View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Marx's fundamental critique of capitalists?
(a) They do not deserve the workers' surplus value.
(b) Their technology has alienated the workers from their labor.
(c) They misspend the value they skim from the system.
(d) They are fighting their own historical development into socialists.

2. When did Lenin begin to read Marx?
(a) In high school.
(b) At the University of Kazan.
(c) At the University of Berlin.
(d) After being expelled from the University of Kazan.

3. How does Edmund Wilson characterize Bakunin's career?
(a) He wrote extensively, but he never participated in a political movement.
(b) He became a close ally of Marx's and was responsible for spreading Marx's ideas internationally.
(c) He made a name for himself as the actor who would fulfill Marx's prophecies.
(d) He spent his life trying to be part of revolutions in Europe.

4. How did Marx and Engels view their theory of history?
(a) They knew it was a fantasy.
(b) They saw it as one model among many.
(c) They never doubted it would succeed.
(d) They wondered whether they had underestimated the greed of the lower classes.

5. How does Edmund Wilson describe Marx's study of economics?
(a) As a prophecy of socialism.
(b) As a snapshot of Marx's moment.
(c) As a prediction of communism.
(d) As a study of capitalism.

6. According to Edmund Wilson's account, why didn't Marx and Engels consider Russia as a site of the first revolution?
(a) Russia had already transitioned from feudalism to capitalism without a war.
(b) Russia's economy was agricultural.
(c) Russia had industrialized very quickly, bringing prosperity to the masses.
(d) Russia did not have fiery leaders to spark a revolution.

7. What kind of approach toward the study of economics did Marx take?
(a) Pragmatic.
(b) Scientific.
(c) Literary.
(d) Religious.

8. Where did Lenin move after being released from prison?
(a) Zurich.
(b) Munich.
(c) Moscow.
(d) London.

9. What affect did Lassalle have on the relationship between Marx and Engels?
(a) He brought them closer together.
(b) He clarified their differences.
(c) He played them against each other.
(d) He strained it.

10. When did Lenin break with the Central Committee in Germany?
(a) 1906.
(b) 1917.
(c) 1908.
(d) 1904.

11. When did Trotsky first study Marx and Lenin?
(a) In France.
(b) In Siberia.
(c) At the university.
(d) In high school.

12. How did Trotsky try to influence the relationship between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks?
(a) He played them against each other.
(b) He tried to reconcile them.
(c) He tried to get them both to accept Lenin's leadership.
(d) He tried to help the Bolsheviks incorporate the Mensheviks.

13. How did Marx review Proudhon's book on private property?
(a) With a short, dismissive review.
(b) With a glowing, appreciative review.
(c) With a hagiography.
(d) With a book of his own.

14. What were Marx and Engels trying to define after writing "The Condition of the Working Class in England"?
(a) A revolutionary moment.
(b) Their own individual philosophies.
(c) A grounds for opposing the ruling classes.
(d) An excuse for starting a class war.

15. In what field was Lenin's training?
(a) Political science.
(b) Military.
(c) Law.
(d) Literature.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Trotsky say would be necessary before Russia could have a socialist revolution?

2. Describe Lenin's relationship with his wife?

3. Where did the "dialectic" in dialectic materialism come from?

4. What organization did Lassalle establish?

5. Where does stability come from in dialectic materialism?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 629 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample