2. What were the working and living conditions of the Euorpean work force when Marx wrote the Manifesto (1848)?

3. What was the situation with workers in the U.S. at that time?

4. Why did socialism not find more followers in the U.S., compared with Europe?

5. What is "dialectical materialism"? (Hegel)

-thesis
-antithesis
-synthesis

6. What is "historical materialism?

-tribal stage
-ancient stage
-feudal stage
-capitalist stage
-communist stage

7. What was the main contradiction that Marx thought he saw in capitalism?

8. What country became the first socialist nation in the world?

9. Was Lenin's Russia authoritarian?

10. How did Lenin alter Marxism?

What Is To Be Done?

11. How was Stalinism different from Leninism? (totalitarianism)

12. Could the Provisional Government have stayed in power? How?

13. Was the USSR more a product of Lenin's or of Stalin's rule?

14. What is "socialism in one country?" Whose idea was it? Who opposed it? (Leon Trotsky)

15. Who were the kulaks?

16. Was Stalin (Yosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili) an accident?

-"The Great Purge"

17. Did central planning help produce rapid economic growth in any countries at any time during the 20th century? (Remember Nike in China.)

18. What was the Warsaw Pact? How did the USSR relate to other Warsaw Pact countries economically?

19. What did Mikhail Gorbachev try to do differently? How is this related to the doctrine of "harmony of interests"? What happened when Gorbachev begain to question the "harmony of interests" doctrine?

20. What happened in Berlin and Beijing in 1989 that signalled a change in global politics?

21. Why is the former USSR's transition away from Communism proving to be problematic?

22. How differently have China and Russia gone about the process of pursuing economic reform in the current period?

23. How much did culture have to do with the differences in approach?

24. Which countries today have leaders who profess Communism? (China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba)

25. Have any formerly Communist countries joined the EU?

26. What are the key challenges facing countries such as Russia that are making a transition away from Communism? (trying to build a democratic state from the ashes of a Leninist one, trying to create a market economy out of the ruins of a command economy, trying to develop a culture that will stress individualism and personal initiative out of a culture that, in some cases, was basically collectivist)

27. Why has the transition been more rapid in such countries as Poland and the Czech Republic than in Russia?

28. Which economy is the fastest growing in the world?

29. How well do Islam and the Communist Party go together?

1. Is socialism possible without a large bureaucracy?

2. What is the purpose of the CIS?

3. Does Putin’s background explain his goals and actions?

4. How did Putin change the Russian electoral system? What is it now?

Why did the 1991 coup fail?

What, if anything, did the coup have to do with the demise of the USSR?

What happened in Moscow in October 1993? What did it say about Yeltsin? How has it been related to Russians' views about democracy?

1. What was the main idea that unified Yeltsin's political approach?

2. Why was there conflict between Gorbachev and Yeltsin?

3. How was Gorbachev typically viewed in the West and in the U.S.?

4. How much support did Gorbachev receive from democratic forces in Russia?

5. When was the August coup? (August 19)

6. What was the Union Treaty? When had it been scheduled to be signed? (August 20)

9. To whom did Yeltsin almost lose the presidential election in 1996? (Gennady Zyuganov) What saved the day for Yeltsin?

10. Did Yeltsin create a political party?

11. How did Vladimir Putin happen to become Russia's second president?

1. How can you tell if a system is based on ideology? Was the Soviet system? What empirical indicators could you look for?

2. What is civil society and how do you get it? Is it the same as pluralism?

3. Has Russia now stabilized, or is it still “ Weimar Russia”?

4. What is the difference between immoral business behavior in America and Russia?

5. Why did we think Russia after communism would quickly become like us?

6. What is Huntington's concept of "civilizational divide." How could a person take issue with this perspective?

1. What did Gorbachev attempt to do and why? Why did he fail?

2. How would you define conservative and liberal in the Russian context?

3. Who were Russia’s oligarchs and what became of them?

4. Why did reforms work in Central Europe but not in Russia?

Terms: shock therapy, red-brown

1. Why did analysts fail to grasp the decay of the Soviet Union?

2. Is it fair to compare Poland’s economic shock therapy with Russia’s?

3. Does Russia now have capitalism? Why or why not?

4. What happened to Russia’s economy in 1998? How does it compare to Mexico?

5. What happened in Chechnya? Could similar things occur?

6. What is the near abroad and why do Russians want it?

7. Is Russia's population growing or declining? Why?

Define: middle way

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