16E:178 Final Exam Study Guide

Like the midterm, the final exam will consist of two part: a take home essay and an in-class, short answer section.

I. Final Exam Essay Question (50%)

This essay is to be done at home. It must be typed, double-spaced, 1” margins all around, 12 point font. It should be 5 pages long and is due at the start of the short-answer portion of the final exam (December 14, 7 p.m.). You must use material from the lectures, assigned readings, and films in support of an argument. As it is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your mastery of the material presented in this class, you should rely on assigned materials, not on outside sources. Brief, in text, parenthetical citations of common readings are adequate (e.g. Kollantai, 107). You must make use of the many primary sources you have analyzed in class discussions. You are responsible for including material from the entire semester.

You will be graded on a variety of factors including:

A clear thesis statement
Strong topic and transition sentences
The judicious, effective use of evidence in support of a clear argument
The reliance on assigned texts for evidence
Clarity of thought and argumentation
Organization
Grammar and spelling
Completeness

Please answer the following question:

The 1917 to 1945 period was a time of both triumph and tragedy. The peoples of the Russian Empire and, later, the USSR weathered war, revolution, civil war, famine, and political persecution, only to face the unfathomable devastation of World War II. Their society was transformed through rapid industrialization, and a massive expansion of the educational and public health systems. Policies toward women and non-Russian minorities transformed the social landscape. As the dust of World War II settled, the USSR emerged as one of the world’s two great superpowers—something no one would have imagined amid the chaos of 1917. In the end, were the peoples of the former Russian Empire better off after thirty years of Soviet rule than they were before? With specific reference to evidence from readings, lectures, and films, discuss the position of the Soviet peoples from political, social, and economic perspectives. Your answer must address the entire 1917-45 period.

Suggestions:

This is NOT a "yes" or "no" question. Rather, in assessing the position of the Soviet people circa 1945, consider the tensions (class, gender, ethnicity) that impinge on an assessment of the population's position and how these factors complicate our understanding of the course of Soviet history.

Part II: Short Answers (50%)

All short answers will be drawn from terms, names, places, etc. that appeared in the PowerPoint presentations or were discussed during lecture or discussion section. Other possible IDs include the authors and titles of assigned readings and films.

To receive full credit, a short answer should give both the meaning and the significance. Significance means addressing the question of what makes this particular term important for understanding Soviet history. Try to explain the significance in the broadest terms. Reference to the readings required where appropriate. Situate your answer chronologically whenever possible. Your answer must be written in complete sentences.

To help you understand what is meant by “meaning” and “significance, here is an example of a short answer for the term War Communism:

War Communism was the economic system instituted by the Bolsheviks in order to prosecute the Civil War. It lasted from 1918 to 1921. This policy involved nationalization of industry, grain procurement, and labor requisitioning. While the system did facilitate the Bolsheviks victory in the Civil War, it failed to revive Soviet Russia’s failing economy. Agricultural production stood at only ½ of the 1913 figure, while industrial production was only 1/5. The populace grew restless under the hardship of war communism and eventually the government was forced to retreat from its extreme efforts to institute socialism and return to a more mixed economy in the form of NEP. The significance of war communism is that, although is was a failure as a long term policy, it succeeded in saving the Bolshevik regime from the immediate Civil War crisis, launching seventy years of Soviet rule in the former Russian empire. Further, when NEP began to fail, War Communism would provide the communists with an example of an economic alternative.

Finite list of possible short answer terms:

Autocracy

Westernizers

Slavophiles

Peter the Great

Nicholas I

Alexander II

Nicholas II

Russian Social Democratic Workers Party

Mensheviks

Social Revolutionaries

Bolsheviks

Russo-Japanese War

Bloody Sunday

October Manifesto

Lena Gold Fields Massacre

Georgii Rasputin

February Revolution

Constituent Assembly

April Theses

Alexander Kerensky

July Days

Kornilov Affair

Red Guards

October Revolution

Vladimir Lenin

Lev Trotsky

Alexandra Kollantai

Civil War

Allied Intervention

“Have You Enrolled As A Volunteer?” (1920)

October

Bed and Sofa

Vasilisa Malagina

New Economic Policy

Smychka

Khozrashchet

NEPmen/NEPwomen

Scissor’s crisis

Zhenotdel

Family Code of 1926

Hudjum

Stalin Revolution

Nikolai Bukharin

Josef Stalin

Kulak

Siberian Method

Collectivization

Industrialization

Cultural Revolution

Great Turn

Dekulakization

Communes

Associations

Artels

Famine (1932-33)

Shakhty Affair

Women and Stalinism

Small peoples of the North

Great Terror

Great Purges

Gulag

17^th Party Congress

Sergei Kirov

Nazi-Soviet Pact

Battle of Stalingrad

Ivan’s War

WWII’s demographic impact