What did the Decrees on Land and Peace issued by the Bolsheviks in 1917 accomplish?

• A. Land Decree redistributed land to peasants; Peace Decree sought an immediate armistice in WWI.
• B. Nationalized all land; Continued the war.
• C. Kept land ownership unchanged; Called for renewed war.
• D. Peasants gained nothing; urged immediate mobilization.

Answer: (A)

The Decrees on Land and Peace are about responding to two urgent demands after the revolution: land for the peasants and an end to the war. The Land Decree allowed peasants to take and redistribute land from landlords and church holdings, putting land into peasant hands and breaking the old aristocratic landholding system. This move won broad peasant support for the Bolsheviks and helped undermine the pre-revolution social order.

The Peace Decree called for an immediate armistice in World War I and opened negotiations to end the war, signaling a commitment to stop Russia’s participation without demanding further sacrifices or insisting on a continuation of fighting. This appealed to soldiers and workers weary of the war and aligned with Bolshevik promises to end Russia’s involvement.

Together, these measures shifted power toward peasants and a war-weary population, and they solidified Bolshevik legitimacy in those crucial early days. The other options don’t fit because the decrees did not nationalize all land in a state takeover, did not continue the war, and did not keep land unchanged or urge renewed mobilization.