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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. When forming a line for drinking water, which of the following prisoners were allowed to drink first from the common cup?

2. In Zihma, what did prisoners being transported on foot use as nets to catch fish in the river?

3. In the years 1945-1946, how many prisoners were dying every day in every camp of Gulag?

4. Why wasn't Stalin's body drawn and quartered for the execution of the peasants?

5. How many compartments were in a typical passenger car headed out to exile?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What types of prisoners were separated from the native population at Gulag?

3. What major change did Lenin make to the law right before he suffered his first stroke?

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

5. What happened in the trial of Shakhty?

6. What happened during the new era of executions?

7. How did prisoners figure out where they were being relocated, particularly when being sent into exile?

8. Who was Palchinsky?

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

10. What were stolypins?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

During their interrogation periods, many prisoners were tortured by the guards. First, list at least five ways that prisoners were tortured, and what information guards hoped to elicit from these methods. Then, explain how torture led to false imprisonments and wrongful sentencing.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the Gulag prison system, there was a vast organization of punishments and rewards in regards to the prisoners' productivity on a given day. First, explain how the productivity of prisoners was measured on a given day. Next, explain at least two ways prisoners were rewarded for meeting their work quota and two ways prisoners were punished for falling below the quota.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the memoir, Solzhenitsyn compares the real evil of the world (such as the evil of Gulag) to the evil forces presented in literature. First, describe Solzhenitsyn's personal definition of what evil is and where it is hiding in the world. Next, compare/contrast that definition to at least one of the literary greats Solzhenitsyn discusses in the book.

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