Back to the USSR Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ekaterinburg

It is said that the main reason for the executions was the threat that the "whites" would free him during the civil war. Sverdlovsk could have been also right answer, but not here: Ekaterinburg was renamed Sverdlovsk in 1924, in memory of Yakov Sverdlov - the man who was the main organizer of Tsar's execution.

He was a high ranking Bolshevik. The city reverted to the name of Ekaterinburg after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Omsk was the capital of Russian "white" army during the civil war, Petrograd was the capital of the Russian Empire, before the Bolsheviks moved the Russian capital back to Moscow.

Answer: 4

For me it was surprising to find out that initially only four republic's formed Soviet Union. Those were: Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR. The latter consisted of what later became the three separate SSRs of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in 1930. Five "Central South" republics were formed in 1920s and Baltic republics and Moldova were annexed in 1940, to make the number of republics up to 15. From 1940-1956 there was also also the Finno-Karelian SSR in the area which the USSR annexed from Finland, but it was dissolved due the small number of habitants.

Answer: Kirov

Kirov's real name was Kostrikov. Nowadays there are few doubts about that the assassination was organized by Stalin (but no-one has managed to prove it, either). He used it as an excuse to create panic and to purge the Party, the military and to instigate a reign of terror. Kuibyshev was a high-ranking Communist, who died in the 1930s, Beria was appointed Head of the Secret Police in 1939 and lost the struggle for power in 1953 - when he was executed. Kalinin died peacefully, but his wife was the victim of repression.

Answer: Ramon Mercader

Mercader worked as a secretary for Trotsky. He was inprisoned for 20 years, after that he was given his credits from Soviet Union (title of Hero of the USSR, etc.). David Sikeiros was an artist and a member of Mexican CP, who led the attack to Trotsky's villa, which did not succeeded. Princip is the name of the man who in 1914 assassinated Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Fanny Kaplan tried to kill Lenin, but only managed to wound him.

Answer: Malenkov

The list was: 1. Malenkov, 2. Beria, 3. Molotov, 4. Voroshilov, 5. Khrushchev ... In the aftermath, the most successful was Khrushchev. Beria lost his life, being considered the most dangerous to the others (he was the head of security systems).

Answer: Took off his shoe and repeatedly banged the desk in front of him with it

Some said that he first hit the desk with his watch, but it broke. So he replaced the watch with something less delicate ... Vodka drinking in public was more in the repertoire of Russian ex-president Yeltsin. Relations with Yugoslavia and United States were not good, but there are no reports of above-mentioned behaviour.

Answer: 1972

Nixon had been in Russia also before his presidency. In 1975 President Ford also visited the country.

Answer: 4

Brezhnev to 1982, Andropov to 1984 and Chernenko to 1985, then came Gorbachev, who is still living (June 03). The start of 1980s was quite similar to the medieval elections of the Pope: the worse was the health of candidate, the more probable his success.

There were lot of jokes about the old leaders, like: what's the difference between monarchy and gerontocracy? In monarchy the power is passed from a father to the son, in gerontocracy from one grandfather to another grandfather.

Answer: Yanayev

Yeltsin was of course the president of Russian Federation, and one of the main opponents of the rebellion. The other two were top members of the rebels (defence minister and KGB chief). Haven't heard much of them since ...

Answer: McCartney

The Beatles were not favored by the Communist leaders as they were regarded as an example of "capitalist pop-culture". I do not know much about the attitude toward the Bowie's or Sting's music, but Bono's band U2 name was also offensive to SU leaders: 1960 was an American spy plane was shot down in Soviet territory. The plane was a "U2".