Banished! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Leon Trotsky

A leader of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky was the founder of the Red Army and the first Commissar for War. After losing a power struggle with Stalin he was expelled from the Communist Party and banished from the Soviet Union. He was murdered in Mexico by Soviet agent Ramon Mercador.

Answer: Jean-Claude Duvalier

Son of the much feared dictator Papa Doc Duvalier, Jean-Claude Duvalier became President for Life on the death of his father. An uprising in 1986 forced him to flee Haiti, with several million dollars, for exile in a French luxury villa close to Cannes.

Answer: Idi Amin

Amin came to power in Uganda in 1971 following a military coup. For the next eight years he presided over ethnic killings, political repression and a complete disregard for human rights. He went too far when he tried to annexe part of Tanzania, and the resultant war saw the end of his regime. He fled, first to Libya, and then to Saudi Arabia, where he died.

Answer: Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo was a Republican and when Napoleon III seized complete power in France he was declared a traitor. He fled France, first to Brussels, then Jersey and finally Guernsey, where he lived until 1870. Although an amnesty was given to all political refugees in 1859 Hugo decided that to return to France would mean he would not be able to criticize the government freely, so he stayed in exile until the Third Republic was proclaimed in 1870.

Answer: Benazir Bhutto

After the overthrow and subsequent execution of her father, Benazir Bhutto spent the next six years either under house arrest or in prison. In 1984 she was allowed to leave Pakistan for medical treatment. By 1988 she was back in Pakistan serving the first of two terms as Prime Minister, but by early 2000 was back in exile in Dubai and London amid allegations of corruption.

She returned to Pakistan again in 2007 and was assassinated in December of that year, only weeks before a General Election that she was expected to win.

Answer: Duke of Windsor

After his abdication in 1936 which enabled him to marry Wallace Simpson, King Edward VIII was given the title His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor. His wife however was only given the title of Duchess, she was never accorded the HRH title. During the war he acted as Governor of the Bahamas, but after the war he was never given another official appointment, and he and his wife lived in exile in Paris, although they did briefly visit London twice during the 1960s.

Answer: The Shah of Iran

The Shah of Iran ruled from 1941 until the Iranian revolution in 1979. Many of his policies, especially those that sought to modernise the country, had put him in direct conflict with the Islamic clergy. Shortly after he was forced to flee the country there was an Islamic Republic in Iran. During his exile the Shah lived in several countries including Egypt, Morocco the Bahamas and Mexico.
He died in Egypt in 1980 and was given a state funeral.

Answer: Kim Philby

Kim Philby was a high ranking officer in British intelligence whilst all the time spying for the Soviets. He came under suspicion in 1951 when Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean fled to Moscow. Although he was interrogated nothing was proved and he was exonerated.

However he was under continued surveillance and in 1963 fled to Moscow where he was given political asylum and Soviet citizenship. He died there in 1988 and was given a hero's funeral.

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Playwright, journalist and author, Oscar Wilde was a well known figure in Victorian society. In 1891 he was introduced to Alfred Douglas, son of the Marquis of Queensbury, with whom he had an affair. In 1895 he started an ill advised private prosecution against the Marquis for criminal libel after the Marquis had called him a sodomite.

The court declared for the Marquis and Wilde was arrested shortly afterwards, tried for gross indecency, and sentenced to two years' hard labour. On his release he fled to Paris, where he wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol".

He died in Paris in 1900, completely destitute.

Answer: Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Deitrich came to fame in the 1930 film "Blue Angel". A committed anti-Nazi, she refused to return to Germany after the Nazi came to power, and instead she stayed in the US and later became an American citizen. In World War II she performed concerts for Allied Troops all over the world.

She also recorded musical propaganda records for the Office of Strategic Services, which included her famous version of the German song "Lili Marlene" which was enormously popular, both in her version and the earlier German version sung by Lale Andersen.