QUIZ #2
27. The artist is the "................ of the human soul," said Stalin in 1932:
a. doctor b. poet c. architect d. engineer answer: D engineer The artist is the engineer of the human soul--Stalin 1932
15. The February and October revolutions were two separate events, together referred to as the Russian Revolution. But many historians argue that they were simply stages in one continuous, radical transformation of Russian society in 1917, a people's rebellion sparked by the oppression and injustice of tsarist rule that culminated in the founding of an entirely new social and political system, Soviet socialism.
True OR False TRUE
19. During the Russian Civil War, Soviet Russia, the Bolshevik state, was at one time surrounded on all sides by anti-Bolshevik forces including British, French, Czechoslovakian, Finnish, Japanese and American troops.
True OR False True
21. The 1917 revolution looked like a complete break with Russia's past. Yet before long the main features of that past had reappeared: empire, centralization, a highly authoritarian state, a yawning gap between the rulers and the people.
True OR False True
41. The Soviet welfare system functioned well enough by the 1960s to give most citizens entitlements to education, child care, and health care.
True OR False True
7. In the years immediately preceding the World War I (July 28, 1914-November 11, 1918), Russia experienced not only economic and social change but also a surge of artistic and intellectual creativity, making major contributions to world culture in such areas as poetry, theater, ballet, music, design and painting.
True OR False answer: TRUE
13. A month after the February Revolution, Lenin, who has been in exile in Europe for ten years, arrived back in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on April 16, 1917. Lenin, now leader of the Bolsheviks called on the Russian people to struggle against the bourgeois Provisional Government and to begin at once to prepare the transfer of all power to the soviet (Council of Workers' Deputies). Lenin interpreted World War I as the result of struggles among the capitalists over colonial empires and trade, concluding that capitalism was in a final phase of decline, which he dubbed "imperialism". He called on the Russian people to end the war immediately
True OR False answer: True
42. The Cold War lasted from:
a. 1917-1991 b. 1941-1991 c. 1947-1991 d. 1962-1991 C.
8. On the eve of the World War I, WHAT % of Russia's population was illiterate, and the overwhelming majority of the population was acquainted only with folk culture and the emotional religious experience of the village church.
a. 2% b. 10% c. 50% d. 99% Answer: 50%
33. In the years of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) - the Second World War on Russian soil - the Soviet Union suffered an estimated ......... military and civilian dead and extensive destruction of almost one-third of the country:
a. 4 million people (3.5 million military and 500.000 civilian) b. 12 million people (5 million military and 7 million civilian) c. 27 million people (9 million military and 18 million civilian) d. 84 million people (32 million military and 52 million civilian) C.
3. The early-twentieth-century uprising against the tsarist government is known as the "Revolution of 1905". Which statement does NOT apply?
a. Almost every social group participated in the 1905 revolution, including peasants, industrial workers, middleclass liberals, soldiers and sailors, non-Russian minorities, etc. b. Only the nobility and members of Russian intelligentsia (intellectuals) participated in the 1905 revolution. c. The 1905 revolution was triggered by Russia's defeat in the 1904-1905 war with Japan. d. The 1905 demonstrators demanded political reform, full civil rights, greater self-government, higher wages, shorter work hours, an end to private landed property and the transfer of all land to the peasants. Answer: B (false)
9. Who were the prominent artists, living and creating during the Silver Age of Russian Culture, 1890-1917?
a. Anton Chekhov, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexander Blok b. Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Tyutchev, Mikhail Lermontov, Afanasy Fet c. Sergei Diaghilev, Alexander Benois, Vaslav Nijinsky, Igor Stravinsky d. Vladimir Tatlin, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Kasimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Vasily Kandinsky e. Ivan Turgenev, Lev Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol Answer: A + D
29. The Great Purge / Great Terror (Bolshoi Terror) was a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and government officials, repression of peasants and the Red Army leadership. It is estimated that ................ people died in 1936- 1938 at the hands of the Soviet government during the Great Terror
a. Between 4,000 and 10,000 b. Between 50,000 and 100,000 c. Between 700,000 and 1.7 million d. Between 5 and 7 million C.
31. The Stalinist system can be summed up as a blend of:
a. Bolshevism or one-party rule b. Industrialization (total control and mobilization of all the country's resources, material and human) c. Stalinism (paranoia and the use of terror) d. All of the above D.
35. As Marxists, the Bolsheviks believed that they could create a new type of human being. The "new Soviet man" would be able to transform nature and build a more humane society. The Artist had a central role to play in the construction of "the Soviet man." All of the following groups dedicated their art to the building of a "New World" after 1917 except:
a. Constructivists and Futurists (YES) b. The Proletkult (Proletarian Culture) (YES) c. the Left Front (LEF) (YES) d. Symbolists and Acmeists D. (not this one)
18. In the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), who were the Bolsheviks' opponents the Whites?
a. Democrats b. Moderate socialists c. Monarchists d. All of the above D. since whites had no set poltical leanings
20. In the all-out struggle to survive, the Russian Communists established the Cheka (Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage; security police) as early as December 1917. The Cheka was a forerunner of the:
a. Duma b. Petrograd Soviet c. Politburo d. KGB (Committee of State Security (security police, 1954-1991) e. NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs; security police in 1934-46) D. KGB
12. The results of the February Revolution (Old Style or Julian calendar: 24-28 February, 1917; New Style or Gregorian calendar: 8-12 March, 1917) included:
a. Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov succeeding to the throne. (Nicolas brother, denied crown) b. Collapse of the Russian Empire with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II on 15 March 1917. c. Establishment of 'dual power' between the elites and masses, between the Provisional Government and the grassroots organization, the Petrograd Soviet (Council of Workers' Deputies) d. Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Answer: B and C
1. Which statements best describe the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR) founded in 1901?
a. Ideological heir to the Narodniki (Populists), SR appealed principally to the peasantry. b. SR was the largest socialist group in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. c. SR postulated that workers with the help of SR would overthrow the Tsarist regime. d. SR postulated that workers and peasants would act together to overthrow the tsarist regime. Answer: A, B, D
24. The 1920s were years of great artistic experimentation and considerable achievement, with Soviet artists making significant contributions to world culture in such fields as:
a. Music b. cinema c. cartoons d. poetry ALL
17. In March 1918, the Russian capital was moved to
a. Petrograd (St. Petersburg) b. Moscow c. Kiev d. Vladimir Answer: B. Moscow
25. Lenin, who dominated the Communist Party and Soviet state by virtue of his experience, intellect and strong will, was widely admired and respected. Shortly before a stroke left him incapacitated in 1923, he had written down a document that came to be known as Lenin's Testament. In this document he:
a. Praised the chief administrator of the Communist party Joseph Stalin for his determination, hard work, thoroughness, and self-effacement. b. Criticized Stalin for concentrating boundless power in his hands, and for being rude and recommending Stalin's demotion. Answer: B
2. The Social Democratic Party (SD), founded in 1898, was the major rival to the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Which statements describe best the Russian SD:
a. SD proclaimed that Russia's revolutionary future lay in the hands of the educated class. b. SD proclaimed that Russia's revolutionary future lay in the hands of the peasant community. c. SD proclaimed that Russia's revolutionary future lay in the hands of the urban working class. d. SD split at an early stage (in 1903) into two factions, the Mensheviks (lit. 'one of the minority') and the Bolsheviks (lit. 'one of the majority'). Answer: C and D
26. Beginning in 1928, Stalin and the Communist Party carried out a second major revolution, one that completely changed the configuration of Soviet society. At that time, it was the most sudden and thoroughgoing alternation in a people's way of life in history, even surpassing the French Revolution of 1789. During the twelve years of intensive industrialization (The Five-Year Plans), from 1928 to 1940:
a. Soviet industry grew at an average pace of 12 % to 14 % a year b. the urban population diminished c. the urban population doubled d. The party enforced collectivization of agriculture. All peasant land, whether managed by the commune or individually, was transferred to new agricultural units called collective farms (kolkhozy). The pooling of assets delighted poor peasants with little to contribute and outraged better-off peasants with considerable assets to surrender. The party labeled the latter "kulaks" and "class enemies." Answer: B and D
34. The situation at the end the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) could be described as:
a. Soviet moral and prestige were low. Most citizens were terrified and stopped believing a better life. b. Soviet moral and prestige were high. Most citizens looked forward to a better life. c. Soviet writers were heralding the Soviet people as saviors of Western civilization from Nazism (just as the Russians had saved Europe from the Mongols in the 13th century and from Napoleon in 1812). d. the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as one of the two superpowers, along with the United States. B, C, D.
10. World War I set in motion the collapse of the following world powers:
a. The Austro-Hungarian Empire b. The German Empire c. The Ottoman Empire d. The Russian Empire e. The British Empire Answer: A, B, C, D -->ALL but E (british)
11. World War I brought on a revolutionary crisis in Russia because:
a. The war accelerated the disorientation of Russian society that the process of modernization, industrialization, and urbanization had launched in the preceding decades. b. The war intensified the sense of injustice and resentment that had been building among the Russian masses during the previous decades. c. The war caused a partial collapse of the Russian economy, resulting in deteriorating conditions in the major cities. d. The war completely discredited Nicholas II and his already weak regime. e. All of the above Answer: E
48. The paradoxical governance of Vladimir Putin (1952-), who has been in power since 2000, is difficult to summarize and evaluate. Which of the following statements about the Putin era are accurate?
a. To many outsiders, Putin's contradictory actions appear to produce a stable, orderly, and more prosperous society. b. For many Russians, Putin represents a welcome respite from turmoil and provides a markedly better standard of living. c. He has strengthened the state and brought Chechnya back under nominal Russian control. d. He made the Duma, the post-1993 parliament, more independent. e. He has brought most of the media, especially television, under tight supervision. f. Arguably, he has reclaimed Russia's former status as a major power. g. He suppressed the Russian Orthodox Church. h. In Putin's Russia, democracy and civic freedom are maintained both institutionally and in practice. (wrong--in practice NO) i. Although protests against corruption, lawlessness, and police brutality have been occurring regularly in major cities since 2011, many Russians remain apathetic to bribery, bureaucratic arbitrariness, shoddy health services, and inadequate welfare provisions. j. Most Russian citizens don't want to see Russia entangled in major quarrels with anybody, certainly not with the European Union or the United States A, B, C, E not true-->D, G, H
43. Some of the achievements of Mikhail Gorbachev (1985 -1991) the CPSU General Secretary included all except:
a. abandonment of mass political terror b. fostering Glasnost or Policy of Openness, an end to censorship, and an end to the official monopoly on rewriting the past. c. instituting perestroika (political reform which allowed oppositional political movements to propagate their ideas and take part in elections) d. putting an end to the claim that there was one single truth and therefore one single party that was its carrier D
14. Some of the outcomes of the October Revolution (Old Style: 24-26 October, 1917, New Style: 6-8 November, 2017) include:
a. collapse of the Imperial Government and the abdication of Nicholas II b. collapse of the Provisional Government and Bolsheviks' seizure of power under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin (no provisional went into "power" NOT collasped) c. start of the Russian Civil War between the Reds and the Whites d. creation of the Russian Soviet Republic (October 25, 1917), the world's first constitutionally socialist state with ideology of Communism (this was post) Answers: A and C
36. The kommunalka which appeared in the Soviet Union following the Revolution of 1917 was a:
a. collective farm b. artel or worker's cooperative c. communal apartment where a whole family lived in a single room, sharing kitchen, bathroom and toilet with other families d. village community C
46. Boris Yeltsin (1991-1999) is mostly famous for:
a. consolidating the power of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) b. becoming the first President of the Russian Federation and the first popularly elected leader in the country's history c. playing an instrumental role in the collapse of the Soviet Union d. transforming Russia's socialist economy into a capitalist free-market economy e. ending a war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya B + E
39. At the 20th Communist party congress in 1956, the Communist party first secretary Nikita Khrushchev:
a. denounced Stalin's repression of leading Party members b. denounced Stalin's dekulakization" (deporting 'kulaks' or wealthier peasants) c. denounced Stalin's deportation of nationalities d. openly spoke of the Famine of the 1930s A, B, C
4. Bloody Sunday, the name given to the events in January 1905 in St Petersburg, when unarmed demonstrators were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II:
a. did not change the attitudes of the Russian peasants and workers towards Nicolas II as he was out of town and did not give the order for his troops to fire. b. caused a strike that was confined to St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. (NO) c. caused a drastic change in attitudes of the Russian peasants and workers towards the Tsar by destroying the myth of a mystical bond between the people and a gentle and caring father-Tsar. d. prompted a surge of violent discontent among most social classes and ethnic groups, which manifested itself in demonstrations, proclamations, mutinies, strikes, riots, assassinations and land seizures. Answer: C (i think) D
44. Some of the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 were all except:
a. economic boom b. the loss of faith in the system, in the future and in the belief that the Bolsheviks alone had all the answers c. endemic corruption on all levels d. the Gorbachev factor: the introduction of free speech and pluralist politics e. inability to integrate non-Russian ethnic groups in a meaningful and sustainable manner B
47. Some of the results of the economic reforms under Yeltsin in the 1990s were all except:
a. economic stability and physical security b. economic hardship and the hyper-inflation c. increased corruption and crime d. the state's impoverishment which could not even pay schoolteachers and pensioners on time e. the rise of 'oligarchs,' enterprising and ruthless businessmen A.
37. One of the Soviet Union's greatest long-term achievements was:
a. encouraging the development of non-Russian national languages and cultures through the campaign of likbez (liguidation of illiteracy, providing elementary education in local languages) b. suppressing and eventually exterminating all non-Russian national languages and cultures A
5. Under pressure from the revolution of 1905, Tsar Nicolas II reluctantly issued the "October Manifesto" that
a. established a military dictatorship (no military dictator said he'd shoot himself in the head IF Nicolas didn't agree) b. reasserted his unlimited autocracy (no this manifesto marked the end of this) c. announced the creation of a legislative body (the State Duma or parliament) and that its approval would be necessary for the enactment of legislation. d. marked the end of unlimited autocracy in Russia. answer: C & D
45. After the USSR broke up in 1991, the government encouraged:
a. foreign countries to take over all farms and businesses. b. private ownership of formerly state-run farms and businesses. c. people to stop owning farms and businesses. d. continuation government control B
32. During Second World War (1939-1945), the German armies:
a. governed Russia for five years. b. were forced back by the Russian military. c. were victorious because the Russians surrendered. d. were weakened at the Battle of Stalingrad (August 23, 1942 - February 2, 1943) MULTIPLE A. (B. maybe) D.
23. "For us the most important of all the arts is ............," Lenin is reported to have said.
a. music b. literature and theater c. cinema d. architecture Answer: C. cinema
22. Features of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) created in 1922, included all except:
a. rule by a single party, by the Bolsheviks who renamed themselves Communists b. the belief that Marxism, as interpreted by Lenin, was the key to history entitling the Bolsheviks to a monopoly of power. Lenin believed that the Bolsheviks must hold power in Russia until the Russian Revolution could spark a revolution in Europe and the proletariat of the West could come to the Bolshevik's aid. c. an intention to join with the workers of other industrialized countries to foment world revolution and build a better, securer, more just society (communism) throughout the world. d. tolerance towards their opponents and their ideas Does not include: D (until de-stalanisation in which they focused on selves only)
40. The Soviet Union entered an era commonly referred to as the "period of stagnation" (zastoi) when Leonid Brezhnev replaced Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 as First Party Secretary. Brezhnev's rule was mostly noted for all except:
a. starting the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989) b. presiding in 1968 over the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia c. introducing quasi-capitalist and democratic reforms d. expanding and modernizing the Soviet Union's military-industrial complex e. impoverishing the Soviet economy which resulted in declining standards of living of ordinary Russians C.
16. After the October Revolution, what was Lenin's first official act?
a. the Decree on Land b. the Decree on Peace c. the Decree on Property d. the Decree on Work Answer: B
6. After Bloody Sunday, Tsar Nicolas II's reputation was further damaged by:
a. the Tsar's rigid and unyielding reactionary policies, including the occasional dissolution of the Duma. b. Russia's military defeats and losses in the territory during the World War I, notably the loss of Poland in 1915 c. disreputable antics of Grigorii Rasputin, a Siberian 'holy man' who had an enormous influence on the Empress d. the fact that the German Empress was unable to connect with the Russian people. e. all of the above Answer: E.
28. According to the doctrine of Socialist Realism which was formulated in 1932 and which became a "regimented orthodoxy for all artists in the Soviet Union,"
a. the artist was to portray Soviet life, not as it should become, but as it was in reality b. the artist was to portray Soviet life, not as it was in reality, but as it should become c. the artist was to produce art which conformed strictly to the Party's narrative of socialist development. d. the artist was encouraged to express his individualism and experiment with form and content e. the artist had the role of instilling enthusiasm, patriotism and a dedication to the goal of industrialization A. C.
30. During the purges the following groups of people were arrested and either shot or sent to the Gulags (the network of prisons and labor camps):
a. wealthy peasants or kulaks b. priests and religious believers c. old regime officials d. former members of non-Communist movements e. certain members of the Communist party f. high ranking Red Army officers g. writers and Artists h. all of the above H.
38. In the Soviet Union,
a. women's property rights were made equal to men's b. abortion was completely outlawed c. women were discouraged from seeking employment d. women were afflicted with a 'double burden' of having to work and doing the everyday duties of family life A, D
