Vasilii Perov (1834-1882), Portrait of Fedor Dostoevskii, 1872 (Oil on Canvas, 99 x 80.7 cm, Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow)

• Read the textbook chapter 33
• Check the remarks by Professor Blois and Professor Evans on the Russian Golden Age
• Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the week
• Submit the Russian culture paper

• Post (or respond) your thoughts/ideas about this week's reading and assignment in the Blackboard online discussion forum. Do not post your assignment there.

• Professor Joseph Frank worked for over twenty-five years to publish his definitive, five-volume biography of Dostoevsky (Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849; The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859; The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865; The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871; The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881), truly a magnificent work.  Read some of Frank's reflections on his long, and continuing, study of Dostoevsky in *.doc or *.pdf format.

• For 50 points Maximum extra credit, Watch Anna Karenina (1967) and write a one-page paper about why your instructor thought that the film was so bad.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, watch Voina i Mir (War and Peace), if you dare.  Watch instead Love and Death (1975), and write a one-page paper assessing Woody Allen's portrait of Russia in the age of the Napoleonic wars.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, compare and contrast the work of the mighty three (Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Turgenev) in a one-page paper.  This might be worth a lot more depending on how good your comparison is; I might accept longer than one page on this.
  
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, in a one-page paper, identify some of the unifying traits of the work of the Mighty Five (Milii Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgskii, Aleksandr Borodin and Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov).
  
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, identify some of the salient characteristics of the work of Ilya Repin and the Peredvizhniki in a one-page paper.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, read Lev Tolstoi (1828-1910), Anna Karenina (1873-78) and write a one-page paper about his critique of Russian society.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, read Lev Tolstoi (1828-1910), Death of Ivan Ilich (1882) and write a one-page paper assessing Tolstoi's criticism of Russian society.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, read Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81), Crime and Punishment (1866) and write a one-page paper, Why was this the "true" Russian novel.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, read Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81), Idiot (1868) and write a one-page paper in which you explain why this is Professor Evans' favorite Dostoevskii novel.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, read Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81), Brothers Karamazov (1878-80) and write a one-page paper, "Who was the Grand Inquisitor?"