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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 was the explosion of the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb?

2. What newspaper did Len Karpinsky work for and later edit?

3. What did Remnick see when he was talking to an old man whose wife had leukemia?

4. Who was one of the key plotters in the August coup?

5. What happened to release victims of the Doctors' Plot who had been imprisoned?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was a difference between the czarist repressions and the Bolshevik Terror?

2. As people learned about the true history of the Stalin era, why were they weary and bored?

3. Why is life in the mines not fit for human beings?

4. What central fact of Gorbachev's early life did he keep to himself until 1990?

5. Why was Andropov important to Gorbachev?

6. What was Magadan like in the late 1930s?

7. Who is Lydia Chukovskaya?

8. What happened in the 1940s in the woods outside Kalinin?

9. Why is Misha Litvinov a reserved person?

10. Who was the most flamboyant mafia figure in the Soviet Union?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In 1988, threats against the Jews resurfaced. Using examples from Lenin's Tomb, discuss why there was such an anti-Semitic feeling off and on during the history of the Soviet Union and how events in the empire influenced the renewed hatred for the Jews.

Essay Topic 2

During the Gorbachev era, there was loosening of restrictions and a small shift toward truth. Compare the Stalin era and the Gorbachev era, and show what changed, what did not change, and how, in some ways, the Gorbachev era retained elements from Stalin's days. Use examples from the book.

Essay Topic 3

In Lenin's Tomb, Remnick states that the Communist Party apparatus was the world's largest mafia. Using examples from the book, argue that the Soviet Union was or was not the world's largest mafia.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 971 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample