Lesson 1H.2.1

1H.2.1 The Soviet Union, 1917–1964 Quiz: AQA History, Unit 8

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 1H.2.1, The Soviet Union, 1917–1964: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA History (7042), Unit 8: 1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which March 1918 treaty withdrew Russia from the First World War at severe territorial cost?

    • Treaty of Riga
    • Treaty of Trianon
    • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
    • Treaty of Versailles

  2. Which secret police organisation, created in December 1917 by Lenin's government, was used to suppress opponents?

    • The Duma Guard
    • The Cheka
    • The NKVD
    • The Okhrana

  3. Which 1921 Soviet economic policy replaced War Communism by reintroducing limited private trade?

    • Five-Year Plan
    • New Economic Policy
    • Collectivisation
    • Dekulakisation

  4. Which sailors' revolt of March 1921, put down by the Red Army, was a major challenge to Bolshevik rule?

    • The Lena massacre
    • The Tambov rising
    • The Kronstadt rising
    • The Kiev uprising

  5. Which post did Stalin take in 1922, giving him control over Communist Party appointments?

    • General Secretary
    • Foreign Commissar
    • Prime Minister
    • Premier

  6. Which 1928 plan set rapid industrialisation targets, initiating Stalin's economic transformation?

    • April Theses
    • New Economic Policy
    • Gosplan Decree
    • First Five-Year Plan

  7. Which policy of the early 1930s forced peasants into collective farms and led to a catastrophic famine in 1932 to 1933?

    • Privatisation
    • Collectivisation
    • Nationalisation
    • Decolonisation

  8. The 1934 assassination of which Party official provided Stalin with the pretext for his purges?

    • Lev Kamenev
    • Sergei Kirov
    • Leon Trotsky
    • Nikolai Bukharin

  9. What series of public trials from 1936 to 1938 targeted Old Bolsheviks?

    • Petrograd proceedings
    • Moscow show trials
    • Doctor's Plot
    • Shakhty trials

  10. Which pact of August 1939 between Germany and the Soviet Union divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence?

    • The Locarno Pact
    • The Tripartite Pact
    • The Anglo-Soviet Treaty
    • The Nazi-Soviet Pact

  11. Which German invasion of June 1941 brought the Soviet Union into the Second World War against Germany?

    • Operation Torch
    • Operation Overlord
    • Operation Barbarossa
    • Operation Sea Lion

  12. Which battle of 1942 to 1943 on the Volga marked the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front?

    • Moscow
    • Leningrad
    • Kursk
    • Stalingrad

  13. Which Soviet leader, who died in March 1953, had ruled the Soviet Union as a dictator since the late 1920s?

    • Joseph Stalin
    • Georgy Malenkov
    • Lavrentiy Beria
    • Nikita Khrushchev

  14. What February 1956 speech by Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes and cult of personality?

    • The Tashkent Declaration
    • The April Speech
    • The Victory Address
    • The Secret Speech

  15. Which 1954 agricultural campaign opened up vast areas of Kazakhstan and Siberia to grain farming?

    • Agrogorod Plan
    • Virgin Lands Scheme
    • Great Leap Forward
    • Kolkhoz Expansion

  16. Which 1962 confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba brought the Cold War closest to nuclear war?

    • Berlin Crisis
    • Korean War
    • Suez Crisis
    • Cuban Missile Crisis

  17. How many years separated the October Revolution of 1917 and the death of Lenin in 1924?

    • 9 years
    • 7 years
    • 5 years
    • 11 years

  18. How many years separated the death of Stalin in 1953 and the removal of Khrushchev in 1964?

    • 9 years
    • 11 years
    • 13 years
    • 15 years

  19. How many years separated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 and the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939?

    • 17 years
    • 29 years
    • 21 years
    • 25 years

  20. What state body was responsible for central economic planning under Stalin's Five-Year Plans?

    • Gosplan
    • Cheka
    • Comintern
    • Sovnarkom

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