World War I and food shortages at home led to further discontent and suffering.
• Nicholas II took personal charge of the war in 1915, increasing his unpopularity as defeats continued.
• The February Revolution in 1917 was triggered by ongoing food shortages and military failures. Demonstrations and strikes in Petrograd forced Nicholas II to abdicate.
• The Provisional Government , led first by Prince Georgy Lvov and then by Alexander Kerensky, was formed but it struggled to maintain order and continue fighting the war.

Bolshevik Revolution (October 1917)

• Seizing the state of chaos, Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik Party successfully took control in the October Revolution .
• The Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government, heralding the start of a new political regime in Russia.
• With ‘land, peace and bread’ as their slogan, they managed to end Russia’s participation in World War I with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . This saw Russia ceding large territories to Germany.
• By the end of 1917, Russia was on the path to becoming a communist state, setting the stage for a civil war that would intensify in 1918.

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A-Level Topic Guide: Russia and the USSR

Russia and the USSR

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Russia and the USSR in the nineteenth and twentieth century  is a popular area of study at A-level across the examination boards. Whichever board you are studying with and whatever the focus of your study unit on Russian history, the resources in this unit will support you as you develop your subject knowledge, write essays and revise. 

This resource is FREE for Student HA Members .

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• Introduction

Peter the Great & Catherine the Great

• Peter the Great
• David Pearse explores St. Petersburg
• Enlightened Despotism

Reform and the end of the Romanovs 1855-1917

• Alexander II
• Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe
• Tsarist Russia 1855-1914.
• Between the Revolutions: Russia 1905 to 1917
• The Russian Constitutional Monarchy, 1907-17
• The Fall of the Romanovs 1906-1917
• The Romanov Tercentenary
• Alexandra and Rasputin
• The Provisional Government and the October Revolution
• Changing views of the Russian Revolution
• The Russian Revolution 100 years on: a view from below

Lenin's Russia

• Lenin's Objectives and the Civil War
• Agitation in the Russian Civil War 1917-21
• ‘Our March’: art and culture in the Russian Revolution

Stalin's Russia and de-Stalinisation

• Film: Stalin - Early Life
• Film: Stalin - Rise to Power
• Film: Stalin - The Early Soviet Economy & the preparation for war
• Film: Stalin & the Great Terror
• Film: Stalin - World War II
• Film: Stalin - Interpretations and Legacy
• Stalin, Propaganda, and Soviet Society during the Great Terror
• The Impact of Stalin's Leadership 1924-1941
• Women, War and Revolution
• Nazism and Stalinism
• The Impact and Significance of the Great Patriotic War

The end of the Soviet Union

• The Significance of the Brezhnev Era
• Key elements that led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union
• Film: Gorbachev - Early life and influences
• Film: Gorbachev - Domestic Reform
• Film: Gorbachev - Foreign Relations
• Film: Gorbachev - Downfall
• Film: Gorbachev - Interpretations
• Polychronicon: The End of the Cold War

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• Past Exam Papers

Film Series: Interpretations

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Russian Revolution 1917 A Level Revision Notes

Download russian revolution 1917 a level revision notes.

Click the button below to download this worksheet for use in the classroom or at home.

Lesson Snapshot:

• In 1917 crowds rioted on the streets
• The soldiers joined them
• The Provisional Government – March–November 1917
• Why did the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 succeed?
• Challenge to the Bolsheviks – Civil War

Worksheet Task:

• Aimed at Students studying across AS/A2 Level or equivalent
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The Russian Revolution Presentation - Cambridge A Level History (9489)

Subject: History

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

1 June 2022

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97 slides dedicated to helping my A Level students learn every aspect of the Cambridge A Level History syllabus for the The Russian Revolution, 1894–1921, with group and individual tasks thrown in.

You can use this alongside the delivery of the course, or as a revision aid.

Includes the following key questions:

What were the causes and outcomes of the 1905 Revolution up to 1914?

What were the causes and immediate outcomes of the February Revolution in 1917?

How and why did the Bolsheviks gain power in October 1917?

How were the Bolsheviks able to consolidate their power up to 1921?

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AQA AS/A-level history. Revolution and dictatorship, Russia, 1917-1953

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Russia 1885-1914

Tsar Alexander II

• Became Tsar in 1855 in the Crimean War
• The war showed up how backward Russia was
• Industry failed to meet need for munitions
• Agriculture didn’t supply demand for food
• Civil Service unable to organise the war
• 1856  he made peace with GB and France and set out to reform Russia

The Peasants

• Tsar and nobility owned most of Russia’s arable land
• Most people were serfs who:
• Had to work 3 days a week for their owner
• Paid most of the tax intake
• Could be sold and punished without trial eg flogging by their masters
• Could be conscripted for service in the army
• Each family had about 15 acres to farm for themselves but they didn’t own it

Effects of Serfdom

• Inefficient agriculture
• No incentive to work hard – profits went to owners
• Developing industries short of workers
• Serfs not allowed to move to the factories
• West European revolutionaries could persuade serfs to revolt
• Alexander II: “It is better to abolish serfdom from above rather than await the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below”

The Edict of Emancipation 3 March 1861

• 44 million peasants freed by this edict
• They could now own land
• They could leave their estate but had to carry a passport
• They didn’t have to work on the nobles’ land
• Government surveyors divided the land between the owners and serfs
• Former serf families given about 8 acres – less than when on their master’s estate
• They had to pay for land
• It was valued by a government official
• The government paid the owner
• The ex-serfs had to pay instalments for 49 years
• The mir (village commune) became the new owners
• Each year the ‘elders’ divided the land according to the numbers in each family
• The mir collected the debt instalments

Developments

• Population increased from 50 million (1850) to 82 million (1900)
• After 1861 annual division of land led to the award of smaller and smaller plots
• Farming was so inefficient that peasants could feed their own families but few produced enough for sale
• Result – shortages in the towns
• Many peasants had to abandon farming because they were unable to pay the annual instalments
• Some went to work for more successful ex-serfs (kulaks)
• Others went to work in industrial towns

Local Government Reforms

• Upper classes had governed the countryside, building brides and schools etc
• After Emancipation another way was needed to do it
• The mir (commune) was bottom of the government ladder
• There were elections to choose its leaders
• Zemstvos (district councils) controlled by nobles
• After 1861 they were elected by nobles, townspeople and peasants (ex serfs)
• Zemstvos ran roads and bridges maintenance, and an improved school system
• Zemstvos were 2 nd rung of government ladder above the mir
• 3 rd rung were the provincial zemstvos
• They looked after public health and chose magistrates for the new law courts
• Pleased by democratic elections to the mir and district zemstvos (included nobles gentry and townspeople)
• Such partial democracy made them discontented because Provincial Governors (appointed by government) could overrule a zemstvo
• Tsar had created these 3 tiers of government but refused a national council or parliament
• Also forbade members of zemstvos meeting in national conferences

Other Reforms

• Censorship relaxed
• Writers could criticise government – Alex wanted critics out in the open
• National newspapers increased from 6 to 16 by 1881

Legal System

• Judges and magistrates were appointed for life and could not be sacked by the government
• Equality before the law was proclaimed and trials were open
• Trial by jury replaced a system in which a nobleman judge/magistrate presided
• Limits to the legal reforms:
• Political offenders were not tried by jury
• Peasants and offending newspaper editors had their own courts
• These couldn’t speak in their own defence during trial
• 1874 all classes became liable for military service & not only the peasants
• Service length reduced from 25 to 15 years
• Flogging of soldiers stopped
• 10,000 schools built by local zemstvos to deal with illiteracy
• Old fashioned schools offered mainly classics – no sciences
• Modern schools offered science
• Only students from old-fashioned schools could go to university
• Government regarded science as dangerous
• Poland part of Russian Empire
• 1863 Poles rose in revolt because:
• Russian defeat in Crimean War suggested they were too weak to crush a revolt
• Italians rebelled against Austria
• Reforms created a liberal atmosphere
• Revolt was sparked by the closing of the Polish Agricultural Society
• Anti-Russian demonstrations took place
• Troops fired on the crowds
• Napoleon III of France wanted to help the Catholic Poles
• But Bismarck wouldn’t allow French troops to cross Prussia
• This gained Russian friendship
• The rising was savagely crushed
• Alexander II and his ministers now encouraged:
• Russian nationalism
• Pan-Slavism
• Union of the Slavs of South-Eastern Europe under leadership of Russia

Threat of Revolution

• Revolutionary movements developed because:
• Land reform left many dissatisfied
• Education produced more literate people who could read radical literature
• Each reform increased the appetite for more
• Growth of industrial towns led to increase in radical workers

The Nihilists

• From Latin – ‘nihil’ means ‘nothing’
• This was a group of revolutionaries who believed that everything from the past had to be destroyed
• From this a new society could be developed
• Took advantage of new press freedoms to gain support
• Thousands joined
• Used terrorism in effort to overthrow system – bombs, guns, knives etc

Government Repression

• Thousands sent to Siberian exile
• Many leading nihilists were students so government tried to restrict university entrance to those thought to be loyal to the Tsar
• Newspaper editors sacked if they failed to reveal names of nihilist writers
• This was the name given to thousands of students
• In the 1870s went to preach revolutionary ideas to the peasants
• Little success because:
• Most peasants didn’t understand the ideas involved
• Local priests had great influence and got the peasants to attack them
• Peasants shocked by their behaviour
• Movement faded away and Alexander restricted university entrance further
• Socialism had influence in 1870s
• Revolutionaries were attracted by the village commune
• Believed it was the ideal socialist society with commune land shared according to need
• Tried to preach peaceful revolution
• Others led by the ex-nihilist Michael Bakunin wanted violent revolution

Assassination of Alexander II in 1881

• He began as the ‘Tsar Liberator’ making key reforms
• But he couldn’t satisfy everyone
• Unable to get what they wanted, some turned to terrorism
• 1866 attempt to kill him
• 1879, 2 more unsuccessful attempts on his life
• In one 5 shots were fired at him; in another they dynamited the Winter Palace but he wasn’t there
• 1880 he was away again when the dining room at the palace was mined
• A mine on a track his train was on failed to explode
• 1881 they finally succeeded in killing him with a bomb

Alexander III 1881-94

• He declared that his father’s reforms were wrong and had failed
• He determined to undo the reforms
• He thus gave a free hand to his minister Pobedonostsev

Pobedonostsev

• 1865 he was Alex’s tutor
• Alex made him Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod controlling the Church
• He was responsible for a number of severe policies
• The Okhrana (secret police) were given extra powers to deal with terrorists
• Many were exiled, imprisoned or executed
• University entrance restricted to classical students
• Teachers were spied on and government critics sacked
• Children of peasants and working classes denied secondary education
• Primary schools now controlled by Church
• Children taught to be obedient to the government
• More closely supervised
• 14 newspapers critical of government closed

Land Captains

• Drawn from old nobility
• Given powers over all other officials
• Replaced magistrates appointed by Alex

Subject Races

• Latvia Estonia & Lithuania had been allowed to keep their own languages/customs
• Now they had to use Russian –it became official language in the press, courts and in dealings with officialdom
• Russian made compulsory in all Polish schools
• Lutheran Church was persecuted
• Attacks on the Jews common but intensified (pogroms)
• Only allowed to live in towns
• Fewer allowed secondary education
• Orthodox priests encouraged people to attack Jews

Industrialisation

• Russia was poor, inefficient and militarily weak
• Industrialisation on the western model essential
• But with it would come such ideas as trade unions and political development
• Some progress already:
• 1855 only one railway in Russia
• By 1860 over 1,000 miles of rail
• By 1888 13,000 miles
• This boosted iron steel and coal industries
• Textile industry began centred on 2 or 3 areas
• Foreign participation proved vital in this development:
• French finance helped pay for raw materials and machinery imports
• Nobel brothers of Sweden began oil industry and built 1 st oil tankers
• British formed the New Russian Company to set up factories in Donetz Basin
• Siemens of Prussia set up telegraphic system and factories

Paying for Development

• Interest had to be paid on borrowed money and the loans themselves
• Exported wheat to get the money
• Government increased peasant taxes – got the money in the form of grain
• Result – peasants even poorer than before
• Hit industrial workers too – prices rose because not enough grain
• Result – famines but exports maintained
• Workers suffered from:
• Shortage of food and high prices
• Poor housing
• Poor working conditions
• No trade unions
• Another result was that number of town workers increased
• These were less under the influence of the Church than peasants
• Foreign industrialists showed the benefit of working for a profit and that science was essential for industrial progress
• Minister of Finance 1892-1903
• Responsible for the effort to industrialise Russia at that time
• Major roles played by foreigners – Witte of Dutch ancestry
• Main industry – agriculture – Witte thought this was strong
• It was industry that needed developing
• 1892 took foreign loans to build Trans-Siberian Railway (completed 1902)
• 1900 coal output 15 million tons (GB 200 million tons)
• Central Asian cotton farming allowed textile production to grow in Poland and Moscow area
• Wool, iron and steel grew
• 1885-1900, industrial output increased 3-fold
• 3 million industrial workers
• Industrial development helped by import tariffs on goods Russian factories could make
• To pay for loans, government income had to increase
• One way was by the government taking a monopoly on alcohol sales
• Provided ¼ of government revenue

Development of Revolutionary Organisations

Social Revolutionary Party (SRP)

• Founded 1901 from earlier attempts to rouse the peasantry
• Industrialisation led to fall in peasants’ standard of living
• They paid most of the tax take
• Their poverty was reflected in their mortality rate
• Caused by poor diet and living conditions
• 1882 Peasants’ Land Bank helped them buy land
• Interest rates high though
• Payment of instalments for land grants made after 1861 left little cash for new purchases
• SRP hoped to lead the peasants to violent revolution
• SRP carried out terror attacks on Land Captains and other officials
• Attacks on Alex III eg 1887 assassination attempt failed – plotters tried in court
• Lenin’s brother Alexander Ulyanov was executed

The Liberals

• Known as the Kadets from the initials of their Constitutional Democratic Party wanted the Tsar to allow a British style parliament
• Most of their support came from the zemstvos

The Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP)

• Formed 1898
• Main support - industrial workers
• Followed Marxist policies
• Didn’t believe terrorism could succeed
• Often attacked by secret police

The Bolsheviks

• Lenin arrested in 1895
• 1897 put in prison again
• 1897-1900 exiled to Siberia
• Then forced to live abroad
• He and other exiles published a newspaper called Iskra (the Spark)
• They smuggled it into Russia
• 1903 its production committee had meetings in Brussels and then London
• Argued over what a revolutionary party should be like
• Trotsky wanted a mass party like the SRP
• Lenin wanted a small party in which every member was a revolutionary who knew what a Marxist revolution meant
• They voted on it:
• The majority ( Bolsheviks in Russian) agreed with Lenin
• The minority ( Mensheviks ) agreed with Trotsky

Tsar Nicholas II 1894-1917

• Promised to adhere to principles of autocracy
• His wife had no sympathy with reform
• 1902 became Minister of the Interior when his predecessor was assassinated
• He was in charge of domestic government
• His policies were:
• Organised anti-Jewish demos and pogroms
• Continued the Russianisation of Finland, Poland, Baltic provinces & Armenia
• But his policies were different because:
• He was alarmed by success of SDLP in winning support of industrial workers
• He sent spies into factories as workers – they tried to start strikes to flush out leaders who could be arrested
• He promoted the idea of Holy Russia and a peasantry loyal to the Tsar and Church
• This was in opposition to Witte’s ideas
• 1903 he persuaded Tsar to sack Witte
• Discontent continued – strikes, terrorism & peasant revolts
• Plehve persuaded Tsar to have a short, victorious war against Japan
• Hoped that it would support for the Tsar and end the unrest in Russia

Russo-Japanese War 1904-5

• Feb 1904 began
• Sept 1905 ended at Treaty of Portsmouth
• Poor leadership had caused heavy Russian defeats
• High casualties
• Transport system not good enough to supply the military
• Shortage of food in industrial towns

1905 Revolution

• 1904 Plehve assassinated by SRs
• Constitutional reform demanded by Union of Zemstvos who wanted:
• A Russian parliament
• Free speech
• Fair trials
• Abolition of the secret police
• SDLP organised strikes and demos
• Wanted an end to the war and an end to Tsarist rule
• Regional peasants rioted
• Land Captains and nobles murdered

Bloody Sunday 22 January 1905

• Father Gapon (priest) was a government spy sent to work among industrial workers
• SDLP planned an anti-Tsarist demo in the capital St. Petersburg (Jan 1905)
• To stop SDLP getting the credit, Gapon and other agents planned their own
• Industrial workers and their families set out to march to the palace to present their petitions complaining about:
• Long working hours, low wages, poor housing, high prices etc
• Asked for a parliament
• Protested their loyalty to the Tsar
• In fear, Nicholas had gone to another palace at Tsarsko Selo
• The guards at the Winter Palace fired at the crowds
• 130 were killed and 3,000 wounded
• Strikes in industrial towns
• Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin June 1905 – bombarded port of Odessa
• October rail strike in Moscow – became a national strike
• Food not getting to industrial towns
• Trotsky created soviets (workers’ councils) in St Petersburg and Moscow factories
• They were supported by teachers, doctors and lawyers
• Demanded overthrow of the system of government

October Manifesto 1905

• Witte was recalled as Chief Minister (he had opposed the war) after the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth
• Tsar promised reforms in a Manifesto:
• Promised a Duma (parliament)
• He would make no laws without Duma approval
• The Liberals liked this development
• Many strikers went back to work believing they would get their desired reforms
• Soviets led by SDLP believed it was not enough
• Peasants continued with riots not believing a Duma would help them
• Tsar felt more secure when the army came back from the war against Japan
• Soviet leaders were arrested
• Armed rising by Moscow workers (Dec. 1905)
• This was crushed by force
• Tsar’s advisers knew the concessions would not be enough
• April 1906 new French loans
• Terrorist attacks on reformers carried out by right-wing Russian People’s League
• May 1906 (just before 1 st Duma due to meet) Tsar issued The Fundamental Law of the Empire which declared:
• As autocracy was ordained by God it could not be subject to the Duma
• Control of finance would not be left to the Duma
• Duma would have limited powers to pass new laws

Duma Election of 1906

• Most men allowed to vote in a secret ballot
• Direct elections only held in large towns
• Most reps elected by an indirect system contrive to ensure landowners and non-socialist peasants were elected
• Aim – elect a conservative Duma loyal to the Tsar

1 st Duma May 1906

• Kadets (Liberals) won most seats
• Demanded full control of taxes
• They reminded Tsar of October Manifesto promise  of constitutional government
• Tsar now dismissed the Duma and called fresh elections
• Leading Kadets fled to Viborg in Finland
• They issued a Manifesto calling on voters not to pay taxes or serve in army

Stolypin and 2 nd Duma June 1907

• Peter Stolypin appointed PM as Witte’s successor was a conservative
• Wanted effective reforms and resist and stop revolution
• He refused to allow some candidates to stand for election
• Anti-Tsarist candidates were put in prison
• Many voters were removed from the voting list
• Jews threatened with death if they voted
• But – 2 nd Duma was more radical than 1 st
• Moderate and constitutional Liberals lost seats
• SDLP won 65 seats
• Stolypin asked the Duma to condemn terrorism – it refused
• Tsar ordered arrest of SDLP for treason – Duma refused and so was dismissed

3 rd & 4 th Dumas 1907-14

• 1907 electoral laws were changed
• SDs could not stand for election
• Potential trouble-makers put in prison
• 3 rd & 4 th Dumas loyal to Tsar and Stolypin

Stolypin’s Reforms

• Revolutionaries remembered Stolypin’s repression
• After 1905 revolution 1500 were executed
• Stolypin’s response was that 4,000 officers had been killed or injured
• Russianisation continued in Finland and elsewhere
• Jews still badly treated
• Elections were rigged and the Duma emasculated
• Many peasants remembered only his reforms:
• The mir abolished
• Peasants could own/rent own land without interference from the commune
• Peasant banks helped them buy land
• Many did – these kulaks (rich peasants) were more go-ahead
• They made their land profitable
• Result – there was enough food for town workers and export
• Another result – kulaks became more loyal to the Tsar and opposed to revolution
• Stolypin unpopular with many
• Assassinated 1911 in Tsar’s presence in a Kiev theatre
• The monk Rasputin became a strong influence on the royal family
• Their son had haemophilia and was dying – Rasputin prayed over him and he lived
• By 1912 there were lurid stories about his behaviour with the ladies of the court
• Such scandals reduce loyalty to the Tsar
• July 1914 Russia went to war – it revealed how little hold the Tsar had over his people

Russian Foreign Policy 1870-1914

The Eastern Question

• Turkey had ruled large parts of SE Europe
• By early 19 th century they were unable to control their empire
• Numerous rebellions eg Greece
• Greece was 1 st Christian state to break away from Muslim Turks
• During 19 th century others tried as well – the empire was crumbling
• Other major states had an interest in this
• Russia was biggest Slav state and many Slavs were ruled by the Turks
• Eg Serbs, Bulgars, Albanians and Rumanians
• All were members of the Orthodox Church
• Russia made herself protector of the Slavs
• If they rebelled against the Turks, Russia would help
• In return it was hoped they would let Russia influence their foreign policies and trade
• Russia wanted an outlet to the Mediterranean too
• To achieve this one of two things could be done:
• Help one of the Christian peoples to gain control of the Aegean Sea coast where Salonika could become the Russian controlled outlet for Russian trade
• She could capture Constantinople, control the Dardanelles and develop her Black Sea ports

The Franco-Russian Alliance

• 1873 Russia involved in talks with Prussia and Austria to promote friendship and guard against revolutionary activity by France
• This ‘League of the Three Emperors’ was strengthened in 1881 when Bismarck persuaded them to sign a treaty
• They promised not to help any 3 rd country (ie France) if that country went to war with any of the 3 states

The Renewal of the Eastern Question

• 1878 Congress of Berlin created a ‘small’ Bulgaria
• 1885 Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia united under the Tsar’s nephew
• 1886 Serbia declared war on Bulgaria and was defeated
• Russia had the Bulgarian ruler kidnapped hoping to make him more pro-Russian
• Bulgaria refused to accept him as their leader
• He was replaced by Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg in 1887
• He followed an ant-Russian and pro-German line

The Reinsurance Treaty 1887

• Russia unhappy with the loss of influence
• Bismarck feared Austria might declare war on Russia and drag Germany in
• 1887 Bismarck made secret treaty with Russia (Reinsurance Treaty)
• He promised German support for Russian claim to influence in Bulgaria and German neutrality in an Austro-Russian War if Austria was the aggressor
• This broke the terms of the Dual Alliance with Austria
• 1888 there was another row over the choice of German Prince Ferdinand as ruler of Bulgaria
• Bismarck published the terms of the Dual Alliance
• Russia would have to fight Germany if she went to war with Austria

The Franco-Russian Alliance 1892-5

• Reinsurance Treaty of 1887 not renewed in 1890
• Kaiser made it clear he wanted Germany to become an important influence in the Balkans
• Russia felt isolated now
• France and Russia had many differences but economics drew them together
• France had recovered from the Austro-Prussian War but Russia needed loans for modernisation – France could help here
• The navies of both countries exchanged visits
• The press of both countries wrote in friendly terms
• 1892 the Franco-Russian Alliance was signed, confirmed in 1894, strengthened 1897
• Each promised to help the other if attacked by Germany

Entry into 1 st World War 1914

• When the Austrian Archduke was killed at Sarajevo Austria made demands that Serbia could not accept
• 28 July Austria therefore declared war on Serbia
• 30 July Russia ordered partial mobilisation
• Germany demanded this be revoked – Russia refused so Germany declared war

Resources you can trust

A-level Russia resources

Develop your students' understanding of Russian history with our KS5 teaching resources. 

Our selection of games, role-play, card sorts and revision activities will help your AS and A-level students deepen their knowledge of Russia and the Soviet Union in the 19th and 20th centuries. Our resources cover the key topics, whichever specification you are teaching, including Tsarist Russia, the Russian Revolution, and Lenin and Stalin's leadership.

Since Russian forces entered Ukraine on 24 February 2022, your students will no doubt have been keen to find out more about the history of relations between the two countries. Our page on Discussing the war in Ukraine with students offers background information from reliable sources to enable you and your students to answer their questions, plus thought-provoking lesson starters and discussion resources on the nature of war more generally.

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