Question Number: 494

Modern EuropeFall 2018 – Final ExamProfessor J. Lewis, InstructorInstructions:  This exam is due no later than Wednesday, December 19 between 3-4pm in my officein NAC 5/132. No paper will be accepted after that time and date. Emailed papers arenot acceptable. Those who so wish may deliver it before that date in my mailbox atthe History Department in NAC 5/144. Please note that the office closes at 4pm.  Responses should be typed and double-spaced with one inch margins on each side,consisting of short-answers that address the questions or terms thoroughly.  Given that this is a take-home exam with ample time to complete, students areexpected to produce thorough, well-written responses.Section I – Briefly identify in two or three sentences five of the individuals or terms below fromchapters 10 and 14 of Edward Berenson's Europe in the Modern World, Volume II. (2 points each)Bloody Sunday of 1905 The Socialist ReolutionariesAlexander Kerensky The Kornilov AffairTreaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918 The ChekaThe New Economic Policy The Great PurgeSolidarity Trade Union Movement PerestroikaThe Velvet Revolution Boris YelsinCommonwealth of Independent StatesSection II – Answer each of the five questions below in a brief paragraph of five of six sentencesbased on Joseph Stalin's Speech on The Tasks of Business Executives of 1931 found athttps://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/02/04.htm (Questions 1-4 are 5 pointseach; question 5 is worth 10 points and should be more thoughtful and thorough)1. What according to Stalin were the reasons why Soviet industry grew “only” 25% in 1930 rather thanthe 31-32% that his economic plan expected for in that year?2. Stalin made the claim that the Soviet economy did not suffer from the problems of capitalism. Whatreasons does he given in support of this claim?3. Stalin claimed that the “objective conditions” for rapid growth existed in the Soviet Union but whatreasons did he give for why the growth targets of his economic plan were not being fully realized?4.Identify some of the requirements and skills that Stalin claims managers must master to fullyimplement the expected targets for economic growth? 5. Stalin claimed in this speech that “we are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We mustmake good this distance in 10 years or we will go under,” and that “those who fall behind get beaten.”Is there any truth for this claim or was it in your view merely Stalin's way of justifying the ruthlessnessby which he imposed a policy of rapid industrialization on the Soviet Union? (10pt. question)Section III – Answer each of the questions below in five of six sentences based on Parts I, II and III ofStalin's Results of the First Five Year Plan of 1933 found athttps://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1933/01/07.htm (5 points each)6. Stalin pointed out in his 1933 speech on The Results of the First Five-Year Plan that the Westernmedia were at first deeply hostile to Soviet economic policy. How did this media respond to the resultsof that policy by 1933?7. Identify some to the goals of the Five Year Plan as described by Stalin in Part II of his 1933 speechon the subject.8. Stalin identified what he considered the key goals of agricultural policy and of military policy. Whatwere they?9. What was the role of heavy industry (steel, mining, etc.) in Stalin's over-all plan for Sovietindustrialization?10. What does Stalin claim were the successes in promoting new industries of the Five Year Plan by1933 and how does he say this compared with other countries by that year?11. In Part III of this speech Stalin acknowledges that the Soviet Union was not producing sufficientconsumer goods (clothes, shoes, etc.) for its people. How does he justify this failure?12. Identify some to the goals Stalin set out for the Second Five Year Plan that was about to belaunched after 1933.Section IV – Answer both of the questions below in five or six sentences based on Nikita Khrushchevspeech of 1956 outlining Stalin's abuse of power and repression found athttps://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1956khrushchev-secret1.asp (5 points each)13. In 1956 the new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claimed that Stalin's concentration of power inhis own hands and the “cult of the individual” that was created to justify his power violated the normsof Communist leadership. How did he attempt to prove such a claim?14. Khrushchev also pointed out that Stalin accused many people of being so-called “enemies of the people.” What according to Khrushchev were the consequences of this labeling of individuals?Section V – Answer both of the questions below based on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's 2009interview about the end of European Communism found athttps://www.thenation.com/article/gorbachev-1989/ (5 points each)15. Many people have argued that the collapse of European Communism in the late 1980s-early1990s was brought about by outside pressure such as U.S. pressure during the cold war, religiousopposition mobilized by the election of John Paul II as the first Catholic Pope from a Communistcountry in 1978, or the military and financial costs to the Soviet Union during its intervention in theAfghanistan civil war of the 1980s? What is Gorbachev's response to these claims that external ratherthan internal issues led to the fall of European Communism?16. Gorbachev is extremely critical of Boris Yeltsin, his successor as President of Russia after the endof the Communist Regime. Why is he so hostile to his successor?Note: the total point value of this exam is 95 points. Five points will be given free for a total of100 points.