Test: Socialism in Europe & The Russian Revolution- 2 - UPSC MCQ

Conservatives were against the any type of political or social change because they do not want any change in society and they want to follow ancient rules that's why they are against any change in the society.

Russia faced a very tough situation during the First World War. The war on the eastern front' differed from that on the 'western front'.Defeats were shocking and demoralising. Russia's armies lost badly in Germany and Austria between 1914 and 1916. By 1916, railway lines began to break down. 

The First World War badly hit the Russian industries. Russia's own industries were 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 essentials were shut down.Large supplies of grain were sent to feed the army.

Hence, all the statements are correct.

Karl Marx wanted to overthrow Capitalism as he felt the system to be exploitative of the laborers, known as the proletariat. 

He felt that the capitalists were only interested in the expansion of business and in the increase of their profits. 

They were not concerned with the benefits of the people putting in their labour.

The Second International (1889–1916), the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on 14 July 1889. At the Paris meeting, delegations from twenty countries participated.The International continued the work of the dissolved First International, though excluding the still-powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and unions and by 1922 April 2 at a major post-World War I conference it began to reorganize into the Labor and Socialist International.

The correct option is D.
The French Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a dramatic change in the way in which society was structured.
(ii) Before the 18th century society was broadly divided into estates  and orders and it was the aristocracy and church which controlled  economic and social power.
(iii) Suddenly, after the revolution, it seemed possible to change this. In many parts of the world including Europe and Asia, new ideas  about individual rights and who controlled social power began to  be discussed.
(iv) In India, Raja Rammohan Roy and Derozio talked of the significance of the French Revolution and many others debated the ideas of post-revolutionary Europe.
(v) The developments in the colonies, in turn, reshaped these ideas of societal change.
 

Liberals were not ‘democrats’. They did not believe in universal adult franchise, that is, the right of every citizen to vote. They felt men of property mainly should have the vote. They also did not want the vote for women.

The Russian autocracy  was  unpopular :-

1. Tsar was a dictator. Under him the condition of peasants and workers became miserable because he never paid attention to their interests.

so they always remained deprived .

2. Also, the defeat of russia in world war ignited the anger among people. particularly, tsars adviser - rasputin made autocracy more unpopular.

THE STATEMENT THEY WERE ONE UNITED GROUP FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS IS NOT CORRECT. Throughout the late nineteenth century, socialists were active in the countryside. In 1900, they founded the Socialist Revolutionary Party. This political group fought for peasant rights and asked that land owned by nobility be given to peasants.

Explanation: Concerning peasants, Social Democrats differed from Socialist Revolutionaries. Peasants, according to Lenin, were not a unified group. Some were impoverished, while others were wealthy; some were labourer's, while others were business owners who employed others.

They couldn't all be part of a socialist movement because of their differences. The party was split over the organization's strategy. In a repressive society like Tsarist Russia, Vladimir Lenin (the Bolshevik leader) believed that the party should be disciplined and control the quantity and quality of its members.

Liberals in Russia campaigned to change the situation.

During the 1905 revolution, they campaigned with peasants and workers, alongside the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, to seek a constitution.

Over 110,000 workers in St Petersburg went on strike one day, demanding a decrease in the working day to eight hours, wage increases, and better working conditions.

The police and Cossacks attacked the procession of workers led by Father Gapon as it approached the Winter Palace. Over a hundred workers were murdered, with another 300 injured.

Workers in England and Germany began forming associations to fight for better living and working conditions. They set up funds to help members in times of distress and demanded a reduction of working hours and the right to vote. In Germany, these associations worked closely with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and helped it win parliamentary seats. By 1905, socialists and trade unionists formed a Labour Party in Britain and a Socialist Party in France. However, till 1914, socialists never succeeded in forming a government in Europe.

European states usually discriminated in favour of one religion or another. Britain favoured the Church of England, Austria and Spain favoured the Catholic Church. Liberals opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers. They wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals against governments and argued for a representative, elected parliamentary government, a well-trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and officials. They were not democrats and did not believe in the universal adult franchise. They felt that the men of property mainly should have the vote and did not want the vote for women.

Conservatives were opposed to radicals and liberals. After the French Revolution, however, even conservatives had opened their minds to the need for change. Earlier, in the eighteenth century, conservatives had been generally opposed to the idea of change. By the nineteenth century, they accepted that some change was inevitable but believed that the past had to be respected and change had to be brought about through a slow process.

When the procession of workers led by Father Gapon reached the Winter Palace it was attacked by the police and the Cossacks. Over 100 workers were killed and about 300 wounded. The incident, known as Bloody Sunday, started a series of events that became known as the 1905 Revolution.

To support the new political trends there was massive expansion creating more infrastructures and rising cities.

Both liberals and radicals firmly believed in value of individual effort, labour and enterprise. They were in favour of privileges based on merit not birth.

The liberals were in favour of safeguarding the rights of individuals against governments and hence opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers,they also argued for a representative, elected parliamentary government, whereas radicals opposed the privileges of great landowners and wealthy factory owners and disliked the concentration of power in the hands of few but were not against the existence of private property. So, Both liberals and radicals become revolutionaries in France, Italy, Russia etc as wanted to overthrow the existing monarchs.

By the mid-nineteenth century in Europe, socialism was a well-known body of ideas that attracted widespread attention.
Socialists were against private property and saw it as the root of all social evils of the time. rather then single individuals controlling property, they wanted that more attention would be paid to collective social interests.  

Giuseppe Mazzini, (born June 22, 1805, Genoa [Italy]-died March 10, 1872, Pisa, Italy), Genoese propagandist and revolutionary, founder of the secret revolutionary society Young Italy (1832), and a champion of the movement for Italian unity known as the Risorgimento. 

​The Russian honorific "tsar"—sometimes spelled "czar"—derives from none other than Julius Caesar, who predated theRussian empire by 1,500 years. Equivalent to a king or an emperor, the Tsar was the autocratic, all-powerful ruler of Russia, an institution that lasted from the mid-16th to the early 20th centuries.

Communism is a system of government where all the property is public and the government owns and controls the manufacturing and transportation industries. People share equally from the benefits of labor and they receive the things they need from the government.