Critics

Question 1

Lenin’s death

Answer 1

1924

Question 2

How many of the 71 central committee members were still alive in 1939

Answer 2

16

Question 3

When was the Bolshevik revolution

Answer 3

October 1917

Question 4

What replaced the provisional government in October 1917 and where

Answer 4

Sovnarkon (at the congress of Soviets meeting in Petrograd)

Question 5

Who was the first head of the Sovnarkom ? What did he do ?

Answer 5

Lenin

Land, peace and workers degrees (all popular)

Question 6

What did the land decree do ?

Answer 6

Gave the peasants the right to seize land from the nobility and the church

Question 7

What did the peace decree do?

Answer 7

Committed the new government to withdrawing from WWI and seeking peace

Question 8

What did the workers’ decree do ?

Answer 8

Established an eight hour maximum working day and minimum wage

Question 9

Effect of the civil war on the nature of the communist government?

Answer 9

Radical change

Led to emergence of an authoritarian centralised and bureaucratic regime

Question 10

Groups in the civil war

Answer 10

Whites (liberals, tsarists and those wanting military dictatorship)
Reds (communists)
Greens (left socialist revolutionaries)

Question 11

Events leading up to the 1921 Party congress and what did it address

Answer 11

Addressed: Famine caused by war communism and the backlash caused by Red Terror

• 1920 Tambov rebellion (rebel force of 50,000 by January 1921)
• strikes (red army opened fire in Petrograd)
• Kronstadt naval base mutiny

Question 12

Mensheviks arrested in the first 3 months of 1921

Answer 12

5,000

Question 13

Party membership end of 1917

Answer 13

300,000

Question 14

Party membership end of 1921

Answer 14

730,000

Question 15

Russia was **% of land area and **% of population

Answer 15

~90

~72

Question 16

Cheka body count 1917-23

Answer 16

200,009

Question 17

Number of Cheka members by 1921

Answer 17

250,009

Question 18

Under Lenin / party purged

Answer 18

1/3

Question 19

As General Secretary how many personal files did Stalin have access to

Answer 19

Over 26,000

Question 20

Lenin enrolment 1923-1925

Answer 20

500,000 workers recruited

Question 21

By 1935 **% of party removed from posts

Answer 21

22%

Question 22

Red Army purges date and stats

Answer 22

1937-38
Shot/imprisoned;
~ 3/5 marshals 
~ 14/16 commanders
~ 35,000 officers

Question 23

Secret police purge

Answer 23

1936

3,000 personnel purged

Question 24

Party membership
~ 1953
~ 1980

Answer 24

~ 6.9m

~ 17m

Question 25

Stalin’s last party congress; % of central committee retained (vs Brezhnev)

Answer 25

Stalin 56%

Brezhnev 79%

Question 26

1984: how many politburo members aged 70+

Answer 26

7/11