Text 1: Historian Park argues that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was driven by the catastrophic conditions of World War I. Without millions of casualties, food shortages, and a collapsing army, she contends, the Bolshevik seizure of power would have been inconceivable.
Text 2: Historian Singh accepts the war's catalytic role but argues that Russia's revolution was already in the making before 1914. Long-standing peasant grievances, the failed revolution of 1905, and decades of radical organizing produced the conditions on which wartime collapse acted. The war made the revolution acute, Singh contends, but it did not create the pressures behind it.
The authors most clearly disagree about
- A
whether Russian peasants had grievances.
- B
whether Russia fought in World War I.
- Ccheck_circle
the relative weight of long-term Russian conditions versus the immediate impact of the war.
- D
whether the Russian Revolution occurred in 1917.
Explanation
Both accept the date, the war, and peasant grievances. They differ on relative weights. B captures the dispute.