DSE History — The Russian Revolution of 1917: Lesson Prep Guide (Tutor Edition)

2026-11-03

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary History

Students can name 1917 but often merge February and October into one event and cannot say what happened in the 237 days between them. This lesson uses one timeline and two columns of power to turn a confusing year into a causal chain they can retell.

Objectives — Students can: (1) explain that 23 February 1917 in the Julian calendar is 8 March in the Gregorian, a gap of 13 days, and compute 244 days from the first day of the February Revolution to the October rising, and 237 days from the abdication; (2) order five turning points (bread riots, abdication, April Theses, July Days, October rising) and name the source of power each one changed; (3) use the four demands of peace, bread, land and factories to explain how the Provisional Government lost support within 237 days, and compute 950 days from Russian entry into the war to February 1917 and 253 days from Brest-Litovsk to the armistice.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
The First World War	Which alliance did Russia join in 1914?	The Entente, with Britain and France
The tsarist system	What was the Russian ruler called before 1917?	Tsar, with power held by one person
Peasants and workers	Were most Russians peasants or factory workers?	Peasants, with urban workers a minority
Calendars	Does one date read the same in the Julian and Gregorian calendars?	No, they differ by thirteen days in 1917

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0–8 min	Calendar warm-up	One day written in two calendars	A gap of 13 days
8–18 min	Wartime pressure	950 days from entry to February	Food, casualties and prices fail together
18–30 min	February to abdication	Bread riots to the tsar stepping down	Settled in 13 days
30–42 min	Dual power	Provisional Government beside the Petrograd Soviet	237 days of deadlock
42–52 min	Question drills	One timeline, one source, one calendar, one essay item	Eight minutes unaided
52–60 min	Exit check	Three written items marked on the spot	Independent

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Pin the dates with the calendar first

Russia used the Julian calendar until 1918 while western Europe used the Gregorian, and in 1917 the two differed by 13 days. So the February Revolution sits in March by the western reckoning, and the October rising falls on 7 November. Do one thing in this section: have students write all five dates twice, then explain why textbooks name the events by the old calendar while world history dates them by the new. Once the dates are fixed, timeline questions stop being memory tests.

Ask students to restate why February is March in the Gregorian calendar.

Scene 2: Two centres of power, not one

The abdication left dual power: a Provisional Government drawn from the old Duma held formal authority and foreign policy, while the Petrograd Soviet of workers and soldiers held the order that troops actually obeyed. Across 237 days the Provisional Government repeated one mistake three times: it stayed in the war, delayed land reform and postponed the constituent assembly. Each delay made the Soviet order the effective one. Have students draw two columns, one for formal authority and one for who could stop a soldier from firing, then show the two merging in October.

Ask students to restate why orders from a government with authority did not travel.

Scene 3: Four demands, four losses

Peace, bread, land and factories were all things the Provisional Government could not deliver at once: staying in the war denied peace, rationing denied bread, land reform waited on the assembly, and factory committees were treated as illegal. Lenin arrived on 16 April and turned these into the April Theses; after the July Days the government repressed the Bolsheviks, which showed force was all it had left; on 7 November the Military Revolutionary Committee moved troops under the cover of defending the capital and took the stations, the telegraph and the Winter Palace with almost no bloodshed. In 126 days the same soldiers moved from being the target of repression to being the base of the new power.

Ask students to restate who lost the use of force after the July Days.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Timeline and causation	237 days from abdication to October: list three turning points	(1) order the dates (2) mark the power shift (3) write one causal sentence	April Theses, July Days, October rising
Calendar conversion	Julian 23 February: which Gregorian date	(1) add 13 days (2) check the month rolls over (3) name both calendars	8 March Gregorian
Source comparison	Two declarations differ on land	(1) find the key terms (2) name the author position (3) place them in time	One promises immediate division, one waits for the assembly
Essay judgement	The Provisional Government fell because Lenin was strong	(1) state two rival factors (2) give evidence (3) judge within limits	Troops, food and the war all counter it

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity checks: the calendar gap in 1917 is 13 days, not 10 or 14; February and October are separate events 244 days apart and must not be merged; causation is not inevitability, so any claim of cause must name a mechanism such as food, troops or war; the Bolsheviks were the repressed side after the July Days and only took power in October, so the order cannot be reversed; the abdication is 15 March Gregorian against 2 March Julian, again 13 days apart; every day count here comes from subtracting dates, never from counting months by feel.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
List three turning points between February and October with dates	16 April, 4 July, 7 November (Gregorian)	Check both calendars appear
How many days from the abdication to the October rising?	237 days	Check they subtract dates instead of counting months
Give two reasons the Provisional Government lost the army	It stayed in the war and repressed the July protest	Check the mechanism is stated, not just a slogan

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Merging the two revolutions	“The Russian Revolution of 1917 means October”	February is in March and October in November, 244 days apart: the first removed the tsar, the second removed the Provisional Government.
Getting the calendar gap wrong	“Old and new calendars are a month apart”	In 1917 they differ by 13 days: Julian 23 February is Gregorian 8 March.
Making the revolution inevitable	“A revolution there was bound to happen”	Name the conditions and the mechanism: war weariness, food shortage, troops changing sides.
Picturing October as a street battle	“The October rising was days of street fighting”	Key points fell within hours and casualties were very low; command and communications decided it, not numbers.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary History chapter index — Copy three key terms from the Russian Revolution chapter and define each in one sentence
Causes of the First World War (S4 chapter) — Redo question 2 in the practice set and give two internal reasons for Russian entry
The Treaty of Versailles (S4 chapter) — Read the common errors section and compare Versailles with the settlement at Brest-Litovsk in one sentence

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Julian 25 October 1917 is which Gregorian date?	7 November	Wrong answer 25 October means re-teach the 13-day gap
How many days from abdication to the October rising?	237 days	Wrong answer eight months means re-teach date subtraction
Which two bodies made up dual power?	The Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet	Wrong answer Duma and tsar means re-teach the power vacuum

09 Tutor FAQ

Which year is this for?

S4 twentieth-century international relations; S5 can use it as the entry to the Soviet state and the origins of the Cold War.

Is 60 minutes enough?

Yes. If the First World War is new, spend ten minutes on wartime pressure and set the October details as homework.

Is there practice attached?

The homework column links to site chapters, and the practice set carries answers.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.