Additional Questions - CHAPTER 2: SOCIALISM IN EUROPE AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION CONCEPTS THE AGE OF SOCIAL CHANGE

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [3 MARKS]:
Q.1. Differentiate between the ideas of the liberals and radicals in Europe (take the time period as after the French Revolution).
Ans.1-The liberals did not believe in universal franchise. In contrast, radicals wanted a nation in which government was based on the majority of a country’s population.
2-Liberals felt men of prosperity mainly should have the vote. They did not want the vote for women. On the other hand the radicals supported women’s suffragette movements and opposed the privileges of great landowners and wealthy factory owners.
3-They were not against the existence of private property but disliked concentration of property in the hands of a few.
Q.2.Why do we say that liberals during this time could not be called ‘democrats’?
Ans.The liberals opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers and wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals against governments.
·         They also argued for a representative, elected parliamentary government, subject to laws interpreted by a well-trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and officials. But, however, they could not be called democrats.
·         They did not believe in universal adult franchise and also did not want the vote for women. They felt right to vote should only be for men of property.
Q.3. How should society, according to liberals and radicals, develop?
Ans. 1. Liberals and radicals were often property owners and employers.
2. They acquired wealth through industrial ventures and trade, they firmly believed that such efforts should be encouraged that its profits would be reaped if the work force in the economy was healthy and citizen were educated.
3. They put forth that societies could develop if the poor could labour, freedom of individuals was ensured and those with capital could operate without restraint.
Q.4. Why were socialists against private property and saw it as the root of all social ills?
Ans 1-. The people who propagated socialism said that individuals, who owned property, did provide employment to many people but they were concerned with personal gains only.
2- They did not bother about the welfare of the people.
3-They felt that if society controlled property, more attention would be paid to collective social interests.
Q.5. Describe the incident known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.
Ans. 1. Over 110,000 workers in St. Petersburg went on strike in 1905, demanding a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and improvement in working conditions.
2. When this procession reached the Winter Palace it was attacked by the police and the Cossacks. 3. Over 100 workers were killed and about 300 wounded.
This incident, known as Bloody Sunday, started a series of events that became known as the 1905 Revolution.
Q.6.What effects did the war have on the industry of Russia.
Ans. Russian industries were very few in number and the country was cut off from other suppliers of industrial goods by German control of the Baltic Sea. Industrial equipment disintegrated more rapidly in Russia than elsewhere in Europe. By 1916 railway lines began to break down. Able bodied men were called up to the war. As a result, there were labour shortages and small workshops producing essential commodities were shut down.
Q.7. Why was the decision to collectivise farms taken?
Ans. 1. It was thought that rich peasants and traders in the countryside were holding stocks in the hope of higher prices.
2. This created a shortage.
3. As shortage continued, the decision was taken to collectivise farms as Lenin felt that the small size of farms caused the shortage.                                     4. They also felt that these small size farms could not be modernised.
5. They felt that the need of the hour was to develop modern farms and run them along industrial lines with machinery.
Q.8. “By the 1950s it was acknowledged within the country that the style of government in the USSR was not in keeping with the ideals of the Russian Revolution.” Why was this said?
Ans. 1. In 1950s it was acknowledged within the country that the style of government in the USSR was not in keeping with the ideals of the Russia Revolution. 2.  Russia, was a backward country, had become a great power.
3. Its industries and agriculture had developed and the poor were being fed.
4. But it had denied the essential freedoms to its citizens and carried out its developmental projects through repressive policies.
Q.9.What was the role of the Tsar in the peasant revolt of 1905? Discuss briefly.
Ans.1-During the 1905 Revolution, the Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative parliament or Duma. The Tsar dismissed it within 75 days and re-elected.
2-Second Duma: within 3 months. He did not want any questioning of his authority or any reduction in his power. He changed the voting laws and packed the third Duma with conservative politicians.
Q.10.What was the basic principle of the Marxist theory?
Ans. 1-Marx believed that the condition of workers could not improve as long as profit was accumulated by private capitalists.
2- Workers had to overthrow capitalism and the rule of private property.
3- Workers must construct a radically socialist society where all property was socially controlled. This would be a communist society and a Communist Party was the natural society of the future.
Q.11 Discuss briefly the Five Years Plans.
Ans. A process of centralised planning was introduced. Officials assessed how the economy could work and set targets for a five-year period, on this basis they made the five-year plans. The government fixed all prices to promote industrial growth during the first two plans (1927-32 and 1933-38) centralised planning led to economic growth.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [5 MARKS]:
Q.1. Explain how a society, according to socialists, can operate without property. What would be the basis of socialist society?
Ans. Co-operatives could not be built on a wide scale only through individual initiative.
1.       They wanted that governments must encourage co-operatives and replace capitalist enterprise.
2.       They said that cooperatives were to be associations of people who produced goods together and divided the profits according to the work done by members.
3.        More ideas were added to this body of arguments.
4.       These ideas were added by Karl Marx and Fredric Engels. Marx argued that industrial society was capitalist. Capitalists owned the capital invested in factories.
5.        The profit which came to them through these factories was produced by the workers. The workers contributed to the profits but did not gain anything.
Q.2.Discuss Stalin’s collectivisation programme.
Ans. 1. Stalin felt that collectivisation would definitely solve the problem of shortage.
 2. From 1929 the Party forced the peasants to cultivate in collective farms (Kolkhoz).
 3. The bulk of land and implements were transferred to the ownership of collective farms.
 4. Peasants worked on the land and the Kolkhoz profit was shared.
 5. Enraged peasants resisted the authorities and destroyed their livestock. Between 1929 and 1931 the number of cattle fell by 1/3.
Q.3. Comment on the role of Vladimir Lenin in the revolution and his contribution to the economic policy.
Ans. 1.Vladimir Lenin played an important part in the Russian Revolution of 1917.
2. Lenin led the revolutionaries after the fall of the Tsar under Lenin’s leadership; the Bolshevik Party put forward clear policies to end the war.
3. Transfer land to the peasants and advance the slogan ‘All power to the Soviets’.
4. He was of the opinion that no genuine democracy could be established unless all the non-Russians were given equal rights.
5. These were the real objectives of the Russian Revolution and he fulfilled all these objectives. That is why Lenin’s name has become inseparable from the Russian Revolution.
Q.4.What were the immediate consequences of the Russian Revolution?
Ans.1. Most industries and banks were nationalised in November 1917.
2.       This meant the government took over the ownership and management. Land was declared social property. 
3.       Peasants were allowed to seize the land of the nobility.
4.       In cities, Bolsheviks enforced the partition of large houses according to family requirements.
5.       They banned the use of old title of aristocracy.
Q.5. How did Russia's participation in the World War cause the fall of the Tsar?
Ans. 1.  The war was initially popular and people rallied around Tsar Nicholas II.
2.  As the war continued, support became thin and Tsar's popularity declined. Anti-German sentiments became high.
3. The Tsarina Alexandra's German origins and poor advisers, especially a monk called Rasputin, made the autocracy unpopular.
4. Defeats were shocking and demoralising. Russia's armies lost badly in Germany and Austria between 1914 and 1916. There were over 7 million casualties by 1917.
5. The destruction of crops and buildings led to over 3 million refugees in Russia. The situation discredited the government and the Tsar.
HOTS QUESTIONS:
Q.1- What conditions led to the Russian Civil War in 1918-1920? Any four points.
Ans. (i) The Russian army began to break up after Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution. Soldiers who were mostly peasants wished to go home for the land redistribution.
(ii)Non Bolshevik Socialists, Liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the Bolshevik uprising. Their leaders organised the troops to fight the Bolsheviks.
(iii) During 1918 and 1919, the ‘greens’ (Socialist Revolutionaries) and ‘whites’ (pro-Tsarists) controlled most of the Russian empire. They were backed by French, American, British and Japanese troops. As these troops and the Bolsheviks fought a civil war, looting, banditry and famine became common.
(iv)Supporters of private property among ‘whites’ took harsh steps against peasants who had seized land.
Q.2- Comment on the global influence of the Russian Revolution.
Ans.1- Existing socialist parties in Europe did not wholly approve of the way the Bolsheviks took power and kept it.
2-Still the possibility of a workers’ state fired their imagination across the world. In many countries communist parties were formed.
3-Bolsheviks encouraged colonial people to follow their example. Many non-Russians received education in the USSR’s University of the Peoples of the East. By the time the Second World War broke out, the USSR had given socialism a global face and world stature.
Q.3- What were the social, economic and political conditions in Russia before 1905?
Ans. Social conditions: People of different social status, classes, religions and diverse nationalities were there. Imposition of Russian language was made to belittle the cultures of these people. Main groups of Russian population were farmers, workers, landowners, capitalists, industrialists and traders.
Economic conditions: 85 per cent of Russians were agriculturists. Agriculture provided employment to a vast population. Cultivators produced food for market as well as their own needs
Political conditions: Nobles got their power and position through their services to the Tsar, not through local popularity. This was unlike France where peasants respected nobles and fought for them. In Russia, peasants wanted the land of the nobles; they refused to pay rent and even murdered landlords.
VALUE BASED QUESTION:
Q.1. Why socialists were against private property?
Q.2. Mention the demands of the workers who went on strike at St. Petersburg in 1904.

Q.3. Discuss the causes that led to the Revolution of 1917

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