Now, your imaginative exercise is this: given this insane experience and the four years of almost unendurable hard labor imprisonment that follow, how would you expect this young writer to react? Okay, time is up. The soldiers get ready, take aim, and…the execution is called off and revealed as an elaborate psychological torture device. He and his friends are lined up in front of a firing squad. Huh, how long could they possibly be able to get away with this? Not long, it turns out-the writer is arrested, quickly tried, and sentenced to death. These guys chat about how awesome it would be to not be ruled by this super-reactionary tsar. Now imagine a young writer who is part of a forward-thinking group of intellectuals. In other words, it's kind of a bad time to be thinking about left-wing socialism, what with the tsar having a pretty itchy trigger finger. It's the middle of the nineteenth century in Russia, and on the throne is Nicolas I, a super-duper reactionary conservative tsar. Pretend to close your eyes (but totally don't close them for real because then you won't be able to read this thing), empty your mind, and concentrate on the sound-ahem-the look of our words.

Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Hey, here's an idea–-let's start with a little role-play.

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COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.

This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.

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