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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 argument did Stalin give to have the abolishment of capital punishment overturned?

2. Which of the following topics did Gendelman get into a heated debate with Krylenko about?

3. What nationality of men were the last to attempt a hunger strike in the Gulag prisons?

4. Which group of soldiers turned on the Russian church, demanding all its money?

5. Which of the following medical conditions did Lenin suffer from in 1922?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who were the sons of Gulag?

2. What were stolypins?

3. How was time in Gulag measured?

4. What did prisoners eat when they were being transported from one prison to another?

5. For what offenses could prisoners be sent to the punishment cells?

6. What changed about capital punishment after the revolt of 1952 in the Gulag prisons?

7. How did the peasants of Kotlas live after a Gulag prison was set up on their land in 1938?

8. Why did the Bolshevik Army turn on the church, and what do it get in return?

9. What surprises in the camps did prisoners remember that shocked their systems upon arrival?

10. Which prisons in the Gulag network does Solzhenitsyn remember living in as a prisoner?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The years 1937-1938 were considered the "Great Terror" years in Russia. Describe how life changed for the prisoners in the work camps during this era. Explain how Stalin used these two years to promote his own political agenda. What effect did this time have on Stalin's popularity within Russia?

Essay Topic 2

The Russian government was extremely concerned with its reputation in the Western world. Explain how the West first viewed Russia and its labor camps in the 1930s. Explain how propaganda was used by the government to augment the way the West viewed the Gulag camps.

Essay Topic 3

In his memoir, Solzhenitsyn gives very specific descriptions about the soldiers who were a part of the mass arrests leading to the overflow of prisoners in Gulag. What types of men were typically arresting soldiers during this time? What was specific about the arresting soldiers' uniforms? What does Solzhenitsyn remember most about the guards who arrested him?

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