HIS250: Term exam study guide.

Part I: Short Identifications. You will receive a list of people, events, and significant terms. Describe the items in paragraphs, being sure to answer basic questions starting with who, what, where, when, why, and how. (The last two terms might be confusing, but think of them like “why did this happen” or “how did this affect Russian development?” In other words, why are the people, etc., significant?)

Part II: Text identification. You will receive a passage from the tutorial readings. You must identify the source of the passage, and then write a short essay about it, focusing on what the larger reading discusses, and then on how that reading reflects larger issues in Russian history.

The instructions for this part will look like this:

First, identify the author, source, and date of the excerpt above.

Next, in one paragraph (or more), tell how this passage fits into the larger work. That is, summarize the basic argument of the entire work. Then summarize this passage. How does this paragraph fit into the larger argument?

Finally, in another paragraph (or more), tell how the work illuminates the time in which it was written. You ought to answer the following questions: why was the work written? How is the work related to other works we’ve read, or I’ve discussed? What social, political, or cultural ideas were prevalent at the time the work was written? How did this work react to specific concerns? What kind of an impact did the work have on Russian society, or how does it describe larger issues?

I’ve picked passages that should be very clear if you have a basic understanding of what the readings are about. And, each of these tasks is assigned points; that means that even if you fail to properly identify a reading, you can still still receive partial credit by writing a decent essay.