Minorities

Question 1

What happened in Warsaw in 1861?

Answer 1

As a result of Alexander II’s succession nationalist values began to grown and demonstrations began in Warsaw, leading to up to 200 being killed as demonstrations were put down

Question 2

What happened in 1863 to Finland?

Answer 2

Alexander II reestablished the Diet and initiated several reforms increasing Finland’s autonomy from Russia including the establishment of its own currency, the markka

Question 3

What happened in 1863 as a result of a law conscripting Poles into the Russian army?

Answer 3

A full insurrection broke out in January 1863. The rebellion was largely rural and it took nearly a year to control and was not properly over until August 1864

Question 4

What happened to the Jews under Alexander II?

Answer 4

Harsh treatment was lessened and Jews were allowed to migrate beyond the ‘Pale of Settlement’, and those having a Russian secondary school education were granted greater rights, increasing Jewish enrolment in Russian schools, but Jews in the military were prevented from achieving the rank of officer

Question 5

What happened to the Jewish population between 1850 and the end of the nineteenth century?

Answer 5

The Jewish population increased substantially, almost doubling to 5 million, with Jews becoming more prominent in society, with a Jewish proletariat developing along with a small Jewish upper class

Question 6

Where did Alexander II ‘russify’?

Answer 6

Originally it was just Poland, Ukraine, the Tartars and Georgians, and the policy was extended to Finland, Armenia and the Baltic territories

Question 7

What happened to the Jews under Alexander III?

Answer 7

The Russian government permitted and encouraged pogroms, and an estimated 215 disturbances occurred between the first outbreaks in May

Question 8

What was the Jewish reaction to pogroms

Answer 8

A militant Zionist movement was founded in 1883 which fought for a Jewish state

Question 9

How many Polish workers went on strike during the 1905 revolution?

Answer 9

400,000

Question 10

What is an example of a group encouraged by the government to form displaying loyalty to the Tsar?

Answer 10

The Union of Russian People founded in 1904

Question 11

What was a more militant group encouraged under the Tsars?

Answer 11

The Black Hundred Gangs. The men in these gangs went around the countryside urging the peasants to rise up against anyone who hated Russia

Question 12

What were the bulk of executions under Stolypin’s necktie for?

Answer 12

They were in Russia’s outlying regions where there had been opposition to Russification

Question 13

What happened to the Poles as part of Russification?

Answer 13

In 1907 all Polish schools had to teach in Russian and senior posts within the Polish civil service were given to Russians

Question 14

What happened to Nikolai Borbrikov?

Answer 14

Nikolai Borbrikov was the Governor General of Finland, and he fully integrated Finland into the Russian Empire and Russified it. He was assassinated in 1904

Question 15

What happened to Finland in 1905?

Answer 15

It was given full autonomy only to find the agreement was quickly reneged upon by Stolypin in the same year

Question 16

What did the Jews do in World War I?

Answer 16

They felt that they could increase their substandard role in society if they participated. Over 400,000 Jews were mobilised and about 80,000 served in the front lines. When the Russian army was defeated, anti-semitic commanders blamed the Jews

Question 17

When did the Provisional Government grant Poland independence?

Answer 17

30th March 1917

Question 18

What happened to Ukraine under the Provisional Government?

Answer 18

The Ukrainians demanded self-government and moderate socialists in the Provisional Government made concessions to them

Question 19

When did the Provisional Government abolish all restrictions on the Jews?

Answer 19

16th March 1917

Question 20

What regions declared themselves independent with the Bolshevik take over?

Answer 20

Republics were proclaimed in Ukraine, Transcaucasia and Finland

Question 21

Where pressed their own claims towards independence, confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 21

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland

Question 22

What happened to Poland in 1920?

Answer 22

There was a border war with Poland in 1920, but the Red Army was pushed back and a treaty of Riga was signed in April 1921 giving large parts of Belorussia to Poland

Question 23

What happened in Georgia between 1917 and 1921?

Answer 23

A Georgian government in 1917 was overthrown in 1921 by force with the help of Stalin

Question 24

What was confirmed in the Constitution produced in 1924?

Answer 24

It confirmed the merger of the component national units of the old Empire into the USSR, and left each republic with the theoretical right to leave the Union

Question 25

What percentage of Jews made up officers in the Red Army by 1926?

Answer 25

4.4%

Question 26

What did the Stalin Constitution in 1936 do?

Answer 26

It added Kirghizia and Tajikstan to the list of states given full republic status, and created a system that appeared to allow greater representation to the interests of separate nation states

Question 27

What happened to the Jews after World War II?

Answer 27

Attempts to suppress Soviet Jewry were resumed, and until Stalin’s death in 1953 Soviet Jews were placed in the gulag and were faced with significant physical oppression, such a the Doctors Plot

Question 28

Why did Khrushchev face unrest in Poland, the GDR and Hungary?

Answer 28

As a result of his secret speech in 1953

Question 29

Why did Central Asia avoid Russification?

Answer 29

The Tsars and Communists seemed to think that, given the complexities of societies there and the difficulties with communication and transport, Russification was not achievable or desirable

Question 30

What was the Steppe Statute?

Answer 30

It was passed in 1891 and granted 40 acres of land to peasant settlers in Central Asia

Question 31

What happened with the Russian Government attempting to draw on people in Central Asia for the war effort?

Answer 31

Between 1915 and 1917 the government attempted to use people from Central Asia for the war effort but they were deemed, in general, not fit for combat duties and were given other jobs, leading to the ‘conscription revolt’

Question 32

What happened under Khrushchev in 1957?

Answer 32

He issued a decree titled ‘On the Rehabilitation of Deported Peoples’, allowing many groups who had been deported between 1941 and 1945 to return to their homelands. However, some groups were excluded, such as the Volga Germans and Meskhetians

Question 33

How was the Amur Basin secured?

Answer 33

It was secured in 1860 as a result of Nikolai Muraviev, governor general of eastern Siberia, who used his own personal army to force the Chinese to sign two treaties giving Russia territory around the Amur river and access to the Pacific coast

Question 34

When did China become Communist and under who?

Answer 34

It became Communist in 1949 under Mao Zedong

Question 35

Why did the Sinosoviet split occur?

Answer 35

It occurred as Mao disliked Khrushchev’s policy of destalinisation, and despite a slight lapse in tensions with Khrushchev’s dealings with Hungary, tensions were revived with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the issue of the Russo-Chinese border