Deck 23: The Rise of Russia

Question 1

Much of the territory added to the Russian empire was

A) Balkan.
B) African.
C) Asian.
D) Polynesian.

Answer 1

Asian.

Question 2

What political center served as the focal point for the Russian liberation from the Mongols?

A) Kiev
B) Duchy of Moscow
C) St. Petersburg
D) Principate of Novgorod

Answer 2

Duchy of Moscow

Question 3

Under what Russian ruler was a large part of Russia freed from Mongol control in the 15th century?

A) Peter III
B) Ivan III
C) Ivan IV
D) Alexis Romanov

Answer 3

Ivan III

Question 4

What was the state of the Russian economy immediately after the expulsion of the Mongols in the 15th century?

A) Russia was already a dependent region within the global economy dominated by the West.
B) Fueled by the establishment of the Tartar trade routes with the East, Russia had developed a significant export trade and merchant class.
C) Russia had become a more purely agricultural economy, dependent on peasant labor.
D) Russia?s economic ties were almost exclusively with the Ottoman Empire and hence with Africa.

Question 5

What government did Ivan the Great claim to have succeeded as the ?third Rome??

A) The Byzantine Empire
B) The Abbasid Empire
C) The Ottoman Empire
D) The Umayyad Empire

Question 6

Ivan IV, called Ivan the Terrible,

A) wished to confirm tsarist autocracy by attacking the authority of boyars.
B) abandoned the principles of territorial expansion in favor of centralizing power at home.
C) allied himself with the Russian aristocracy in a policy of political decentralization.
D) was responsible for the incorporation of Poland into the Russian Empire.

Question 7

Why did the Russian expansion policy focus particularly on central Asia?

A) The Russians wished to seize control of the trade routes with China.
B) Most of the Russian population remained ethnically Mongol with clear cultural ties to central Asia.
C) There were natural barriers to westward expansion.
D) The Russians were motivated by a desire to push the former Mongol overlords farther back to prevent renewed invasion.

Question 8

Peasants recruited to migrate to newly seized lands in the Russian Empire were called

A) emigrati.
B) boyars.
C) Cossacks.
D) Old Believers.

Question 9

What was the impact of early Russian expansion on central Asia?

A) None
B) Independent central Asia, the source of nomadic cultures and invasion forces, was eliminated
C) Chinese trade was refocused through Russia and eastern Europe
D) Russian society became more culturally and ethnically homogeneous

Question 10

Which of the following was NOT a form of contact with the West during the reigns of the Ivans?

A) Diplomatic missions were sent to leading Western states
B) Western merchants established outposts in Moscow and other centers
C) Italian artists and craftsmen were imported to design church buildings and the royal palace in the Kremlin
D) Military alliances were signed with Spain and Portugal

Question 11

Following the death of Ivan IV, Russian boyars attempted to limit tsarist autocracy and gain governing rights for themselves during the

A) Russian civil war.
B) Boyar War.
C) Time of Troubles.
D) Great Schism.

Question 12

What family was selected in 1613 to establish a new ruling dynasty in Russia?

A) Romanov
B) Radishev
C) Molotov
D) Habsburg

Question 13

Which of the following was NOT an accomplishment of Tsar Michael?

A) The establishment of internal order
B) Driving out foreign invaders
C) Restoration of autocracy
D) Inclusion of part of the Ukraine, including Kiev, in the Russian empire

Question 14

What tsar was responsible for the abolition of the assemblies of the nobles and reform of the Orthodox church?

A) Ivan III
B) Ivan IV
C) Peter III
D) Alexis

Question 15

Russians who refused to accept tsarist reforms of the Orthodox church and who were exiled to Siberia for their conservatism were called

A) Cossacks.
B) boyars.
C) Bogomils.
D) Old Believers.

Question 16

Politically, what aspects of Western culture did Peter the Great emulate in Russia?

A) Parliamentary government
B) Aristocratic control of the bureaucracy
C) Streamlined bureaucracy and reorganized military
D) Republicanism

Question 17

What country did Peter the Great go to war with and as a result gain territory on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea?

A) China
B) England
C) The Ottoman Empire
D) Sweden

Question 18

What sea became critical in the development of Russian power during the reign of Peter the Great?

A) Caspian
B) Mediterranean
C) Baltic
D) Azov

Question 19

Which of the following was NOT one of Peter the Great?s political reforms?

A) Improved military weaponry
B) Elimination of noble councils
C) Reduction of taxes on the peasantry
D) Systemization of law codes

Question 20

Peter the Great established a new capital for Russia at

A) Kiev.
B) Moscow.
C) Novgorod.
D) St. Petersburg.

Question 21

Where was Peter the Great?s program of economic development concentrated?

A) Cloth production
B) Mining and metallurgical industries
C) Urbanization
D) Pottery production

Question 22

What was the purpose of Peter the Great?s policy of economic development?

A) To create a free working class devoted to industry rather than agriculture
B) To create a wealthy merchant class capable of financing further expansion
C) To raise the standard of living of all Russians
D) To avoid the need of importing military armaments

Question 23

What was the limitation of Peter the Great?s policies of cultural Westernization?

A) He made no attempt to introduce Western education, particularly in technological subjects.
B) Westernization was limited to the elite.
C) Peter made no attempt to enforce cultural reforms.
D) Despite tsarist proclamations, Westernization failed to have any impact on Russian society.

Question 24

Following the death of Peter the Great, the next powerful ruler of Russia was

A) Catherine the Great.
B) Peter III.
C) Ivan IV.
D) Alexander III.

Question 25

What was Catherine the Great?s attitude toward the program of Westernization?

A) Catherine flirted vigorously with the ideas of the French Enlightenment, but failed to take steps to abolish serfdom.
B) Catherine rejected the concepts of Westernization in favor of a distinctive Russian culture.
C) Catherine earned the title of Enlightened Monarch by fully embracing the ideas of the French Enlightenment, including the abolition of the serfs.
D) Catherine was eager to continue the policy of Westernization, but was unable to attract Western philosophers to backward Russia.

Question 26

What was the relationship between Catherine the Great?s government and local administration?

A) The government established by Catherine the Great exercised exclusive control over both central and local government.
B) The tsarist government combined a real monopoly of formal politics by a central administration, but over noble-owned estates the power of the government was nonexistent.
C) The powers of the government were exercised almost entirely by the nobility and little formal authority was exercised by the central administration.
D) Under Catherine the Great, there was little central authority, but village governments under the jurisdiction of peasant headmen continued to function.

Question 27

The Russian radical and nobleman who, inspired by the philosophies of the West, urged the abolition of serfdom during the reign of Catherine the Great was

A) Turgenev.
B) Pugachev.
C) Ulanov.
D) Radishev.

Question 28

Which of the following areas was NOT colonized or claimed by the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine the Great?

A) Alaska
B) Parts of Siberia
C) Bengal
D) The Pacific coast of North America as far south as modern California

Question 29

All of the following countries participated in the successive partitions of Poland EXCEPT

A) Prussia.
B) Hungary.
C) Austria.
D) Russia.

Question 30

Which of the following statements concerning the political voice of the Russian nobility is most accurate?

A) The politics of the Russian nobility were expressed through service in the tsarist state and the preeminent power they wielded over the peasant serfs.
B) The Russian nobility exercised enormous influence through the powerful assemblies that continued to legislate through the 18th century.
C) The exclusion of the Russian nobility under Catherine the Great from any role in the central government or the military relegated them to strictly local authority.
D) Under Catherine the Great the Russian nobility was virtually exterminated.

Question 31

What was one of the primary differences between the social organization of the West and Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries?

A) Russia?s merchant class was more fully developed than that of the West.
B) The West had no formal aristocracy by the 18th century, but in Russia the nobility retained their political and social function.
C) Russia saw a progressive intensification of serfdom while the West was relaxing this institution in favor of other labor systems.
D) The agricultural labor of the West was subject to a more restrictive form of serfdom than that of Russia.

Question 32

When did Russian serfdom become hereditary?

A) 1482
B) 1558
C) 1618
D) 1649

Question 33

The development of coercive labor systems in eastern Europe was indicative of

A) Russia?s economic dominance over Asian trade.
B) eastern Europe?s growing economic subordination to the West.
C) the creation of a core economic zone in Russia.
D) the development of industrial strength in the region.

Question 34

What portion of the Russian peasantry were serfs in 1800?

A) Half
B) Quarter
C) 10 percent
D) Five percent

Question 35

What percentage of the Russian population remained rural in the 18th century?

A) 95 percent
B) 75 percent
C) 60 percent
D) 50 percent

Question 36

Who led the Russian peasant rebellion of the 1770s?

A) Radishev
B) Constantinov
C) Pugachev
D) Kosygin

Question 37

A substantial merchant class in Russia during the 18th century

A) was restricted to the cities of Moscow, Novgorod, and St. Petersburg.
B) sprang from peasant origins.
C) emerged among the lesser nobility within the Russian cities.
D) failed to develop.

Question 38

Compared to Western governments, how great a role did the Russian government play in economic development?

A) Because of the absence of a merchant class, the Russian government played a greater role than was common in Western states.
B) Like the West, the government?s role in the economy was largely restricted to establishing tariffs and protective measures for domestic industries.
C) Because of the dependent nature of the Russian economy, the government played a relatively less significant role in economic development.
D) The Russian government had no role in economic development, a task they abandoned to foreign investors.

Question 39

Which of the following is NOT indicative of Russia?s growing economic dependence on the West during the 18th century?

A) Exportation of raw materials, furs, grain, and timber
B) Importation of luxuries and some manufactured goods
C) A coercive labor system
D) Self-sufficiency in metals and weapons

Question 40

Who led a peasant rebellion in Russia in the 1770s?

A) Peter the III
B) Catherine the Great
C) Peter the Great
D) Pugachev

Question 41

Ivan the Great declared that the Russian Empire was the successor to which great empire?

A) Han China
B) Rome
C) Gupta India
D) The Ottoman Empire

Question 42

Eastern Europe shared with Russia all of the following characteristics EXCEPT

A) the dominance of the landed aristocracy.
B) rigid serfdom.
C) the lack of a native commercial class and a significant urban culture.
D) the development of empire.

Question 43

What eastern European nation declined most dramatically after 1500?

A) Poland
B) Hungary
C) Austria
D) Prussia

Question 44

How did the Polish government differ from the Russian model after 1600?

A) Poland was more urbanized
B) The central government was powerless
C) There was an absence of a merchant class
D) Poland lacked a landed aristocracy

Question 45

What was the nature of early Russian expansion under the Ivans?

Question 46

In what way did Peter the Great reform the economy and government of Russia through Westernization?

Question 47

In what ways were the policies of Westernization undertaken by Peter the Great and Catherine the Great more appearance than substance?

Question 48

What were the primary differences by the 18th century between Russia and the West?