The Soviet Union under Stalin, 1924–1953 · TEST YOURSELF
Stalin’s Soviet Union quiz: 8 questions
8 multiple-choice questions on The Soviet Union under Stalin, 1924–1953, free to try here. Answer, then read the verdict: every answer is an argument, not a flashcard.
Why did the post of General Secretary, which Stalin held from 1922, give him an advantage over Trotsky, Zinoviev and Bukharin?
The Secretariat controlled appointments across the party. Secretaries who owed Stalin their posts chose congress delegates, so he could build majorities long before his rivals saw the danger.
What did Stalin’s article “Dizzy with Success”, published in Pravda on 2 March 1930, do?
Faced with mass revolts, Stalin called a tactical retreat and blamed over-zealous officials. Millions of peasants left the farms within weeks, but collectivisation resumed in the autumn of 1930 through taxes and quotas.
The Urals–Kuznetsk Combine linked Magnitogorsk with the Kuznetsk basin in Siberia. What did its trains carry?
Magnitogorsk had iron ore but poor coal, while Kuznetsk had rich coal. Trains shuttled about 2,000 km each way so that both cities could make steel, a costly link justified by security and planning.
What did “socialist realism”, adopted at the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, require of writers and artists?
Socialist realism demanded optimistic art that showed the future the party promised, with positive heroes and clear messages. Writers, Stalin had said in 1932, were “engineers of human souls”.
What did the decree of 27 June 1936 change in Soviet family life?
Worried about a falling birth rate, the state reversed the revolution’s family policy. Births rose in 1937 and then fell again as illegal abortions spread, while women continued to work full time.
Order No. 227 of 28 July 1942, issued after the fall of Rostov, is remembered by its slogan. What was it?
The order forbade retreat without permission and created penal battalions and blocking detachments behind the front. It reflected the crisis of summer 1942, before the turning point at Stalingrad.
What was the Zhdanovshchina, launched in August 1946?
Named after Andrei Zhdanov, it began with a resolution against the journals Zvezda and Leningrad that drove Akhmatova and Zoshchenko from literary life, and spread to music, theatre and science.
Which of these did Khrushchev’s Secret Speech of February 1956 condemn?
Khrushchev blamed Stalin personally and dated the crimes from 1934, which protected the party and the policies of collectivisation and industrialisation that he and his colleagues had helped to carry out.
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