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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What values did Herzen share with the group he was part of?

2. What does Herzen's last name indicate about his birth?

3. What does the Russian word "Mir" mean?

4. How was Belinsky described by the writers he influenced?

5. What idea caused Tolstoy agony?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why was Chernychevsky wary of the state?

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

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

6. Who was Nikolay Chernychevsky and what was his role in Russian culture?

7. Why did Turgenev's character Bazarov inspire such strong responses from audiences?

8. Describe Russian populism as a movement.

9. What was Tolstoy's education like?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Research essay: Who inherited the legacy of the thinkers Berlin profiled? How did the Russian Revolution transform the ideas of the 19th-century Russian writers? Where was Hegel in the Russian Revolution?

Essay Topic 2

Was writing enough for Russian writers, or did they have to be known for their actions as well? Whether it is Herzen's radical magazine or Tolstoy's radical innovations on his estate, it seems that literature itself could never be more than a part of a man's identity. Why was this? Were there writers who were successful by simply being writers?

Essay Topic 3

Which writer or character is most representative of the tensions and conflicting desires that characterize the writers Berlin profiles? Define your terms, and use examples from the life of the author you choose.

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