General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev

 

General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev

 

1.  Who is Mikhail Gorbachev?

 

2.  What is Perestroika?

 

3.  What is Glasnost?

 

4. What is Demokratizatsia?

 

6.  When was the first contested election in the Soviet Union?

 

7.  What were the psychological incentives (two) that Gorbachev used to boost Soviet production?

 

8.  What was Gorbachev’s main priority for Perestroika when launched in June 1987?

 

9.  Name three features of Perestroika.

 

11.  What results must Gorbachev produce to succeed? (4)

The Coup

1. Why wasn’t Gorbachev surprised there was a coup? Give 3 reasons.

2.  Why was the Army upset with the reforms?

3.  Why do you think the Communist party hindered Gorbachev’s reforms? Why do you think he did not get rid of the party?

4. How did Gorbachev punish Yeltsin for criticizing his reforms?

5.  In the end, what caused Gorbachev and Yeltsin to resolve their differences?

6.  What is the Union of Sovereign States?

7.  What happened to Gorbachev during the coup?

8.  What did Yeltsin do during the coup? (3)

9.  How did the people of Moscow show support for Yeltsin?

10.  What happened to the plotters after the coup?

Yeltsin

1.  After the coup, why was there a vacuum at the political center? What did the republic do?

2.  What finally removed Gorbachev from power?

3.  Which of Yeltsin’s initial decisions about his new government became fatal to the 1st Russian Republic?

4.  What is Dyarchy? Why did it cause so much trouble between Yeltsin and Parliament?

5.  Why was there another civil war in October 1993?

6.  Why wasn’t Yeltsin happy with his new parliament in December 1993?

7.  Why did Russia go into Chechnya?

8.  Why do people say that Yeltsin was corrupt?

9.  What is the Rule of Law?

10.  Who did Yeltsin compete with in the ’96 Presidential Elections? Why is that a worry for reform-minded democrats?

11.  Name two indicators of Russia’s soft state.

12.  How do Russians view the Yeltsin era today?