Name: Date: World Geography – Class Period:
Unit 8 Test Review
Central & Eastern Europe
1. What physical feature is the dividing point between Europe and Asia?
Ural Mountains
2. What does the term balkanize mean?
To break up into small, often hostile units
a. How does the term balkanize relate to Yugoslavia?
During the 1990s, Yugoslavia broke up into countries along ethnic lines and fought wars because of the ethnic differences
3. What happened at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine in April of 1986?
An explosion at a nuclear power plant, that killed up to 56 people, and emitted nuclear radiation into the atmosphere
4. How did the event at Chernobyl affect the areas around it?
People can no longer live in the area because of contamination
5. What was the Holocaust?
The killing of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during world War II
a. Where did the Holocaust occur?
Throughout Western, Central, and Eastern Europe
b. Who was involved in the Holocaust?
Nazis and Jews
6. What does the term czar mean?
Caesar, name for the Russian monarchs
7. Briefly explain the rise of communism. (Make sure you make mention of command economy)
In 1917, fed up with the Russian Czars, the poor revolted and forced the Czar to give up his position
V.I. Lenin established a dictatorship government and a command economy
8. What caused the end of Communist rule?
Economic restructuring known as perestroika and the openness of the government known as glasnost caused the fall of the Soviet Union and communist rule
9. What are some of the challenges that Russia/Eastern Europe have faced during the transition from a command economy to a free market economy?
Inflation led to the increase in the use of the black market
Issues with the privatization of farms and businesses, resulting in mass unemployment
10. What is the Black Market?
A system in which goods and services move unofficially without a formal record keeping
11. Explain transportation in Russia. What are some positives and negatives. What is the most common form of transportation found?
Most common type is Railroad which allowed for transportation across vast distances and in the extreme weather
Explain the following terms:
12. Cold War- power struggles between US an Soviets, no actual fighting took place
13. NATO- North Atlantic Treaty Organization; military alliance
14. Warsaw Pact- Alliance of Soviet satellite countries in response to the formation of NATO
15. Ural Mountains- physical feature dividing Europe from Asia
16. Aral Sea- drained by Soviets to irrigate farm land; damns have been constructed to try and refill sea
17. Berlin Wall- wall built to keep people in E. Europe; divided Europe into Democratic and Communist countries
18. North European Plain- plains area mostly farm land