Question

Which of the following statements are true with reference to the beliefs held by socialists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

• A. Socialists were against private property and saw it as the root of all social ills.
• B. Some socialists believed in cooperatives and experimented with worker communes.
• C. Socialists always emphasised on equal redistribution of land.
• D. The Bolsheviks were socialists who believed that a process of gradual change is the ideal path to communism.

Answer 1

Answer: (A), (B), (C)

The correct options are
A Socialists were against private property and saw it as the root of all social ills.
B Some socialists believed in cooperatives and experimented with worker communes.
C Socialists always emphasised on equal redistribution of land.

Statement 1 is true: Socialists were against private property and capitalism. They argued that the disproportionate accumulation of wealth caused extreme inequality.

Statement 2 is true: Robert Owen of England and Louis Blanc of France implemented socialism by building cooperatives.

Statement 3 is true: In feudal societies, land was owned by the clergy and the nobility, while most peasants were landless. Hence, socialists demanded equal redistribution of land.

Statement 4 is false: The Bolsheviks argued that Russia could directly go from an absolute monarchy to a communist society. Bolshevism advocated violent overthrow of capitalism.