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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was Lassalle's relationship with the communists, according to Edmund Wilson's account?
(a) He built his career around an alternative to socialism.
(b) He worked closely with the communists, even though his goals were slightly different.
(c) He was not accepted.
(d) He capitalized on their momentum.

2. According to Marx, what kind of labor do machines contain?
(a) Eternally renewed labor.
(b) Frozen labor.
(c) Magnified labor.
(d) Divine labor.

3. What was the state of the Russian intelligentsia in the end of the 19th century?
(a) Stagnant.
(b) Oppressed.
(c) Decadent and disconnected.
(d) Fervent with revolutionary rhetoric.

4. What was Engels converted to in Cologne?
(a) Catholicism.
(b) Communism.
(c) Protestantism.
(d) Political activity.

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

6. According to Edmund Wilson, how did Marx and Engels see history?
(a) As a fulfillment of ancient prophecies.
(b) As a series of oppositions between thesis and anti-thesis.
(c) As a progression toward human liberty.
(d) As a flight from original sin.

7. How did the "Communist Manifesto treat education?
(a) It should be political.
(b) It should proselytize for Communism.
(c) It should be apolitical.
(d) It should be free.

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

9. How does Edmund Wilson describe Ferdinand Lassalle?
(a) As the philosopher who was the final straw in the development of socialism.
(b) As an agent provocateur from the German government.
(c) As a disciple of Marx's.
(d) As the spokesman for the next phase of German socialism.

10. In what mental/emotional state did Lenin find the Russian intellectuals at the turn of the century?
(a) Unready.
(b) Confused.
(c) Apathetic.
(d) Enraged.

11. What were the Soviets NOT calling for in 1905?
(a) Freedom of the press.
(b) Workers' rights.
(c) Eight hour workday.
(d) Women's suffrage.

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

13. What did Trotsky say would be necessary before Russia could have a socialist revolution?
(a) A world war to change the balance of power in Europe.
(b) Socialist revolutions in other countries.
(c) America would have to suppress its communists with violence.
(d) A transition to free markets for labor and goods.

14. What did the Russians say at the 1905 Third Congress?
(a) They wanted the German intellectuals to return and fight beside them.
(b) They repudiated the influence of Trotsky and embraced Lenin.
(c) They didn't want exiles to lead them.
(d) They wanted to purge the Russian party of dissenters.

15. How do Marx and Engels describe a socialist society?
(a) As the end of economics.
(b) As the synthesis of bourgeoisie and proletariat.
(c) As the next thesis, which will create a new anti-thesis.
(d) As the humanization of industrialism.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does stability come from in dialectic materialism?

2. Describe Lenin's relationship with his wife?

3. What is Marx's fundamental critique of capitalists?

4. How does Marx distinguish between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in terms of morality?

5. How does Marx define labor?

(see the answer keys)

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