Critical Thinking Questions:

1.How does the commune of the Russian culture differ from the idea of the commune according the Communist Chinese in 1950?

2. In what way does the Russian culture adopt a feudal social order during and after the Mongol invasion?

3. How does the movement of the Rus to Moscow change the polticial future of the Russian culture?

4. Can you name two great armies in modern history that were defeated simply by the Russian geography?

5. Why is the Russian peasant a conservative being at heart?

6. During the beginning of the Romanov Dynasty, both Peter I and Catherine II struggled to modernize Russia. However, they chose different paths to modernization. Explain the differences and some similarities between their respective courses of action?

7. Historians argue about the benefits as well as the negative effects of Peter's reign. What is your view of Peter's reign and why?

8. In what ways does Russia use the European and American states as a role model? In what ways does Russia try to retain its Russian cultural norms?

9. In the process of reform and reaction, what events were likely to create a desire for reform and what would trigger a reaction?

10. Do you think that the Russian Revolution was impossible to avoid or were there strategies that could have been used to prevent it?

11. How was Nicolas II unsuited or unprepared for his role as tsar?

12. In what ways does Russia's struggle to adjust to the Industrial Revolution and modernization mirror that of China? In what ways does it not seem similar?
13. How does one see the cycle of reform and reaction in Russia from Tsars Alexander I through Alexander III?

14. What are the political and economic causes of the Russian Revolution?

15. How does the pressure of the Industrial Revolution in Europe affect the economic life of Russia?

16. In what ways does the onset of World War I seal the fate of Russia and the Romanov Dynasty?

17. With the background of the previous questions, why then do the Russian people embrace Lenin's brand of Communism?

18. How does Lenin's socialism differ from Marx's Communism or Mao's Communism?