THE SECOND WORLD WAR & CONTEMPORARY EUROPE

Question 1

In this quotation, “He used extreme methods and mass repressions at a time when the Revolution was already victorious, when the Soviet state was strengthened, when the exploiting classes were already liquidated and Socialist relations were rooted solidly in all phases of the national economy, when our party was politically consolidated and had strengthened itself both numerically and ideologically.” Which of the following spoke and about whom?

A. Khrushchev about Stalin 
B. Khrushchev about Trotsky 
C. Stalin about Trotsky 
D. Trotsky about Lenin 
E. Brezhnev about Lenin

Answer 1

A. Khrushchev about Stalin

Question 2

Which of the following is a central and essential component of the European welfare state?

A. Nationalization of all major sectors of the economy
B. Decentralization of the state
C. State responsibility for assuring access to medical care for all citizens
D. Elimination of large private fortunes through taxation
E. Elimination of independent trade unions

Answer 2

C. State responsibility for assuring access to medical care for all citizens

Question 3

Which of the following countries remained most closely aligned, ideologically and economically, with the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1989?

A. The People’s Republic of China 
B. Bulgaria 
C. Czechoslovakia 
D. Hungary 
E. Poland

Answer 3

B. Bulgaria

Question 4

Churchill’s famous phrase “Never . . . was so much owed by so many to so few” referred to

A. those who evacuated the Allied army from Dunkirk
B. those who convoyed food and materiel across the Atlantic in the early 1940s
C. the scientists who developed radar and other early warning technologies
D. the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force who won the Battle of Britain

E. the cryptographers who broke the German and Japanese military and diplomatic codes

Answer 4

D. the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force who won the Battle of Britain

Question 5

Women did not gain the right to vote until after the Second World War in which of the following groups of countries?

A. Great Britain, the United States, and France 
B. France, Italy, and Switzerland 
C. Germany, Austria, and Russia 
D. Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary 
E. Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden

Answer 5

B. France, Italy, and Switzerland

Question 6

Which of the following was an important cause of the Second World War?

A. The failure of the Anschluss between Germany and Austria
B. British and French indignation over Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies in Germany
C. The Soviet Union’s military buildup against Japan
D. Hitler’s quest for German living space in eastern Europe
E. Hitler’s desire to divert the German public’s attention away from the ongoing economic depression

Answer 6

D. Hitler’s quest for German living space in eastern Europe

Question 7

The “Velvet Revolution” refers to the collapse of communism in which of the following Eastern European countries?

A. Poland
B. Hungary
C. Yugoslavia
A. Poland

B. Hungary

C. Yugoslavia

D. Czechoslovakia

E. Romania
E. Romania

Answer 7

D. Czechoslovakia

Question 8

All of the following were important issues that the Allies had to address at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences EXCEPT

A. reparations to the Soviet Union
B. the sharing of nuclear weapons technology
C. the postwar occupation regime in Germany
D. war crimes trials for German and Japanese leaders
E. Soviet influence in postwar Eastern Europe

Answer 8

B. the sharing of nuclear weapons technology