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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When did Russian Populism begin to decline?
(a) After the abolition of serfdom in 1861.
(b) After the opening of the Trans-Siberia railroad in 1889.
(c) After the death of the Tsar in 1881.
(d) After the conviction of the Petrachevsky Circle.

2. What European doctrine did Herzen deplore?
(a) The notion that Europeans are superior to Russians and others.
(b) The notion that some must die for society to progress.
(c) The notion that Romanic idealism would triumph in workers' collectives.
(d) The notion that the mind is fed only by direct sensory experience.

3. What was the intellectual's role in the Populists' view?
(a) Intellectuals should remain aloof from social transformation.
(b) Intellectuals should disseminate propaganda idealizing peasant communes.
(c) Intellectuals should work side by side with workers to undermine the aristocracy.
(d) Intellectuals should give their lives to social reform.

4. How was Fathers and Children received in Russia?
(a) It caused a controversy over its portrayal of nihilism.
(b) It was celebrated as an avant-garde modernism novel.
(c) It was not noticed until later in Turgenev's life.
(d) It was banned for obscenity.

5. What balance did Herzen strike in his philosophy?
(a) A balance between social justice and intellectual skepticism.
(b) A balance between living naturally and making art.
(c) A balance between revolutionary activities and aristocratic manners.
(d) A balance between political engagement and artistic remove.

6. What was Belinsky like in a debate?
(a) Frigidly rational.
(b) Reserved.
(c) Furious.
(d) Bombastic and offensive.

7. What was Tolstoy's relationship with Hegel's philosophy?
(a) Tolstoy believed in the evolution of culture, but not in the force behind that evolution.
(b) Tolstoy embraced the divinity behind a changing world, but rejected the teleological nature of Hegel's history.
(c) Tolstoy rejected Hegel.
(d) Tolstoy embraced Hegel wholeheartedly.

8. How did Tolstoy get along with the literary salons?
(a) He longed for attention but was uncomfortable in the salons' scrutinizing eyes.
(b) He fit right in with his wit and quick tongue and aphorisms.
(c) He was often at odds with critics, and he became famous for his quarrels.
(d) He made them uncomfortable because he knew that real life was lived in nature.

9. Which character was based on Belinsky?
(a) Basistov in Turgenev's Rudin.
(b) Vronsky in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
(c) Bazarov in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.
(d) Onegin in Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.

10. What novel did Turgenev publish five years after Fathers and Children?
(a) Torrents of Spring.
(b) A Huntsman's sketches.
(c) Smoke.
(d) A Nest of the Gentry.

11. What did Belinsky find in literature?
(a) Evidence of European superiority.
(b) Spiritual and emotional "ideas."
(c) Vicarious experiences.
(d) Evidence of a national race-life.

12. Which two thinkers influenced the Russian populists?
(a) Locke and Rousseau.
(b) Kant and Hume.
(c) Fourier and Mill.
(d) Darwin and Marx.

13. What interaction did Tolstoy have with the radical Dobrolyubov?
(a) Dobrolyubov challenged Turgenev to a duel, but Turgenev refused to fight.
(b) Turgenev and Dobrolyubov fought a duel.
(c) Dobrolyubov refused to talk with Turgenev when they met, once.
(d) Dobrolyubov published Turgenev's first novel.

14. What does Herzen's last name indicate about his birth?
(a) Herzen's father was common name for Latvian emigrants to Russia to adopt.
(b) Herzen was a noble name, and indicates his high birth.
(c) Herzen was a German name, indicating that his parents had immigrated to Russia.
(d) Herzen means heart in German, and indicates his illegitimacy.

15. What allowed the leader of the Populists to lead?
(a) He was born in Europe, so he could see Russian culture without bias.
(b) He was born to a parish priest, so he understood poor people's concerns.
(c) He was born to an aristocratic father and a poor mother, so he understood both worlds.
(d) He was born after the period of repression, so he experienced a full spectrum of Russian literature and life.

Short Answer Questions

1. What program did Tolstoy advocate?

2. Whose failures did the leader of the Populists reject?

3. How did Herzen manifest the values he shared with his circle?

4. How was Turgenev received by the radicals of the 1860s and 70s?

5. What kind of position has Turgenev's legacy occupied in Russian society?

(see the answer keys)

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