Russian Literature and Cultural Background
This section checks whether you can place the set authors and works, name characters and identify a line's author, genre or device, plus basic cultural knowledge - holidays, cities, landmarks - that appears in reading and oral tasks.
Authors and works to know
Pushkin (1799–1837): the novel in verse Евгений Онегин - Tatyana's letter, Onegin's cold refusal, and his later reversal; lyrics such as «Осень» and «Я вас любил». Lermontov (1814–1841): Герой нашего времени with Pechorin, and the poem «Парус». Gogol (1809–1852): the story Шинель, whose hero is Акакий Акакиевич Башмачкин, plus the comedy Ревизор and Мёртвые души. Turgenev (1818–1883): Отцы и дети (1862), with Bazarov the nihilist. Tolstoy (1828–1910): Война и мир - Pierre Bezukhov, Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova. Chekhov (1860–1904): the play Вишнёвый сад, where Lopakhin buys the estate, and short stories such as «Хамелеон».
Culture
Новый год (1 January) is the main family holiday; Масленица is the pancake week before Lent; 8 Марта and День Победы (9 May) are major public holidays. Landmarks: Красная площадь and Большой театр in Moscow, the Эрмитаж in St Petersburg, the Третьяковская галерея for Russian painting.
Worked example
Name the author and one device: «Унылая пора! Очей очарованье!» Reasoning: this is the opening of Pushkin's «Осень» (1833), an address to autumn. The lines set a negative epithet (унылая) against admiring praise (очей очарованье), so the device is a contrasting epithet. Answer: Pushkin, autumn, epithet/contrast.
Traps
Mixing up Onegin and Pechorin; attributing Вишнёвый сад to Tolstoy; wrong century for Pushkin; inventing character names; confusing Масленица with a religious fast day rather than the week before Lent.