Deck 4: Russia and Neighboring Countries

Question 1

What was different about the Russian Empire from other European empires?

A) It contained land in the Americas.
B) It was mainly composed of adjacent land, while other empires were separated from the ruling country by oceans.
C) It contained only people of a single language and ethnic group.
D) It was formed in the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Answer 1

It was mainly composed of adjacent land, while other empires were separated from the ruling country by oceans.

Question 2

The river routeway that brought the Vikings (Varangians) to Russia was the

A) the Volga
B) the Dnieper
C) the Ob
D) the Yenessey

Answer 2

the Volga

Question 3

The Mongol state that stretched from Siberia to Central Asia to the steppes was called

A) Outer Mongolia
B) China
C) Irkutsk
D) The Khanate of the Golden Horde

Answer 3

The Khanate of the Golden Horde

Question 4

The focal point of the earliest Russian culture was centered around Slavic principalities in the area of which two modern cities?

A) Moscow and St. Petersburg
B) Vladivostok and Irkutsk
C) Novgorod and Kiev
D) Stalingrad and Leningrad

Question 5

The leader under whom the Soviet Union was organized in 1922 was

A) Joseph Stalin
B) Adolph Hitler
C) Czar Nicholas I
D) Vladimir I. Lenin

Question 6

Under central planning, how are decisions regarding production made?

A) supply and demand
B) profit potential
C) government decree
D) factory workers' experience

Question 7

The Russian Federation consists of

A) Russia and the Central Asian countries that were formerly called Turkestan
B) Russia and all the former Soviet countries except Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia
C) All the former COMECON countries except East Germany and the Czech Republic
D) 89 territorial units with varying degrees of independence

Question 8

Which of the following is a Southern Caucasus country in the CIS?

A) Kazakhstan
B) Azerbaijan
C) Tajikistan
D) Uzbekistan

Question 9

The world's largest forest area is

A) the Amazon rain forest
B) the Canadian northern forests
C) the tropical rain forests of Africa
D) the Russian taiga

Question 10

Which of the following statements about environmental conditions in Russia is true?

A) The emphasis on heavy industry laid waste to vast areas.
B) The Chernobyl accident was the only incidence of radioactive pollution.
C) The Aral Sea is larger now than it was before the Communists came to power.
D) The Black Sea was unaffected by Soviet industrial development.

Question 11

Which of the following statements about Communism is true?

A) By becoming a closed society, the Soviet Union hid many weaknesses from the world.
B) By the end of the 1950s, the Soviet Union had caught up with the West in technological innovation.
C) There was incentive to conserve natural resources.
D) Technological innovation was used to raise worker productivity.

Question 12

Mikhail Gorbachev highlighted the concept of glasnost, which means

A) economic restructuring
B) military strength
C) informational openness
D) agricultural reclamation

Question 13

The greatest cluster of people in Russia lives in

A) Siberia
B) The steppes
C) The far north
D) Western Russia

Question 14

Which of the following is not true about Russia's role in the world?

A) It is a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations.
B) It regular attends meetings of the Group of 8 (G8) informal consultative body on the world's economy.
C) It has a strong capitalist economy.
D) It is a nuclear power.

Question 15

The average total fertility rate needed to maintain a population at its current level is

A) 1.5
B) 2.0
C) 2.1
D) 3.2

Question 16

Woman dominate the population of Russia because of

A) the birth of far more girls than boys
B) male infanticide
C) war deaths and persecutions under Stalin
D) out-migration of men

Question 17

An unusual feature of the Russian population compared to other regions is that

A) birth rates are very high
B) birth rates are rising
C) death rates are rising after having fallen
D) population is rising rapidly

Question 18

"Secret cities" were the sites of all of the following except

A) agricultural collective farms
B) nuclear industry
C) biologic warfare research
D) missile and weapon design

Question 19

Gulag refers to

A) slave labor camps
B) collective farms
C) rural villages
D) missile testing sites

Question 20

The most productive farming regions in the Slavic countries are in

A) Siberia
B) The central part, north of Central Asia
C) Western Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova
D) In the North, near the border with Finland

Question 21

In 1988 Gorbachev began reforming agriculture in the Soviet Union by

A) increasing the number of collective farms
B) permitting individuals and cooperatives to lease land
C) setting up Chinese-style communes
D) instituting American-style agribusiness

Question 22

The part of Russia that is one of the most ethnically and linguistically complex in the world is

A) North European and Middle Volga
B) Siberia and the Far East
C) North Caucasus
D) Territories of the Far North

Question 23

The Russian region that is rich in resources and was the destination of many Russian people during Soviet times so that the local ethnic groups were outnumbered is

A) North Caucasus
B) North European and Middle Volga
C) Siberia and the Far East
D) Territories of the Far North

Question 24

The heartland of Russia is

A) Siberia
B) The North Caucasus
C) West of the Urals
D) The lowlands around the Caspian Sea

Question 25

Zoroastrianism originated in

A) Armenia
B) Russia
C) Georgia
D) Azerbaijan

Question 26

Massacres of Armenians were carried out in the late 1800s and early 1900s by

A) the Ottoman government
B) the Soviet government
C) the Roman empire
D) the Assyrian empire

Question 27

The South Caucasus country that will probably become a major oil producer for the world Is

A) Armenia
B) Georgia
C) Osstia
D) Azerbaijan

Question 28

The largest Central Asian country in area is

A) Kazakhstan
B) Kyrgystan
C) Uzbekistan
D) Turkmenistan

Question 29

In the 700s and 800s A. D., the great center of learning of Bukhoro (Bukhara) benefited from its location on

A) an Interstate highway
B) the ocean
C) the Volga River
D) the Great Silk Road

Question 30

The five countries of Central Asia were once part of

A) Mesotamia
B) The Roman Empires
C) Turkestan
D) China

Question 31

The most populous and dominant country in Central Asia is

A) Kazakhstan
B) Uzbekistan
C) Turkmenistan
D) Kyrgystan

Question 32

The leader that created the "Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps" also known as "gulag" was

A) Stalin
B) Nikita Khrushchev
C) Ivan the Terrible
D) Boris Yeltsin

Question 33

Which one of these personalities was not a leader of the former Soviet Union

A) Gorbachev
B) Khrushchev
C) Solzhenitsyn
D) Lenin

Question 34

Which of the following countries is not part of the Slavic Countries subregion

A) Ukraine
B) The Russian Federation
C) Moldova
D) Georgia

Question 35

Which of the following autonomous political units contain Turkic or Mongolian peoples

A) The North European and Middle Volga-Urals
B) Siberia and the Far East
C) North Caucasus
D) Territories of the Far North

Question 36

This city which has been called "Russia's window to Europe" is located on the Gulf of Finland

A) Moscow
B) St. Petersburg
C) Kiev
D) Donetsk

Question 37

Which of the following cities is located in the Arctic region

A) St. Petersburg
B) Kiev
C) Odessa
D) Murmansk

Question 38

After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the 15 newly independent republics had strong economies.

Question 39

Moscow's location near the headwaters of north- and south-flowing rivers and in the forests helped to make it the center of Muscovy.

Question 40

The czar who began the Westernization of Russia was Ivan the Terrible.

Question 41

Collectivization attempted to make farmers like factory workers.

Question 42

The collision of tectonic plates created high mountains and deep lakes.

Question 43

The rivers of Siberia are heavily used for transportation and hydroelectricity generation.

Question 44

The first Russian Empire and the Soviet Union built manufacturing industries around consumer markets.

Question 45

The main problem in exploiting the oil around the Caspian Sea is drilling for it.

Question 46

Perestroika, or restructuring, under Gorbachev resulted in an economic crisis.

Question 47

The Slavic countries all have long histories as independent countries.

Question 48

Moldova has not seen a sharp population decline because it is primarily agricultural.

Question 49

Soviet women had more career choices than their Western contemporaries, but occupations like engineering and medicine were not highly regarded.

Question 50

Internal boundaries in Russia are drawn so that each ethnic group has its own political unit.

Question 51

Soviet planners often located industrial centers for political rather than economic reasons.

Question 52

Ignored for many years because it appeared isolated from trade routes, Central Asia has recently come to occupy a strategic position in world affairs.

Question 53

Many of the ethnic conflicts in Central Asia are the result of Soviet policies.

Question 54

Trade between Russia and countries that joined the CIS increased after 1991.

Question 55

After 1991, public institutions and welfare support systems were the main losers.

Question 56

The Southern Caucasus lies at the ancient contact zone between the Turkish, Persian, and Roman empires.

Question 57

Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan constituted a major industrial area under the Soviets.

Question 58

Due to the sheer size of Russia, the region contains places on Earth that are farthest from oceans.

Question 59

Today Russians still support communist ideals.

Question 60

Communism not only sought to improve life in society, it also strove to excel in science and sports.

Question 61

The Kamchatka Peninsula is located in the west and extends into the Baltic Sea.

Question 62

The heartland of Russia lies just east of the Urals Mts.

Question 63

Russia is a major exporter of grain.

Question 64

Climates that are far from major bodies of water are affected by _____________.

Question 65

The soils under the northern forests of hardy birch and evergreen pine, fir, and spruce are called ___________________________.

Question 66

Nikita Khrushchev's campaign to open new lands to farming was called the __________________ ____________.

Question 67

In the country of ____________ the government decided to move its capital to the northern, Russian-dominated part of the country and renamed the chosen city Astana.

Question 68

An autonomous Armenian territory within Azerbaijan is ____________________.

Question 69

This mountain range is located between the Black and Caspian Seas
_________________.

Question 70

These mountains mark the line between Europe and Asia __________________.

Question 71

In Russia, the northern coniferous forest is called __________________ and dominates vast areas from Moscow and most of Siberia.

Question 72

The internal political geography of the Russian Federation includes a mixture of political units that fall into two categories, the administrative and ____________________.

Question 73

One of the greatest environmental disasters in the world occurred in the lands east of the_________ Sea.

Question 74

In 1957, the Soviet space program launched _______________, the first artificial Earth satellite.