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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What philosopher did Engels become interested in when he was in Berlin?

2. What was Marx's relationship with Engels after the 1850s?

3. What did the Russians say at the 1905 Third Congress?

4. How did Lenin differ from the German Marxists?

5. When did Trotsky first study Marx and Lenin?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Lenin's meeting with Trotsky.

2. What work did Engels have to finish after Marx died?

3. Why, according to Trotsky, did the 1905 Soviet fail?

4. How did the theory of dialectical materialism by Marx and Engels reflect Hegel's influence?

5. What defined the views of Marx and Engels on international relationships between nations?

6. How was Engels brought to socialism?

7. What critique did Engels make of classical economics?

8. Describe the relationship between Lenin and Trotsky.

9. What conditions made Russia a good candidate for a transition to communism?

10. How does dialectical materialism correlate to economic phenomena?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Using Michelet's theory that government is the result of the pressures and forces and works of men, how would you explain our contemporary culture? What pressures and forces and works have created the culture in which we live?

Essay Topic 2

Using Michelet's method of looking at paradoxes in a culture, can you say that there was a moment when the Russian Revolution became inevitable as the choice people would make in response to the paradoxes or contradictions of their times? What forces had been held in paradoxical stability that were now resolved or translated into another relation?

Essay Topic 3

Why do you think Fourier's communes never progressed, while Owen's did? Was it simply a question of money, or were there other factors? How do you explain the fact that Owen's communes fell apart if he was gone? What do these things tell us about communist theory and practice?

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This section contains 750 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample