History 354 – Russian History

Study Guide for Examination #2

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Needed: ABSOLUTELY blank bluebook, pens (not red, not pencil)

I. IDENTIFICATION: (40%) Each item is worth 8 points. (You will be given a list of 7 items, from which you must choose 5 to identify. Your answer should include such things as "Who [or what], when, where, and historical significance." Your answers should not exceed 3 or 4 brief sentences or phrases for each item [complete sentences will NOT be required for identification answers].)

Decembrists, Emancipation Manifesto, Zemstvo law, Raznochintsy, Intelligentsia, Alexander Herzen, “Land and Freedom,” “People’s Will” (Narodnaia Volya”), “Temporary Regulations,” “Counter Reforms,” “Zemsky Nachalnik,” Sergei Witte, Rasputin, Potemkin Mutiny, October Manifesto, Peter Stolypin, Constitutional Democratic Party (“Kadets”), Social Democratic Labor Party, Socialist Revolutionaries, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, “Bloody Sunday,” April Theses Georgi Lvov, Kornilov Revolt, Alexander Kerensky, Sov-Nar-Kom, Treaty of Brest Litovsk, Kronstadt Revolt, Scissors Crisis, Comintern, Leon Trotsky, Gregory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Nicholai Bukharin, Cheka, NKVD, kulak, Stakhanovism, Operation Barbarossa

II. ESSAY: (60%) (30 points for each question) You will be given three or four essay questions, of which you must answer two. The actual questions will be similar, but not necessarily identical, to those provided here. (The material covered by the actual questions is included in the following questions, although the actual questions on the examination may cover two or more of the following examples.) Your answers should draw upon material from lectures as well as from your readings. Be sure to support your general statements with specific examples.

1. What were the key elements of Alexander I’s domestic and foreign policies? How were they affected by relations with France and other western European nations?

2. What was the doctrine of “Official Nationality?” To what extent did it resolve the problems facing Russia in the nineteenth century?

3. What role did “His Majesty’s Own Chancery” play in the reign of Nicholas I? What were its key elements and their functions?

4. Nicholas I has been described as “the gendarme of Europe?” Why? To what extent do you believe that description was accurate?

5. What effects did the Crimean War have on Russia’s foreign and domestic policies? What implications did it have for Europe as a whole?

6. Alexander II’s reign included some of the most significant reforms in Russian history. Yet, they did not quiet critics of his regime, who ultimately assassinated him. What were the major areas of Alexander II’s reforms? Why did he undertake those reforms? To what extent were they successes or failures? Why?

7. Describe the Russian “Intelligentsia?” What were their goals? Why did they become increasingly prominent in the late nineteenth century?

8. What were the key elements of “Populism?” What were the goals of the Narodniki (“Populists”)? What were their primary strengths and weaknesses?

9. What were the major characteristics of the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II? To what extent did their policies prevent or lead to Revolution?

10. Describe the major contributions of the “Revolution of 1905” to the revolutionary tradition of Imperial Russia. What were its long-term effects? What were its primary failures?

11. What were the major differences between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks? What were Lenin’s major contributions to Marxist revolutionary ideology?

12. What were the major factors in domestic and foreign affairs that contributed to the outbreak of revolution in 1917?

13. “The period between the February and October Revolutions of 1917 was itself revolutionary.” Explain.

14. Compare the main elements of War Communism and the N.E.P. In what ways were they similar? How did they differ? To what extent was each a result of ideological as opposed to practical considerations?

15. How was the question of Lenin’s successor resolved? Who were the main individuals involved, and what were their roles?

16. To what extent can it be argued that “The Real Russian Revolution began in 1928?”

17. To what extent did the 5-year plans represent a different approach to socialism?

18. Discuss Stalin’s purges of the mid 1930’s. What were the major factors which brought them about? Who was involved? What were their short- and long-term results?

19. Within a few months, the wartime “Grand Alliance” had deteriorated into the type confrontation characteristic of the “Cold War.” Explain.