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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the stereotype of the Russian intellectual?

2. What were de Maistre's views?

3. Who was the Tsar following the Decembrist rebellion?

4. What did Herzen predict in "From the Other Shore"?

5. What mistake did Tsar Nicholas I make about European universities?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which Russian intellectuals did Pavel Annenkov describe in his memoirs?

2. Who was Joseph de Maistre and what ideas did Tolstoy share with him?

3. How did Bakunin react to Hegel's philosophy?

4. What were the three accomplishments of the intellectuals who rose to prominence in the 1830s and 40s?

5. What example does Tolstoy use to explain why human beings cannot know all the actions and causes that affect their experiences?

6. What do foxes and hedgehogs represent in Archilochus' adage, and how does Berlin apply the distinction to Russian thinkers?

7. What problems did Herzen have with Hegelian philosophy?

8. What was the effect of the "moral quarantine" of Western ideas in Russia?

9. What was Annenkov's role in the circle of Russian Intelligentsia?

10. How did Tsar Nicholas respond to the European revolutions of 1848?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did authors resist the pitfalls of political engagement? Choose three authors or critics and describe their strategies for refusing to engage with the political tensions of their day.

Essay Topic 2

What is the state of radicalism in Western thought today? Where radicalism playing out, the way French and German radicalism is was playing out in Russia starting in the 1830s? Make a case for a current conflict as evidence of a modern cultural clash/reform/transformation.

Essay Topic 3

Where else in the modern world are people playing out this tension between progress on one hand and nationalism or localism, on the other? How does the Russian example--of revolutionaries trying to preserve Russian social structures in the face of industrial or modern reforms--relate to the modern example?

(see the answer keys)

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