Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dnipro

The Dnipro, also called the Dnieper, has its origin in Russia, then flows through Belarus and Ukraine before reaching the Black Sea at the port of Kherson. It is the fourth longest river in Europe (behind the Volga, the Danube and the Ural), and the longest that flows through either Belarus or Ukraine. Approximately half of the Dnipro is in Ukraine, 1,095 km of its total length of 2,145 km.

The river has long been an important trade route, part of the so-called Amber Road that transported amber from the Baltic states to the rest of the world. The national capital, Kyiv, lies on the Dnipro river, a short distance downstream from its confluence with the Pripyat River. Just upstream from there, on the Pripyat, lies Chernobyl, which became an internationally-recognised site when a nuclear power plant there suffered a disastrous accident in 1986.

Answer: Carpathians

Ukraine may be Europe's second-largest country, but it ranks well down in the list of mountains. Most of the country is fertile steppes and plains, with only the Carpathian Mountains in the southwest and the Crimean Mountains near the southern coast providing height.

The Carpathians are Europe's third-longest mountain range, stretching in an arc from the eastern part of the Czech Republic through Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Serbia. Mount Hoverla is 2061 metres high, well below the highest peak in the range, part of the Tatra range in Slovenia, which is over 2600 metres in height. The mountain is covered with forests, mostly beech and spruce, on its lower portions. Above them is a region of subalpine montane meadows, given the local name of polonyna, which have traditionally been used for pasturage, and more recently for outdoor tourism (when the political situation permits).

Answer: Wheat

Ukraine has been called "the breadbasket of Europe", producing around 10% of the world's export wheat. It also exports significant amounts of barley, maize, rapeseed and sunflower oil. At least, it does when its shipping is not curtailed by regional conflict. One of the significant impacts of the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the 2022 expansion of that territorial claim into more Ukrainian territory was disruption of world grain and food oil supplies.

Answer: Yalta

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, met near Yalta for a week-long series of meetings starting on 7 February 1945. World War II was clearly reaching its end, and this was one of a series of conferences in which the leaders tried to work out how to establish a viable peace (unlike the ultimately calamitous Treaty of Versailles that followed World War I).

The fact that the French leader, Charles de Gaulle, was not invited became a long-lasting source of friction.

When Stalin failed to follow up on his commitment to allow free elections in Poland, the unity of the so-called Big Three deteriorated, and Europe entered the era of the Cold War.

Answer: Khreshchatyk

Originally a ravine, the street began to be constructed near the end of the 18th century. Development began in earnest in the 1830s, starting with the European Square on its northeast end, as Kyiv began to be seriously planned by architects. For most of the 19th century it remained the only "real" street in the city, by European standards. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917 the street was the site of demonstrations, protests, victory parades - virtually any reason for people to gather. During World War II the street was virtually destroyed by retreating Red Army forces, who had left the buildings wired with explosives that they set off remotely a few days after German occupation.

Following the establishment of Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union, the Kyiv City Council building on Khreshchatyk was the site of the first ceremonial raising of the new national flag. In 1994, it became the route for the annual Independence Day Parade on 24 August. In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the parade was cancelled, and on 20 August an exhibition of captured Russian weaponry (tanks, armored vehicles, missiles, etc.) was set up on Khreshchatyk.

Answer: blind musicians

Kobzars were itinerant Ukrainian musicians who played a stringed instrument called a kobza to accompany their songs. They were traditionally blind (partly because it was a way for a blind person to make their way) and by the 19th century it became pretty much obligatory. Kobzars were organised in guilds, and a rigorous apprenticeship was required before one could be recognised as a kobzar.

In the 1930s, Stalin's forced restructuring of the Ukraine SSS to remove traditional rural lifestyles and impose a Soviet paradigm led to their extermination.

In 1932 all kobzars were summoned to a congress in Kharkiv; those who obeyed were rounded up and executed.

Answer: Odesa

When the market started, the venue was indoors, and only second-hand goods could be traded. Admission was charged to people who entered carrying anything in their hands, on the assumption that they were planning to sell it. When it opened in 1966 it was a 2 km walk from the nearest public transport, and operated only for a few hours a week. Expansion during the era of Perestroika led to relocation to an outdoor site, seven km from the city limits on the Odesa-Ovidiopol highway.

The range of items on offer in the early years of the 21st century was amazing - from cheap Asian items through fake Western luxury items all the way to genuine and reputable local products.

Answer: True

Why? It had to do with the coal reserves, and the steel plant John Hughes had set up in the area. He needed somewhere to house the workers, many of them Welsh immigrants. His plant was near a small 18th-century Russian town of Aleksandrovka, which was renamed Yuzovka in his honour, and absorbed into his new settlement.

The name changed to Stalin in 1924, Stalino in 1929, and in 1932 was made the capital of the Donetsk region. In 1961 the city was again renamed, taking on the name of the region of which it is the capital. Donetsk continues to be a centre for coal mining and steel making.

Answer: Christ is shown sitting on the cross

Apparently, this is the only such depiction in the world. The Boim family, who arrived in Lviv from the Kingdom of Hungary, built the chapel at the start of the 17th century. It originally served as a family mausoleum, but the tombs were later moved to the Lviv cemetery, and the building is now the site of the Lviv Art Gallery. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the rest of Lviv's Old Town, in 1975.

The external facade of the chapel is covered with sandstone decorations relaying elements of Biblical stories, from both the Old and New Testaments. The domed roof (full of saints, prophets and angels in the interior) has on top of it a figure of Christ sitting on the cross, leaning on his knees and pensively surveying the world below.

Answer: Khmelnytskyi

With an area over 100,000 hectares (240,000 acres - about a tenth the size of Yellowstone National Park), Upper Poboshia National Nature Park was proposed in 2013, and at that time planned to be fully set up by 2021. Economics and politics have delayed the opening of the park to the public, but the work of protecting the region's endangered flora and fauna proceeded apace.

The park is located in the watershed of the Southern Bug, Ukraine's second-longest river. The region is home to a number of Red List plants and animals, including the European mink.