Red Alert! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Maxim Litvinov

Maxim Litvinov was of Jewish origin, so he was unsuitable to negotiate with Nazis. He was People's Commissar 1930-1939 and served as Assistant People's Commissar from 1921-1930 and 1941-1946.
Yagoda had served in the USSR's security systems and was the main helper of Stalin at the start of the purge in Communist Party. After helping to destroy Kamenev and Zinoviev, he had done his duty - served his purpose. First he was replaced by Nikolay Yezhov, then arrested in 1937 and shot in 1938.
Anastas Mikoyan was real survivor in the struggle for the power within the Party. He was the only Commissar of Baku from back in 1919 who managed to avoid the purges and was still active in top politics in the middle of 1960s having survived all the clashes.
Lazar Kaganovich was another survivor, but in the other sense: he lived 1893-1991. In political terms he was not so successful. In 1957 he joined the first movement that aimed to depose Khrushchev. After failure he was removed from top spheres.

Answer: Orzel

The Polish submarine Orzel came to Tallinn on 14 September 1939 to hospitalize its captain. Due to the requests from USSR and Germany it was interned. After the Soviets joined the Nazis in their fight against Poland, on 17 September, the ship escaped. There are at least two versions of how it happened: the Estonian one simply states that it was virtually unguarded (one guard) since sympathy was with Poles and the escape was made as easy as possible. The guard who was taken with the Poles was released near Sweden. The Polish variant is much more heroic. So, no-one knows, what exactly happened, but this incident was used by Soviets to exert pressure on the Estonians. The Orzel managed to join the British fleet in their fight against Germany and was sunk in 1940.
Metallist was another ship used to blackmail the Estonians. The Soviets claimed that it was sunk near Narva by an unknown vessel, which might have been the Orzel (or maybe Estonian borderguards) and so they argues that the Estonian navy was unable to guard Estonian waters and that is why USSR insisted that there must be Soviet bases in Estonia. The truth is, that actually the Metallist was not sunk, it was not even attacked, it was just a "myth" invented to "frame" Estonia.
Polska means Poland and Pilsudski was its famous president, who died in 1935.

Answer: Winter War

The war ended with the Soviets winning (on points as it were)in March 1940: Finland had to cede some territory, but remained an independent state.
The Continuation War refers to the war in which the Finns tried to regain their land by joining the Hitler's attack towards USSR.
(Eastern) Karelia was the main territory that the Finns lost in that war.
Vyborg was a town there.

Answer: Finno-Karelian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR)

The Finno-Karelian Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Finno-Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the Russian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic in 1956. The Finnish Democratic Republic was a Soviet puppet, created in 1939.

Its purpose was to camouflage the Soviet invasion. The Soviets wanted to create the impression that they were helping the "democratic" the side in a "Finnish civil war". There has never been a Karelian Socialist Republic.

Answer: Andrey Vyshinsky

Dekanozov supervised the annexation of Lithuania and Zhdanov did same job in Estonia. Zinoviev was an important leader and theorist of Communist Party in the 1920s but he was convicted of treason and shot during the purges.

Answer: Romania

Most of the people in that area were actually Romanians. To justify the formation of Moldova (Moldavia) the Soviets created a new, fictitious nation: Moldavians. For that, they invented the theory that the Moldavians have half-Latin, half-Slavic in origin while the Romanians were considered to be "pure Latins".

The Soviets imposed the use of the Cyrillic alphabet and introduced words of Russian origin and added Slavic endings to the Romanian place-names.

Answer: Vilnius

Vilnius was considered as historic capital of Lithuania. After the formation of independent states in Eastern Europe at the end of WWI it finally became the property of Poland and that severely strained relations between Poland and Lithuania. The Polish dictator Pilsudski came from that region, so it might have been one reason for Poland clinging to that area. Klaipeda, also known as Memel was a Lithuanian port, but had previously been part of Germany, which still claimed it. Lvov was a Polish city what went to Ukraine and Augustow is still in Poland, near Lithuanian border.

Answer: Lithuania

Lithuania was separated from Soviet Union by Poland. Nowadays that 'intervening' area belongs to Belarus. After the war some German areas were given to Poland as compensation. Nowadays Lithuania has a border with Russia, thanks to the Kaliningrad's enclave (and of course, as mentioned above, has a border with Belarus). Latvia and Karelia had a common border with Russia, and Bessarabia bordered Ukraine.

Answer: Tannu-Tuva

Actually it happened in 1944, but it fits well here, so I decided to include it.
Tannu-Tuva seceded from China in 1911, but was strongly under Russian influence. A Soviet Republic had been created there in 1921 but was overthrown in 1924.
Tatarstan and Sakha are Russian provinces, Tatarstan is situated North from Caspian Sea, Sakha also known as Yakutia, the biggest of the "republics" on Russian territory, is in Northern Far-East. Manchukuo was Japanese puppet-state in Manchuria in Northern China.

Answer: Estonia

Moldova on 2 August 1940
Lithuania on 3 August 1940
Latvia on 5 August 1940
Estonia on 6 August 1940
In Estonia, once there was a popular question: name the city that has been Soviet Union's border-city for one day? Answer was Valga: city that is located on Estonian-Latvian border (Latvians call their half Valka). As Latvia was incorporated day earlier, it was Soviet Union's border-city on 5 August 1940.