22. World War I: The Progressive Crusade at Home and Abroad, 1914

Quiz for Beyond America’s Borders: Bolshevism

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 22.6

1. After seizing control of Russia in November 1917, what did the Bolsheviks declare they would eliminate in their country?

Imperialism

Capitalism

Liberalism

Racism

Question 22.7

2. Why did some Americans vocally oppose President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to send American troops to Russian to put down the revolutionary Bolshevik regime in 1918?

They feared that the intervention would be too costly for the United States because it would come so quickly on the heels of World War I.

Most Americans who opposed intervention in Russia were members of the American Communist Party, so they supported the Bolshevik regime.

They argued that military intervention violated the Russian people’s right to self-determination: the right to govern themselves however they saw fit.

The United States exported many crops and products to Russia, and some Americans worried that military intervention would disrupt this trade relationship.

Question 22.8

3. How did the Bolshevik revolution in Russia affect people in the United States in 1919?

Some Americans with Russian heritage decided to travel back to Russia to help the Bolshevik regime wage a global battle against capitalism.

Anyone who advocated for more rights or better working conditions was deemed a Communist and targeted with violence or arrest.

Many Americans were moved by the revolution and decided to join the American Communist Party, whose ranks quickly swelled.

Inspired by Bolshevik philosophies, some Americans began experimenting with small-scale “dictatorships of the proletariat” in rural areas.

Question 22.9

4. Although the Cold War is typically defined as starting after World War II and lasting through the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this essay suggests that the Cold War actually began in

1917, when the Bolshevik regime called for worldwide communist revolution.

1918, when President Wilson ordered 14,000 American troops to Russia.

1919, when the U.S. government started targeting suspected communists at home.

1934, when the United States finally gave the Soviet Union diplomatic recognition.

Question 22.10

5. This essay supports which of the following historical arguments about the United States in the 1910s?

President Wilson’s willingness to send 14,000 American troops to Russia illustrates how the United States valued capitalism above the lives of individuals.

Most people who identified as Communists in the United States in the 1910s were foreign-born, the majority tracing their ancestry to Hungary or Russia.

By withholding diplomatic recognition of Russia in 1917, President Wilson cemented the United States’ position as the preeminent world power.