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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How was Belinsky described by the writers he influenced?
(a) Belinsky was described as Russia's most optimistic Romantic.
(b) Belinsky was described as the aesthete of his generation.
(c) Belinsky was described as the conscience of his generation.
(d) Belinsky was described as Russia's retrograde conservative.

2. How does Berlin describe Belinsky's legacy?
(a) Berlin describes Belinsky as the decadent gadfly of his generation.
(b) Berlin describes Belinsky as an aesthete whose decadence was in fashion for a few years.
(c) Berlin describes Belinsky as the father of social criticism.
(d) Berlin describes Belinsky as a revolutionary whose martyrdom inspired future revolutionaries.

3. What were the Russian Populists opposed to?
(a) Individualism on one hand and authoritarian centralism traditions on the other.
(b) The Europeanization of Russian culture.
(c) The inherited privilege of the Russian aristocracy.
(d) Radical and revolutionary organizations that wanted to bring about change through violence.

4. What qualities did the most important leader of the Russian Populists have that made him successful?
(a) A brilliant intellect.
(b) A talent for collecting details and making concrete plans.
(c) An eloquent writing and speaking style.
(d) A magnetic almost messianic personality.

5. Who advocated Russian Populism?
(a) The Second of April Committee.
(b) A widespread group of radicals.
(c) The Moscow Reform Party.
(d) The Petersburg Literary Coterie.

6. When did Turgenev die?
(a) 1881.
(b) 1861.
(c) 1883.
(d) 1875.

7. Where was Belinsky born?
(a) Berlin.
(b) Moscow.
(c) Minsk.
(d) Finland.

8. What did Belinsky find in literature?
(a) Evidence of European superiority.
(b) Spiritual and emotional "ideas."
(c) Evidence of a national race-life.
(d) Vicarious experiences.

9. Why was Belinsky expelled from university?
(a) Belinsky was expelled for inciting a student riot.
(b) Belinsky was expelled for an affair with a governess.
(c) Belinsky was expelled for writing a play denouncing serfdom.
(d) Belinsky was expelled for writing an essay mocking the university president.

10. How did Turgenev differ from Tolstoy and Dostoevsky?
(a) Turgenev wrote solely about peasants.
(b) Turgenev was not a moral preacher.
(c) Turgenev did not write about society characters.
(d) Turgenev wrote short stories.

11. What term of contempt did Tolstoy use for writing he disliked?
(a) Aristocratic.
(b) Populist.
(c) Made up.
(d) Political.

12. What has the consensus been about Leo Tolstoy?
(a) That he was more of a philosopher than a novelist.
(b) That he was a brilliant novelist but a bad thinker.
(c) That he was really a cleric, more than a novelist.
(d) That he was ahead of his time as a thinker.

13. What does the Russian word "obshcnina" mean?
(a) Russian territories.
(b) Inherited customs.
(c) Peasant communes.
(d) Aristocratic privileges.

14. Which character was based on Belinsky?
(a) Basistov in Turgenev's Rudin.
(b) Vronsky in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
(c) Bazarov in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.
(d) Onegin in Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.

15. What group was Herzen part of in university?
(a) Herzen was one of Turgenev's "superfluous men."
(b) Herzen was one of Belinsky's proteges.
(c) Herzen belonged to a group of student radicals.
(d) Herzen was part of the Petrachevsky circle.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Herzen apply the philosophy of the philosopher whose work he followed?

2. What did Turgenev try to do with the novel he published five years after Fathers and Children?

3. How did Tolstoy understand the concept of truth?

4. Which two thinkers influenced the Russian populists?

5. What kind of position has Turgenev's legacy occupied in Russian society?

(see the answer keys)

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