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