Deck 26: The International Revolt Against Soviet Communism

Question 1

As a result of the overthrow of communism in central and eastern Europe, all of the following occurred except

A) central and eastern Europe regained control over their own destinies.
B) one of the two superpowers disappeared.
C) the Cold War continued, but now between the U.S. and China.
D) the U.S.S.R. disintegrated into Russia and its other component republics.

Answer 1

the Cold War continued, but now between the U.S. and China.

Question 2

One reason that the great reformer Mikhail Gorbachev rose to supreme power in the Soviet Union was _that

A) his advanced age and experience made him greatly respected.
B) a young man was desirable, since his immediate predecessors had been too old or became incapacitated in office.
C) his leadership of the KGB gave him immense power.
D) the Soviet system tended to push able reformers to the top every few years.

Answer 2

a young man was desirable, since his immediate predecessors had been too old or became incapacitated in office.

Question 3

Although Gorbachev wanted many reforms in Soviet society, he did not propose

A) freedom of religion.
B) to allow the publication of previously forbidden books such as Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago or Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.
C) to rehabilitate Stalin's political victims of the 1930s.
D) to challenge the role of the Communist party as the directing agent of Soviet society.

Answer 3

to challenge the role of the Communist party as the directing agent of Soviet society.

Question 4

Freer publicity under Gorbachev revealed that the Soviet Union suffered from all of the following problems except

A) tens of millions living in poverty.
B) environmental decay.
C) decreasing steel production.
D) social problems like crime and alcoholism.

Question 5

In his agricultural reforms, Gorbachev, unlike Deng in China, did all of the following except

A) privatize the land.
B) permit farmers to work with state and collective farms on a share-cropping basis.
C) permit farmers and their families to farm land.
D) allow farmers to lease land for their lifetime and bequeath this right to their children.

Question 6

Despite his reforms, criticism mounted against Gorbachev for all of the following reasons except

A) his indecisive, sometimes contradictory steps in building a market economy.
B) his reluctance to revamp the collectivized agricultural system.
C) his repression of ethnic unrest.
D) his increasing repression of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Question 7

Gorbachev launched a dramatic new foreign policy of détente and arms reduction because

A) he needed to relieve the intolerable military burden on the Soviet economy.
B) he repudiated ideological struggle in favor of "universal human interests."
C) he wished to fool the west into believing that he had abandoned old Soviet policies of expansionism.
D) A and B

Question 8

Outside the Soviet Union, communism collapsed in central and eastern European countries for all of the following reasons except

A) inflation and unemployment were rising rapidly.
B) dissidents in the east were criticizing governments and calling for a recognition of the human rights guaranteed by the Helsinki accords.
C) infrastructure was decaying and the environment was deteriorating.
D) since the 1970s, east European economies had stagnated.

Question 9

In Hungary, the Communist party

A) eased hardliner Kádár out of office.
B) dissolved itself.
C) condemned the Soviet intervention and those who had supported it.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 10

The floodgate to change was opened in East Germany when

A) Hungary allowed thousands of East Germans to cross over its border into the west.
B) violent rioting began in Berlin and Leipzig.
C) East German troops fired on innocent civilians.
D) Honecker, an East German leader, decided to introduce German-style glasnost.

Question 11

The coup against Gorbachev in 1991 failed because

A) hardliners backed him in order to preserve the Communist party.
B) the republics seeking greater independence within the U.S.S.R. refused to ratify the union treaty.
C) Yeltsin rallied support for Gorbachev.
D) crowds rallied in the street and defeated several KGB units.

Question 12

In the elections to the new Duma, shortly after the approval of the new constitution in December _1993,

A) the pro-Yeltsin reformers won a large majority.
B) the former Communists became the largest single party.
C) an ultranationalist party won the most votes.
D) the reform party made significant gains.

Question 13

In mid-1991, when war broke out in the former Yugoslavia,

A) Serb armed forces carved out enclaves for Serbian minorities in the republics of the former Yugoslavia.
B) Croatian, Slovenian, and Bosnian forces attacked Serbia.
C) Slovenians and Croatians massacred thousands of Serbs.
D) Bosnian Muslims attacked Serbians.

Question 14

When war broke out in the Balkans, terrible atrocities occurred on all sides, but those principally

A) the Croatian army and militias.
B) the Serb military units and armed forces.
C) the Muslim militias and armed forces.
D) the Slovenian irregulars.

Question 15

Ethnic cleansing, a term frequently heard during the fighting in Yugoslavia, refers to the

A) mass divorce of inter-ethnic marriages.
B) attempts by international negotiators to divide Yugoslavia into zones inhabited exclusively by . members of one or another religious or cultural group.
C) the policy of the Bosnian government that sought to drive all Serbs out of Bosnia.
D) wholesale civilian slaughter, pillage, and mass rape, principally carried out by the Serbs against the Muslim population.

Question 16

What were the social, economic, and political reasons for the collapse of the Communist regime in the former Soviet Union?

Question 17

How did Gorbachev attempt to reform communism in the Soviet Union? Why did he fail, and instead, open the way for an anti-communist revolution?

Question 18

East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania all overthrew their Communist rulers in 1989. Compare and contrast the experiences of two of these countries with the transition from communist societies to democratic, capitalist ones.

Question 19

Why did the U.S.S.R. collapse with the end of communism? What kind of organization replaced it? How did this new organization differ from the Soviet Union?

Question 20

What were the reasons for the end of the Cold War in the 1980s? What role did the U.S. and the Soviet Union play in the process?

Question 21

An explosion of nationalism, both in the former Soviet Union and in eastern Europe followed the collapse of communism. Explain its origins, nature, and the consequences.

Question 22

Why did Russia invade Chechnya in 1994? How did the Russian public react to the invasion? The international community?

Question 23

What role did mass movements play in the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe?

Question 24

How did the reunification of Germany occur? What concerns did reunification raise?

Question 25

Compare Yeltsin's rule to Gorbachev's. Which leader do you think was more instrumental in bringing about the dissolution of the U.S.S.R.?

Question 26

What were the roots of the conflict in the Balkans? How did the history of that conflict affect the willingness of the international community to become involved?

Question 27

Why did NATO, in 1999, undertake its first military offensive? How was this "humanitarian intervention" justified? Why was it controversial?

Question 28

How does the territory united by the Russian federation compare with the size and boundaries of the former U.S.S.R.? Which regions broke away after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in 1991?

Question 29

Which areas in central and eastern Europe continue to experience religious and ethnic tensions?

Question 30

Which nations still face the problem of resolving differences between very diverse populations? Why have some of those nations succeeded while others failed?