1. How does Russia rank in size among the world’s countries?- largest
  2. Russia is spread across what two continents? Europe and Asia
  3. During czarist Russia describe the life of a serf.could be bought and sold- farm laborers
  4. Describe life in Russia under communist rule.the government had strong control
  5. The vast, rolling treeless plain north of the Arctic Circle is called _tundra___.
  6. Russia was part of the Soviet Unionthrough what years? 1922 to 1991
  7. Who was known as the Czar-Liberator and why? Alexander II and he freed the Serfs
  8. The dictator of the Soviet Union in the late 1920s until after World War II was _Joseph Stalin___.
  9. Describe Russia’s government today. democracy
  10. Forty percent of Russia’s land is covered by what? permafrost
  11. What is the significance of the Caspian Sea? largest inland body of saltwater
  12. In the late 1400s, Ivan III made Muscovy stronger when he drove out the ____.Mongols
  13. The first Russian civilization is known as ____.Kievan Rus
  14. Huge, subarctic evergreen forests is known as the ____.taiga
  15. Communist leaders controlled Russia’s economy by using ____.five year plan
  16. Describe the Cold War in its entirety. between Russia and United States; fought without aggression
  17. The leader who turned Russia into a super power? Mikhail Gorbachev
  18. Who was the last of the Romanov czars?Nicholas II What happened to him and his family?they were killed
  19. What year was the Soviet Unionformed? 1922
  20. What was the battle between the Soviet Union and the United States to dominate space called? Who won and why? the space race; Russia had the first man in space and the first space satellite
  21. The region that holds the largest supply of minerals in Russia is _Siberia___.
  22. The Russian city called the “Venice of the North” is ____.St. Petersburg
  23. About what percent of Russia’s population lives in cities? 3/4
  24. The Russian composer who wrote The Nutcracker was ____.Peter Tchaikovsky
  25. Who holds the political power today in Russia? people
  26. The first country to make Christianity its official religion was ____.Armenia
  27. Describe Russia’s problems they are having with pollution. people are less healthy because they do not regulate pollution
  28. Most of Turkmenistan is made up of ____.GaragumDesert
  29. Russian stories passed down from generation to generation are called ____.skazki
  30. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church is called the ____.patriarch
  31. The Central Asian republic that has one of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas is ____.Turkmenistan
  32. Uzbekistan is one of the world’s largest producers of ____.Cotton
  33. What is celebrated on May Day? Russian workers
  34. The republics of the Caucasus are __Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan
  35. The only Russian port that remains free of ice year-round is ____.Kaliningrad
  36. Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace celebrates ____.Russian victory over Napoleon Bonaparte
  37. Most of Kyrgyzstan is made up of ____.TainshanMountains
  38. Recently, Russian troops fought which rebellious ethnic group? Why?Chechens
  39. Which is the largest of the Central Asian republics?Kazakhstan