SAQ Practice

Respond to the following questions in a complete sentence.

In your response, be sure to address all parts of the question. Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.

“It was the weakness of Russia’s democratic culture which enabled Bolshevism to take root. . . . The Russian people were trapped by the tyranny of their own history. . . . For while the people could destroy the old system, they could not build a new one of their own. . . . By 1921, if not earlier, the revolution had come full circle, and a new autocracy had been imposed on Russia which in many ways resembled the old.”

Orlando Figes, historian, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924, published in 1997

Describe one piece of evidence that would support the author’s characterization of Russia’s political culture prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.

Describe one piece of evidence that would support the author’s interpretation of Russia's “new autocracy” in the 1920s and 1930s.

Describe one piece of evidence that would undermine the author’s argument in the passage that the “new autocracy” in Russia resembled the old.