Russian History – An Overview
Names:_______________________________
Using the following websites and any other sources you can, answer the following questions regarding Russian
history. You will work in pairs (or alone, your choice) to find the answers below over the next two days. You
may write or type your answers directly on this sheet. Extra handouts are available if you choose to write your
answers. Only one copy of answers needed per group.
I. Define the following terms – www.dictionary.com
1. Bolshevik
2. communism
3. capitalism
4. totalitarianism
5. propaganda
6. utopia
7. proletariat
II. Czar Nicholas II - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nicholas_ii.shtml
1. When did he begin his rule in Russia?
2. What happened on “Bloody Sunday”? What was the result for Nicholas?
3. How did WWI affect Russia?
4. What happened in February 1917?
5. What was the eventual fate of Nicholas II and his family?
III. Karl Marx - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/marx_karl.shtml
1. What was the name of the pamphlet Marx wrote with Friedrich Engels?
2. What was its primary assertion?
3. What was his most important body of work?
4. What was its primary assertion? (you will have to look elsewhere for this information)
IV. Vladimir Lenin - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lenin_vladimir.shtml
1. What event did he lead in 1917?
2. What followed for three years?
3. How did Lenin feel regarding his countrymen?
V. Bolshevik Revolution – http://www.history.com/topics/russian-revolution
1. Read the section for February Revolution. Describe this event in your own words.
2. What happened on March 11?
3. In October/ November of 1917, what happened? Describe this event in your own words.
VI. Leon Trotsky - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/trotsky_leon.shtml
1. In 1903, when the Social Democrats split, what party did Trotsky join? What was his theory?
2. Upon his return to Russia, what group did Trotsky join?
3. Even though he saw himself as Lenin’s heir, what happened when Lenin died?
4. Exiled from Russia, where did Trotsky go? What eventually happened to him?
VII. Joseph Stalin - http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-stalin
1. Go to “Rise to Power”. What was Stalin’s first post in the Communist Party? What did this enable
him to do?
2. What was Stalin considered by the late 1920s?
3. In the late 1920s, what did Stalin launch? What were their intentions?
4. What is collectivization? What were the results of this?
5. Stalin ruled by what? What did he develop and what did he encourage citizens to do?
6. What was the Great Purge?
7. What was the cult of personality?
8. What pact did Stalin sign with Hitler? But what did Hitler do?
9. What was the result of the Battle of Stalingrad?
10. Name two things Stalin did in his later years that affected the rest of the world?
11. In a rough estimate, how many deaths was Stalin responsible for?