Shche ne Vmerla Ukraina Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scythia

The territory of Ukraine has been inhabited since prehistory, and plenty of evidence of very ancient human settlements has been found. During the Iron Age and later, this vast area was inhabited by nomadic, Indo-European peoples such as the Cimmerians, the Sarmatians and the Scythians, who came from further East. In the 8th century BC, the Scythians became the dominant power in most of the Eurasian Steppe, stretching from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to Northeast Asia. As is the case with most nomadic Eurasian peoples, Scythian culture was heavily based on horses and horse-riding skill. Though the Scythians left no written records, much is known of them and their way of life from the writings of ancient scholars such as Herodotus. Around the 3rd century BC, the Scythians were displaced by the Sarmatians, who gave their name to the region that corresponds to most of present-day Ukraine. The East Slavic tribes that are the ancestors of modern Ukrainians settled in the area in the 6th century AD.

Many Ukrainian archaeological sites (especially the burial tumuli known as "kurgans") have yielded plenty of artifacts that demonstrate the advanced metalworking skills of these peoples. Scythian art is distinguished by its stunning gold jewellery, mainly based on animal motifs. Although the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (Russia) houses the world's largest collection of Scythian gold objects, many priceless artifacts (like the pectoral in the photo, dating from the 4th century BC, the Golden Age of the Scythian kingdom) are held in Ukrainian museums, such as the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine in Kyiv.

Parthia was located in northeast Iran, and Dalmatia on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea; Hibernia was the Latin name of Ireland.

Answer: falcon

Known as the Princely State Symbol of Volodymyr the Great, the coat of arms of Ukraine depicts an elaborate gold trident on a blue shield. The emblem, known in Ukrainian as "tryzub", derives from the personal seal of Volodymyr I, the first Grand Prince of Kyiv, ruler of the federation of Kievan Rus' from 980 to 1015. This symbol (which is believed to be of much older origin) has been found on coins, rings, seals, or even on the stones or bricks of medieval buildings. The modern version of the "tryzub" was first adopted in 1918 as the coat of arms of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and then again on 19 February 1992, after Ukraine finally became independent.

Though the insignia is generally referred to as a trident, it has also been interpreted as depicting some kind of bird - probably a gyrfalcon, the largest of the falcons, associated with royalty in the Middle Ages - swooping down on its prey. Other scholars believe the "tryzub" symbolizes the Holy Spirit, often represented as a dove descending from Heaven with its head pointing down. Though the bird's stylized shape may have been influenced by Viking art (as the Rurik dynasty to which Volodymyr I belonged was originally from Scandinavia), stylized seals, called "tamgas", were also used by the Turkic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe.

Answer: black earth

"Chornozem" is the Ukrainian equivalent of the Russian "chernozem", meaning "black earth" - from "chorny" ("black") and "zemlya" ("land"). This soil, which owes its black colour to its high humus (organic matter) content, is extremely fertile, and stores moisture very effectively, producing high agricultural yields. Chernozem also contains high levels of phosphorus, potassium, and ammonia - all chemicals that are widely used in fertilizers. This black soil, which can form layers up to 6 m (19.6 ft) thick, is characteristic of steppe environments, where the roots of herbaceous plants reach deep into the earth in order to survive frequently dry conditions.

First identified in 1883 by Russian geologist Vasily Dochukaev, chornozem is mainly present in two areas of the world, known as "chornozem belts": the larger of the two, which includes the central part of Ukraine, spans an area that goes from eastern Croatia to Siberia, while the other stretches from the Canadian Prairie to the US Great Plains. This soil is particularly favourable to the cultivation of wheat and other grains - hence the "breadbasket" tag often applied to Ukraine, which is one of the world's largest grain exporters.

Answer: coal

The name "Donbas" (also spelled "Donbass") is an abbreviation of "Donets (Coal) Basin", referring to a region of south-eastern Ukraine located along the course of the River Donets, Ukraine's fourth-largest river, and a tributary of the Don. Present-day Donbas consists of the two provinces ("Oblast") of Donets and Luhansk, both of which border Russia. Because of its significant coal deposits, the region became heavily industrialized in the late 19th century; during the Soviet era it was regarded as the "heart of Russia", as it produced about 50% of the coal used in the USSR's metallurgical industry. The coal mines are known for being highly unsafe, and have caused a host of environmental problems in the region.

The majority of the population of Donbas speaks Russian as a first language, and ethnic Russians are a sizable minority, mostly concentrated in the larger cities of the region. In 2014, following the Euromaidan protests and the Revolution of Dignity - which culminated with the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych (who is originally from Donbas) - the unrest in the region quickly escalated to full-fledged war between the pro-Russian, self-proclaimed breakaway states of Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and the Ukrainian government. On 21 February 2022, three days before the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Security Council of Russia recognized the independence of both separatist states.

The painting in the photo, by Russian artist Nikolay Kasatkin, is titled "Poor Picking Up Pieces of Coal" (1894).

Answer: Joseph Conrad

Jozéf Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born on 3 December 1857 in Berdychiv (Berdyczów in Polish); the city, now located in the Zhytomyr Oblast of northern Ukraine, was at the time part of the Russian Empire. Korzeniowski, who was of Polish ethnicity, and spoke Polish as his native language, adopted the pen name of Joseph Conrad in 1895, when he published his first novel, "Almayer's Folly". Though he learned English as an adult, he is considered one of the greatest writers in the English language; he became a British citizen in 1886, and died in England in 1924.

Berdychiv was once known for its large, thriving Jewish community: for a long time the majority of the city's population was Jewish, and Yiddish was recognized as one of its official languages. Most of this Jewish population - an estimated 30,000 people - was murdered by the Nazis on 5 October 1941. The Soviet writer and dissident Vasily Grossman (1905-1964) was born in Berdychiv from a Jewish family.

A number of other famous 19th- and 20th-century writers were also born in present-day Ukraine: among them, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Anna Akhmatova (who wrote in Russian), and Joseph Roth and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (who wrote in German). The poet Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) is considered the founder of modern Ukrainian literature in the Ukrainian language.

Answer: Lviv

Called Lemberg in German, Lwów in Polish, and L'vov in Russian, Lviv is the largest city in western Ukraine, home to over 700,000 people, and a major cultural centre. The city, founded in 1256, was named after Leo, the eldest son of Daniel, King of Ruthenia (hence its Latin name of Leopolis); in the following centuries, it had the status of capital of the various regions or states that occupied the land known as Ruthenia (corresponding to present-day southeastern Poland and western Ukraine). The historic centre of Lviv - a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998 - contains a stunning array of buildings that illustrate the city's glorious past, from the Middle Ages to the early 20th centuries. Examples of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco architecture, which fortunately survived the ravages of WWII, can be admired while walking through the centre's cobblestone streets. The imprint of Central European culture is particularly evident, dating back from the time when Lviv was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crownland of the Habsburg monarchy. The photo depicts Lviv's famed Theatre of Opera and Ballet, built in 1897-1900 in the Renaissance Revival style.

A few days before Ukraine's invasion by Russia on 24 February 2022, a number of foreign embassies and consulates relocated from Kyiv, the country's capital, to Lviv. Photos of the city's beautiful Art Nouveau railway station packed with people trying to board trains to Poland and other neighbouring countries have been widely circulated in the media.

The three wrong answers are all European cities: Lyon is in France, Linz in Austria, and Lodz in Poland.

Answer: Vitali Klitschko

Born in 1971, Vitali Klitschko is mainly known as a professional boxer who won multiple world heavyweight championships; however, in his youth he also successfully competed in kickboxing and karate. His professional boxing career lasted from 1996 to 2013 (with a 2-year break in 2005-2007 due to an injury): after his retirement he was awarded the title of "champion emeritus". During his career, he was never knocked down, and earned the nickname of "Dr. Ironfist".

Klitschko's interest in politics (shared by his brother Wladimir, also a former champion heavyweight boxer) had already manifested itself in the early 2000s, when the brothers supported the candidacy of Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 Orange Revolution. His first run for the position of Mayor of Kyiv, in 2006, was unsuccessful; however, in 2012 he was elected into the Ukrainian Parliament with his party, UDAR (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform), and later was heavily involved in the Euromaidan protests that began in November 2013, just a few weeks before his official retirement. On 25 May 2014, Klitschko was elected Mayor of Kyiv, and subsequently appointed as head of Kyiv City Administration by President Petro Poroshenko. Klitschko, who is a supporter of Ukraine's ties to the European Union, was re-elected Mayor in 2015 and 2020. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Klitschko brothers declared themselves ready to take up arms to protect their country; a few days before the beginning of the invasion, Wladimir enlisted in Ukraine's reserve army.

Sergey Bubka held the world record in pole vault from 1993 to 2014; Andryi Shevchenko is a former football player and Ballon d'Or winner; Ruslan Ponomariov is a chess grandmaster and former world champion.

Answer: European bison

With its vast territory (the largest of any nation completely within Europe), Ukraine is home to a wide range of ecosystems, which comprise many animal and plant species, as well as fungi and microorganisms. Ukrainian wildlife amounts to an estimated 45,000 species, 106 of which are mammals. The forests of the Carpathian region, located in the western part of the country, are rich in endemic species, which include the European bison (Bison bonasus), also known as wisent or zubr. This massive bovid, the European continent's heaviest wild land animal, is taller, somewhat lighter, and less hairy than its American relative (Bison bison). Two out of the three subspecies of this iconic animal (the Caucasian and the Carpathian wisent) were hunted to extinction in the wild between the mid-19th century and the 1920s: fortunately, though, some specimens of the lowland European bison were kept alive in zoos, and reintroduced in the wild in the early 1950s.

The largest populations of free-ranging wisent are found in Poland and Belarus. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Ukrainian population was considered to be declining, and the animals were in danger from poachers and trophy hunters. In recent years, the numbers seem to have increased again: at the time of writing, about 350 bison live in Ukraine, mostly concentrated in Skole Beskids National Park, in Lviv Oblast. In the past, however, many herds of wisent roamed the Ukrainian territory, as evidenced by references in literature, art, and heraldry. The statue of a wisent is located near the entrance of Kyiv Zoo; a river in Lviv Oblast, a tributary of the Dniester, is named Zubra, after the Slavic name of this mighty animal.

None of the animals listed as wrong choices are as large as the European bison. Reindeer live much further north than Ukraine, while yaks are native to the Himalayas. European water buffalo are relatively common in neighbouring Romania, but their presence in Ukraine is reportedly limited to a small herd in the Danube Delta.

Answer: beet

In Eastern Europe, borscht is more than just a dish - it is a cultural symbol. This soup of ancient origin, characterized by its sour taste, was originally made with the pickled stems, leaves and umbels of common hogweed, a plant related to fennel and celery that grows near water, and whose Slavic name was adopted as the name of the dish. Ukrainian borscht, made with beets that impart a distinctive, ruby-red colour to the soup, is the best-known version of this iconic dish; however, there are many different variants of borscht, employing a wide range of ingredients and seasonings. In Ukraine, each region has its own version of this soup, whose status as a cultural icon has been cemented by being depicted on postage stamps. Generally borscht is made with meat-based stock, and includes some kind of meat, though there also fish-based or meatless versions meant to be eaten during Lent.

Ukrainian borscht traditionally owes its sour taste to "kvas" (fermented beet juice); however, as this ingredient must be made several days in advance, quicker versions replace it with vinegar, tart apples, tomatoes, sauerkraut juice, or other acidic ingredients to add that distinctive tartness to the soup. In summer, borscht is enjoyed chilled, often blended with yogurt, sour cream, or other cultured dairy products, and served with chopped vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, and dill.

The bowl of borscht in the photo is accompanied by the traditional yeast-raised rolls called "pampushky", sour cream ("smetana"), and pork cracklings.

Answer: wax

Ukraine is renowned for its many forms of folk art, of which "pysanky" (sing. "pysanka") are probably the most representative. The word "pysanka" comes from the verb "pysaty", which means "to inscribe": indeed, the eggs are not painted, but inscribed with traditional folk motifs by using a wax-resist technique. This art form goes back to pre-Christian times, when the eggs were decorated to celebrate the return of spring; decorated eggs made of stone, ceramic, and other materials have been found in various Ukrainian archaeological sites. With Christianization, the tradition became associated with Easter, which is the year's most important religious festival in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The eggs (usually uncooked) are inscribed with a stylus dipped in hot, melted wax, then dipped in a dye bath; the process is repeated numerous times with increasingly darker colours, and the wax is removed at the end. The dyes, originally made with natural ingredients, have now been largely replaced with aniline dyes.

As they are considered a symbolic gift of life, "pysanky" are given to family members, close friends, or respected outsiders, and displayed in a public room of the house. The most popular designs for "pysanky" are the geometric ones, as shown in the photo; many of the symbols used in this kind of decoration have been adapted from pagan ones, though they have been given a Christian meaning. There is also a symbolism attached to colours: for instance, red represents life, love, and joy, while white is associated with birth and light, yellow with the harvest, and black with the afterlife.

In 2000, the Pysanka Museum was opened.in the city of Kolomyia, in western Ukraine. The museum, which is egg-shaped, and partly decorated to resemble a "pysanka", boasts a collection of over 10,000 decorated eggs, some of them from countries outside Europe.