What is the name of the fictional town where Dostoevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov' is set?
Answer
Skotoprigonyevsk
80 Russian Literature Trivia Questions with Answers
80 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
This Russian Literature trivia hub spans classic novels, poetry, drama, and major authors from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Questions cover Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Pushkin, Vladimir Nabokov, and Mikhail Sholokhov, with attention to characters, settings, publication dates, and landmark works.
Test your memory of the fictional town in The Brothers Karamazov, the first name of Crime and Punishment’s protagonist, and the full publication of Eugene Onegin. The set suits literature students, book clubs, classroom review, and pub quizzes, with a mix of recognizable titles and details that reward close reading.
What is the name of the protagonist in Vladimir Nabokov's Russian-language novel 'The Gift'?
Answer
Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev
What is the name of the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov that won the Nobel Prize?
Answer
And Quiet Flows the Don
What is the name of the simple peasant who represents Tolstoy's ideal in 'War and Peace'?
Answer
Platon Karataev
In 'War and Peace', what is the name of Pierre Bezukhov's first wife?
Answer
Hélène Kuragina
Which Russian author wrote the novel 'The White Guard'?
Answer
Mikhail Bulgakov
Which Russian author wrote 'A Hero of Our Time'?
Answer
Mikhail Lermontov
In which city is Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' set?
Answer
St. Petersburg
Which Russian poet is considered the father of modern Russian literature?
Answer
Alexander Pushkin
What is the name of the protagonist in Leskov's 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'?
Answer
Katerina Izmailova
What is the subject of the Master's novel in Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita'?
Answer
Pontius Pilate
What is the surname of Anna Karenina's lover?
Answer
Vronsky
What is the name of the character in Dostoevsky's 'Demons' who leads a secret revolutionary cell?
Answer
Pyotr Verkhovensky
What is the name of the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov that satirizes Soviet bureaucracy?
Answer
The Heart of a Dog
What is the surname of the landowner in Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard'?
Answer
Ranevskaya
What is the name of the character in 'Oblomov' who is Oblomov's friend and foil?
Answer
Andrei Stoltz
What is the surname of the protagonist in Gogol's 'The Overcoat'?
Answer
Bashmachkin
In which city was Fyodor Dostoevsky born?
Answer
Moscow
Which Russian author wrote the play 'The Government Inspector'?
Answer
Nikolai Gogol
What is the name of the countess in Pushkin's 'The Queen of Spades'?
Answer
Anna Fedotovna
In which year did Leo Tolstoy die?
Answer
1910
What is the subtitle of Nikolai Gogol's 'Dead Souls'?
Answer
A Poem
In 'The Brothers Karamazov', which brother is the youngest?
Answer
Alyosha
Russian Literature trivia — quick answers
What are good Russian Literature trivia questions?
Good questions identify major authors, protagonists, settings, publication dates, literary movements, and influential works. Examples include asking who wrote Anna Karenina, what Raskolnikov’s first name is, or which Sholokhov novel won the Nobel Prize.
How hard is Russian Literature trivia?
It ranges from accessible to challenging. Most readers recognize Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but questions about exact publication years, secondary characters, fictional towns, and lesser-known novels require more specialized literary knowledge.
Who is the protagonist of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment?
The protagonist is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a former student living in poverty in St. Petersburg. He commits a murder after developing a theory that extraordinary individuals may stand beyond ordinary moral law, but guilt, fear, and compassion steadily undermine his intellectual justification.
Which Russian novel won Mikhail Sholokhov the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Mikhail Sholokhov is best known for And Quiet Flows the Don, a sweeping four-volume novel about Cossack life and the upheavals of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Civil War. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965, with the novel central to his international reputation.