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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. Which of the following sections of the memoir deals with the show trials?

2. In what year did the new era of executions start in the Gulag prison systems?

3. How long did a typical bathroom break last when there were 120 prisoners who needed to go?

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

5. What did von Meck and Velchinko help Palchinsky do in the early stages of Russian revolution?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was Palchinsky?

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

3. Why did women sometimes go crazy when they found a scrap of paper in the transit camps?

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

5. Who were the sons of Gulag?

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

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

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

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

10. What was Vlasov put on trial for in the last of Russia's open trials?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When people were sent to a Gulag labor camp, it was particularly difficult for their families. Explain how families tried to cope when one of their members was sent away. Give at least two ways prisoners attempted to stay in contact with their families even during their imprisonment.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Even though security in the Gulag camps was tight, many prisoners still attempted to escape. First, explain the security measures guards put up in the hopes they would deter prisoners from attempting to escape. Next, explain at least two ways prisoners managed to escape from Gulag. Finally, give at least one example from the text of a famous attempted, or successful, escape from Gulag.

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