Question

2.

Answer 1

Answer:

A. People read, saw, and heard only what the government desired and

D.  Leaders came to power through secret internal power struggles.

Explanation:

The Soviet Union (USSR), (1922- 1991), did not really rob the people of their freedom. Before the creation of the USSR, the country was ruled for three centuries by Romanov czars (1613–1917). A progressive and short-lived provisional government (1917) served as a mere interregnum between the autocratic czars and totalitarian Communism. The country was not free either before or during the Soviet time. Only for a brief time in the 1990s was Russia a free country. Although the USSR did not invent the Russian dictatorship, it was more repressive and cruel than its Romanov predecessors—especially during Stalin's rule (1924–1953). When Stalin was in power, the state's control of the media was total. Those who attempted to read or listen to anything apart from what was allowed were punished.

Fear was much more pervasive during the Soviet time. The USSR had extremely efficient secret police who eliminated real or potential opponents. There were purges. Stalin-era purges led to the deaths or exile of thousands of people.

Peasants suffered more than the urban population during Soviet rule. Farms were taken over by force under Stalin. Many peasants starved or were sent into forced labour in Siberia.

After the death of Stalin in 1953, Soviet citizens enjoyed slightly more freedom. But only the last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, was willing to give some rights to Soviet citizens. Western-style democracy has always been alien to Russia as it has almost always been ruled by a tyrant.