Nicholas II's autocracy and the court

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In June 1907 the Second Duma was dissolved after only about three months, after Stolypin accused Social Democrat deputies of plotting against the state. At the same time the electoral law was changed so that landowners' votes counted for far more than those of peasants and workers, so the Third and Fourth Dumas were dominated by conservatives and were much more willing to work with the government.

Model answer

The author of Interpretation A was an officer in the Okhrana, the Tsar's secret police. He had inside knowledge of how thoroughly the revolutionary parties were infiltrated - Azef, the head of the SRs' Combat Organisation, was a police agent, and so was the Bolshevik Duma deputy Malinovsky. But he also had a motive to argue that the police had the revolutionaries under control, so that the fall of Tsarism could be blamed on the war and on politicians rather than on his own service. Writing in exile in 1929, after the Bolsheviks had won, he may also have wanted to belittle Lenin.

Interpretation B was published in Moscow in 1946, under Stalin, when history was controlled by the Communist Party. Soviet histories had to show the Bolshevik Party as the leader of the working class from the very beginning and the revolution as the inevitable result of its work, following Marxist ideas. So the author stresses Iskra, the strikes and Pravda and ignores the other parties and the role of the war.

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Interpretation A is convincing in arguing that the army was essential. In December 1905 the Semyonovsky Guards crushed the armed uprising in Moscow with artillery, killing about 1,000 people, and the St Petersburg Soviet was arrested. Punitive expeditions restored order along the Trans-Siberian Railway and in the Baltic provinces, and most soldiers, who were peasants, did obey their officers. However, A goes too far in saying that the army saved the throne 'by nothing else'. There were serious mutinies, not just 'a few sailors': the Potemkin in June, and the naval bases at Kronstadt and Sevastopol in the autumn. Before October, force had failed to stop the revolution, and the Tsar issued the Manifesto because the general strike had paralysed the country. As a former general, the author would naturally want to praise the army and dismiss the politicians.

Interpretation B is more convincing. The Manifesto did split the opposition: the Octobrists accepted it completely, and the Kadets, though they wanted more, turned to the Duma elections. Many workers ended the general strike. It is also true that the different groups rose at different times - workers in January and October, the Potemkin sailors in June, peasants mainly in the summer and autumn - and that there was no single leadership, as Lenin did not even return to Russia until November. Only after the Manifesto did the government move against the Soviet and Moscow, as B says. B does underplay other factors, such as peace with Japan, which freed troops, and the abolition of redemption payments, which helped calm the peasants.

Overall, B is more convincing because it explains why force succeeded in December when it had not worked earlier in the year. The army was necessary, but it was the October Manifesto, by dividing the opposition, that allowed the army to crush the remaining revolutionaries one group at a time.

Model answer

The October Manifesto was very important in saving Nicholas II. By October 1905 a general strike had brought much of Russia to a standstill, and Witte persuaded the Tsar that he had to make concessions. The Manifesto promised freedom of speech, assembly and association and an elected Duma without whose consent no law could be passed. This split the opposition. Many liberals were satisfied: the Octobrists, led by Guchkov, accepted the Manifesto completely, and even the Kadets, who wanted more, turned their energy to the coming elections rather than revolution. Many workers ended the strike. The St Petersburg Soviet and the socialists rejected it as a trick, but they were now isolated, and later concessions to the peasants, such as the abolition of redemption payments, helped calm the countryside.

The loyalty of the army was also vital. Most soldiers were peasants, and although there were mutinies - the battleship Potemkin in June and the naval bases at Kronstadt and Sevastopol in the autumn - the great majority obeyed orders. In December 1905 the police arrested the St Petersburg Soviet, and the Semyonovsky Guards crushed the armed uprising in Moscow with artillery, killing about 1,000 people. Once peace with Japan had been signed at Portsmouth in September 1905, troops could return from Manchuria; punitive expeditions restored order along the Trans-Siberian Railway and in the countryside.

Overall, the October Manifesto was the more important reason. The army was the means by which the revolution was finally crushed, but it could only succeed once the opposition had been divided. Before October, the government faced liberals, workers, peasants and national minorities all at once; after the Manifesto, the liberals withdrew and the army only had to deal with isolated groups of workers and peasants. The Manifesto came first and made the successful use of force possible, which is why many historians see the Tsar's survival as the result of concession followed by repression.