Quiz: Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution

All 50 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. How does Lenin sum up his point about the republic in Germany and Russia?

   The final goal is nothing, the movement everything Everything real is rational, and everything rational is real The working men have no country to defend Truth is always concrete, never abstract
2. 2. How did the Conference’s resolution treat the eight-hour day, according to Lenin?

   It called for introducing it at once by revolutionary means It repeated the old slogan of agitation for an eight-hour law It rejected it as premature until the republic was won It left it to the trade unions alone
3. 3. Why did the Caucasian Mensheviks oppose entering a provisional government?

   The Tsar had already granted a constitution by the manifesto of August It would require an alliance with the anarchists and the Socialist-Revolutionaries It would make the bourgeois classes recoil and weaken the revolution’s sweep The peasants opposed any government
4. 4. What, according to Lenin, is the only answer a Menshevik could give a worker who asks about the “revolutionary commune”?

   That it was the first socialist republic in Europe That it was the kind of government ours must not be That it was a purely military organisation That it was the model of the dictatorship of the proletariat
5. 5. What objection to the slogan of the democratic dictatorship does Lenin answer?

   That the peasantry is too scattered and backward to matter in the revolution That a dictatorship presupposes a single will, which workers and petty bourgeois lack That the bourgeoisie already holds power That a dictatorship is incompatible with the convocation of a constituent assembly
6. 6. From what, according to Lenin, does the Russian working class chiefly suffer?

   The peasant commune The insufficient development of capitalism Foreign competition with Russian industry Too much capitalism in the towns
7. 7. What does Lenin say the Menshevik resolution on a provisional government forgot to mention?

   The republic The eight-hour day The peasantry The armed uprising
8. 8. How does Lenin say Struve evades the question of the uprising?

   He leaves the question to be settled by the Zemsky Sobor He speaks of its inevitability instead of its necessity He denies that any unrest has yet begun in the countryside He calls for an immediate uprising
9. 9. How does Lenin answer the objection that he is postponing the socialist revolution?

   It must wait until the whole of Western Europe has first become socialist The socialist revolution is not a Marxist aim at all, but an anarchist one The democratic republic is the first step towards it, by the only correct road The peasantry will carry it out alone
10. 10. Whom does Lenin call “the Girondists of contemporary Russian Social-Democracy”?

    The Socialist-Revolutionaries The Osvobozhdenie people The Bolsheviks The new-Iskrists
11. 11. What question does Lenin say exposed the opportunist wing in German Social-Democracy?

    “Where to begin?” “Reform or revolution?” “Dare we win?” “What is to be done?”
12. 12. What does Lenin say the Conference’s acceptance of “revolutionary communes” concedes in principle?

    Revolutionary action not only from below but also from above That the uprising should be confined to the Caucasus That the socialist revolution has begun in Russia That Social-Democrats should boycott the constituent assembly
13. 13. What “trifle” does Lenin say the Tiflis Menshevik forgets?

    The Zemsky Sobor The army The liberal press The peasantry
14. 14. Which two slogans does Lenin say can push the revolution forward beyond the limits of the monarchist bourgeoisie?

    Peace and bread Land to the peasants and the eight-hour working day A constituent assembly and universal, equal suffrage A provisional revolutionary government and a republic
15. 15. For what did the Neue Rheinische Zeitung reproach Camphausen in 1848?

    For abolishing the feudal dues without compensation For signing a peace treaty with Russia For not acting dictatorially to smash the remnants of the old institutions For dissolving the Prussian National Assembly by force
16. 16. What role does the new-Iskrist resolution assign Social-Democracy towards the provisional government?

    To share power with the liberals in a coalition cabinet To seize power alone at the first opportunity To remain the party of extreme revolutionary opposition To boycott the uprising
17. 17. What did the new Iskra call Social-Democratic participation in a provisional revolutionary government?

    A variety of Millerandism A kind of anarchism Economism in a new political form A form of Blanquist conspiracy
18. 18. Why does Lenin think the liberals’ judgements deserve attention even though they are distorted?

    Because Struve was once a Social-Democrat Because they were secretly written by Mensheviks under assumed liberal pseudonyms Because the bourgeoisie’s class instinct grasps which tendencies serve it Because they are objectively accurate descriptions of the Social-Democratic factions
19. 19. What did Marx say the Frankfurt Assembly was doing while the German governments “placed the bayonet on the agenda”?

    Negotiating with the workers’ associations of the Rhineland Organising an armed uprising Drafting a common tariff for the whole German customs union Busying itself with school exercises in parliamentarism
20. 20. Which three political trends does Lenin identify on the question of a constituent assembly?

    The Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries in the cities The Duma, the zemstvos and the Soviets The nobility, the clergy and the merchants of the old estates assembly The tsarist government, the revolutionary proletariat and the liberal bourgeoisie
21. 21. Which letter of Engels did Iskra cite against Vperyod?

    His letter to Sorge on the American labour movement His letter to Bebel on the Gotha draft His letter to Bloch on historical materialism and the economic factor His letter to Turati on the coming Italian revolution
22. 22. Whom does Struve’s talk of revolution remind Lenin of?

    Thiers, who declared himself of the party of revolution before February 1848 Louis Bonaparte, who posed as the saviour of the revolution in 1851 Robespierre, who called for terror against the enemies of the people in 1793 Lassalle, who negotiated with Bismarck while speaking of revolution in 1863
23. 23. To which assembly does Lenin compare the “decisions” that the Menshevik resolution counts as victory?

    The Paris Commune of 1871 The French Constituent Assembly of 1789 The Frankfurt Parliament of 1848 The Long Parliament of 1640
24. 24. In the socialist revolution, which ally does Lenin assign to the proletariat?

    The mass of the semi-proletarian elements of the population The liberal bourgeoisie The army officers The whole peasantry, including the rich peasants and kulaks
25. 25. What does Lenin say a “decisive victory of the revolution over tsarism” is?

    A constitutional monarchy led by the liberals of the Osvobozhdeniye League The revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry A Zemsky Sobor elected by universal suffrage The socialist dictatorship of the proletariat alone, without the peasantry
26. 26. What kind of assembly did the tsarist government appear willing to grant, according to reports of the Bulygin commission?

    A Soviet of workers’ deputies No assembly of any kind A constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage A consultative assembly on a narrow franchise
27. 27. What does Lenin add to Marx’s description of revolutions as the locomotives of history?

    They are always made by a small and resolute minority Like Saturn, they always devour their own children in the end They are the midwives of every old society pregnant with a new They are festivals of the oppressed and exploited
28. 28. According to the Epilogue, which tendency did the liberal Osvobozhdenie praise?

    The Third Congress, for its resolution on the armed uprising Neither faction, since it condemned both equally The new-Iskrists, for their “realism” and “common sense” The Socialist-Revolutionaries, for their peasant programme
29. 29. How does the slogan of dictatorship define the “method of building” the new superstructure?

    As the gradual extension of the zemstvos’ rights under the tsar’s government As a coalition government with the liberal bourgeoisie and the Constitutional-Democrats As the forcible suppression of forcible resistance and arming of the revolutionary classes As the election of a constituent assembly by universal, equal and secret ballot
30. 30. With what slogan, according to Lenin, did Struve begin his political career in the illegal press?

    “Down with the autocracy!” “Rights and an authoritative Zemstvo” “All land to the peasants” “A constituent assembly now”
31. 31. Which article by Struve does Lenin analyse in chapter 8?

    “How to Find Oneself” “The Zemsky Sobor and Our Tactics” “Two Dictatorships and the People” “The Tasks of the Liberal Party”
32. 32. Which three presentations of the question of armed uprising does Lenin compare?

    The Third Congress resolution, Struve’s article and the new-Iskrist Conference resolution Marx in 1848, Engels in his 1895 introduction, and Kautsky in his recent Neue Zeit articles The programmes of the Bolsheviks, the anarchists and the Socialist-Revolutionaries on insurrection Iskra, Vperyod and Proletary
33. 33. Which text of Marx does Lenin cite against the new-Iskrists’ way of describing the revolution?

    Marx’s theses on Feuerbach The Gotha Critique The preface to Capital The Eighteenth Brumaire
34. 34. In what sense does Lenin say a bourgeois revolution is more advantageous to the proletariat than to the bourgeoisie?

    The bourgeoisie wants to keep old remnants, like the monarchy, to use against workers It will hand state power to the Social-Democrats as the most consistent democrats of all It will end the class struggle by giving workers equal political rights It will immediately abolish private property in land and in all the means of production
35. 35. Which formula of Martynov’s from the “Economist” period does Lenin recall?

    “The economic struggle against the employers and the government” “Rights and an authoritative Zemstvo” “The party of extreme revolutionary opposition to the government” “The final goal is nothing, the movement is everything”
36. 36. Which Menshevik resolution did Osvobozhdenie greet as “a triumph of common sense”?

    One calling for an immediate armed uprising in the capital and in the provinces One on leading the workers’ legal trade-union struggle One calling for an active boycott of the Bulygin Duma elections One on the confiscation of the landlords’ estates without compensation
37. 37. How, according to Lenin, are the great questions of political liberty and class struggle decided in the last analysis?

    By the votes of a constituent assembly Only by force By the development of the productive forces alone By negotiation between classes
38. 38. What does Lenin say Russia has in abundance although it has no parliament?

    Parliamentary cretinism Free newspapers Constitutional lawyers and jurists Political parties of every shade
39. 39. How did Marx describe French terrorism, in the passage Lenin quotes?

    As the work of foreign agents seeking to discredit the young Republic abroad As a plebeian manner of settling accounts with the bourgeoisie’s enemies As the beginning of socialism, directed against all private property As a betrayal of the revolution by the petty-bourgeois Jacobins of the Mountain
40. 40. What question does Lenin say now faces a fighting political party?

    Whether to unite with the Socialist-Revolutionaries Whether it can teach the revolution anything Whether it should take part in the revolution at all Whether the revolution is bourgeois or socialist
41. 41. When, according to Mehring, did Marx and Engels declare themselves in favour of a separate workers’ organisation?

    In June 1848, when the Neue Rheinische Zeitung was founded In 1864, at the founding of the International In March 1850 In April 1849
42. 42. What does Lenin call the attempt to set conditions in advance for supporting bourgeois democrats?

    The theory of the “marsh” and the “swamp” The theory of the two stages The theory of “from below only” The theory of the “litmus paper”
43. 43. What did Martynov accuse Lenin of in Iskra No. 102?

    Mistranslating Marx’s 1848 articles for Proletary Imperceptibly substituting the concept of dictatorship for that of revolution Advocating a boycott of the trade unions and the legal press Allying the party with the Socialist-Revolutionaries on the peasant question
44. 44. What does Social-Democracy tell the proletariat to strive for in the revolution of the whole people?

    Support for the liberals until a constitution is won Neutrality between the liberals and the autocracy Not merely energetic but leading participation in it Concentration on the legalisation of trade unions
45. 45. Before which events does Lenin say the pamphlet was written?

    The Odessa events (the Potemkin mutiny) The Moscow December uprising Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg in January The October general strike and the Manifesto
46. 46. What programme should the provisional revolutionary government carry out, according to Lenin?

    The maximum programme of socialism The Union of Liberation’s programme The whole minimum programme of the party Only the convening of a constituent assembly
47. 47. What, according to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung passage, distinguished the German bourgeoisie of 1848 from the French bourgeoisie of 1789?

    It allied with the workers against the nobility It proclaimed a united German republic at Frankfurt It abolished all feudal obligations in a single day It betrayed the peasants, its natural allies
48. 48. In what sense, according to Lenin, do the bourgeois intellectuals accept the workers’ class struggle?

    In the Brentano or Hirsch–Duncker sense of a struggle confined to bargaining In no sense at all, since they reject the class struggle entirely In the Blanquist sense of a conspiracy of a small, armed revolutionary minority In the sense of the Communist Manifesto, as a struggle for the conquest of political power
49. 49. Why, for Lenin, does the peasantry’s instability differ from that of the bourgeoisie?

    It is already socialist, and wants the land held in common by all It depends on foreign capital and so wavers with the world market It wants the landlords’ land confiscated, not all private property protected It is organised in a strict class party with a clear programme
50. 50. What does Lenin say this dictatorship will be unable to do without intermediate stages?

    Spread the revolution to Western Europe Establish a republic Affect the foundations of capitalism Give the land to the peasants without redemption