The final exam is worth 25% of the grade for the course. Below is a sample exam.
Final Exam
Please look through the whole test before beginning. Make sure you have written your name on the front.
Section 1 is worth 25% of the grade.
Section 2 is worth 75% of the grade, 25% per question.
Manage your time carefully.
Section 1: 30 Minutes
Give brief identifications of 10 of the following 15 persons, terms, or passages. For passages, state the author, source (the original source, not where it was reprinted; "Sakwa" is not a good enough answer), and approximate year. If you do not remember the exact title of the source give an approximate description of the context. Remember: ANSWER ONLY 10. Please write the numbers of the ones you are answering in your blue book.
- "Our task, therefore, is to ensure that Germany can fight the war for as long as possible so that an exhausted and debilitated England and France are in no condition to destroy a Sovietised Germany."
- "Tatarsky held on to the table as he rose to his feet. He looked at the poster and thought for a second before raising his glass and speaking:
'Comrades! Let us drown the Russian bourgeoisie in a flood of images!'" - "The snow was already falling, and we still had not a single worker in the forests. The kolkhozes would not release any people. Neposedov dispatched the factory's Komsomol members to recruit workers. At the same time, we sent Giznburg requests for cheap tobacco, candy, and manufactured goods to be delivered to the forest, to entice people to work."
- "We needed to get a top-level decision on the construction of a subway system. Sverdlovsk was, after all, a city of 1,200,000 inhabitants. We needed permission from the Politburo, and I decided to go to Brezhnev."
- "Everybody is now talking about the successes of Soviet power[...]. [...] But successes have their dark side, especially when they are achieved relatively 'easily,' as it were, 'unexpectedly.' These successes sometimes lead to a spirit of self-importance and conceit: 'We can do anything!', 'Nothing can stop us!'. These successes sometimes make people drunk, people's heads become dizzy with success, the sense of measure is lost, the ability to understand reality is lost."
- "I decided to write this letter after a great deal of thought. I am a chemist, and I teach at the Leningrad Soviet Technological Institute. [...] 'We must be guided by our Marxist-Leninist principles. Comrades, we must not forgo these principles under any pretexts.' We stand on this, and we will continue to do so."
- "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."
- August coup
- Bloody Sunday
- Developed socialism
- Kronstadt
- Right Opposition
- Titular nationalities
- Trade union consciousness
- Virgin Lands
Section 2: 50 Minutes per Question
Answer each of the following questions with an essay. Please write down something for every question—and watch the time!
- One of the major points of debate regarding early Soviet history is the so-called "continuity thesis," which argues that Stalin's regime was a natural, and perhaps even the only possible, successor to the Bolshevik-dominated state Lenin created. Set out your own position on this question. Make sure to identify several specific elements of Stalin's rule and explain whether you see them as continuing or breaking with earlier Bolshevik practice.
- Agricultural issues presented constant challenges to Soviet leaders. Discuss similarities and differences in these challenges in three periods: 1917-1921, 1921-1932, and 1953-1985, drawing at least one example from each period.
- "Gorbachev intended perestroika as a set of policies to remedy serious deficiencies in the Soviet system. In one of history's greatest paradoxes, however, it was the remedies themselves which proved fatal, resulting in the system's collapse." Discuss and evaluate this comment. Be sure to include in your answer some discussion of (1) Gorbachev's analysis of the problems confronting the USSR; (2) the remedies he proposed; and (3) their consequences.