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Khrushchev Trivia Quiz

This is a fun little quiz about my favourite Soviet leader, Khrushchev.

A multiple-choice quiz by Mrs_Seizmagraff. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
Mrs_Seizmagraff

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
183,990

Updated
May 03 24

# Qns
15

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
10 / 15

Plays
672

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 15

1. What was Khrushchev's first name? Hint

Leonid

Konstantin

Yuri

Nikita

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Question 2 of 15

2. Where was Khrushchev from? Hint

Kursk Oblast

Armenia

Georgia

Siberia

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Question 3 of 15

3. In what year did Khrushchev join the Communist Party? Hint

1917

1953

1921

1918

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Question 4 of 15

4. During the power struggles in the Party following Lenin's death in 1924, Khrushchev allied himself with Kagonovich and Stalin against which other politburo members? Hint

Ordzhonikidze and Rykov

Trotsky, Kirov and Bukharin

Kirov and Trotsky

Brezhnev and Bukharin

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Question 5 of 15

5. By 1939, Khrushchev was a full politburo member. In the late 1930s, while in Moscow, what did Khrushchev oversee that helped speed his rapid political rise? Hint

The construction of the Moscow subway system

Implementation of agricultural reform

The 1936 Pan-Soviet games

The trial for the murder of Kirov

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Question 6 of 15

6. By 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Khrushchev had survived the bloody Stalinist purges and had risen to this position: Hint

First Minister for Agriculture

Head of the Ukrainian Communist Party

Deputy Premier

Assistant General Secretary

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Question 7 of 15

7. When Stalin died in 1953, Khrushchev was seen as his natural successor.

True

False

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Question 8 of 15

8. At the 20th Party Congress in 1956, Khrushchev delivered a historic bombshell. What was it? Hint

His "shoe banging" speech for the UN

His "secret speech" denouncing Stalin

His "communism by 1980" program

His "pan-Asiatic" ambitions which started the Korean War

9. Despite many of Khrushchev's democratic bells and whistles, he remained a prot�g� of a brutal dictator and retained many dictatorial characteristics. In 1956, he sent troops to brutally suppress a revolt where? Hint

Czechoslovakia

Hungary

North Korea

Poland

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Question 10 of 15

10. 1957 was a great year for Khrushchev. Crops were good, industrial output had reached new highs, and more average citizens had a higher quality of life than ever before. 1957 also saw the start of a new "race" with the West, what race was this? Hint

The nuclear arms race

The space race

The treaty detente race

The manufacturing race

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Question 11 of 15

11. Relations with the West can best be described as "highs" and "lows". 1959 was a "high" year for Khrushchev and Soviet foreign policy, climaxing with what historic event? Hint

The negotiation of the SALT I treaty

The Helsinki Accords

The Geneva summit on arms reduction

Khrushchev's tour of the United States

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Question 12 of 15

12. 1960, unfortunately, was a "low" year for Soviet foreign relations. What two events were the big disasters for the USSR? Hint

The U-2 spy plane & the Sino-Soviet split

The Cuban Missile Crisis & the UN general meeting

The invasion of Korea & the revolt in Hungary

The Berlin Wall & the collapse of the SALT I negotiations

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Question 13 of 15

13. Khrushchev was a man of polar opposites; his policy with the West (in theory) seemed to be in direct conflict with many of his actions, such as sending missiles to Cuba and building a wall through Berlin. What was the term coined to describe his foreign policy? Hint

Peaceful coexistence

Socialism in one country

D�tente

The thaw

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Question 14 of 15

14. Other than Gorbachev, Khrushchev is the only General Secretary not to serve until his death.

True

False

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Question 15 of 15

15. Khrushchev's full memoirs were published in the USSR and the US following his death in 1971.

True

False

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Most Recent Scores

Dec 06 2024 : klotzplate: 15/15
Dec 04 2024 : ZWOZZE: 6/15

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What was Khrushchev's first name?

Answer: Nikita

"Nikita" is also a great Elton John song. (Imagine Elton singing "Yuri, I need you so...?") The other three options are first names of other Soviet leaders (Andropov, Chernenko, and Brezhnev...can you match them up???)

2. Where was Khrushchev from?

Answer: Kursk Oblast

Stalin was from Georgia, and Cher is from Armenia. (Stalin was a Soviet leader, Cher is not). Khrushchev was born on April 17, 1894, in the village of Kalinovka in the Kursk Oblast, near the border with Ukraine.

3. In what year did Khrushchev join the Communist Party?

Answer: 1918

Khrushchev joined the year after the Revolution, 1918. At that time, Russia was in the midst of a bloody civil war and the disasterous economic policy of Lenin known as "War Communism". Khrushchev's rise was quite rapid, becoming political commissar during the war in the early 1920s.

4. During the power struggles in the Party following Lenin's death in 1924, Khrushchev allied himself with Kagonovich and Stalin against which other politburo members?

Answer: Trotsky, Kirov and Bukharin

Khrushchev was appointed to a political post in the Ukraine following his training in the mid 1920s, under the leadership of Kagonovich. Khrushchev's career took off with Stalin's blessing (it was not a good idea to oppose him in the 1930s!) and by 1935 Khrushchev was second in command of the Moscow Communist Party.

5. By 1939, Khrushchev was a full politburo member. In the late 1930s, while in Moscow, what did Khrushchev oversee that helped speed his rapid political rise?

Answer: The construction of the Moscow subway system

The subway system was a spectacular success at a time when not much of anything else was in the Soviet Union - the collective farming was a disaster, the results of the first and second five year plans were fudged, and foreign relations with the West were at an all-time low, forcing Stalin into the arms of his bitter enemy Hitler with the signing of the 1939 non-agression pact.

6. By 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Khrushchev had survived the bloody Stalinist purges and had risen to this position:

Answer: Head of the Ukrainian Communist Party

Khrushchev was on the front lines for much of the war, including the famous battle of Stalingrad that changed the course of affairs for Germany.

7. When Stalin died in 1953, Khrushchev was seen as his natural successor.

Answer: False

There was a ranking of the Politburo members done in 1953, and Khrushchev was listed fifth most important. There began a frantic power struggle similar to that of 1924 when Lenin died. Malenkov and Beria were seen as Stalin's heirs, Malenkov was defeated by a Khrushchev coalition and Beria was executed.

8. At the 20th Party Congress in 1956, Khrushchev delivered a historic bombshell. What was it?

Answer: His "secret speech" denouncing Stalin

The infamous "secret speech" wasn't secret at all, and launched a new plan to "thaw" relations with the West and to encourage greater political freedoms in the USSR. Thousands of people imprisoned in the Gulags were freed.

Answer: Hungary

The Iron Curtain certainly wasn't going anywhere under Khrushchev. NATO formed in 1949, and in response the Communist Bloc formed the new look, ring-a-ding-ding Warsaw Pact in 1955. The suppression of the Hungarian uprising was one of the first acts of the Warsaw Pact.

Answer: The space race

1957 saw the launch of Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth; and thus began the space race. Isn't it amazing that only 12 short years later the United States would successfully land a man on the moon?

11. Relations with the West can best be described as "highs" and "lows". 1959 was a "high" year for Khrushchev and Soviet foreign policy, climaxing with what historic event?

Answer: Khrushchev's tour of the United States

Other than Gorbachev during Perestroika, Khrushchev was the only Soviet leader to visit the US while in power. SALT I came under Brezhnev, the Helsinki Accords were signed in the 1970s, and so many summits have been held in Geneva it would be impossible to count them all.

12. 1960, unfortunately, was a "low" year for Soviet foreign relations. What two events were the big disasters for the USSR?

Answer: The U-2 spy plane & the Sino-Soviet split

In 1960 the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane and revealed that the US had been lying about espionage in the USSR. (Not that the USSR has been telling the truth either...) As well, Khrushchev's policies finally drove Chinese Chairman Mao Tse-Tung over the edge and relations between China and the USSR soured. Mao hated Khrushchev's willingness to work with the West, and saw himself as Stalin's natural Asiatic Socialist heir.

Answer: Peaceful coexistence

"Socialism in one country" was the slogan Stalin used in the late 1920s/early 1930s, and the concept of d�tente is most closely associated with Brezhnev. Khrushchev advocated "peacefully coexisting"; all the while buliding barricades, sending nuclear arms across the world, and invading foreign countries.

14. Other than Gorbachev, Khrushchev is the only General Secretary not to serve until his death.

Answer: True

Faced with PR disasters and a crumbling internal structure, a Brezhnev-led Politburo removed Khrushchev from office in 1964. Defeated, lonely, and bitter; he died in 1971 after dictating his memoirs. Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko all died in office. (The last three within two and a half years of each other!)

15. Khrushchev's full memoirs were published in the USSR and the US following his death in 1971.

Answer: False

False - much of what he had written/dictated was in fact classified by the KGB, and it wasn't until Perestroika and Glasnost that we saw much of what Khrushchev had written (in fact, a whole separate volume was published).

Source: Author Mrs_Seizmagraff

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor thejazzkickazz before going online.
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