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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When did Tolstoy's reputation change?
(a) In the mid-1870s.
(b) In the late 1880s.
(c) In the early 1890s.
(d) In the early 1860s.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

5. 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 felt compelled to respond radically to Russia's stifling culture.
(c) Herzen and his circle believed that historical progress would sweep away the aristocracy.
(d) Herzen and his circle exorcised their guilt at being landowners by drinking and gambling and generally dissipating themselves.

Short Answer Questions

1. What problem obsessed Turgenev during his life?

2. How were Tolstoy's early stories received?

3. Who changed the consensus about Tolstoy?

4. What quality redeemed the characters based on Belinsky?

5. What does the Russian word "obshcnina" mean?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was Turgenev's work viewed at the end of his life?

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

3. Describe Russian populism as a movement.

4. What talent did Turgenev share with English poet John Keats?

5. What belief did Tolstoy share with Rousseau?

6. What was Turgenev's political stance, and how had he formulated it?

7. What Western thinkers influenced Populism?

8. What qualities did the characters based on Belinsky have?

9. What was the stance of the "new men" toward Turgenev?

10. How did Hegel's ideas influence Herzen?

(see the answer keys)

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