Communism in Russia (1921-1985) Name _____________________________

Unit Guide

History 8

Overall Purpose: Identify the factors that led the USSR to become a superpower. What signs of decay appeared in the Soviet system by 1985?

Main Ideas:

A) What factors led to the New Economic Policy? Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the NEP.

B) Compare and contrast the personalities and policies of Trotsky and Stalin. Why was Stalin able to emerge triumphant from this struggle?

C) Why did Stalin end NEP? Describe the process of collectivization. Why did Stalin pursue this policy?

D) What were the goals of the Five Year Plans? Assess their success.

E) Describe the Great Purges.

F) Be able to compare Russia history from 1917-1945 with George Orwell’s Animal Farm. (Pig Sheet)

G) Explain why the Soviet Union wanted to control Eastern Europe after World War II. What did “control” mean to the Soviets? Why? How did the U.S. interpret the Soviet actions?

H) What are the two main parts of the United Nations? Explain their function.

I) Name the five permanent members of the Security Council. What special right do they have? Why was the UN unable to deal with many Cold War issues?

J) Name the eight communist countries of Eastern Europe. Which one was not a satellite of the USSR? Why?

K) What was the philosophy of the Containment Policy? What was the historical foundation of this philosophy? How was this philosophy carried out?

L) Why did the Soviet Union impose the Berlin Blockade? Why did they believe that it would succeed? Why did it fail?

M) What factors led to Mao Zedong’s takeover of China?

N) Why was the Hiss Case a major shock to Americans? What were the two main effects of the case?

O) List four main reasons why many Americans believed we were losing the Cold War in 1950. How did this become a partisan political issue during the Truman administration?

P) Describe the four main phases of the Korean War. Why did President Truman dismiss General MacArthur?

Q) Describe the following aspects of Soviet foreign policy between 1953-1962:

· Relations with other communist countries

· Support for “National Liberation Movements”

· Cuba

· Berlin

R) In what ways was the Kennedy Administration a contrast from that of President Eisenhower’s? What themes were articulated in President Kennedy’s inaugural speech?

S) Describe the events that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Explain the options available to the Kennedy Administration. Critique their decisions.

T) Describe the circumstances of the assassination of President Kennedy. Why did many Americans doubt the findings of the Warren Commission?

U) In what ways did life in the Soviet Union change during the Khrushchev Era? Describe his successes and failures.

V) What factors led to the development of détente during the 1970s?

W) Describe the economic problems that became apparent during the Brezhnev Era. Explain the sources of these problems.

X) Describe the positive and negative aspects of the Brezhnev Era in comparison with previous Soviet regimes.

Key Terms:

1. Kronstadt Mutiny

2. Nikolai Bukharin

3. Comintern

4. kulaks

5. Pavlik Morosov

6. collective farms

7. Command (Planned) Economy

8. Stakhanovites

9. Sergei Kirov

10. Gulag Archipelago

11. apparatchik

12. Socialist Realism

13. Yalta Conference

14. Cold War

15. Koffi Annan

16. iron curtain

17. satellite states

18. NATO

19. Truman Doctrine

20. Marshall Plan

21. Warsaw Pact

22. Mao Zedong

23. Taiwan

24. Richard Nixon

25. The Rosenbergs

26. McCarthyism

27. Douglas MacArthur

28. KGB

29. Nikita Khrushchev

30. Twentieth Party Congress (1956)

31. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

32. Hungarian Uprising (1956)

33. Virgin Lands Program

34. Sputnik

35. Third World

36. Berlin Wall

37. Fidel Castro

38. Bay of Pigs

39. Leonid Brezhnev

40. Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968)

41. Brezhnev Doctrine

42. Solidarity

43. Chernobyl

44. blat

45. Yuri Andropov

46. Konstantin Chernenko