View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Berlin ultimately characterize Turgenev?
(a) As an artist first and foremost.
(b) As the ultimate pluralist.
(c) As an articulate zealot.
(d) As a consummate philosopher-novelist.

2. What does the Russian word "Mir" mean?
(a) Collective of communes.
(b) Freedom.
(c) Russian laws.
(d) A political party.

3. How did Turgenev differ from Tolstoy and Dostoevsky?
(a) Turgenev did not write about society characters.
(b) Turgenev wrote solely about peasants.
(c) Turgenev was not a moral preacher.
(d) Turgenev wrote short stories.

4. What sentiment ultimately moved the Populists?
(a) Longing for political stability.
(b) Idealistic hope for social justice.
(c) Revulsion from capitalism.
(d) Lust for power.

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

6. Where was Belinsky born?
(a) Moscow.
(b) Finland.
(c) Berlin.
(d) Minsk.

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

8. Who changed the consensus about Tolstoy?
(a) Chernyshevsky.
(b) Fet.
(c) Mikhailovsky.
(d) Dobrolyubov.

9. How does Berlin describe Belinsky's legacy?
(a) Berlin describes Belinsky as an aesthete whose decadence was in fashion for a few years.
(b) Berlin describes Belinsky as the father of social criticism.
(c) Berlin describes Belinsky as the decadent gadfly of his generation.
(d) Berlin describes Belinsky as a revolutionary whose martyrdom inspired future revolutionaries.

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

11. Who were Herzen's parents?
(a) Herzen's father was a gentleman; his mother was his mistress.
(b) Herzen's father was a musician; his mother was an actress.
(c) Herzen's father was a painter; his mother was a writer.
(d) Herzen's father was a journalist; his mother was a homemaker.

12. Which principles did Belinsky never abandon?
(a) German Romanticism.
(b) Russian Nationalism.
(c) English Humanism.
(d) French Decadence.

13. How were Tolstoy's early stories received?
(a) They were not noticed until after his death.
(b) They made him an instant celebrity.
(c) They earned him a reputation as a promising writer.
(d) They were banned.

14. What does the Russian word "obshcnina" mean?
(a) Inherited customs.
(b) Peasant communes.
(c) Russian territories.
(d) Aristocratic privileges.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Belinsky's father like?

2. What ideas did Tolstoy believe in?

3. What was Herzen anxious to avoid becoming?

4. When did Turgenev die?

5. According to Berlin, why is there not a good biography of Alexander Herzen?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 542 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample