key questions for discussion, week II

Be sure as you answer these questions that you considered the evidence in all of the readings for this week. 

Be prepared to discuss the differences between what Suny said in the textbook reading assignment, what Kuromyia said in the first chapter of his book on Stalin.

Most of these are not questions that you can answer by simply "telling me a few facts"--they require that you first learn the "facts" and then think carefully about what the facts mean.  If you are well prepared, you should be able to talk about each question for at least 5-10 minutes!

1. At the beginning of the twentieth century, what were the basic differences between these political programs of the Russian Marxists (the Social Democratic Labor Party), the Populists (the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries), and the Liberals (the Constitutional Democrats)?

2. What were the most important causes of the split in the Social Democratic Labor Party between the Bolsheviks (Lenin's faction) and the Mensheviks (Martov's faction)?

3. What were the most important short-term and long-term causes of the 1905 Revolution?

4.  What were the most important results of the 1905 Revolution?  Did it succeed or fail?  Explain your position!  [for instance, what groups seemed to get what they had wanted as a result of the revolution and what groups did not?]

5. Between the 1906 and 1914, was Russia becoming more or less stable politically?  And was the rapid growth of a capitalist economy, of commercial culture, and of cities making Russia more or less socially stable?  Explain your position!

6.  In pre-World War One Russia, was nationalism promoting greater integration of peoples into Russian society, or was it fostering the disintegration of Russian society?  Explain you position!

Read the documents in Hickey, chapters 1 and 2 on World War One.  Be prepared to discuss the ways that different groups reacted to the war and the strains that the war created for Russian society!