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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. Who was the thinker Tolstoy agreed with most?
(a) Rousseau.
(b) Mazzini.
(c) Pestalozzi.
(d) Marcus Aurelius.

4. How was Belinsky described by the writers he influenced?
(a) Belinsky was described as Russia's retrograde conservative.
(b) Belinsky was described as the aesthete of his generation.
(c) Belinsky was described as the conscience of his generation.
(d) Belinsky was described as Russia's most optimistic Romantic.

5. What term of contempt did Tolstoy use for writing he disliked?
(a) Populist.
(b) Aristocratic.
(c) Political.
(d) Made up.

6. What qualities did the most important leader of the Russian Populists have that made him successful?
(a) An eloquent writing and speaking style.
(b) A magnetic almost messianic personality.
(c) A brilliant intellect.
(d) A talent for collecting details and making concrete plans.

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

8. How did Belinsky make a living?
(a) Belinsky made a living as tanner.
(b) Belinsky made a living as a bureaucrat and wrote in his spare time.
(c) Belinsky made a living as a hack writer.
(d) Belinksy was a nobleman who worked only on his writing.

9. How was Turgenev received by the radicals of the 1860s and 70s?
(a) He was dismissed as a noble.
(b) He was celebrated as a visionary.
(c) He was embraced as a model.
(d) He was rejected as ineffectual.

10. 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.

11. What values did Herzen share with the group he was part of?
(a) Herzen and his circle wanted to escape from Russian life into aesthetics and decadent Western art.
(b) Herzen and his circle believed that historical progress would sweep away the aristocracy.
(c) Herzen and his circle exorcised their guilt at being landowners by drinking and gambling and generally dissipating themselves.
(d) Herzen and his circle felt compelled to respond radically to Russia's stifling culture.

12. What Keats-like gift did Turgenev have?
(a) Turgenev had a gift for "negative capability."
(b) Turgenev had a gift for short evocative verse.
(c) Turgenev had a gift for making himself popular with peasants.
(d) Turgenev had a gift for writing in Italian.

13. What group was Herzen part of in university?
(a) Herzen was part of the Petrachevsky circle.
(b) Herzen belonged to a group of student radicals.
(c) Herzen was one of Turgenev's "superfluous men."
(d) Herzen was one of Belinsky's proteges.

14. Who was the most important leader among the Russian Populists?
(a) Chernyshevsky.
(b) Gogol.
(c) Bakunin.
(d) Herzen.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Tolstoy's opinion about his professors?

2. What was the intellectual's role in the Populists' view?

3. Whose philosophy did Herzen follow?

4. How did Tolstoy understand the concept of truth?

5. Whose writings were populists influenced by?

(see the answer keys)

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