View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What did the character Bazarov represent?
(a) The traditional aristocrat.
(b) Anarchy and violence.
(c) The coming Russian Revolution.
(d) Destructive criticism and nihilism.

4. What ideas did Tolstoy believe in?
(a) Tolstoy advocated for a strict aristocracy to keep the unruly impulses of the masses under control.
(b) Tolstoy believed in Russians' innate racial cohesion.
(c) Tolstoy rejected original sin and idealized the innocence of children.
(d) Tolstoy proposed the right of Russia to govern Eastern Europe.

5. What did Herzen understand that the revolutionaries did not understand?
(a) The cost of revolutionary change.
(b) The power of the aristocracy.
(c) The hellish nature of armed conflict.
(d) The corrupting nature of power.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Whose philosophy did Herzen follow?

3. Where was Herzen educated?

4. How was Herzen seen by the revolutionaries of the 1860s and 1870s?

5. What balance did Herzen strike in his philosophy?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Hegel's ideas influence Herzen?

2. Where did characters based on Belinsky appear in Russian literature?

3. What was Herzen's early activist career like?

4. What was Tolstoy's social life like after graduating from university?

5. What does the term "superfluous men" mean in Russian literature?

6. What was Herzen's relationship with his friends?

7. Why was Chernychevsky wary of the state?

8. Describe Belinsky's background and biography.

9. How are Herzen and Turgenev similar? How are they different?

10. According to Berlin, why was Turgenev attacked from both left and right?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 750 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample