Russian 375 final
As you know, in the 1990s Boris Yeltsin attempted a transfer of formerly state-owned companies into private hands through a program of "privatization." How successful was privatization in the area of agriculture? What was the percentage of privately owned farms by 2001?
10
At the height of its power, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had approximately __________ of USSR's adult population as its members.
10
According to the documentary Babushkas of Chernobyl, how long did the fire that resulted from the Nuclear Plant's explosion last?
10 days
How many republics comprised the USSR?
15
When did the bolsheviks seize power from the Tsars?
1917
Construction of the four reactors that make up the Chernobyl complex was carried out during the...
1970s
When did the Soviet Union collapse and all of the former Soviet republics declared independence?
1991
As you saw in My Perestroika, Borya, Ruslan and Andrei were all drafted into the Soviet army. What was the mandatory term of this service?
2 years
How large is the radioactive "Exclusion Zone" that was declared uninhabitalble?
2,600 square kilometers (approximately 1,000 square miles)
Apart from Chernobyl, how many more Nuclear Power Plants are there in Ukraine?
4
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new country of Russia inherited ... of the Soviet Union's population.
51%
One of Boris Yeltsin's major economic reforms was the so-called "privatization" program that transferred ownership of nonagricultural businesses from state to private hands. The privatization program began in 1992. At that time all of large factories were still owned by the Russian government. What was the estimated percentage of privately owned large factories in 2002?
75%
In 1917 the Soviets took over a "country of peasants," in which - according to some statistics - over 60% of the population was completely illiterate (i.e. over 60% of Russians didn't know how to spell their name). According to one of this module's readings, what was the situation with literacy in Russia by the late 1950s? (i.e. after about 30 years of Soviet power)
98.5% of Russians between the ages of 10 and 49 could read
In their confusion and bewilderment of the economic chaos that started in 1991, many Russians turned to the Orthodox religion for answers. Why was it very difficult for the Orthodox Church to provide new direction and inspiration for many Russians (and many Russians ultimately got alienated by the Church all together)?
All of the statements listed here are correct
During the Leningrad - Seattle Spacebridge, outside the studio, there were protesters on the American side (sides).
American
While I know that most of you don't read Cyrillic, based on the readings and videos from this module, the following poster was most likely produced as part of...
Anti-alcohol campaign
If you were to visit Chernobyl Nuclear Plant's Reactor №4, what is the level of radiation near this facility?
Approximately 60 times higher than the norm
Why do some compare Russia of the 1990s to a Third World country (and some apply the same analogy to today's Russia)?
Because too large a share of Russia's economy depends the sale of oil and other natural resources
Which former Soviet republic has the greatest percentage of affected land and people due the Chernobyl accident (in relation to this republic's total national territory and population)?
Belarus
Who were the people who orchestrated the August putsch of 1991?
Communist hard-liners who didn't approve of the new treaty that was giving significant freedom to the Soviet republics
The documentary Soviet Disunion cites Iosif Stalin describing what as "sheltered from the people"?
Dachas (cottages outside of Moscow) of the Soviet leaders
In his first inaugural address to the nation in March 2000, President Putin identified what crisis as the greatest threat facing the nation?
Demographic crisis
As part of glasnost and a gesture of goodwill, which of the dissidents listed below did Gorbachev release from internal exile and invite to Moscow?
Dissident scientist, Andrei Sakharov
Babushkas of Chernobyl is set during what holiday?
Easter
Boris Yeltsin was never Gorbachev's ally and was always openly critical of Gorbachev's policies.
False
By the start of the new millennium, there were more men in Russia than women.
False
Judging by the documentary Babushkas from Chernobyl, if you were to go to the radioactive "Exclusion Zone," you will not see anyone using a cell phone
False
Komsomol was a communist Youth organization for young children in elementary and middle school grades.
False
Soviet authorities immediately released accurate and up-to-date information about the Chernobyl accident and immediately began evacuating people from the contaminated areas.
False
The chief goal of Mikhail Gorbachov's reforms was to abolish socialism, Communist Party rule and, ultimately, to dissolve the Soviet Union.
False
The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power station happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
False
The terms "perestroika" and "glasnost" entered the Soviet rhetoric with Gorbachev. None of Gorbachev's predecessors or the Soviet Constitution had used these terms prior to 1985.
False
The word "radiation" comes from a Greek term that means "ray of light."
False
US attended summer Olympics of 1980 that were held in Moscow.
False
The Soviet Union was known for sending military forces into Eastern Europe when there was a fear that the Soviet control of the region could be destabilized. To which Eastern European country were the Soviet troops sent first?
Hungary
When did the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan?
In 1979, during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev
A series of purges that became known as the Great Terror are associated with...
Joseph Stalin
Which one of the following leaders is known for their brutality that overshadowed the communist ideas (and who, especially in the West, led to associating communism with cruelty and oppression)?
Joseph Stalin
Funeral of what Soviet leader opens up the documentary "Soviet Disunion"?
Konstantin Chernenko
Which of the following Soviet leaders was the "premier" of the Soviet Union for most of the 1970s and 80s?
Leonid Brezhnev
What was the first Soviet Republic to break away from the Soviet Union?
Lithuania
What was the first Soviet republic to declare independence from the Soviet Union in 1990?
Lithuania
Which one of the following changes in the Soviet society listed below is NOT associated with the name of Mikhail Gorbachev?
Major alleviation of nuclear, chemical and industrial pollution in the Soviet Union
Which of the following does NOT explain why Gorbachev had to abandon his anti-alcohol campaign in 1987?
Major protests from the Soviet citizens who barricaded the Kremlin demanding the cancellation of anti-alcohol law
From what you've learned from this module's materials, beggars appeared in the streets of large Russian cities during the rule of...
Mikhail Gorbachev
Who was the LAST Soviet leader to make an attempt to reform the Soviet system from within and to eliminate vestiges of Stalinist heritage?
Mikhail Gorbachev
Altogether, how many countries were subject to fallout from Chernobyl?
More than 20
Which Soviet leader was overthrown by his opponents in the first and only successful coup in Soviet history?
Nikita Khrushchev
Which of these countries never was a Soviet republic? (for a comprehensive list of Soviet republics, see My Perestroika study guide, p.8)
Poland
Gorbachev's policy of "democratization" meant...
Reform within the Comunist Party-ruled state
Which U.S. president adopted a policy of detente (or relaxation) toward the Soviet Union?
Richard Nixon
Which of the newly formed post-Soviet countries possessed most of the old Soviet Union's petrolium, timber, and mineral resources?
Russia
Which of the countries listed below was the first to notice elevated radiation levels and to initiate inquiries about its origin?
Sweden
According to the documentary Soviet Disunion, the biggest news item of 1986 was...
The complete and final dissolution of the Gulag labor camps
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
The second economy, or the black market, was the only source of any type of equality in the Soviet Union
As this module's readings discuss, glasnost encouraged a sense of civil identity and many new activist groups formed in this climate of new cultural freedoms. One of such groups discussed in your readings was called "Memorial." What was the task of this group?
To hep rehabilitate Stalin's victims and agitate for democratic reform
Although Reactor №4 is enclosed with a sarcophagus, there is still radioactive dust escaping and - perhaps more importantly - there is a fear that the wall of the sarcophagus might simply collapse one day.
True
Before Chernobyl, there had been other (albeit less serious) nuclear accidents, including the 1979 incident in the U.S. (near Harrisburg, PA)
True
Both of Gorbachev's grandfathers had been arrested during the Stalinist purges (a fact that Gorbachev openly confessed on Soviet television, personally relating to victims of repressions).
True
By 1990, Gorbachev was favoring policies designed to move the Soviet economy toward a free market system.
True
By the time Mikhail Gorbachev took office, Soviet economy was in decline. For example, when US President Ronald Reagan began a new American military build-up, the USSR could not afford to increase its military spending in response.
True
Due to open travel opportunities (Soviet citizens could now travel abroad after years of living behind the "Iron Curtain") and major economic woes and shortages, the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev faced a sharp increase in emigration.
True
During most of his political career, Mikhail Gorbachev had been faithful to the Party and communism.
True
During most of the Soviet rule (and certainly after 1934), any form of experimental art was considered dissident and, therefore, could only exist as a part of underground culture.
True
Endless queuing for consumer goods was an endemic feature of late Soviet life.
True
For most of the Soviet era, alochol was a tremendous source of revenue for the Soviet state, which exercised a monopoly on alcohol's production and distribution. For example, in 1979 the Soviet state derived a whopping 25.4 billion rubles in indirect taxes from the sale of alcoholic beverages, an amount greater than what was paid in income tax.
True
In 1917, Russia was an overwhelmingly peasant society.
True
In 1958, Soviet authorities forced Boris Pasternak to reject the Nobel Prize that he won for his novel Dr. Zhivago (the novel was banned in the USSR and had to be published in Italy).
True
In 2008, Vladimir Putin was constitutionally barred from running for a third term. Dmitry Medvedev became Russia's president, while Vladimir Putin took on the role of a prime minister.
True
In the 1990s Russia saw a rapid spread of tuberculosis.
True
In the late 1920s Stalin introduced an extreme system where the economy became a central function of the Soviet government. Under this system, numerous governmental committees decided what salaries should be paid in all jobs across the USSR, what prices all products and commodities should have, how to distribute good across the USSR, etc. To put it simply: the Soviet government determined and controlled prices for all items you could purchase in the store (bread, shoes, television sets, you name it!); the Soviet government also determined what sort of salary one would get as an engineer, teacher, doctor, etc.
True
It is fair to describe Mikhail Gorbachev as an "idealistic socialist" who set out to revitalize the communist order in the USSR.
True
Just like Prohibition in the United States, Gorbachev's ban on alcohol led to an increase in organized crime.
True
Mikhail Gorbachev was born after the October Revolution that overthrew the tsars; therefore he did not belong to the group of early Soviet bolsheviks who formed the gerontocracy (rule by the old) in the Communist Party of the 1970s and 80s.
True
The 10 km "Exclusion Zone" remains an active burial place for Ukraine's nuclear waste
True
The Soviet Union had the world's most diverse and heterogeneous populations.
True
The Soviet government system was, what one could call, "hyper-centralized." The Politburo (one of the Soviet governing bodies) was once even asked to rule on the size of servings fed to police horses and dogs.
True
The only type of cancer that has been positively connected to Chernobyl is thyroid cancer.
True
There were no nuclear power stations in the Soviet republic of Belarus.
True
Under Joseph Stalin, owning a typewriter required a special police permission.
True
In which of the Soviet Republics listed below was the Chernobyl nuclear plant located?
Ukraine
Which of the following countries was NOT a member of the Eastern European communist bloc?
West Germany
Which one of the following countries, after 1948, was NOT a part of the Eastern Bloc, united under the Warsaw Pact?
Yugoslavia
The Chernobyl disaster happened due to...
a failed safety experiment on one of the reactors
Lyubov Sirota, whose texts you read in this module's reading selection, is...
a poet, who - at the time of the Chernobyl accident - lived in the Pripyat neighborhood closest to the reactor
Prison camps (Gulags) and political executions were scaled back...
after Joseph Stalin's death
How many people (mostly "illegal" returnees from forced evacuation) currently reside inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (i.e. one of the most toxic spots on the planet)?
approximately 100
During the Second World War, the Nazis destroyed 619 villages along with their inhabitants in the former Soviet republic of Belarusia. How many villages and settlements did Belarusia lose as a result of the Chernobyl disaster?
close to 500
The city of St.Petersburg was called Petrograd...
from 1914 to 1924
Media revelations of state crimes of the past (i.e. Stalinism, GULAGs, etc.) during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev have become known as "retrospective..."
glasnost
As you have read in this module's materials, the immediate results of "shock therapy" were far from encouraging. Inflation reached 30% a month, prices skyrocketed, salary payments were delayed, and - by some estimates - the poverty rate in Russia reached 40%. Were Russians protesting this major economic instability, marching in protest around the Kremlin or showing other notable signs of social unrest?
no
Will the 10 km "Exclusion Zone" ever be open to the general public?
no
The explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power station released...
significantly more radioactivity than the Hiroshima bomb
Which of the following revolutions gives power to the Bolsheviks?
the October Revolution
Which Soviet youth organization for children required its members to wear red neck kerchiefs?
the Pioneers
Which of the following changes that tool place during the Gorbachev era do NOT represent a direct result of the policy of perestroika?
the avalanche of media reports about burgeoning criminality
The wall dividing East and West Germany was built in...
the early 1960s
The Soviet Union collapsed before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
wrong
If you recall, in Module 2 we discussed Mikhail Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign. Did life expectancy in Russia improve during the brief time of this campaign?
yes
Throughout the Soviet era, the USSR tended to brag (perhaps justifiably) about the country's high levels of literacy, referring to Soviet population as the "most readerly" nation in the world. Did Russian citizens get introduced to "lower brow" culture after the collapse of the Soviet Union?
yes
