The U.S.S.R.: It Shall Not Be Forgotten Quiz

Answer: 1922

The Soviet Union, though not incorporating all of its republics at the time was founded in December of 1922. The years 1917 and 1918 were significant as the years of revoulution that toppled the Tsar and then the Provisional Government. 1924 was the year that Lenin died.

Answer: False

His maternal grandfather was a Jew but converted to Christianity. His mother was Lutheran but Lenin himself was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church.

Answer: Lev Davidovich Bronstein

Trotsky was born to a wealthy Jewish farmer in the Ukraine. Early in the Revolution he rose quickly to high office. Lenin entrusted him with the position of Commisar of Foreign Affairs, which he fulfilled by reaching a peace treaty with Germany, and afterwards the position of Commisar for War which he performed very skillfully, building an army from almost nothing which led to the Red (Communist) victory over the Whites (Tsarists).

However, after Lenin died Trotsky got into a feud with Stalin, one that he ultimately lost and paid for dearly.

In exile in Mexico, he was killed by Ramon Mercader an NKVD agent on Stalin's orders.

Answer: Influenza

Sverdlov died in 1919 before Stalin came to power. While he was alive however, he did accomplish several tasks which secured Communist rule over Russia. On his orders the Tsar Nicholas and his family were murdered and burried in a coal pit outside of Yekaterinburg where they were being held. Afterwards, he was given the post of Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

Answer: True

What is now known as the Mariinsky theatre was once known as the Kirov. Sergei Kirov was the popular head of the Leningrad branch of the Communist Party. A great supporter of Stalin, he was nonetheless killed on Stalin's orders. The culprit, Leonid Nikolaev, was caught and executed, of course, but Stalin then accused Nikolaev of being part of a much wider Trotskyist conspiracy against the leadership of the General Secretary.

The plot set the scene for the show trials and purges of the 1930s.

Answer: Being a British spy

Beria was also accused of torturing and beating his victims over the the years.

A grizzly man, he did indeed carry out the later part of Stalin's purges. He became head of the NKVD and his greatest power period was that of the few years between the end of the Second World War and the death of Stalin in 1953, when briefly he seemed to be the post powerful person in the Soviet Union. He was executed on June 26, 1953.

Answer: Yes

It happened in October 1960. Khrushchev never was a very good diplomat, once going so far as to say, in reference to American capitalists, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will live to bury you in your graves!"

Answer: 4

None of his gold stars were real awards; they were just given to him as birthday presents.

Answer: Lazar Kaganovich

Suslov was a member of the Politburo who simply kept the General Secretary in power by using his immense influence. Schusev was a prominent architect who built the Lubyanka Prison and Lenin's mausoleum but had nothing to do with the construction of the Moscow metro. Malenkov was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1955. Kaganovich was a member of the Politburo who oversaw the 5 year plans and the industrialization and modernization of the Soviet Union.

Answer: Minister of Agriculture

Gorbachev tried all his life to modernize and improve Soviet methods of farming so it was no wonder that he got the job of Minister of Argriculture.