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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 are the women happy to do?

2. Where is Ginzburg sent to work?

3. What does Petukhov vow?

4. What does Kucherenko demand?

5. Who is Pickwick?

Short Essay Questions

1. About what do the female prisoners disagree during their discussions on the train ride?

2. When is Ginzburg freed and what does she persist in believing in despite her life in prison?

3. Why does Vasily Petukhov decide to help Ginzburg survive?

4. Why is Ginzburg taken to see Nabob and what happens?

5. How do Ginzburg and her mother write letters to each other in code and what is an example of one such letter?

6. What range of sentences are the women whom Ginzburg meets given, and why does Ginzburg consider herself lucky?

7. What does Ginzburg learn about her father and how does this seem to cause unwarranted punishment?

8. What does Ginzburg say about the ongoing political purges and how do some of the prisoners view the likely incarceration of some of those fallen under the most recent purges?

9. What small joy do Ginzburg and the other prisoners enjoy when the Black Maria is late?

10. How does Ginzburg compare Kostik to Keyzin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

1. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Eugenia Ginzburg.

2. What in Ginzburg's background may have helped her in writing Journey Into the Whirlwind? What may have influenced the way she depicts various people and scenes?

3. Do you think all of the events in a memoir are true? Why or why not? Give examples.

4. How is a memoir affected by memory? Is every memory a person has strictly accurate? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

The train ride is especially telling of the life that the women are about to be plunged into. It also reveals a host of ideas and differences among the women with respect to Communism, Stalin, and themselves. A few fanatical women believe Stalin is innocent of the evil of his subordinates; others have come to hate the entire system. But just as their political differences threaten to pull them apart, they decide to band together and look out for each other as best they can.

1. Discuss the reasons some women might still hold to the idea that Stalin himself was not personally responsible for what was going on. Use examples from Journey Into the Whirlwind and your own life to support your response.

2. What do you think can happen to a system of government if a majority of its citizens begin to hate the system? Use examples from Journey Into the Whirlwind and your own life to support your response.

3. How do you think the women were able to set aside political differences to help each other and what does that imply for other groups of people in the world? Use examples from Journey Into the Whirlwind and your own life to support your response.

Essay Topic 3

Grandmother warns Ginzburg that a trap is being set for her, and that she should go as far away as she possibly can. But Ginzburg wants to prove her innocence, and her husband dismisses the idea of leaving. Ginzburg recounts that some intelligent people did indeed escape Communist oppression by slipping away to distant places. But Ginzburg admits she was not one of them.

1. Why do you think Ginzburg felt so strongly about proving her innocence? Use examples from Journey Into the Whirlwind and your own life to support your response.

2. Discuss how you think someone like Ginzburg might feel about her decision to not leave by the end of her ordeal. Do you think she may have regretted not leaving? Why or why not? Use examples from Journey Into the Whirlwind and your own life to support your response.

3. Discuss what it might imply about a person to know that a trap by an oppressive government might be set for her and still not take steps to avoid the trap. Use examples from Journey Into the Whirlwind and your own life to support your response.

(see the answer keys)

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