Hist16E:178

Fall 2006

Michaels/Haugeberg

 

MIDTERM EXAM STUDY GUIDE

 

I. Midterm Exam Essay Question (50%)

 

This essay is to be done at home.  It must be typed, double-spaced, 1” margins all around.  It should be 4-5 pages long and must be turned in at the start of the in-class, short-answer portion of the midterm exam (October 12).  You must use material from the lectures and assigned books 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 are strong encouraged to make use of the many primary sources you have analyzed in class discussions (Steinberg, Kollontai, Structures).  You are responsible for including material through week seven.

 

You will be graded on a variety of factors including:

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

 

Please answer one of the following questions:

 

1. There is no question that the first decade after the collapse of the Russian autocracy was full of upheaval—war, revolution, civil war, shifting economic and social courses, etc.  But beyond the ubiquitous tumult and instability, how would you characterize the eras of the revolution, civil war and NEP?  Looking at the period from 1917 to 1927, what would you identify as the single most dominant characteristic of each of the following: state, society, and the economy?

 

2. Imagine that you were an industrial worker (male or female) in 1917 Petrograd.  You were 25 years old, married, with two small children, when the Romanov dynasty was overthrown in February 1917.  On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, you decide to write down your reflections on the state, society and the economy over the past decade.  (coincidentally, in your library you have Steinberg, Kollontai, the Suny books, and you’ve seen October and Bed and Sofa).  In your opinion, what are the Bolshevik successes and failures in light of the promises the party made 10 years ago? [don’t forget to write in the first person!]

 

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 where appropriate is urged.  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

 

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