History and Governments of RUSSIA Part 2

1- What does the U.S.S.R. stand for?   . Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or Soviet Union.

2-The nation included 15 republics made up of different ethnic groups. Russia was the largest republic, and the Russian ethnic group dominated the Soviet Union’s government.

3- Vladimir Lenin and followers followed the ideas of Karl Marx 3- Vladimir Lenin and followers followed the ideas of Karl Marx. What did Marx believe? That industrialization created an unjust system in which factory owners held great power, while the workers held very little.

4- Explain what Lenin did to make everyone in Soviet society more equal? Lenin ended private ownership, bringing all farms and factories under control of the Soviet government.

5- Lenin’s policies were later continued by Joseph Stalin in 1924 after Lenin’s death. What were Stalin’s actions as dictator? Stalin was a harsh dictator who prevented the Soviet people from practicing their religion and had religious property seized. His secret police killed or imprisoned anyone who disagreed with his policies.

6- a. Define “command economy” Soviet leaders set up a command economy in which the government ran all areas of economic life. b. What did Soviet leaders decide under a command economy? They decided what crops farmers should grow and what goods factories should produce.

7- a. Define “collectivization” a system in which small farms were combined into large, factory-like farms run by the government. b. Government leaders hoped these farms would be more efficient and reduce the need for farm workers. Thousands of peasants could then be put to work in factories to increase industrialization.

Industrial production was more successful: 8- Describe the success and failure of the Soviet economic plan. Failure The new farms were inefficient and did not produce enough food for the Soviet people. Success Industrial production was more successful: Huge factories produced steel, machinery and military equipment. Strict government control, however, had drawbacks. The government eliminated competition, allowing only certain factories to make certain goods. This led to a lack of efficiency and poor-quality goods.

1-In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. 9- Read “Soviet Power” and list 8-10 facts. Be sure to include content vocabulary. 1-In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. 2-The Soviets joined the US and Great Britain. 3-About 20-30 million Russian soldiers and civilians died in the war. 4-After the war, Stalin wanted to make sure the Soviet Union would not be invaded again. He kept Soviet troops in neighboring eastern European countries and established Communist governments in them. 5-The US and Soviets became rivals after WWII. From the late 1940s to 1990, they were the two most powerful nations in the world and struggled for world influence: “The Cold War.”

9- Read “Soviet Power” and list 8-10 facts 9- Read “Soviet Power” and list 8-10 facts. Be sure to include content vocabulary. 6- Each superpower became the center of a group of nations. 7- Members of each group pledged to come to one another’s aid if a member country were attacked by a country from the other group. 8- The US was the chief member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO}, which included most of western Europe’s democracies. 9- The Soviet Union led the Warsaw Pact: a group of Communist countries that included most of Eastern Europe. 10- The Soviet Union and the US competed to produce military weapons and to explore outer space. 11- With so many resources going to the military, the Soviet people had to endure shortages of basic goods such as food and cars. By the 1980s, many Soviets were ready for change.

10- Read “Attempt at Reform” and list 8 facts 10- Read “Attempt at Reform” and list 8 facts. Be sure to include content vocabulary. 1- In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader. 2- He quickly began a number of reforms. Under the policy of glasnost, or openness, Soviet citizens could say or write about what they thought without fear of being punished. 3- Another policy known as perestroika, or restructuring, aimed at boosting the Soviet economy. It gave factory managers more freedom to make economic decisions and encouraged the creation of small, privately owned businesses.

10- Read “Attempt at Reform” and list 8 facts 10- Read “Attempt at Reform” and list 8 facts. Be sure to include content vocabulary. 4- Instead of strengthening the country, Gorbachev’s policies made the Soviet people doubt communism even more. 5- Huge protests against Soviet control arose across Eastern Europe. 6- By 1991, all of the region’s Communist governments had fallen. 7- Gorbachev hoped that giving some freedoms would win the people’s support. 8- When Eastern Europeans rejected continued Communist rule, Gorbachev decided not to resort to force. He refused to send troops to Eastern Europe as other Soviet leaders had done in the past.

11- Read “Collapse of the Soviet Union” and list 8 facts 11- Read “Collapse of the Soviet Union” and list 8 facts. Be sure to include content vocabulary. 1- As communism ended in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union growing unrest among its ethnic groups. 2- Gorbachev was criticized by hard-liners who wished to maintain Communist rule as well as by reformers. 3-The hard-liners wanted to stop changes. 4- The reformers felt that he was not making changes fast enough. The reformers were led by Boris Yeltsin. He became president of the largest of the Soviet republics: Russia. 5- In August 1991, hard-line Communists attempted a coup, an overthrow of the government by military force.

11- Read “Collapse of the Soviet Union” and list 8 facts 11- Read “Collapse of the Soviet Union” and list 8 facts. Be sure to include content vocabulary. 6- Yeltsin called on the people to resist. When many Russians stood firm, the hard-liners were forced to give up. 7- The coup’s failure was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Within a few months, Russia and all of the other Soviet republics declared independence. 8- By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union no longer existed as a nation. In Russia, 9- Yeltsin had some success in building democracy and a market economy. 10- His successor, Vladimir Putin, however, increased government controls to deal with rising crime and violence. 11- Challenges also came from some ethnic minorities. In the Chechnya region, a group trying to separate from Russia waged a bloody civil war.