Political Science Test - 15

The correct answer is Option 2.

Key Points

• Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet official, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 to 1991 and president of the Soviet Union in 1990–91.
• His efforts to democratize his country’s political system and decentralize its economy led to the downfall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
• In part, because he ended the Soviet Union’s postwar domination of eastern Europe, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1990.

The correct answer is Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Key Points

Nagorno- Karabakh:

• It is a disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia. So, option 3 is correct.
• Internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
• Mostly governed by the Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state with an Armenian ethnic majority established on the basis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
• Azerbaijan has not exercised political authority over the region since the advent of the Karabakh movement in 1988.
• Since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group on the region's disputed status.

The correct answer is ​Yugoslavia.

Key Points

• Yugoslavia:
  • ​Yugoslavia is the territory that was up to 25 June 1991 known as The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
  • Specifically, the six republics that made up the Federation are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (including the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina), and Slovenia.
  • On 25 June 1991, the declarations of independence of Slovenia and Croatia effectively ended the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's existence.
  • In 2003, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was reconstituted and re-named as a State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

Additional Information

• USSR:
  • ​The Soviet Union was established in 1922 by a treaty signed by Russia, Ukraine, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
  • It was formed in fifteen smaller states. Despite the achievements, the Soviet Union suffered a fatal decline in 1991, mainly due to the economic and political reforms.
  • This led to the end of the Cold War between the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union.
  • It was marked by events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the transfer of power from the Soviet center to the Republic.
  • The disintegration of the Soviet Union made the United States the only world power and ended the polarization of the world order

The correct answer is USSR.

Key Points

• The momentous changes that took place in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev are usually described by two Russian words: glasnost and perestroika. Glasnost, or “openness,” refers to the dramatic enlargement of individual freedom of expression in the political and social aspects of Eastern European life. Perestroika is usually translated as “restructuring,” in the context of economic renewal. Derived from the word for building (stroika), it implies the rehabilitation of an old structure.
• Perestroika is a program instituted in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s.
• It aims is to restructure Soviet economic and political policy.
• Gorbachev decentralized economic controls and encouraged enterprises to become self-financing.
• Mikhail Gorbachev was the first president of the Soviet Union, serving from 1990 to 1991. 
• In 1990, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his leadership role in ending the Cold War and promoting peaceful international relations.
• Mikhail Gorbachev became a delegate to the Communist Party Congress in 1961. 
• He was elected general secretary in 1985. 

Additional Information

• Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964.
• Boris Yeltsin is a Russian politician who became president of Russia in 1990.
• Vladimir Putin is a Russian intelligence officer and politician who served as president (1999–2008, 2012– till now) of Russia and also was the country’s prime minister (1999, 2008–12).

• Boris Yeltsin was the first President of Russia from 10 July 1991 to 31 December 1999.
• Dmitrey Medvedev was the third President of Russia.
• Vladimir Putin is the incumbent President of Russia.

The correct answer is Option 2.

Key Points

• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, invasion of Afghanistan in late December 1979 by troops from the Soviet Union.
• The Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War (1978–92) and remained in Afghanistan until mid-February 1989.

The correct answer is Option 4.

Key Points

• The USSR was a former northern Eurasian empire (1917/22–1991) stretching from the Baltic and Black seas to the Pacific Ocean and, in its final years, consisting of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (S.S.R.’s): Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia (now Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgiziya (now Kyrgyzstan), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (now Moldova), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The capital was Moscow, then and now the capital of Russia.
• That the Soviet Union was disintegrating had been subtly apparent for some time, but the final act began at 4:50 PM on Sunday, August 18, 1991.

The correct answer is Option 3.

Key Points

• Comecon, byname of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), also called (from 1991) Organization for International Economic Cooperation, organization established in January 1949 to facilitate and coordinate the economic development of the eastern European countries belonging to the Soviet bloc.
• Comecon’s original members were the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Albania joined in February 1949 but ceased taking an active part at the end of 1961.
• The German Democratic Republic became a member in September 1950 and the Mongolian People’s Republic in June 1962.

The correct answer is Option 1, i.e Containment of Communism.

• The main objective of the Truman Doctrine was the containment of Communism which was proposed by the then US President Harry S. Truman in the era of Cold war.
• Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. 
• In 1947, President Harry S. Truman pledged that the United States would help any nation resist communism in order to prevent its spread and provided $13 billion of aid to Europe in the Marshall Plan.
• In the light of the Truman Policy, the US along with its allies helped South Korea in the war against North Korea where North Korea was backed upon by USSR and PRC.

The correct answer is 1991.​

Key Points

• On 12 June 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty established citizenship of Russia and stated that the RSFSR (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic) shall retain the right of free secession from the USSR.
• Political Un-accountability, Economic weakness, Rise of Nationalism, and Gorbachev's reforms are the factors that led to the disintegration of the USSR.
• The Russian Revolution of 1917 ended the Russian empire.
• This was followed by the Russian Civil War which finally resulted in the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922.
• The Soviet Union officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a federal socialist state in Northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991.
• USSR was a strong bloc with great control over global politics from 1922 to 1991 when it was disintegrated into smaller units.
• The USSR was a loose confederation of 15 republics with Russia as the leader.
• The USSR had a total of 15 republics before its disintegration in 1991 are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
• On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag lowered for the last time over the Kremlin, thereafter replaced by the Russian tricolor.
• Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his post as president of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the newly independent Russian state.
• The office of president had been added to the political structure of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in 1991.
• Personality clashes between Yeltsin and the parliamentary leadership led to a break between the legislative and executive branches.

Additional Information

• The current President of Russia -  Vladimir Putin.
• The current Prime Minister of Russia - Mikhail Mishustin.
• Parliament name of Russia - Duma and Federal Council.
• Capital of Russia - Moscow.
• Currency of Russia - Rubel.