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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. Who betrayed Aleksandr Medvedev?

2. What did Remnick see when he was talking to an old man whose wife had leukemia?

3. In 1974, who was the first man forcibly exiled from the Soviet Union since Trotsky?

4. Where did perestroika spin out of control in 1989?

5. What kept the Soviet economy going for awhile?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened in the 1940s in the woods outside Kalinin?

2. Why did Natasha Rapoport not emigrate to Israel?

3. What was the homeless situation in Moscow in 1988?

4. Why did no one believe that a new "epoch of human progress" began in October 1917?

5. What did Gorbachev do about the letter published March 13 in the Sovetskaya Rossiya?

6. What was Vremya?

7. Why was the Communist Party doomed to failure after they lost control of history?

8. In the 1980s, why did Gorbachev say that there should be no more "rose-colored glasses"?

9. What central fact of Gorbachev's early life did he keep to himself until 1990?

10. What did filmmaker Tofik Shakhverdiyev say it meant in 1988 to be a Stalinist?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The poem "Requiem" by Anna Akhmatova became a voice for the organization Memorial. Explain how the poem and the experiences of the poet made this poem a suitable voice and a credo for remembering the victims of the Soviet regime.

Essay Topic 2

As the true history of Stalin's era is revealed in 1991, the Russian people must learn to deal with the truth and rise above it or be consumed by the truth. Explain how Colonel Aleksandr Tretetsky and Vladimir Tokaryev deal with the truth and show examples that indicate that they represent the two ways that the Russian people deal with the truth.

Essay Topic 3

The hard-liners began a coup in August 1991. Explain how and why the actions of the conspirators, the military, the secret police, the people, the media (television, radio, and press), and the reform politicians caused the coup to fail.

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This section contains 950 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample