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Read the extract and answer the following question.
The October Revolution and the Russian Countryside: Two Views
‘News of the revolutionary uprising of October 25, 1917, reached the village the following day and was greeted with enthusiasm; to the peasants it meant free land and an end to the war. ...The day the news arrived, the landowner’s manor house was looted, his stock farms were “requisitioned” and his vast orchard was cut down and sold to the peasants for wood; all his far buildings were torn down and left in ruins while the land was distributed among the peasants who were prepared to live the new Soviet life’.
From: Fedor Belov, The History of a Soviet Collective Farm
A member of a landowning family wrote to a relative about what happened at the estate:
‘The “coup” happened quite painlessly, quietly and peacefully. …The first days were unbearable.. Mikhail Mikhailovich [the estate owner] was calm...The girls also…I must say the chairman behaves correctly and even politely. We were left two cows and two horses. The servants tell them all the time not to bother us. “Let them live. We vouch for their safety and property. We want them treated as humanely as possible….”
…There are rumours that several villages are trying to evict the committees and return the estate to Mikhail Mikhailovich. I don’t know if this will happen, or if it’s good for us. But we rejoice that there is a conscience in our people...’
From: Serge Schmemann, Echoes of a Native Land. Two Centuries of a Russian Village (1997).
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What did the peasants do to the landowner’s property after hearing the news of the uprising? (1 mark)
Answer:
Answer by Student
The peasants looted the landowner’s manor house, requisitioned his stock farms, cut down his orchard and sold it for wood, tore down his farm buildings and distributed his land among themselves.
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