Quiz: The Foundations of Leninism

All 45 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. How large does Stalin say the Russian army was that fought for Anglo-French profits in the war?

   Thirty millions Twelve millions Two millions Five millions
2. 2. What is the fourth demand of the Leninist method?

   Participation in coalition governments The general strike as the main weapon Self-criticism by the proletarian parties Abandoning parliamentary activity
3. 3. How, according to Stalin, did the bourgeois revolution in Russia differ from those of the West?

   It strengthened the liberal bourgeoisie, which led the peasantry against the autocracy as in France It was led by the liberal nobility, which used the workers to win a constitution from the tsar It was led by the proletariat, not the liberal bourgeoisie, and won the peasants from the bourgeoisie It took place in the towns alone, without the peasantry, which remained loyal to the tsar
4. 4. How does Stalin define Leninism?

   The Marxism of the epoch of imperialism and of the proletarian revolution The philosophy of dialectical materialism applied to nature and to society A revival of the Marxism of the late 1840s The application of Marxism to the peculiar conditions prevailing in Russia
5. 5. According to Stalin, what was the decisive link for the party around 1900?

   Winning seats in the State Duma at elections An all-Russian clandestine newspaper An immediate armed rising in Moscow and Petersburg Control of the trade unions in the capital
6. 6. How does Stalin briefly define the dictatorship of the proletariat?

   As the rule of the peasantry over the towns and over their industrial workers As proletarian rule over the bourgeoisie, unbound by law, based on force As a free federation of producers’ co-operatives, without any state at all As the rule of a parliament elected by all classes equally, under a written constitution
7. 7. What did Lenin mean by “communist vanity”?

   Pride in the party’s revolutionary past and its sacrifices Uncritical admiration for Western bourgeois art and culture Contempt for the peasants and their backward small farms Believing any task can be solved by issuing decrees
8. 8. What is the first “dogma” of the Second International that Stalin rejects?

   That the peasantry is a revolutionary force and the natural ally of the workers That the proletariat may take power only when it is a majority of the people That the proletariat must smash the old state machine instead of taking it over That theory must always be subordinated to the practical needs of the movement
9. 9. Where, according to Leninist theory as Stalin puts it, will the capitalist front first be broken?

   Where the proletariat is the majority of the people Where industry is most advanced Where the chain of imperialism is weakest Where democracy is most firmly established
10. 10. From which field does Stalin borrow the distinction between strategy and tactics?

    Parliamentary procedure Military science Hegelian logic Classical political economy
11. 11. What task does Stalin say was assigned to Leninism with respect to the Second International?

    Reuniting it with the anarchists Cleaning its Augean stables Moving its headquarters to Moscow Writing its new programme
12. 12. What does Stalin call the germ of the Soviet form of state?

    The British House of Commons The Paris Commune The Zemsky Sobor The Frankfurt Parliament
13. 13. To which earlier case does Stalin compare Russia on the eve of its revolution?

    France in 1789, on the eve of the Great Revolution against the monarchy Germany in the late 1840s, on the eve of a bourgeois revolution Paris in 1871, on the eve of the first workers’ seizure of power England in the 1640s, on the eve of the revolution against Charles I
14. 14. What did “purge” (chistka) mean in the party in 1924?

    The closing of the non-party press The mass arrest and execution of party opponents by the GPU A review of membership that expelled unsuitable members The exile of Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries abroad
15. 15. Why, according to Stalin, was Russia the birthplace of Leninism?

    Marx and Engels had predicted that the revolution would begin there first Its proletariat formed a clear majority of the whole population It was the most advanced and most highly industrialised capitalist country in Europe It was the focus of imperialism’s three great contradictions
16. 16. What was the recruitment drive Stalin refers to?

    The Kronstadt amnesty of 1921 The October Enrolment of 1917 The Lenin Enrolment of 1924 The Comintern’s Second Congress of 1920
17. 17. Under which policy does Stalin name commerce as the decisive link?

    The first Five-Year Plan Collectivisation The New Economic Policy The War Communism of 1918–21
18. 18. Which two places does Stalin suggest for the next breach in the imperialist front?

    Britain and the United States Japan and the Dutch East Indies Poland and the Kingdom of Hungary British India and Germany
19. 19. What feature of Russian industry does Stalin give as one cause of the working class’s political weight?

    Its location mainly in the countryside Its high concentration in very large enterprises Its ownership by peasant co-operatives and artels Its dependence on small handicraft workshops
20. 20. From what event does Stalin date the first phase of the Russian revolution?

    The founding of Bolshevism in 1903 The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 Bloody Sunday and the revolution of 1905 The outbreak of the world war in August 1914
21. 21. Which example does Stalin give of a monarchist movement whose struggle is nonetheless revolutionary?

    Kolchak and Denikin’s campaigns to restore the tsar The amir of Afghanistan’s fight for independence The British Labour government’s policy towards Egypt The Kerensky government
22. 22. Which doctrine, added in the second edition of these lectures, does this aim of the third phase reflect?

    Socialism in one country The New Economic Policy Permanent revolution The united front
23. 23. Which two qualities make up the Leninist “style in work”?

    German discipline and French revolutionary élan Theoretical rigour and popular eloquence in mass agitation Russian revolutionary sweep and American practicality Party loyalty and the technical expertise of specialists
24. 24. Which image of the party does Stalin use here?

    A school of the working class A parliament of the workers A war staff directing an army A federation of trade unions
25. 25. Lenin’s rules on insurrection, quoted here, paraphrase which earlier writer?

    Engels Bakunin Clausewitz Blanqui
26. 26. What does Stalin call the theory of spontaneity?

    The theory of permanent revolution The ideology of trade unionism, the theory of opportunism An invention of the anarchists The foundation of Leninist strategy and tactics
27. 27. What, according to Stalin, did the four Dumas teach the peasants?

    That parliament was the road to socialism That the tsar would give them the land if they petitioned him That they should follow the liberal bourgeoisie That they could not look to the Kadets for land and liberty
28. 28. Which slogan does Stalin use to show the double-dealing of the Second International?

    “All power to the Soviets” “Peace, land and bread” “War against War” “Workers of the world, unite!”
29. 29. What “reservation” of Marx’s does Stalin say had become obsolete in the age of imperialism?

    That the revolution would come first in Russia and spread westward That the peasants could never be reliable allies of the workers in the revolution That the state machine had to be smashed only “on the Continent” That the colonies would never rise without help from Europe
30. 30. What is Stalin’s main charge against the champions of “permanent revolution”?

    They rejected Lenin’s whole theory of imperialism as un-Marxist They underestimated the peasantry’s revolutionary role They wanted to stop at the bourgeois revolution They opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat in principle
31. 31. Why does Stalin treat the peace of Brest-Litovsk as a model?

    As a well-ordered retreat that gained a breathing space As the first victory of the Red Army As proof that revolutionary war against Germany could succeed As a lasting alliance with the Western powers against Germany
32. 32. What did the Tenth Party Congress of March 1921 forbid?

    Other socialist parties abroad Criticism in the party press Fractions within the party Private trade
33. 33. How does Leninism, according to Stalin, interpret the right of self-determination?

    As the right to complete severance and independence As the right to cultural autonomy only, without political rights As the right to home rule within the empire of the ruling nation As a purely legal declaration of the equal rights of all nations
34. 34. What happened to Lenin’s wording of the first paragraph of the rules at the Second Congress in 1903?

    It was adopted unanimously It was withdrawn by Lenin himself to preserve unity It was referred to a commission It was defeated, and Martov’s looser wording adopted
35. 35. How, according to Stalin, does the revolutionary use reforms?

    As a substitute for the class struggle As the final aim of the movement As a cover for revolutionary work As something to be refused on principle
36. 36. What place does Stalin give the peasant problem in Leninism?

    A question Leninism leaves to the bourgeois-democratic parties to settle The essential foundation and starting-point of all Leninist theory A subsidiary but vital part of the question of the proletarian dictatorship A purely Western European problem
37. 37. How does Stalin describe the dictatorship of the proletariat at the start of section 4?

    As the chief fulcrum and main instrument of the revolution As a temporary emergency measure to be ended within a year As a form of national-cultural autonomy As a change of cabinet within the existing state
38. 38. Which of these is not one of the three contradictions of imperialism Stalin lists?

    The conflict between town and country The conflict between the dominant nations and the colonial peoples The conflict between rival financial groups and imperialist powers The conflict between labour and capital
39. 39. According to the Lenin passage Stalin quotes, what is true of exploiters defeated in one country only?

    They lose all their international ties and connections They soon become allies of the peasantry against the workers They remain very much stronger than the exploited They at once accept their defeat and lay down their arms
40. 40. Why does Stalin reject the view that Leninism is the application of Marxism to Russian conditions?

    It would make Leninism purely national, though it is international It overstates Lenin’s originality as a theorist beside Marx It ignores Lenin’s philosophy Lenin never made a special study of Russia’s economic conditions at all
41. 41. What does Stalin say the dictatorship of the proletariat is not?

    A rule based upon force The rule of the majority over the minority A change of ministry within the old state A new state with new organs of administration
42. 42. What does Stalin say is needed for the final victory of socialism, guaranteed against intervention?

    The victory of the revolution in at least several countries The support of the Russian peasantry alone, without outside aid The completion of the first five-year plan in industry and agriculture A majority in the Soviets
43. 43. How long did Marx, as Stalin quotes him, tell the workers they would have to struggle in order to change themselves and fit themselves for power?

    Until the next general election gave them a majority Fifteen, twenty, fifty years of civil and international wars A single decisive year of insurrection, followed by lasting peace Exactly one generation of peace and patient education
44. 44. By what means does the Lenin passage quoted by Stalin say a fully socialised society could be established in Soviet Russia?

    Through the co-operatives, with state power held by the workers Through concessions granted to foreign capitalists in heavy industry Through the gradual return of land to the former landlords Through private capitalist farms, encouraged by cheap state credit
45. 45. After the February revolution, what does Stalin say became the fundamental question of the revolution?

    How to annex Galicia How to restore the tsar How to end the war How to elect a new Duma