Review: World War 1 and Russian Revolution

1. What were the underlying causes of World War 1?

2. How was the European alliance system prior to 1914 expected to preserve the peace?

3. Why were the Balkans known as the “powder-keg” of Europe?

4. What was the “spark” that touched off a chain-reaction of events that led Europe into World War 1?

5. How did Austria-Hungary’s conflict with Serbia turn into a world war?

6. Who was guilty of starting the war?

7. Why was Germany forced to fight a 2 front war in WW1?

8. What was the German military plan at the beginning of the war?

9. What were the 4 major theaters of war during WW1?

10. What effect did Ottoman Turkey have on the Russian war effort?

11. Why did Russia withdraw from the war?

12. Which side controlled the seas during WW1?

13. How did the Germans counter English superiority on the seas?

14. Why did the U.S. enter WW1?

15. Why were the Allied Powers able to defeat Germany and her allies in the First World War?

16. At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, how did Woodrow Wilson is idealistic “vision” of the future differ with the “vision” of the other Allied leaders?

17. What was Woodrow Wilson’s “vision” of a “new Europe” and a “new world”? (14 Points)

18. Why did Germany resent the actual Treaty of Versailles?

19. Did the Treaty of Versailles offer a just peace?

20. Why did communism fail and collapse in the Soviet Union in 1991?

21. How does Soviet communism differ from Marx’s idea of communism?

22. What were the policies of the Romanov tsars in the 19th and 20th centuries?

23. What prompted the Revolution of 1905 in Russia?

24. What were the causes of the Russian Revolution in March, 1917?

25. Why did the liberal democratic Russian Revolution of March, 1917 fail?

26. How did Nikolai Lenin and Bolsheviks “capture” the Russian Revolution in November, 1917?

27. Why did a civil war follow the Russian Revolution?

28. What communist leader was most influential in bringing about a “Red” victory in the Russian civil war?

29. How did Lenin change the Soviet economy between 1918 and 1921?

30. How did Lenin handle the problem of the Soviet Union’s many national groups?

31. Why did the communists try to eradicate the Russian Orthodox Church?

32. Why did Lenin set up a New Economic Plan (1921), after the civil war?

33. What was the Comintern (3rd International)?

34. What were the aims of the Comintern?

35. When Lenin died what 2 rivals struggled to become leader of the communist party in the Soviet Union?

36. How did Stalin and Trotsky differ on the question of communist world revolution?

37. Why was Stalin criticized for developing a “cult of personality”?

38. What was the purpose of the series of 5 Year Plans begun in 1928 in the Soviet Union?

39. Why did Stalin purge Soviet citizens and communist leaders between 1935 and 1939?

40. How did Stalin’s rule lead to a totalitarian state?

41. Is communism an idea that has been discarded to the “trash heap” of history?