All SAT II World History Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Russia In World War I
Which of these major powers was most involved and invested in the Balkan region during the First World War?
Italy
Russia
France
The United States
Germany
Russia
For much of the nineteenth century, the Russians had shown a distinct interest in the Balkan region. Russia wanted a port city to directly access the Mediterranean, but the Russians also saw themselves as the same, or similar, nationality as the Serbian people living in the Balkan region. The Serbs at the time were under the dominion of the Austria-Hungary Empire, and Russia sought to help free the Serbs.
Example Question #2 : Russia In World War I
What name was given to the Russian legislature during the Tsarist regime?
The Reichstag
Glasnost
The Duma
The Kremlin
Comintern
The Duma
The Russian legislature was called the Duma. It was created by the Tsar to give in to calls for democracy, but in reality, it had limited powers to effect legislation.
Example Question #3 : Russia In World War I
Rasputin was __________.
a religious mystic who held influence over the Russian royal family
a traitor who sold Russian military secrets to the Germans
a supporter of Lenin's who undermined the Tsarist regime from the inside
killed during the siege of Leningrad
a leader of the Mensheviks who tried to sieze power during the Russian Revolution
a religious mystic who held influence over the Russian royal family
Rasputin was a religious mystic who held great influence over the Russian royal family. Much of his influence was derived from his ability to keep one of the royal children alive. (The boy was a hemophiliac.) When Nicholas II was away leading troops at the front, his wife ruled the government, and the fact that she was considered under the control of a mystic led to much public outcry.
Example Question #4 : Russia In World War I
Which of the following is the name given to Lenin's faction of the Communist Party and the Russian Revolution?
The Red Army
The Bolsheviks
The Mensheviks
The Cominterns
The Duma
The Bolsheviks
The Russian Revolution occurred in 1917 and saw Russia pulled out of the First World War. The monarchy was replaced by a communist government run by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks differed from the Mensheviks in that they favored an immediate and artificial revolution.
Example Question #5 : Russia In World War I
Kulaks were __________.
wealthy Russian peasants
supported by Stalin
rebels
exiled to Russia
members of the Red Army
wealthy Russian peasants
Kulaks were wealthy Russian peasants who emerged as significant landowners in the first decade of the twentieth century. They were branded as enemies of the state and of the communist ideal by Lenin and Stalin and persecuted in the years following the First World War.
Example Question #6 : Russia In World War I
Russia’s involvement in World War One ended with __________.
complete capitulation to the Germans
the forces of the Red Army reaching Berlin
the rise of the tsarist monarchy
the death of Josef Stalin
the Russian Revolution
the Russian Revolution
During World War One the Russians, like many European nations, suffered catastrophic and unprecedented losses of military personnel. Millions of Russians died on the frontline and millions more starved in the interior of the country itself. This provided the impetus for the Russian Revolution when the tsarist monarchy was overthrown and replaced with Communism led by the Bolsheviks and Vladimir Lenin. Lenin withdrew Russia from the First World War.