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The Russian Civil War - Exam
Contributed by: Moran
  • 1. What event significantly started the Russian Civil War?
A) October Revolution
B) World War I
C) Assassination of the Tsar
D) February Revolution
  • 2. Who was the leader of the Bolsheviks?
A) Vladimir Lenin
B) Nikolai Bukharin
C) Joseph Stalin
D) Leon Trotsky
  • 3. Which document did the Bolsheviks sign to exit World War I?
A) Treaty of Versailles
B) Treaty of Yalta
C) Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
D) Treaty of Trianon
  • 4. What was the Red Terror?
A) A military strategy
B) A diplomatic initiative
C) A peace agreement
D) A campaign of political repression
  • 5. What was the fate of Tsar Nicholas II during the Civil War?
A) Exiled
B) Executed
C) Released
D) Captured but escaped
  • 6. What was the main reason for the discontent in the White Army?
A) Excessive Bolshevik propaganda
B) Too much support from the Allies
C) Lack of unity and leadership
D) Overpopulation in cities
  • 7. Who was the leader of the White forces?
A) General Anton Denikin
B) Leon Trotsky
C) Joseph Stalin
D) Vladimir Lenin
  • 8. What type of government was established by the Bolsheviks after the war?
A) Democracy
B) Fascist State
C) Soviet Republic
D) Monarchy
  • 9. Who led the White movement during the Russian Civil War?
A) Alexander Kolchak
B) Joseph Stalin
C) Vladimir Lenin
D) Leon Trotsky
  • 10. What was the estimated range of casualties during the Russian Civil War?
A) 7 to 12 million
B) 5 to 8 million
C) 1 to 3 million
D) 15 to 20 million
  • 11. What was one consequence for non-Russian ethnic groups following the Russian Civil War?
A) They were all integrated into Soviet Russia without resistance
B) They formed a unified front against the Bolsheviks
C) Many pushed for national independence during the disarray
D) They supported the White Army in large numbers
  • 12. Which foreign states intervened against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War?
A) No foreign states intervened
B) Only the Central Powers
C) Thirteen foreign states, notably the Allied intervention
D) Only Germany and Austria-Hungary
  • 13. Who abdicated as Emperor of Russia in 1917?
A) Lavr Kornilov
B) Emperor Nicholas II
C) Alexander Kerensky
D) Vladimir Lenin
  • 14. What was the name of the government established after the February Revolution?
A) Soviet Government
B) Russian Provisional Government
C) Bolshevik Government
D) Socialist Revolutionary Government
  • 15. Which party dissolved the Constituent Assembly?
A) The Socialist Revolutionaries
B) The Bolsheviks
C) The Kadets
D) The Mensheviks
  • 16. Who was responsible for reorganizing the Red Guards into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army?
A) Vladimir Lenin
B) Leon Trotsky
C) Nikolai Avksentiev
D) Joseph Stalin
  • 17. What percentage of Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers by the end of the civil war?
A) 50%
B) 75%
C) 83%
D) 95%
  • 18. Which political party won the majority of seats in the Russian Constituent Assembly elections held after the October Revolution?
A) Bolshevik Party
B) Kadet Party
C) Left SRs
D) Anti-Bolshevik Right SRs
  • 19. Who was elected president of the Constituent Assembly on 18 January 1918?
A) Maria Spiridonova
B) Leon Trotsky
C) Viktor Chernov
D) Nikolai Avksentiev
  • 20. What happened to the Constituent Assembly after it was disbanded by the Bolsheviks?
A) It merged with the soviets
B) It was re-elected
C) It continued to function under Soviet supervision
D) Russia became a one-party state with all opposition parties outlawed in 1921
  • 21. What significant event occurred on 1 May 1918 involving anarchists and Bolshevik police?
A) A pitched battle took place in Moscow
B) A cultural festival
C) A peaceful demonstration
D) An economic summit
  • 22. Which political party recognized the Union's leading role on 7 May 1918?
A) The Socialist Revolutionary Party
B) The Menshevik Party
C) The Bolshevik Party
D) The Kadet Party
  • 23. Where did the Social Revolutionary Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia come to power?
A) Moscow
B) Siberia
C) Samara
D) Vladivostok
  • 24. What was the main Russian military and political force opposing the Bolsheviks called?
A) The Red Army
B) The Union of Regeneration
C) The Socialist Revolutionary Party
D) The White movement or Whites
  • 25. What was a common trait of the White movement?
A) Communism
B) Anarchism
C) Socialism
D) Nationalism
  • 26. What was a primary reason for Western Allies supporting the Whites during the Russian Civil War?
A) They were worried about a possible Russo-German alliance.
B) They sought revenge against Bolshevik leaders.
C) They wanted to establish colonies in Russia.
D) They aimed to support democratic reforms in Russia.
  • 27. What was the potential consequence of Bolshevik control over Imperial Russia's foreign debts?
A) Increasing payments to Allied countries.
B) Creating a new currency system independent of foreign influence.
C) Refinancing them with Western banks.
D) Defaulting on those massive debts.
  • 28. Which republic was the first to declare its independence from Russia?
A) Lithuania.
B) Finland.
C) Estonia.
D) Poland.
  • 29. What was the character of the Bolsheviks' banning of parties compared to later bans under Stalin?
A) It had no impact on political opposition.
B) It did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under the Stalinist regime.
C) It was more repressive than later bans.
D) It was identical to later bans.
  • 30. Who was appointed in December 1917 to root out counter-revolutionary threats to the Soviet government?
A) Joseph Stalin
B) Leon Trotsky
C) Vladimir Lenin
D) Felix Dzerzhinsky
  • 31. What organization did Felix Dzerzhinsky direct as its first leader?
A) The KGB
B) NKVD
C) The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka)
D) OGPU
  • 32. Which group did the Bolsheviks begin to see as a legitimate threat in 1917?
A) Anarchists
B) Narodniks
C) Social Democrats
D) Mensheviks
  • 33. When did the Bolsheviks start physically eliminating opposition?
A) Mid-1919
B) Early 1920
C) Late 1917
D) Early 1918
  • 34. Who assassinated Moisey Uritsky in 1918?
A) Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko
B) Grigory Zinoviev
C) Fanny Kaplan
D) Leonid Kannegisser
  • 35. Who ordered Fanny Kaplan's execution?
A) Leon Trotsky
B) Felix Dzerzhinsky
C) Yakov Sverdlov
D) Vladimir Lenin
  • 36. When did the Red Terror officially begin?
A) Between 17–30 August 1918
B) Following the Kronstadt Rebellion
C) After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
D) In early 1920
  • 37. What is the broader term for Bolshevik political repression during the Civil War?
A) The Kronstadt Rebellion
B) The Red Terror
C) The October Revolution
D) The White Terror
  • 38. Which policy introduced by Lenin was a concession due to revolts against grain requisitioning?
A) New Economic Policy
B) War Communism
C) Peasant Land Reform
D) Grain Redistribution Program
  • 39. What was the Bolsheviks' policy that sparked violent resistance in 1918?
A) Collectivization
B) Land redistribution
C) Food dictatorship
D) Military conscription
  • 40. Who was the Cossack General that refused to recognize the Bolshevik Revolution in March 1917?
A) Alexey Kaledin
B) Nikolai Yudenich
C) Anton Denikin
D) Alexander Kolchak
  • 41. Which anarchist leader's forces consolidated power in Ukraine after a mass defection?
A) Alexander Berkman
B) Nestor Makhno
C) Peter Kropotkin
D) Emma Goldman
  • 42. Where were Wrangel's troops evacuated to in November 1920?
A) Paris
B) Berlin
C) London
D) Constantinople
  • 43. What was proclaimed as the new government of Russia after the Bolsheviks dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly in January 1918?
A) The Provisional Government
B) The Soviets (workers' councils)
C) The Volunteer Army
D) The White Guards
  • 44. Where did General Mikhail Alekseev begin to organize the Volunteer Army in November 1917?
A) Kiev
B) Petrograd
C) Moscow
D) Novocherkassk
  • 45. On what date did the Military Revolutionary Committee in Rostov rebel, marking a significant event at the start of the Civil War?
A) 9 December 1917
B) 5 January 1918
C) 15 November 1917
D) 25 October 1917
  • 46. Who mostly made up the Turkestan Committee set up by the Provisional Government in April 1917?
A) Former Tsarist officials
B) Bolshevik leaders
C) Provisional Government members
D) Local Cossack armies
  • 47. What was the autonomous government formed by Muslim elites in Turkestan called?
A) Kokand autonomy
B) Central Council of Ukraine
C) Provisional Government
D) Turkestan Committee
  • 48. Under whose leadership did Soviet forces invade Ukraine and invest Kiev in January 1918?
A) Lavr Kornilov
B) Anton Denikin
C) General Mikhail Alekseev
D) Lt. Col. Muravyov
  • 49. What event helped the Bolsheviks capture Kiev on 26 January 1918?
A) The Kerensky-Krasnov uprising
B) The Kokand autonomy formation
C) The Junker Mutiny
D) The Kiev Arsenal Uprising
  • 50. What policy did Leon Trotsky follow during peace talks?
A) Continued military engagement with Germany.
B) Immediate signing of the treaty.
C) Seeking support from Western socialists.
D) "No war, no peace"
  • 51. Which operation led to the removal of the Bolsheviks from Ukraine by April 1918?
A) Caucasus Expedition
B) Operation Ice March
C) Second Kuban Campaign
D) German-Austrian Operation Faustschlag
  • 52. When did Denikin become the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of South Russia?
A) 8 October 1918
B) 13 April 1918
C) 26 July 1918
D) 8 January 1919
  • 53. Who became Denikin's Chief of Staff?
A) Stankevich
B) Vladimir Liakhov
C) Pyotr Wrangel
D) de Bode
  • 54. Which city did the Volunteer Army capture on 16 August during their Second Kuban campaign?
A) Baku
B) Kuban
C) Poti
D) Yekaterinodar
  • 55. Who commanded two thousand troops in Crimea?
A) de Bode
B) Vladimir May-Mayevsky
C) Pyotr Krasnov
D) Stankevich
  • 56. What city did the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) establish in May 1918?
A) Kazan
B) Omsk
C) Samara
D) Ufa
  • 57. Which city did Col. Kappel's White detachment capture on 7 August?
A) Ufa
B) Kazan
C) Omsk
D) Samara
  • 58. Which city did the White armies capture on 24 December 1918?
A) Perm
B) Kazan
C) Ufa
D) Omsk
  • 59. How many deserters were executed following Trotsky's measures in 1919?
A) 98,000
B) 616
C) 132,000
D) 837,000
  • 60. What was the total number of draft dodgers and deserters in 1919?
A) 837,000
B) 616
C) 98,000–132,000
D) 5 million
  • 61. Which British military leader recorded a mission to Tashkent before being forced to flee by the Bolsheviks?
A) General Yudenich
B) Major General Dunsterville
C) General Wilfrid Malleson
D) Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Marshman Baile
  • 62. Which mission failed to gain control of Tashkent, Bukhara, and Khiva?
A) The Dunsterville Mission
B) The Malleson Mission
C) The Baile Mission
D) The Yudenich Mission
  • 63. Which city did the first regional congress of the Russian Communist Party convene in June 1918?
A) Riga
B) Moscow
C) Tashkent
D) Petrograd
  • 64. Which country cleared its territory of the Red Army by January 1919?
A) Latvia
B) Estonia
C) Russia
D) Finland
  • 65. Who captured Riga from the Red Latvian Riflemen on 22 May 1919?
A) General Yudenich's army
B) The Estonian 3rd Division
C) The Red Army
D) Baltic German volunteers
  • 66. Which division defeated the Baltic Germans a month after they captured Riga?
A) The Estonian 3rd Division
B) British forces
C) The Latvian Riflemen
D) General Yudenich's army
  • 67. Who evacuated the White forces from Northern Russia in February 1920?
A) General Denikin
B) Ataman Semenov
C) Admiral Kolchak
D) Yevgeny Miller
  • 68. Which city did the Red 5th Army capture on 26 May 1919?
A) Izevsk
B) Ufa
C) Elabuga
D) Sarapul
  • 69. Who led the Red 5th Army during their counteroffensive against Kolchak's forces?
A) Tukhachevsky
B) Antonov-Ovseenko
C) Vladimir Lenin
D) Semyon Budyonny
  • 70. Which city did the Red Army capture on 14 November 1919, marking a significant defeat for Admiral Kolchak?
A) Omsk
B) Novonikolaevsk
C) Krasnoyarsk
D) Tomsk
  • 71. Who was the Bolshevik commander leading the Soviet Russian counteroffensive in South Russia in January 1919?
A) Leon Trotsky
B) Joseph Stalin
C) Vladimir Lenin
D) Antonov-Ovseenko
  • 72. Which British volunteer was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions during the Battle of Tsaritsyn?
A) Captain Richard Brown
B) Major Ewen Cameron Bruce
C) General Edward Wilson
D) Lieutenant Colonel John Smith
  • 73. Which Bolshevik strategy involved the Ninth and Tenth armies forming Shorin's Southeastern Front?
A) Tukhachevsky-Dragomirov strategy
B) Trotsky-Vācietis strategy
C) Kamenev-Budenny strategy
D) Lenin-Stalin strategy
  • 74. Which city did May-Mayevsky evacuate during the Orel-Kursk operation in October 1919?
A) Voronezh
B) Kursk
C) Orel
D) Kharkov
  • 75. Who captured Voronezh on 24 October during the Voronezh-Kastornoye operation?
A) Vladimir Sidorin
B) Anton Denikin
C) Semyon Budyonny
D) Pyotr Wrangel
  • 76. Which city did the Reds reach on 6 January, marking their advance to the Black Sea?
A) Taganrog
B) Mariupol
C) Sevastopol
D) Odessa
  • 77. Which region did the British government withdraw its military forces from by February 1919?
A) European Russia
B) Central Asia
C) Ukraine
D) Kronstadt
  • 78. What was the fate of most Ural Cossacks who headed south during winter 1920?
A) All reached Fort Alexandrovsk safely
B) They successfully established a new settlement in Persia
C) They were captured by the Red Army
D) Only a few hundred reached Persia by June 1920
  • 79. What was the Orenburg Army's retreat during winter 1919–20 known as?
A) Starving March
B) Great Retreat
C) Cossack Flight
D) Northern Exodus
  • 80. Who succeeded Admiral Kolchak as the leader of the White Army in Siberia?
A) Gen. Grigory Semyonov
B) Anatoly Pepelyayev
C) Japanese General
D) Victor Pepelyaev
  • 81. What was a major cause of death among the Russian population during and after the Civil War?
A) Industrial accidents
B) Airplane crashes
C) Widespread starvation
D) Earthquakes
  • 82. Who were targeted in pogroms in Ukraine and southern Russia?
A) Cossacks
B) White Army soldiers
C) Jews
D) Bolsheviks
  • 83. How many people were shot by the verdicts of tribunals from 1918 to 1921 according to Nikolay Zayats?
A) 50,000 people
B) 14,200 people
C) 100,000 people
D) 37,300 people
  • 84. Who published a detailed account on the Red Terror in Russia in 1924?
A) Jonathan D. Smele
B) Robert Conquest
C) Sergei Melgunov
D) Vadim Erlikhman
  • 85. What were Professor Charles Saroléa's estimates of deaths from Bolshevik policies?
A) 1,766,188 deaths
B) 200,000 deaths
C) 100,000 deaths
D) 50,000 deaths
  • 86. By what percentage had heavy industry output fallen by 1921 compared to 1913 levels?
A) 20%
B) 50%
C) 10%
D) 30%
  • 87. What percentage of wages were paid with goods rather than money during the Russian Civil War?
A) 90%
B) 80%
C) 50%
D) 70%
  • 88. How many locomotives needed repair during the Russian Civil War?
A) 50%
B) 80%
C) 70%
D) 60%
  • 89. Which author wrote 'Chapayev', a work popular among Socialist realism writers?
A) Mikhail Bulgakov
B) Dmitri Furmanov
C) Aleksandr Fadeyev
D) Isaac Babel
  • 90. What is the title of Nikolai Ostrovsky's novel that became a well-known example in Socialist realism?
A) Red Cavalry
B) Doctor Zhivago
C) How the Steel Was Tempered
D) The Road to Calvary
  • 91. Who is the author of 'Red Cavalry', a work that diverged from Socialist realism?
A) Isaac Babel
B) Dmitri Furmanov
C) Mikhail Sholokhov
D) Aleksandr Fadeyev
  • 92. Which novel by Boris Pasternak was published in 1957?
A) Chevengur
B) Conquered City
C) Doctor Zhivago
D) The Red Wheel
  • 93. Which Western author wrote 'Fall of Giants', a novel related to the Russian Civil War?
A) Ken Follett
B) Derek Robinson
C) Vladimir Sorokin
D) Michael Moorcock
  • 94. Which author wrote 'An Evening with Claire', a work by a White émigré?
A) Gaito Gazdanov
B) M. Ageyev
C) Marguerite Yourcenar
D) William Gerhardie
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