In early November, 1917, as World War I raged, one of the transforming events in history occurred. The Communist “Bolsheviks,” the left-wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, ousted the provisional government established eight months earlier in czarist Russia. In its place, they established the first workers’ state in history, initially called the “Soviet Russian Socialist Republic,” and later the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” (USSR).

This Marxist IQ is dedicated to that revolution, known as the “October Revolution” because Russia was still on the old Julian calendar, instead of the Gregorian Calendar used in Europe and most of the world.

1. When World War I began, most Marxists believed that

a. Russia was ripe for socialist revolution.
b. World War I would lead to socialist revolutions.
c. socialism could only triumph in advanced industrializing countries.
d. the war set back the socialist movement.

2. In czarist Russia, when the war began, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin

a. supported the war as a war to defend Mother Russia.
b. supported the war as a way to advance socialism and democracy.
c. called for the working class to be neutral in the war.
d. called for the working class to oppose the war as an imperialist war to expand colonial empires, export capital, and deepen the oppression and exploitation of working people through the world.

3. After the overthrow of the czar and the establishment of a capitalist provisional government,

a. Peoples Councils of workers, peasants and soldiers called Soviets sprang up through the country.
b. the Provisional Government, depending on support from the Soviets, sought to continue the war and limit the expansion of the revolution in a socialist direction.
c. the Bolsheviks grew in strength in the Soviets by opposing the war and calling for a policy of “Bread, Land, and Peace.”
d. All of the above

4. In arguing against those Marxists, including some of his fellow Bolsheviks, who believed that a socialist revolution in czarist Russia was not possible given both the backwardness of the country and the effects of the war, Lenin contended

a. that a socialist revolution in Russia would lead to a world revolution.
b. that the Bolsheviks should organize an “occupy Moscow” movement.
c. that a socialist revolution was necessary to save the democratic revolution against the czarist autocracy and prevent Russia from becoming a dictatorship of military generals.
d. All of the above

5. Along with Vladimir Lenin, major figures would emerge from the Soviet revolution who would influence the course of Marxism and the Communist movement in the 20th century. Which one of the following was not one of these leaders?

a. Joseph Stalin
b. Leon Trotsky
c. Nikolai Bukharin
d. Alexander Kerensky

Answers here.

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