Deck 6: Soviet Union

Question 1

Which of the following describes the difference between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks prior to the Russian Revolution?

A)The Bolsheviks were much less structured.
B)The Mensheviks rejected the teachings of Lenin.
C)The leadership of the Mensheviks was more open.
D)The Bolsheviks represented a very small minority.
E)The Mensheviks wanted to reinstate the Czar.

Answer 1

The leadership of the Mensheviks was more open.

Question 2

The New Economic Policy developed in the Soviet Union between 1921 and 1927 had what net effect on the economy?

A)It was a period of unprecedented growth.
B)There was no discernible change from the war-era economy.
C)It resolved some issues from the war but failed to make significant progress.
D)It became the model for Soviet economics throughout the 20th century.
E)It required too much foreign capital to be successful.

Answer 2

It resolved some issues from the war but failed to make significant progress.

Question 3

In the Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution, the White Russians were comprised of which of the following groups?

A)Traditional Marxist Communists
B)Followers of Trotsky
C)Rural peasants
D)Industrialists who had lost property
E)The disillusioned working class

Answer 3

Industrialists who had lost property

Question 4

After the Russian Revolution, the government decided to deal with the problem of ethnic nationalism through which of the following means?

A)Generating unprecedented propaganda campaigns focused on Russia
B)Ceasing all printing and eliminating schools to slow the spread of nationalism
C)Using violent means to eliminate any signs of dissent
D)Creating autonomous republics within the federated Soviet Republic
E)Promoting the development of independent nations

Question 5

Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne on March 17, 1917, after which of the following?

A)He was put on trial for crimes against Russia.
B)He fled the country after the palace was stormed.
C)The Provisional Government demanded it.
D)A popular election voted to remove him from office.
E)Germany, his wife's native land, offered him safe passage.

Question 6

Which of the following explains why Hitler wanted to conquer Russia?

A)As a defensive move against Russian invasion
B)To claim all of continental Europe and acquire Lebensraum
C)To restore the German territory lost in World War I
D)He did not, but Stalin forced his hand
E)Once Russia fell, Japan would be accessible

Question 7

The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 for which of the following reasons?

A)To end the raids by NATO troops in East Berlin
B)To secure a Soviet presence in East Germany
C)In response to the Berlin Airlift
D)To prevent refugees from leaving East Germany
E)To commemorate the anniversary of the Soviet takeover

Question 8

Which of the following is a tactic that Stalin employed against the Germans?

A)Submarine warfare
B)Concentration camps
C)Scorched-earth policy
D)Aerial strikes
E)Laying siege to key German cities

Question 9

Which the following describes Russia on the eve of the Russian revolution?

A)Overwhelmingly agricultural
B)Predominantly industrial
C)Evenly split between industry and agriculture
D)More similar to feudal society than Western democracy
E)Modernized and compatible with Western Europe

Question 10

De-Stalinization under Khrushchev consisted of which of the following?

A)Requiring that government records of Stalin's rule be opened
B)Abandoning Stalin's foreign policy
C)Limiting nuclear development to stall the arms race
D)Beginning to address the atrocities Stalin committed
E)Allowing more self-rule in Eastern Bloc nations

Question 11

Which of the following explains why the Germans and Russians signed the Treaty of Rapello in 1922?

A)They both had Communist tendencies.
B)Soviet expansionism had begun.
C)They shared a common heritage and culture.
D)Russia was not part of the Treaty of Versailles.
E)Germany was banned from making treaties with Western Europe.

Question 12

After they came to power, the Bolshevik failure to adequately resolve which of the following issues resulted in the creation of anti-Bolshevik factions?

A)The dissatisfied Mensheviks
B)Ending serfdom
C)World War I
D)Food shortages
E)German expansionism

Question 13

Which of the following describes the "November Revolution"? of 1917?

A)The removal of the Czar from power
B)The Bolshevik takeover of the government
C)The peasants burning the farms of the wealthy
D)The events that brought Kerensky to power
E)The week the Russian army refused to fight in World War I

Question 14

The Stalinist purges were distinct from other mass persecutions of the 20th century because of which of the following?

A)There were legitimate trials before sentencing.
B)They occurred only in urban areas.
C)Members of the military were immune.
D)They were motivated by class rather than race.
E)Virtually anyone in the Soviet Union could be a target.

Question 15

Pyotr Stolypin attempted to stave off the Russian Revolution of 1917 with which of the following measures?

A)Allowing peasants to sell land and leave their communal villages
B)Building a strong trade union movement
C)Significantly decreasing the powers of the Czar
D)Restructuring taxation to ease the burden on the peasants
E)Building schools to increase literacy

Question 16

There was little public outcry within Russia over the massive deaths in the countryside due to Stalinist policy, for which of the following reasons?

A)The consensus was that the demands of rural residents were unreasonable.
B)Few modern forms of communication existed in the Soviet Union.
C)Few were aware of what was going on.
D)Agricultural workers were so devalued that their deaths did not raise concern.
E)Stalin's ministers hid events in the countryside from him.

Question 17

After World War II, reconstruction of Europe was greatly facilitated by which of the following?

A)The Treaty of Ghent
B)The SALT talks
C)The Marshall Plan
D)The Warsaw pact
E)The Truman Doctrine

Question 18

Which of the following resulted from the Russian Revolution in 1905?

A)Communist rule
B)A constitutional monarchy
C)A return to absolutism
D)Stronger labor unions
E)Widespread industrial advancements

Question 19

Which of the following is true of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

A)It was never enacted.
B)Poland joined the Allies.
C)Russia lost significant territory.
D)The Turks agreed to end persecution of the Armenians.
E)Germany promised to stop sinking American ships.

Question 20

The Crimean War illustrated which of the following about Russia's foreign policy under Nicholas I?

A)The Ottoman Empire would be largely irrelevant in the late 19th century.
B)The military prowess of Russia threatened the European balance of power.
C)Russia was not perceived as a world power.
D)Russia's strong relationship with France was intensifying.
E)Nicholas had alienated Russia from the rest of Europe.

Question 21

The credibility of Czarist rule, which declined significantly before the Russian Revolution, was undermined by which of the following figures?

A)Stalin
B)Rasputin
C)Lenin
D)Ivan the Terrible
E)Constantine

Question 22

The death of Alexander I of Russia led to which of the following?

A)A prolonged civil war in Russia
B)The end of the Congress system
C)The Treaty of Verona
D)The Decembrist Revolt
E)An invasion by France

Question 23

Which of the following explains Stalin's justification for bringing the "Iron Curtain" down on Eastern Europe?

A)The instability after World War I showed self-rule was not viable.
B)Historically, the land had been part of the Russian empire.
C)The territory compensated for damage done by the Germans in the war.
D)The occupied Eastern European nations had strong Communist movements.
E)The Soviet Union needed a buffer zone in the face of German aggression.

Question 24

Which of the following describes the Red Terror?

A)The West's irrational fear of Communism
B)It was a nickname of the Communist army
C)The assassination of Lenin
D)The execution of thousands in the midst of civil war
E)A plague-like disease that swept through the Russian countryside

Question 25

What ended the alliance between Hitler and Stalin?

A)The British
B)Hitler's dislike of Communism
C)Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union
D)Stalin's claiming Alsace-Lorraine
E)The Munich Crisis

Question 26

The liberation of the serfs in Russia failed to provide them which of the following?

A)Entrepreneurial opportunities
B)Inheritance rights
C)Collective property
D)Freedom of mobility
E)Land ownership

Question 27

A similarity between the Russian Revolution and the French Revolution is

A)They both had representative democracy as a core goal.
B)They both executed monarchs.
C)The peasants were the primary agitators.
D)Revolutionaries were more unified before the old regime's fall than after.
E)Both caused massive European wars.

Question 28

Western European powers feared that Germany might turn to Communism as the Soviet Union had because of which event in 1919?

A)The Red Terror
B)The February Revolution
C)The Spartacist Revolt
D)The Iron Curtain
E)The Lanteran Agreement

Question 29

The alliance between France and Russia in 1894 was motivated by which of the following?

A)Russian ambitions to seize territory in Africa
B)Compatible political histories and values
C)The hope that a joint invitation would entice Britain
D)Concerns over the alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy
E)A desire to emulate French culture going back to Alexander I

Question 30

The goal of the Soviet Union's first Five Year Plan was which of the following?

A)Purging all political dissenters
B)Industrializing the Soviet Union
C)Eliminating all foreign influence
D)Improving the conditions of peasants
E)Using experts from other nations to build infrastructure