Deck 6: The Totalitarian Model: a False Utopia

Question 1

What is common to the establishment of most totalitarian states?

A)They begin following a successful war.
B)They begin following an environmental catastrophe.
C)They emerge from a failing or collapsing state.
D)They begin after the death of a popular monarch.
E)They emerge after a successful election.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

How did Lenin use "salami tactics" to control the legislature after the revolution?

A)Lenin wined and dined his opponents and gradually weakened their opposition to his leadership.
B)Lenin divided his opponents into small groups that could be easily turned against one another.
C)Lenin focused all of his attention on defeating the largest opponents first, then moved on to smaller opponents.
D)Lenin offered small concessions to his opponents in order to keep them on his side.
E)Lenin made alliances with the largest factions so that he could gradually ignore smaller factions.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Rectification was the particular focus of which totalitarian leader?

A)Adolph Hitler
B)Josef Stalin
C)Pol Pot
D)Mao Zedong
E)Benito Mussolini

Answer 3

D

Question 4

A system of government where every aspect of society is tightly controlled by the ruling elite is known as what?

A)Authoritarian
B)Totalitarian
C)Aristocratic
D)Democratic
E)Oligarchic

Question 5

As part of his drive to modernize the Soviet economy, Stalin demonized a group of relatively well-to-do landowners known as what?

A)Mensheviks
B)Gulags
C)Kulaks
D)Bolsheviks
E)Trotskyites

Question 6

What was the purpose of the gulag archipelago during the Great Purge?

A)It gave the Soviet government a place to send political opponents and a way to economically develop inaccessible areas.
B)It gave the Soviet government a place to rehabilitate their supporters injured in battle.
C)It gave the Soviet government a place to bring together intellectuals to brainstorm new ideas for the regime.
D)It gave the Soviet government a place to train Olympic athletes in order to gain international legitimacy.
E)It gave the Soviet Union a place to train their most elite soldiers and sailors.

Question 7

Which of the following is a key difference between authoritarian and totalitarian governments?

A)Authoritarian governments prioritize staying in power, whereas totalitarian governments seek to transform society.
B)Totalitarian governments prioritize staying in power, whereas authoritarian governments seek to transform society.
C)Authoritarian governments tend to be much more repressive than totalitarian governments.
D)Authoritarian governments are more likely to identify state "enemies" than totalitarian governments.
E)Totalitarian governments tend to be much more ideologically inclusive than authoritarian governments.

Question 8

What is partiinost ?

A)The total commitment required of members of the Bolshevik Party
B)A spirit of peace and goodwill common to Russians in the early twentieth century
C)The gradual opening of the Soviet Union in the 1980s
D)The intellectual curiosity and pragmatism encouraged by Lenin and his supporters
E)A dedication to the writings of Leon Trotsky

Question 9

What were the principle goals of the Nazi education policy?

A)The policy sought to maximize independent and critical thinking.
B)The policy sought to train young people for jobs in the international economy.
C)The policy sought to emphasize language and cultural learning.
D)The policy sought to ensure ideological indoctrination and loyalty to the regime.
E)The policy sought to encourage intellectual diversity and tolerance in the public.

Question 10

How did Gleichschaltung aid Hitler in his domination of Germany?

A)This policy provided Hitler with secret police to control his enemies.
B)This policy allowed Hitler to fire any person from any organization in the country.
C)This policy allowed Hitler to destroy existing organizations and substitute Nazi-controlled associations.
D)This policy made Hitler the official head of all organizations in the country.
E)This policy required all citizens to fill out a weekly form documenting their movements.

Question 11

Under the Nazi government, what was the name of the secret police used to identify and punish opponents of the regime?

A)Gestapo
B)Stasi
C)Commissars
D)Gleichschaltung
E)Partiinost

Question 12

How did Stalin respond after the failure of his first Five-Year Plan?

A)He opened up Russian agriculture to international investment.
B)He ended the process of collectivization of Russian agriculture.
C)He blamed the failure on an international conspiracy to promote capitalism in Russia.
D)He brought in international economic advisers for technical assistance.
E)He reinstated an older system of feudal agriculture.

Question 13

How did Lenin's Bolshevik Party differ from most previous revolutionary organizations?

A)The party was large and open to all interested persons.
B)The party was ideologically diverse.
C)The party lacked an organizational structure and often changed.
D)The party was operated publicly with little concern for secrecy.
E)The party was small and limited to only the most dedicated adherents.

Question 14

What is meant by rectification?

A)The process of removing all foreign influences
B)The process of converting a person into a "new Soviet man"
C)The process of eliminating all capitalistic traits from society
D)The process of promoting materialism and individualism
E)The process of nurturing a truly forgiving society

Question 15

How did Stalin's approach to consolidating power differ from Lenin's?

A)Lenin was generally far more brutal to both enemies and allies within the party than Stalin.
B)Lenin rarely expelled party members, whereas Stalin often expelled members.
C)Lenin set rival parties against each other, whereas Stalin set rivals within the party against each other.
D)Stalin allowed rival parties to form and operate, whereas Lenin made rival parties illegal.
E)Stalin built up multiple other leaders within the party so they could take over later, whereas Lenin focused all authority on himself.

Question 16

What is the fundamental difference between propaganda and news?

A)Propaganda is always salacious and extreme, whereas news is dry and boring.
B)Propaganda is motivated by an ideological cause, whereas news is motivated by a desire to inform.
C)News is always based on intellectual appeals, whereas propaganda is always based on emotional appeals.
D)News is prepared by elites, whereas propaganda is prepared by the masses.
E)There is no fundamental difference between propaganda and news.

Question 17

What was the goal of Stalin's collectivization plan?

A)To end the private ownership of farmland and have the state dominate agriculture
B)To end the large-scale agricultural unemployment common at the time
C)To promote agricultural development at the expense of industrial development
D)To promote alternative methods of farming to provide more food for the urban poor
E)To end the foreign domination of Russian agriculture by international businesses

Question 18

Why did Lenin organize the Bolshevik Party into small cells?

A)There were few members, so small groups made them seem more numerous.
B)Lenin wanted to promote as many potential leaders as possible.
C)Lenin wanted to allow the maximum ideological diversity within the party.
D)Smaller cells helped maintain secrecy and party discipline.
E)Smaller cells made it easier for groups to raise their local issues.

Question 19

Despite both being communist revolutions, how did the Chinese Revolution differ from the Russian Revolution?

A)The Russian Revolution was a mass revolution of largely rural people, whereas the Chinese Revolution was a smaller, largely urban uprising.
B)The Chinese Revolution was led primarily by industrial workers, whereas the Russian Revolution was led primarily by former soldiers.
C)The Russian Revolution was led primarily by industrial workers, whereas the Chinese Revolution was led primarily by former soldiers.
D)The Chinese Revolution was a mass revolution of largely rural people, whereas the Russian Revolution was a smaller, largely urban uprising.
E)Both the Chinese Revolution and the Russian Revolution were led by rural people, but the Chinese Revolution was also supported by former soldiers.

Question 20

Why are political purges a common step in the rise of totalitarian governments?

A)Purges prevent the ruling group from becoming too big and unwieldy.
B)Purges allow leaders to eliminate rivals within the ruling group.
C)Purges prevent international opponents from taking power.
D)Purges prevent the possibility of a civil war.
E)Purges are necessary for maintaining the status quo.

Question 21

What was the goal of Mussolini's "combat group " attacks on Italian citizens? How successful were these groups in achieving their goals?

Question 22

What is the last Soviet-style totalitarian state in existence today?

A)Ethiopia
B)Cambodia
C)South Vietnam
D)North Korea
E)The Soviet Union

Question 23

Why did the rise of Mao Zedong's communist movement require some alterations to Marx's original writings?

A)Marx predicted that communist revolution was impossible in Asia.
B)Marx expected that communism would be most successful in industrialized societies.
C)Marx was opposed to the existence of charismatic leaders like Mao Zedong.
D)Marx expected that communism would be impossible in places affected by previous colonialism.
E)Marx predicted that smaller countries would find revolution easier than larger countries like China.

Question 24

Why have totalitarian states always been formed around extreme views such as communism or fascism? Why have moderate leaders never successfully led a totalitarian state? In your response, use examples of modern and historical leaders to support your argument.

Question 25

Describe the importance of time to totalitarian leaders. How do they describe the past? How do they describe the future? Why is time so essential to their ideology?

Question 26

Describe the five key elements necessary to support the emergence of a totalitarian state.

Question 27

What was the primary goal of Mao's Great Leap Forward?

A)To return China to a primarily agricultural society
B)To end China's reliance on agriculture and focus on international exports
C)To transform China's economic structure through mass mobilization
D)To revolutionize China's educational institutions to promote global learning
E)To end China's reliance on fossil fuels by promoting green energy

Question 28

According to Friedrich and Brzezinski, what are the factors common to all totalitarian states?

Question 29

Compare the approach to consolidating power taken by Lenin to the one taken by Hitler. In what ways were they similar? How were they different?

Question 30

Describe the response of Mao's government to the failure of the Hundred Flowers campaign. How was this response in keeping with the basic structure of totalitarian governments?

Question 31

What was Mao's Hundred Flowers campaign?

A)A policy in the 1950s that relaxed discipline and encouraged creative thinking
B)A policy in the 1950s that increased the number of green spaces in Beijing
C)A policy in the 1950s designed to reduce erosion and improve water quality
D)A policy in the 1950s that increased industrialism and reduced the dependence on agriculture
E)A policy in the 1950s designed to integrate conservative activists into the political system

Question 32

What conclusions can be drawn from the shift within Iran from a totalitarian state to an autocratic state? What does that tell us about totalitarian governments? Autocratic governments? Are totalitarian governments simply harder to maintain in the modern era? Why or why not?

Question 33

Which of the following best describes the modern Chinese economic system?

A)A combination of a Soviet-style command economy and a Nordic-style market socialist economy
B)A combination of a Western-style market economy and a Canadian-style demand economy
C)A Nordic-style market socialist economy
D)A combination of a Soviet-style command economy and a Western market economy
E)A Canadian-style demand economy

Question 34

What was the first step of the cultural revolution in China?

A)The destruction of the country's bureaucratic institutions and the removal of their officials
B)The creation of a new industrial working class dedicated to Marxist thought
C)The destruction of the original Chinese Communist Party and the establishment of a new party
D)The elimination of all foreign art and culture from schools and libraries
E)The invasion of Vietnam to prevent the United States from gaining a position in the region

Question 35

As part of his adapt at ion of Marxism, how did Mao view the peasantry?

A)He idealized them and saw them as not depraved by capitalism.
B)He viewed them as incompatible with Marxism.
C)He viewed them as having potential as industrial workers.
D)He condemned them as weak and inclined toward capitalism.
E)He mistrusted them and relied instead on the urban industrial classes.

Question 36

Consider what you know about the cultural revolution under Mao Zedong and the economic liberalization that began under Deng Xiaoping. In what ways are the two changes similar in approach? How are they different ?