The Purges
Why was Nikolai Bukharin arrested and put on trial? Does he accept his fate (likely death)
He was arrested for opposition to Stalin and the possibility of overthrowing him. He largely accepted his fate.
According to the Party, what is a wrong with the current state of soviet music and performance arts? Give one reason.
It does not connect with the listener, and it was not socialist enough.
True or False: The Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars goal was to regulate the teaching of history in Soviet schools.
True
In ”Stupidity” by Mikhail Koltsov, what is the author arguing causes societal downfall?
Stupidity.
What does the USSR stand for?
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
What were some reasons that Stalin purged people in the book’s documents?
For being too Leninist, going against him, just not being good enough, exposing the purges.
What does the author Shelia Fitzpatrick compare energy of the state-backed public trials to?
The author compares these public trials to carnivals.
What does Stalin’s term “dizzy with success” mean?
The perception that the country is doing so well that the people lose sense of reality.
In “The Wedding”, why doesn’t Volodka recognize his wife?
She took off her coat
Stalin’s favorite movie genre?
Westerns.
Facing a military tribunal and imminent execution, what were one of the things that Bukharin requested before his death?
Just to die, Not go through the trial, Let him die through poison, To say goodbye to his family, If he lives, to go to America and wage war against Trotsky.
How does the Central Committee portray the Jewish Writers Association? Name one.
Unprofitable, nationalist, unpopular, and Zionist.
What does “For the Fatherland” say about what should happen to traitors?
They should be punished unmercifully.
What is the room in which the protagonist in “The Housing Crisis” lives?
The bathroom in a communal building.
Stalin went to school for originally what profession?
Seminary to be a priest.
True or False: Stalin and Molotov’s suspicion of the Red Army was alerted by false information spread from within the Soviet Union.
False, the disinformation originated in Europe and passed on by the Germans.
What is Khruschev apologizing for in his letter to Stalin?
For proposing an alternative solution to collectivization.
What reason does Stalin cite for the Communist Party being strong in New Conditions – New Tasks in Economic Construction?
The party pursues a policy of mutual confidence and mutual control among party and non-party workers.
In “How the Soviet Robinson was Written”, what element of Robinson Crusoe remains in the Soviet Robinson at the end of Moldavantsev’s discussion with the editor?
Nothing.
What was Stalin’s new state policy for the progression of socialism. Name and describe.
“Socialism in One Country.”
Why did Georgian Communist party head Lavrenti Beria begin purging communist party members, intellectuals, and Chekists in Georgia?
Threats and warnings from Moscow stating that the Georgian Communist Party was not adequately self-critical.
Where does Nikolai Viktorovich send Shura Pashchitskii following the incident with the secret police in Lu L’vova’s “Is Pashchitskii Present?”
Shura Pashchitskii is sent to exile in a “distant Siberian village."
In "A May Night" what is the term Mandelstam uses to describe what the Secret Police are doing?
They are conducting a "night operation."
In “Poverty”, what is the landlady’s reasoning for shutting off the electricity?
She doesn’t want to see the living conditions of poverty.
What American engineer was responsible for the T-34 and BT?
J. Walter Christie.