View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was the Soviet who supposedly collaborated with Christine Keller to bring down Profumo, Britain's minister of war?

2. What was the plan called that was supposed to dismantle the Soviet system?

3. Who was a self-proclaimed pioneer of Soviet capitalism who set up a private commodities brokerage?

4. In August 1991, where was Gorbachev when the coup started?

5. What American movie was shown to students at the Moscow Higher Party School?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Yeltsin's appeal to the people for resistance to the coup get published in Izvestia?

2. What did Volkogonov's team reveal in a draft of a history they were writing that appalled the hard-liners?

3. Why would it be difficult for the hard-liners to chart a new historical orthodoxy?

4. Why during World War II did Aleksandr Yakovlev survive after being wounded?

5. What was "The Charity Society"?

6. Who was the free man Remnick met on Sakhalin island?

7. Why did the publishers of the Novy Mir not know what to expect when Gorbachev suggested that the Soviet Writers' Union decide whether Solzhenitsyn should be published in the Soviet Union?

8. What did Yuri Savenko, president of the Independent Psychiatric Association, think about the Ministry of Health's cooperation with Kashpirovsky's broadcasts?

9. What did the designer of the Chernobyl reactor say about the nuclear accident?

10. What happened when Gorbachev withdrew his support for the 500 Days plan?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Some have said that the under socialism in the Soviet Union everyone was equal, equally poor. Argue that socialism caused the extreme poverty that the Soviet People endured using specific examples from the book to support your opinions.

Essay Topic 3

The return of history is an important theme in the book. Explain how history was distorted and why the return of history led to a new order in Russia.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,185 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample