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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What did Populists do in large scale in 1874?
(a) Begin a rebellion in Moscow.
(b) Declare independence from Russia.
(c) Publish a manifesto prophesying Communism.
(d) Study social organization in peasant communes.

4. 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 talent for collecting details and making concrete plans.
(c) A magnetic almost messianic personality.
(d) A brilliant intellect.

5. What was Tolstoy's opinion about his professors?
(a) Tolstoy believed that they contained the wealth of the world between themselves collectively.
(b) Tolstoy believed that they wasted their time on trivialities.
(c) Tolstoy believed that they were fostering a revolutionary consciousness in their students.
(d) Tolstoy believed that they were undermining the aristocracy.

6. What was Tolstoy's experience of European ideas?
(a) After traveling to Europe, Tolstoy became contemptuous of European "expertise."
(b) From his reading of European thinkers, Tolstoy saw the flaws in Russian society.
(c) Tolstoy's travels throughout Europe showed him the superior forms of social organization.
(d) Tolstoy's friendship with European writers showed him the inevitability of revolutionary change.

7. What qualities did the characters based on Belinsky possess?
(a) Dreamy romanticism.
(b) Nihilistic recklessness.
(c) Diabolical political stances.
(d) Awkward earnestness.

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

9. What quality redeemed the characters based on Belinsky?
(a) World-weariness.
(b) Simple kindness.
(c) Intense moral convictions.
(d) Self-defeating clumsiness.

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

11. What did Turgenev try to do with the novel he published five years after Fathers and Children?
(a) Turgenev tried to redeem himself of charges of obscenity.
(b) Turgenev tried to portray Russian society without a political slant.
(c) Turgenev tried to win the favor of progressives.
(d) Turgenev tried to criticize the aristocracy unreservedly.

12. What do Herzen and Turgenev's novels have in common?
(a) A vision of post-revolutionary utopian society.
(b) A commitment to social justice.
(c) A determination to bring about the downfall of the aristocracy.
(d) The sense that many human problems are insoluble.

13. When did Turgenev die?
(a) 1875.
(b) 1881.
(c) 1861.
(d) 1883.

14. Where did Tolstoy find the source of his philosophy?
(a) In the divinity of the church.
(b) In individual experience.
(c) In the divine rights of government.
(d) In the collective power of the government.

15. How did Herzen apply the philosophy of the philosopher whose work he followed?
(a) Herzen applied theories methodically and pragmatically to social problems.
(b) Herzen wasted his time on drinking and gambling as a rebellion against a rational society.
(c) Herzen found beauty in nature, and tried to escape from a corrupt society.
(d) Herzen concluded that no one grand theory could solve society's problems.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did Russian Populism begin to decline?

2. What ideas did Tolstoy believe in?

3. What was Tolstoy's relationship with Hegel's philosophy?

4. Who was the most important leader among the Russian Populists?

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

(see the answer keys)

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