Test: Socialism in Europe & The Russian Revolution - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Christianity was the religious self-identification of 47.1% of the Russian population in 2012. Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion of the country, and, besides it, Old Believers and Lutheranism also have had a considerable role in the multiethnic history of Russia.

The Bolsheviks, founded by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov, were by 1905 a major organization consisting primarily of workers under a democraticinternal hierarchy governed by the principle of democratic centralism, who considered themselves the leaders of the revolutionary working class of Russia.

They believed in profit and private property as they were making workers work for more time and are giving very less wages which is not enough for there livinghood in this way they make profit.

A member of the radical group within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party , which, under Vladimir I. Lenin's leadership, staged the Bolshevik Revolution . The term bol'shevik means a member of the majority and was applied to the radical members of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party after they won a majority of votes cast at a party congress in 1903. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks formed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) and began calling themselves Communists. That party was the precursor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

• Option A: Radicals - Opposed women's suffragette movements - This is incorrect. Radicals supported women's suffragette movements and opposed the privileges of great landowners and wealthy factory owners. They wanted the government to be based on the majority of a country's population, including women.
• Option B: Liberals - Supported private property and opposed universal adult franchise - This is correct. Liberals wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals against governments, argued for a representative, elected parliamentary government, and supported private property. However, they did not believe in universal adult franchise and felt that only men of property should have the vote, excluding women.
• Option C: Conservatives - Supported rapid societal change - This is incorrect. Conservatives believed that change had to be brought about through a slow process and respected the past. While they accepted that some change was inevitable, they did not support rapid societal changes.
• Option D: Socialists - Supported the concentration of property in the hands of a few - This is incorrect. Socialists were against private property and the concentration of property in the hands of a few. They believed that if society as a whole controlled property, more attention would be paid to collective social interests.

In the countryside, peasants cultivated most of the land. But the nobility, the crown and the Orthodox Church owned large properties. Like workers, peasants too were divided. They were also deeply religious. But except in a few cases they had no respect for the Source A nobility. Nobles got their power and position through their services to the Tsar, not through local popularity. This was unlike France where, during the French Revolution in Brittany, peasants respected nobles and fought for them.

Although higher wages and better working conditions might have encouraged more long-resident native-born workers to the industrial economy, the scale and pace of the American industrial revolution might well have slowed. The closing of the door to mass immigration in the 1920s did lead to increased recruitment of native born workers, particularly from the South, to northern industrial cities in the middle decades of the 20th century.

The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in 1848 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, expressing what they termed "scientific socialism". In the last third of the 19th century, social democratic parties arose in Europe, drawing mainly from Marxism.

• Before the 18th century, European society, particularly in France during the Ancien Régime, was divided into estates and orders.
• This structure included:
  • The First Estate, consisting of the clergy.
  • The Second Estate, comprising the nobility.
  • The Third Estate, which included the commoners such as peasants and merchants.
• This division was based on roles, privileges, and legal rights, significantly affecting social hierarchy and governance.

D) Tsar Nicholas II
who was the ruler of Russia in 1914, overseeing an empire that extended from Moscow to the Pacific and included territories such as Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Central Asian states, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan

Vladimir Lenin led the Bolsheviks to take Russia out of World War I in March 1918 by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany: 

Marxism, proposed by Karl Marx, is a political and economic way of organizing society, where the workers own the means of production. Socialism is a way of organizing a society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the proletariat.

Conservatives seek to preserve a range of institutions such as religion, parliamentary government, and property rights, with the aim of emphasizing social stability and continuity.

Lenin's "April Theses" called for ending the war, transferring land to peasants, and nationalizing banks. These demands reflected his radical aims for the Bolshevik Party's future direction.

• The Revolution of 1905 was caused by factors such as Bloody Sunday, the poor condition of workers, and the Russo-Japanese War.
• The October Manifesto was not a factor in causing the revolution; rather, it was a response to the uprising, issued to appease the protesters and restore order.
• Therefore, the correct answer is the October Manifesto, as it was not a factor in causing the revolution.

- The First Five-Year Plan in India started in 1951.
- This plan was launched to develop the country's economy following independence in 1947.
- The primary focus was on agriculture, aiming to increase food production and improve living standards.
- Modeled after the Soviet Union's planning system, it set the stage for systematic economic planning in India.
- The success of this plan laid the foundation for subsequent five-year plans, emphasizing balanced economic growth.

Liberals in the nineteenth century believed that men of property mainly should have the vote, indicating a restriction based on wealth for voting rights.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union occurred on 26 December 1991, officially granting self-governing independence to the Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.

• Statement (i) is correct as liberals indeed wanted a nation with religious tolerance and opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers.
• Statement (ii) is correct as radicals supported women's suffragette movements and opposed the privileges of great landowners and wealthy factory owners.
• Statement (iii) is incorrect because, by the 19th century, conservatives had started to accept that some change was inevitable, though they believed it should be slow and respect the past.
• Statement (iv) is correct as liberals did not believe in universal adult franchise and felt that only men of property should have the vote.
• Thus, the correct statements are (i), (ii), and (iv).

The October Manifesto officially The Manifesto on the Improvement of the State Order is a document that served as a precursor to the Russian Empire's first constitution, which would be adopted the next year. The Manifesto was issued by Emperor Nicholas II, under the influence of Sergei Witte, on 30 October  1905 as a response to the Russian Revolution of 1905. Nicholas strenuously resisted these ideas, but gave in after his first choice to head a military dictatorship,Grand Duke Nicholas, threatened to shoot himself in the head if the Tsar did not accept Witte's suggestion. Nicholas reluctantly agreed, and issued what became known as the October Manifesto, promising basic civil rights and an elected parliament called the Duma, without whose approval no laws were to be enacted in Russia in the future. According to his memoirs Witte did not force the Tsar to sign the October Manifesto, which was proclaimed in all the churches.