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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 was the work site where Colonel Tretetsky and his men worked?

2. In Magnitogorsk, how much was sunlight was reduced by pollution?

3. Why was Tretetsky receiving phone calls all day on August 19, 1991?

4. In 1989 when the people were to vote for the new Congress of People's Deputies, who wanted sovereignty?

5. How did Yeryomenko learn to speak excellent English?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Sakharov become a dissident?

2. What was the Doctors' Plot?

3. How did Mukhamed Valsapar in Turkmenia stir up the Party?

4. How did Yakovlev know that the article "I Cannot Forsake Principles" was sanctioned?

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

6. Why did the salmon catch rot on Sakhalin Island?

7. Why did Shakhnazarov say that Gorbachev, himself, and all the others who surrounded Gorbachev were double-thinkers?

8. Why is Misha Litvinov a reserved person?

9. Why was Andropov important to Gorbachev?

10. What gnawing uncertainty is the condition of life in the Soviet Union for an empire inhabited by holocaust survivors and the children of survivors?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When people's convictions are threatened, they either capitulate or stand up and defend their convictions. Using specific examples from the book, compare individuals who abandoned their convictions when threatened to individuals who stood up to attacks on their convictions at great personal risk or cost.

Essay Topic 2

Gorbachev and the Party had illusions about the future of the Soviet Union. Discuss these illusions and how events shattered Gorbachev's and the Party's illusions.

Essay Topic 3

In 1988, threats against the Jews resurfaced. Using examples from Lenin's Tomb, discuss why there was such an anti-Semitic feeling off and on during the history of the Soviet Union and how events in the empire influenced the renewed hatred for the Jews.

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