Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Quiz
  • 1. In which city was Fyodor Dostoyevsky born?
A) Kiev
B) St. Petersburg
C) Moscow
D) Minsk
  • 2. Which novel is considered one of Dostoyevsky's masterpieces?
A) Crime and Punishment
B) Pride and Prejudice
C) War and Peace
D) Anna Karenina
  • 3. Which literary movement is Dostoyevsky often associated with?
A) Russian Realism
B) Romanticism
C) Symbolism
D) Naturalism
  • 4. What philosophical ideology did Dostoyevsky criticize in his novel 'Demons'?
A) Nihilism
B) Hedonism
C) Existentialism
D) Utilitarianism
  • 5. Which publication marks the beginning of Dostoyevsky's career as a writer?
A) War and Peace
B) Poor Folk
C) Crime and Punishment
D) Madame Bovary
  • 6. In what year did Dostoyevsky pass away?
A) 1870
B) 1895
C) 1881
D) 1903
  • 7. Which character from Dostoyevsky's novels commits a murder to test his theory of extraordinary individuals?
A) Rodion Romanovich
B) Raskolnikov
C) Alyosha Karamazov
D) Stavrogin
  • 8. What was the title of Dostoyevsky's last novel?
A) Crime and Punishment
B) Anna Karenina
C) The Idiot
D) The Brothers Karamazov
  • 9. In which year was Fyodor Dostoevsky born?
A) 1841
B) 1801
C) 1831
D) 1821
  • 10. What is the name of the Russian military institute that Dostoevsky attended after leaving school?
A) Russian State Pedagogical University
B) Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute
C) Saint Petersburg Naval Academy
D) Imperial Moscow University
  • 11. Which of Dostoevsky's novels is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature?
A) Crime and Punishment
B) The Idiot
C) Demons
D) Notes from Underground
  • 12. What was Dostoevsky's sentence for his involvement with the Petrashevsky Circle?
A) Execution
B) Exile to Siberia without labor
C) Life imprisonment without parole
D) Death, commuted to four years in a Siberian hard labour camp
  • 13. Which novel was inspired by Dostoevsky's time in the Siberian hard labour camp?
A) Crime and Punishment
B) The Idiot
C) The House of the Dead
D) Demons
  • 14. Which philosopher referred to Dostoevsky as 'the only psychologist from whom I had something to learn'?
A) Albert Camus
B) Jean-Paul Sartre
C) Friedrich Nietzsche
D) Sigmund Freud
  • 15. In which year was Dostoevsky's novel 'The Brothers Karamazov' published?
A) 1872
B) 1880
C) 1866
D) 1875
  • 16. What addiction did Dostoevsky develop that led to financial hardship?
A) Gambling
B) Alcoholism
C) Drug abuse
D) Smoking
  • 17. How many novels did Fyodor Dostoevsky write?
A) Fifteen
B) Ten
C) Eighteen
D) Thirteen
  • 18. Which of the following authors was influenced by Dostoevsky's work?
A) Leo Tolstoy
B) Ivan Turgenev
C) Mikhail Bulgakov
D) Anton Chekhov
  • 19. What was the original religion of Dostoevsky's paternal ancestor Aslan Chelebi-Murza before converting to Christianity?
A) Islam
B) Judaism
C) Buddhism
D) Orthodox Christianity
  • 20. In which year did Dostoevsky's ancestor Danilo Irtishch receive lands in the Pinsk region?
A) 1828
B) 1809
C) 1389
D) 1509
  • 21. What was the profession of Dostoevsky's immediate ancestors on his mother's side?
A) Merchants
B) Nobles
C) Priests
D) Military doctors
  • 22. Which institution did Mikhail Dostoevsky enroll in 1809?
A) St. Petersburg Conservatory
B) Moscow University
C) Imperial Russian Army Academy
D) Moscow's Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy
  • 23. In what year was Mikhail Dostoevsky appointed a senior physician?
A) 1818
B) 1809
C) 1828
D) 1819
  • 24. How far was the family's summer estate, Darovoye, from Moscow?
A) 50 km (30 miles)
B) 300 km (190 miles)
C) 500 km (310 miles)
D) About 150 km (100 miles)
  • 25. Who among Dostoevsky's siblings wrote memoirs about the family history?
A) Varvara
B) Andrei
C) Nikolai
D) Vera
  • 26. What was a notable struggle in Nikolai Dostoevsky's life?
A) He faced legal issues.
B) He struggled with alcoholism.
C) He dealt with health problems.
D) He had financial difficulties.
  • 27. Which sibling of Dostoevsky married a doctor?
A) Yelizaveta
B) Vera
C) Aleksandra
D) Lyubov
  • 28. Who introduced Dostoevsky to literature at an early age?
A) A French tutor
B) His mother Maria
C) His nanny, Alena Frolovna
D) His father Mikhail
  • 29. Which Russian writer influenced Dostoevsky significantly?
A) Nikolai Gogol
B) Alexander Pushkin
C) Gavrila Derzhavin
D) Mikhail Lermontov
  • 30. Which boarding school did Dostoevsky attend after his father sent him to a French school?
A) Chermak boarding school
B) St. Petersburg Academy
C) Tula Governorate School
D) Moscow State University
  • 31. Which work reflects Dostoevsky's experience at the Moscow school?
A) Crime and Punishment
B) The Adolescent
C) Notes from Underground
D) The Brothers Karamazov
  • 32. What was Dostoevsky's mother's cause of death?
A) heart attack
B) murder
C) tuberculosis
D) apoplectic stroke
  • 33. What nickname did Dostoevsky earn due to his reclusiveness and interest in religion?
A) Monk Photius
B) The Recluse
C) Brother of the Church
D) Saint Fyodor
  • 34. What was the official cause of Dostoevsky's father's death?
A) apoplectic stroke
B) tuberculosis
C) murder
D) heart attack
  • 35. Who accused the serfs of murdering Dostoevsky's father?
A) Dr. Rizenkampf
B) Adolph Totleben
C) Mikhail Dostoevsky
D) Pavel Khotiaintsev
  • 36. What rank did Dostoevsky obtain after passing his exams?
A) captain
B) general
C) engineer cadet
D) lieutenant engineer
  • 37. Who characterized Dostoevsky as good-natured but sometimes abusively moody?
A) Adolph Totleben
B) Dr. Rizenkampf
C) Konstantin Trutovsky
D) Mikhail Dostoevsky
  • 38. Which novel did Dostoevsky translate that was published in 1843?
A) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
B) Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
C) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
D) Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac
  • 39. Who introduced Dostoevsky's first novel to Vissarion Belinsky?
A) Dmitry Grigorovich
B) Mikhail Petrashevsky
C) Nikolay Nekrasov
D) Aleksey Pleshcheyev
  • 40. Which novel did Dostoevsky plan since 1846 but never complete?
A) Poor Folk
B) The Double
C) Notes of the Fatherland
D) Netochka Nezvanova
  • 41. Who denounced the members of the Petrashevsky Circle to the Ministry of Internal Affairs?
A) Count Alexey Fyodorovich Orlov
B) Nikolay Speshnev
C) Mikhail Bakunin
D) Ivan Liprandi
  • 42. Who commuted the death sentence of Dostoevsky and his fellow prisoners?
A) Count Alexey Fyodorovich Orlov
B) Prince Pavel Gagarin
C) Ivan Nabokov
D) Tsar Nicholas I
  • 43. On what date was Fyodor Dostoevsky released from prison?
A) 15 March 1856
B) 1 January 1855
C) 7 June 1862
D) 14 February 1854
  • 44. Who did Dostoevsky ask to help him financially after his release?
A) Pyotr Semyonov
B) Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva
C) Alexander Egorovich Wrangel
D) Mikhail
  • 45. In which journal was 'The House of the Dead' first published?
A) Vremya
B) Sovremennik
C) Epoch
D) Russky Mir
  • 46. Where did Dostoevsky move to serve in the Siberian Army Corps?
A) Barnaul
B) Tver
C) Kuznetsk
D) Semipalatinsk
  • 47. Who was the admirer of Dostoevsky's books that he met around November 1854?
A) General Eduard Totleben
B) Lieutenant-Colonel Belikhov
C) Nikolay Strakhov
D) Baron Alexander Egorovich Wrangel
  • 48. When did Dostoevsky and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva get married?
A) 15 March 1858
B) 14 February 1854
C) 1 January 1856
D) 7 February 1857
  • 49. Where did Dostoevsky and Isaeva first get married?
A) Saint Petersburg
B) Kuznetsk
C) Barnaul
D) Semipalatinsk
  • 50. What was the title of Dostoevsky's only work completed in prison?
A) Notes from Underground
B) The Village of Stepanchikovo
C) Uncle's Dream
D) A Little Hero
  • 51. In which city did Dostoevsky first meet Alexander Herzen?
A) Cologne
B) Paris
C) London
D) Berlin
  • 52. Who was Dostoevsky's second love that he met in Paris?
A) Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva
B) Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova
C) Polina Suslova
D) Anna Snitkina
  • 53. In which year did Dostoevsky's wife Maria die?
A) 1857
B) 1865
C) 1864
D) 1863
  • 54. What was the name of Dostoevsky's stepson?
A) Mikhail
B) Alexander
C) Nikolay
D) Pasha
  • 55. How long did it take Dostoevsky to complete The Gambler?
A) 26 days
B) 15 days
C) 45 days
D) 30 days
  • 56. What was notable about one of Dostoevsky's eyes?
A) The pupil was so big that you could not see its color
B) It had a green tint from illness
C) It was always closed due to an injury
D) It was smaller than the other eye
  • 57. Where did Dostoevsky and Snitkina marry?
A) Berlin
B) Trinity Cathedral, Saint Petersburg
C) Dresden
D) Frankfurt
  • 58. Which city did Dostoevsky and his wife visit where he sought inspiration for writing?
A) Dresden, at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
B) Frankfurt
C) Karlsruhe
D) Berlin
  • 59. Where did Dostoevsky lose much money at the roulette table?
A) Vevey
B) Baden-Baden
C) Milan
D) Geneva
  • 60. What illness caused the death of Dostoevsky's first child?
A) Cholera
B) Pneumonia
C) Diphtheria
D) Typhoid fever
  • 61. In which city did Dostoevsky complete The Idiot?
A) Dresden
B) Geneva
C) Florence
D) Vienna
  • 62. Where did Dostoevsky make a final visit to a gambling hall?
A) Geneva
B) Berlin
C) Wiesbaden
D) Florence
  • 63. When did Fyodor Dostoevsky return to Russia?
A) July 1871
B) January 1872
C) September 1874
D) March 1873
  • 64. What was the name of Dostoevsky's son born on 16 July?
A) Vladimir
B) Alexey
C) Arkady
D) Fyodor
  • 65. Who influenced Dostoevsky's political progression to conservatism?
A) Terty Filipov
B) Vladimir Solovyov
C) Konstantin Pobedonostsev
D) Maykov
  • 66. What mineral spa town did the Dostoevsky family spend time in early 1872?
A) Saint Petersburg
B) Moscow
C) Staraya Russa
D) Bad Ems
  • 67. What was Anna's sister's name who died on 1 May 1872?
A) Maria Svatkovskaya
B) Anna Dostoevsky
C) Vsevolod Solovyov
D) Terty Filipov
  • 68. Which novel did Dostoevsky finish on 26 November 1872?
A) Crime and Punishment
B) Demons
C) The Adolescent
D) Notes from Underground
  • 69. What was the name of the publishing company established by Dostoevsky?
A) Citizen Press
B) Dostoevsky Publishing Company
C) Russian Messenger Publishing
D) Notes of the Fatherland
  • 70. In which magazine was A Writer's Diary published beginning on 1 January 1873?
A) A Writer's Diary
B) The Citizen
C) Notes of the Fatherland
D) Russian Messenger
  • 71. What illness was Dostoevsky diagnosed with in Bad Ems?
A) Malaria
B) Typhus
C) Tuberculosis
D) Acute catarrh
  • 72. Who is the illegitimate child of Versilov featured in The Adolescent?
A) Arkady Dolgoruky
B) Raskolnikov
C) Alexey Karamazov
D) Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • 73. When was Dostoevsky's son Alexey born?
A) 10 August 1875
B) 26 November 1872
C) 16 July 1871
D) 1 May 1872
  • 74. What is the title of Dostoevsky's book compiled from pieces of his periodical work?
A) Society, Religion, Politics, and Ethics
B) A Writer's Diary
C) The Diary of a Writer
D) Dostoevsky's Essays and Stories
  • 75. What position was Dostoevsky elected to within the Slavic Benevolent Society?
A) Secretary
B) President
C) Treasurer
D) Vice-president
  • 76. What was Dostoevsky diagnosed with during his fourth visit to Ems?
A) Early-stage pulmonary emphysema
B) Lung cancer
C) Heart disease
D) Epilepsy
  • 77. Which famous writer did Dostoevsky meet in several salons in Saint Petersburg?
A) Ivan Turgenev
B) Leo Tolstoy
C) Fyodor Tyutchev
D) Anton Chekhov
  • 78. What was the name of Dostoevsky's son who died after a severe epileptic seizure?
A) Paul
B) Alyosha
C) Sergey
D) Ivan
  • 79. Which society elected Dostoevsky to its honorary committee, alongside Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy?
A) Slavic Benevolent Society
B) Saint Petersburg Literary Circle
C) Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale
D) Russian Academy of Sciences
  • 80. What parable did Dostoevsky request to be read to his children before he died?
A) The Prodigal Son
B) The Good Samaritan
C) The Lost Sheep
D) The Sower
  • 81. Which of Dostoevsky's pre-marriage romantic interests was described as a 'femme fatale'?
A) Aleksandra Ivanovna Schubert
B) Polina Suslova
C) Avdotya Panaeva
D) Anna Korvin-Krukovskaya
  • 82. Which movement did Dostoevsky discover in the 1860s that aimed to establish an open state modeled on Peter the Great's Russia?
A) Slavophilism
B) Pochvennichestvo
C) Westernization
D) Nihilism
  • 83. Which ideology did Dostoevsky support that was influenced by the Ottoman occupations of Eastern Europe?
A) Pro-Western
B) Pan-Slavic
C) Catholicism
D) Atheistic socialism
  • 84. What book did Dostoevsky read that emphasized a sentimental version of Christianity?
A) Die Stunden der Andacht
B) The Book of Job
C) The Bible
D) One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories from the Old and New Testaments
  • 85. What did Dostoevsky claim he would choose over truth, according to a letter from January 1854?
A) Russian literature
B) The New Testament
C) Christ
D) Orthodox Christianity
  • 86. What did Dostoevsky revive his faith by looking at frequently in Semipalatinsk?
A) The Bible
B) The stars
C) Orthodox icons
D) Catholic relics
  • 87. Which archbishop's works strengthened Dostoevsky's beliefs?
A) Herzen
B) Grigoriev
C) Dmitri Rostovsky
D) Johannes Hübner
  • 88. Which literary form did Dostoevsky NOT write in?
A) Essays
B) Plays
C) Short stories
D) Novels
  • 89. Which theme is NOT prominently explored in Dostoevsky's works?
A) Suicide
B) Space exploration
C) Poverty
D) Morality
  • 90. In which work did the psychological theme of dreaming first appear?
A) "Crime and Punishment"
B) "Notes from Underground"
C) "White Nights"
D) "The Brothers Karamazov"
  • 91. Which autobiographical element is frequently used in Dostoevsky's works?
A) Fictionalized accounts of other authors' lives
B) Detailed historical events unrelated to his life
C) Purely imaginative fantasy worlds
D) Autobiographical or semi-autobiographical details
  • 92. Which author called Dostoevsky his 'blood-relative'?
A) Virginia Woolf
B) James Joyce
C) Ernest Hemingway
D) Franz Kafka
  • 93. Who wrote the novel Oru Sankeerthanam Pole, which deals with Dostoevsky's life and his love affair with Anna?
A) Perumbadavam Sreedharan
B) J. M. Coetzee
C) Knut Hamsun
D) Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • 94. Which literary movement does Dostoevsky influence, known for its focus on individual existence and freedom?
A) Existentialism
B) Realism
C) Naturalism
D) Romanticism
  • 95. Which author praised Dostoevsky's prose for shattering the Victorian novel with its lack of imagination and violence?
A) Ernest Hemingway
B) James Joyce
C) Virginia Woolf
D) Franz Kafka
  • 96. Who said that reading Dostoevsky is like a 'glimpse into the havoc'?
A) Albert Einstein
B) Knut Hamsun
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Hermann Hesse
  • 97. Which Norwegian novelist wrote about Dostoevsky's overwhelming psychological sense?
A) Henrik Ibsen
B) Knut Hamsun
C) Sigrid Undset
D) Jo Nesbø
  • 98. Which author stated in A Moveable Feast that Dostoevsky's work contained things so true they changed the reader?
A) James Joyce
B) Ernest Hemingway
C) Virginia Woolf
D) Franz Kafka
  • 99. Who called Dostoevsky a 'great religious writer'?
A) Sigmund Freud
B) Friedrich Nietzsche
C) Leo Tolstoy
D) Albert Einstein
  • 100. In what year was an olive-green postage stamp dedicated to Dostoevsky released in the Soviet Union?
A) 1956
B) 1981
C) 1997
D) 1971
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