Unit+05+Review+-+20th+Century+Russia

Questions for 20th Century Russian History AP World History [B]

= Identification: = Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Joseph Stalin- Successor to Lenin as head of the USSR; strongly nationalist view of Communism; represented Western strain of Russian tradition; crushed opposition to his rule; established series of five-year plan to replace New Economic Policy; fostered agricultural colectivization; led USSR through World War II; furthered cold war with Western Europe and the United States; died in 1953...Ashley K. Leon Trotsky- was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army- RASHAD RIVERS Vyacheslav Molotov Leonid Breznev Nikita Krushchev- Stalin's successor as head of USSR; attacked Stalinismin 1956 for concentration of power and arbitrary dictatorship; failure of Siberian development program and antagonism of Stalinists led to downfall...Ashley K. Yuri Gagarin Valentina Tereshkova Yuri Andropov Andrei Gromyko NEP- (New Economic Policy) Initiated by Lenin in 1921; state continued to set basic economic policies, but efforts were now combined with individual initiative; policy allowed food production to recover...Ashley K. kulaks- Agricultural entrepreneurs who utilized the Stoplypin and later NEP reforms to increase agricultural production and buy additional land...Ashley K.  Sputnik- First unmanned spacecraft in 1957; sent up during Khrushchev's government; initiated space race with the united States...Ashley K.  Mikhial Gorbachev- USSR ruler after 1985; renewed attacks on Stalinism; urged reduction in nuclear armament ; proclaimed policies of glasnost and perestroika...Ashley K.  Boris Yeltsin- Bagan to move up the ladder of the Communist party in Soviet Union in 1968, becoming First Secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee in 1985; initially a loyal backer of Gorbachev but increasingly criticized him for unduly slow pace of reform; stood up to a coup attempt in 1991 but then managed to displace Gorbachev; in his position as president of the Russian Republic, sponsored several subsequent constitutional provisions and weathered battles with opponents in Parliament...Ashley K.  Konstantine Chernenko Détente Cuban Missile Crisis- a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other side. The crisis is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict and is also the first documented instance of mutual assured destruction (MAD) being discussed as a determining factor in a major international arms agreement - RASHAD RIVERS Berlin Crisis Warsaw Pact Socialist Realism- Attempt within the USSR to relate formal culture to the masses in order to avoid the adoption of Western European cultural forms; begun under Joseph Stalin; fundamental method of Soviet fiction, art, and literary critisicm...Ashley K. Leningrad Stalingrad Moscow- Moscow is the capital city and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural and scientific center in Russia and in Eurasia - RASHAD RIVERS Nicholas II KGB- was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its collapse in 1991. Formed in 1954 as a direct successor of such preceding agencies as Cheka, NKGB, and MGB, the committee was attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", acting as internal security, intelligence, and secret police. Similar agencies were instated in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russia and consisted of many ministries, state committees, and state commissions -RASHAD RIVERS Rasputin Anastasia Alexander Kerensky- Liberal revolutionary leader during the early stages of the Russian Revoluion of 1917; sought development of parliamentary rule, religious freedom...Ashley K. // perestroika- // Perestroika was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s (1986), widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "openness") policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring", reffering to the restucturing of the Soviet political and economic system. Perestroika is often argued to be the cause of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War...Ashley K. // glasnost- // Glasnost was a policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. Introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s, Glasnost is often paired with Perestroika, another reform instituted by Gorbachev at the same time. The word "glasnost" has been used in Russian at least since the end of the 18th century. The word was frequently used by Gorbachev to specify the policies he believed might help reduce he corruption at the top of the Communist Party and the Soviet government and moderate the abuse of administrative power in the Central Committee. Russian human rights activists and dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva explained "glasnost" as a word that "had been in the Russian language for centuries. It was in the dictionaries and lawbooks as long as there had been dictionaries and lawbooks. It was an ordinary, hardworking, nondescript word that was used to refer to a process of justice of governance, being conducted in the open." Glasnost can also refer to the specific period in the history of the USSR during the 1980s when there was less censorship and greater freedom on information...Ashley K. bolshevik- Literally, the majority party; the most radical branch of the Russian Marxist movement; led by V.I. Lenin and dedicated to his concept of social revolution; actually a minority in the Russian Marxist political scheme until its triumph in the 1917 revolution...Ashley K.  mensheviks Comintern- International office of communism under USSR dominance established to encourage the formation of Communist parties in Europe and elsewhere...Ashley K. Collectivization- Creation of large, state-run farms rather than individual holdings; allowed more efficient control over peasants; part of Stalin's economic and political planning; often adopted in other Communist regimes...Ashley K.  Solidarity- Solidarity is unity (as of a group or class) that produces or is based on universities of interests, objectives, standards and sympathies. It refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one. The term is generally employed in sociology and the other social sciences as well as in philosophy. What forms the basis of solidarity varies between societies. In simple societies it may be mainly based around kinship and shared values. In more complex societies there are various therories as to what contributes to a sense of social solidarity...Ashley K. politburo- Executive committee of the Soviet Coomunist Party; 20 members...Ashley K.  Alexandre Solzhenitsyn- Russian author critical of the Soviet regime; published trilogy on the Siberian prison camps, "The Gulag Archipelago"...Ashley K. // Pravda //

> > To counter this stagnation Gorbachev introduced the policies of Glasnost ' and Perestroika (Openness and Re-Structuring) hoping that people would be open about how to rebuild the communist system, and make it work better. All it did was allowed people to openly criticise the system - soon they were calling for it to be replaced. > > Communism was also simply not delivering the promised "workers paradise", wages were stagnant, housing shoddy, cars a rarity, and, from the 1970s they could see the differences between their lifestyle and the West on TV - especially when the (uncensored) Olympics were on. > > Soviet Youth were growing tired of being told that they couldn't see certain films, couldn't listen to Western Music, or listen to Western Radio stations, even wearing jeans were frowned on. Glasnost' allowed them to speak out against the regime - and enabled them to listen to the music they wanted. > > In the Republics, people were tired of being told what to do by Russians, they wanted to govern themselves, or, at least, have more autonomy within the Soviet framework - but the centre would not budge. Because of Glasnost' they could criticise and soon they began to organise. Eventually the people in the Baltic Republics started protesting - demanding independence, and soon, with the collapse of the union, they got it. > > The event that pushed the Soviet Union into the history books was the failed coup of August 1991, when communist hard-liners tried to remove Gorbachev from office, and put in place a more Stalinist system - within two months of this coup the Soviet Union was no more. > > On top of all this was the fact that the party-state elite no longer believed in communism, and saw in capitalism the chance to gain the wealth that they saw their Western contemporaries earn. This elite abandoned any pretence of communism from about 1989 onwards, setting up businesses, banks and taking over the ownership of the enterprises where they worked. > > The capitalist revolution was, in fact, a revolution by the elite, for the elite- RASHAD RIVERS "23RASHAD"
 * __ Review Questions: __**
 * 1) What is the difference between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks?
 * 2) How do the results of the Russo-Japanese War (1905) impact the Russian government?
 * 3) What is the Duma? The Duma were council assemblies which were created by the Czar of Russia. Simply, it is a form of Russian governmental institution that was formed during the reign of the last Tsar, Nicholas II. It is also the term for a council to early Russian rulers (Boyar Duma) as well as for city councils in Imperial Russia ('Municiple dumas'), and city and regional legislative bodies in the Russian federation...Ashley K.
 * 4) How do the March and November (February and October) revolutions differ?
 * 5) The Kerensky government that replaces the Romanov Dynasty tries to implement liberal reform in Russia. Describe the reforms and assess their success.
 * 6) Why does the Kerensky government get overthrown?
 * 7) Who are the primary actors in the Russian Revolution? What are their notable accomplishments, and how do they end up where they are?
 * 8) Why do the Bolsheviks assassinate the Russian Royal Family?
 * 9) What is the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk? The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty on March 3, 1918, between the new Bolshevic government of Russia (the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey), which ended Russia's participation in World War I. The treaty was signed at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus) after two months of negotiations. The treaty was forced on the Soviet government b tye threat of further advances by German and Austrian forces. By the treaty, Soviet Russia defaulted an Imperial Russias commitment to the Triple Entente alliance...Ashley K.
 * 10) What is the reaction of the rest of the world to the Russian Civil War that breaks out in 1917?
 * 11) What was Lenin’s New Economic Plan?
 * 12) Who are the Kulaks? What became of them after the October revolution?
 * 13) What is the Politburo? What is Comintern? A politburo is the executive committee for a number of (usually communist) political parties. Comintern was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919. The international intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state."...Ashley K.
 * 14) How does the power structure in Russia change after the death of Lenin?
 * 15) Stalin initiated a number of different purges during the 1920s and 1930s. Who was purged and why? What impact do the purges have on Russia?
 * 16) What is totalitarianism? What factors are necessary to create that kind of government?
 * 17) How does Stalin’s command economy differ from that of the NEP?
 * 18) What is the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement? How does it impact European politics in the middle of the twentieth century?
 * 19) What events occurred in World War II on the Eastern Front? What are the major battles and their outcomes?
 * 20) How did the Russians acquire the atomic bomb?
 * 21) What’s a buffer state, and how does that information fit with the creation of the Warsaw Pact?
 * 22) What were the Russian accomplishments regarding the exploration of space?
 * 23) What events led to the Cuban Missile Crisis? How was it resolved? Who were the priniciple actors involved?
 * 24) What is Détente? Who orchestrated it and why?
 * 25) When did Russia assume Super Power status?
 * 26) What is the Cold War? What were the proxy wars fought between the United States and Russia?
 * 27) What was the significance of SALT and START?
 * 28) What is the significance of the Afghan conflict for the Soviet Union, and why did the Soviets invade?
 * 29) What was Mikhial Gorbachev’s reform of the Russian communist system called?
 * 30) Why did communism collapse in the Soviet Union? The Soviet economy was slowly becoming stagnant, whilst military spending went through the roof. Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative was seen as a threat to be countered, and the Soviets threw more money at the military - the US was spending 15-18% of its Gross Domestic Product (how much the country earns) at the military, the Soviets were spending up to 35% - they were bankrupting themselves.