Why did the Tsar survive the 1905 Revolution?

You could start by outlining the weaknesses of the opposition. The first factor to consider is the weak and ineffective opposition to the regime which was further weakened by infighting (1903 split of the Bolsheviks) and the divide and conquer tactics of the Tsar such as the October Manifesto which satisfied the liberals and the economic reforms that benefitted the peasantry, leading to a drop in land seizures.

The second reason why the regime survived the 1905 Revolution is due to the fact that the revolutionaries didn’t have a unified objective and lacked leadership. Here you can mention the fact that many of the leaders of the 1917 Revolution were not involved in the 1905 Revolution to show that you have a broad understanding of the period. Lack of leadership and organisation led to spontaneous and ineffective uprisings. 

Once you have laid out the weaknesses of the opposition, you can go on to explore the strengths of the Tsarist regime to explain why and how it managed to survive. The army stayed loyal to the regime and there were very few mutinies. Despite the fact that the USSR lost a war against Japan in the previous year, the main bulk of the army was left unscathed - ready to crush the revolts around the country. Similarly the secret police, then called the Okhrana, managed to infiltrate the revolutionary groups and made arrests before they could cause significant problems.

You can then talk about the brutal repression of the Tsarist regime under Stolypin. The question is asking you how did the Tsar ‘survive’ the 1905 Revolution - it would be useful to mention the steps that the Tsar took in the aftermath of the revolution to secure his rule, but you should not get bogged down in detail.

You should then conclude the essay by summarising the main points you have already talked about and should be careful not to add any new factors into the mix. If you believe a certain factor was more significant than the others, you should emphasise this in your conclusion by giving your rationale. You could also argue that all of the factors contributed to the Tsar’s survival but if you choose to do this, you should be able to rationalise the importance of every factor and how they intertwine with each other.