Stalin

Question 1

When did the October Revolution take place?

Answer 1

1917

Question 2

What was the Bolshevik slogan during the revolution?

Answer 2

“Peace, Bread, and Land”

Question 3

Which treaty removed Russia from WWI?

Answer 3

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918

Question 4

When did Lenin die?

Answer 4

1924

Question 5

What was the role of the Politburo?

Answer 5

Executive committee of 20 top members in the Communist Party

Question 6

What was Democratic Centralism?

Answer 6

Party members debated, but had to follow the central decision without dissent

Question 7

What secret police did Lenin create?

Answer 7

The Cheka

Question 8

What was the ban on factionalism?

Answer 8

Prohibited dissent within the Communist Party

Question 9

How many concentration camps existed by 1924?

Answer 9

300

Question 10

What was the Comintern?

Answer 10

A 1919 organization to spread worldwide communist revolution

Question 11

What was the Lenin Enrolment?

Answer 11

A recruitment drive raising CPSU membership from 340,000 to 600,000

Question 12

When did Stalin become General Secretary of the CPSU?

Answer 12

1922

Question 13

What quote did Stalin use to justify party unity?

Answer 13

“Comrade Lenin commanded us to keep the unity of our party”

Question 14

What did Stalin do to Lenin’s Testament?

Answer 14

Suppressed it

Question 15

Who formed the triumvirate with Stalin in the Politburo?

Answer 15

Kamenev and Zinoviev

Question 16

Who replaced Kamenev and Zinoviev in Stalin’s favor?

Answer 16

Molotov and Kirov

Question 17

What was Stalin’s key ideological stance?

Answer 17

Socialism in One Country

Question 18

What was Trotsky’s opposing ideology?

Answer 18

Permanent Revolution

Question 19

What was Trotsky’s famous quote on global revolution?

Answer 19

“Export revolution”

Question 20

When was Trotsky exiled from the USSR?

Answer 20

1927

Question 21

What were Stalin’s three key goals from 1926?

Answer 21

Economic growth, collectivization, and industrialization

Question 22

What did Stalin call the 1928 modernization campaign?

Answer 22

“The Second Revolution”

Question 23

Why did Stalin pursue collectivization?

Answer 23

To extract grain and labor to fund industry

Question 24

What were collective farms?

Answer 24

50–100 peasant families pooled labor and shared wages

Question 25

Who were the kulaks?

Answer 25

Wealthy peasants labeled as enemies of the state

Question 26

How did the OGPU treat the kulaks?

Answer 26

Seized property and deported them

Question 27

What percentage of peasant farms were collectivized by March 1930?

Answer 27

0.25

Question 28

How many arson attacks occurred in protest of collectivization?

Answer 28

30000

Question 29

What was the famine death toll from collectivization?

Answer 29

6–8 million

Question 30

What was Gosplan?

Answer 30

Soviet central economic planning agency

Question 31

When was the First Five-Year Plan?

Answer 31

1928–1932

Question 32

What was a flaw of the First Five-Year Plan?

Answer 32

Falsified data, no real "plan"

Question 33

What did the Second Five-Year Plan focus on?

Answer 33

More realistic heavy industry targets (1933–1937)

Question 34

What years did the Third Five-Year Plan cover?

Answer 34

1938–1941

Question 35

Why did industrialization fail in consumer goods?

Answer 35

Focus remained on heavy industry and military output

Question 36

When did Stalinist purges begin?

Answer 36

1932

Question 37

What was the Ryutin Affair?

Answer 37

Opposition document that led to mass expulsions

Question 38

What happened to Kirov in 1934?

Answer 38

Assassinated in his office in Leningrad

Question 39

What did Stalin issue after Kirov’s death?

Answer 39

Decree Against Terrorist Acts

Question 40

How many were arrested or executed after Kirov’s death?

Answer 40

Around 3,000

Question 41

How many 1934 Party Congress delegates were later executed?

Answer 41

1,108 out of 1,996

Question 42

What was the Stalin Enrolment (1931–34)?

Answer 42

Mass recruitment of working-class party members

Question 43

When was the Great Terror?

Answer 43

1936–1939

Question 44

Who were executed in the 1936 show trials?

Answer 44

Kamenev, Zinoviev, and 14 others

Question 45

Who was executed in 1938?

Answer 45

Bukharin and alleged Trotskyites

Question 46

What did Bukharin say before his execution?

Answer 46

"Stalin is the hope of the world"

Question 47

How many War Commissars were purged?

Answer 47

All 11

Question 48

How many Soviet Marshals were removed?

Answer 48

3 out of 5

Question 49

How many officers were shot or imprisoned?

Answer 49

35000

Question 50

What happened to the Navy by 1939?

Answer 50

All admirals were executed

Question 51

How many were in gulags by 1941?

Answer 51

8 million

Question 52

What proportion of Soviets were arrested in the purges?

Answer 52

1 in 8

Question 53

What is the significance of Butovo?

Answer 53

Mass grave of over 20,000 from the 1930s

Question 54

When were the Politburo and Central Committee dispensed?

Answer 54

1947

Question 55

What was the Doctors’ Plot?

Answer 55

Alleged plan to kill Stalin, exposed before his death in 1953

Question 56

What was the goal of the Comintern?

Answer 56

To spread communist revolution abroad

Question 57

What treaty did Stalin maintain with Germany until 1933?

Answer 57

Treaty of Rapallo (1922)

Question 58

When did the USSR join the League of Nations?

Answer 58

1934

Question 59

What was the Anti-Comintern Pact (1934)?

Answer 59

Agreement by Axis powers to oppose communism

Question 60

What was the Munich Agreement (1938)?

Answer 60

Appeasement of Hitler

Question 61

When was the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed?

Answer 61

August 1939

Question 62

What did the Nazi-Soviet Pact secretly agree to?

Answer 62

To divide Poland

Question 63

What land did the USSR regain after 1939?

Answer 63

All lost in WWI

Question 64

What was the Grand Alliance?

Answer 64

Wartime pact with UK and US during WWII

Question 65

When did the USSR develop nuclear weapons?

Answer 65

September 1949

Question 66

When did the USSR begin aiding Communist China?

Answer 66

October 1949

Question 67

What was Pravda?

Answer 67

Official Soviet newspaper used for propaganda

Question 68

What was the Red Terror (1917–22)?

Answer 68

Cheka-led repression resulting in 10,000+ deaths