Romania - A Miscellany Trivia Quiz

Answer: Slovakia

Romania borders on five countries - Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and Serbia.

Answer: 2.2 million

In terms of population, Bucharest (Bucuresti, in Romanian - pronounced 'bookooresht') is said to be the biggest city between Berlin and Istanbul. (Some estimates of the population of Bucharest are much higher).

Answer: Dambovita River

(Pronounced 'dambovitsa'). The city lies on the Wallachian Plain, just over 40 miles north of the Danube, which forms most of Romania's border with Serbia and Bulgaria. The Dniester and Don are both well to the east of Romania.

Answer: Oil

The Romanian oil-fields are situated near the town of Ploiesti. They were among the very first oil-fields to be developed in the world (1857 onwards) and were of immense strategic importance to Germany and its European allies in both World Wars. From the Middle Ages till the early 19th century the gold mines (in the north-west of country, near Baia Mare) were extremely important, but are now almost exhausted.

Answer: Orthodoxy

There are Protestants and Roman Catholics in Transylvania and in the other more westerly parts of the country, especially among the Hungarian minority which is split between Calvinism and Roman Catholicism. The Uniate Church owes allegiance to Rome but uses the Orthodox rites.

Answer: Romance

In other words, it's descended from Latin, like Italian, for example. It's the only Romance language in Europe that forms a linguistic island, cut off from the otherwise geographically contiguous 'block' of Romance languages in Europe.

Answer: Moldova

Moldova was an integral part of Greater Romania ('Romania Mare') from 1921-40 and again briefly in 1941-44. Moldova was part of the province of Bessarabia ('Basarabia').

Answer: Hungarians

The total population of Romania is about 22.4 million. The ethnic Hungarians number about two million and live mainly in Transylvania and the areas close to Hungary. Estimates of the number of Gypsies vary considerably. The ethnic German population, which peaked at around 650,000 in the 1930s, fell very sharply indeed after about 1980 and in 2001 amounted to no more than 25,000-30,000 centred mainly on Sibiu (Hermannstadt) in Transylvania. All the other ethnic minorities, which include some Russians in Danube Delta, are very small in number.

Answer: Dacia

Pannonia corresponded roughly to the central part of Hungary, Thrace was a vague term denoting a large area between the Aegean Sea and the Danube, and the name 'Romania' is relatively modern.

Answer: 1878

The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia had already achieved a measure of autonomy in 1822, following an uprising in 1821. During the Crimean War (1853-56) and thereafter Turkish rule was largely nominal and in 1858 the two principalities were allowed to elect their own prince, who could be one and the same person, provided that the principalities had separate administrations.

In fact, in 1859 they did precisely that and three years later united fully, with Ottoman assent. However, Romania did not acquire Transylvania and the Banat, together with Bukovina, from Austria-Hungary till December 1918.

Answer: In WWI Romania fought on the side of the Entente but in WWII on the side of the Axis from 1941-44 and then switched sides

As a result of fighting on the side of the Entente in 1916-18 Romania was rewarded with Transylvania and Bucovina. In WWII Romania, which had a Fascist regime, fought alongside Germany against the Soviet Union, and even called it a 'holy war'. However, in 1944, as the Soviet Army was about to enter Romania, the king together with the traditional elites and the army, overthrew the Fascist 'Conducator' Antonescu and sought a separate peace with the Soviet Union.

The latter demanded that Romania change sides and place its armed forces under Soviet command - which is broadly what happened. None of this saved the monarchy or the old elites: late in 1947 the king was forced to abdicate and the country was proclaimed a People's Republic.

Answer: The Iron Guard

The color of their shirts was in fact green. Such were the excesses of the Iron Guard that even Hitler found it necessary to order the 'Conducator' to curb them. Of course, Hitler didn't do this out of any sense of disgust, let alone sympathy for the victims, but because he believed that the Iron Guard's tenacious, ongoing violence was interfering with Romania's contribution to the Axis war effort.

Answer: Timisoara

The protests early in December were largely in Timisoara but soon spread to other parts of the country.

Answer: All of these

Many aspects of these measures were viewed with horror abroad and they were very unpopular in Romania, too. In the mid-1980s Ceausescu even established a 'baby police' that subjected childless married women (under 45) to harsh and humiliating gynecological tests. One result of these measures was a large number of unwanted children and a significant number were simply abandoned: hence the large number of Romanian orphans at the end of the 1980s.

Answer: True

In Romania, unlike in most of the other countries in Eastern Central Europe, the events of late 1989 involved considerable bloodshed. The Romanian army played a key role in the overthrow of the Ceausescu régime.

The trial, on a range of charges, including treason, was a drum-head court martial that lasted only two hours. They were both executed immediately afterwards and their corpses were filmed and shown the same day on Romanian television.