Russia Study Guide Answers (to most)
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. The vast, rolling treeless plain north of the Arctic Circle is called _tundra___.
4. Forty percent of Russia’s land is covered by what? Permafrost
5. What is the finger of land that is known for volcanoes in Russia called? Kamchatka Peninsula
6. What is the significance of the Caspian Sea? largest inland body of water
7. Why is the Volga River important? It carries ½ of river transportation in Russia
8. What is the Taiga? Huge, subarctic evergreen forests
9. The only Russian port that remains free of ice year-round is ____.Kaliningrad
10. What is industrialization? How and why did the czars encourage this? Economy that relies more on manufacturing than farming; By building modern cities like St. Petersburg and railroads.
11. Which leader attempted to reform the Soviet Union? What were 2 of his reforms?
Mikhail Gorbachev-Perestroika: “restructuring” & Glasnost-allowed people to speak freely
12. Who was the last of the Romanov czars? Nicholas II What happened to him and his family? they were murdered by Bolsheviks during Russian Revolution
13. Russia was part of the Soviet Union through what years? 1922 to 1991
14. Describe life in Russia under communist rule. The government had strong control over the people and economy.
15. The dictator of the Soviet Union in the late 1920s until after World War II was _Joseph Stalin___.
16. What year was the Soviet Union formed? 1922
17. What was the Cold War. between Russia and United States; waged without any actual fighting
18. Describe Russia’s government today. democracy
19. Why is Russia a federal republic?
20. The region that holds the largest supply of minerals in Russia is _Siberia___.
21. The Russian city called the “Venice of the North” is ____.St. Petersburg
22. Which Russian city is the political, cultural and economic center of Russia today? Moscow
23. What percentage of Russian people are Orthodox? 70
24. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church is called the ____.patriarch
25. What is the Hermitage? Who built the Hermitage? An art museum built during the reign of Catherine the Great
26. Russian stories passed down from generation to generation are called ____.skazki
27. The Russian composer who wrote The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture was ____.Peter Tchaikovsky
28. Tolstoy’s novel War & Peace celebrates _____. The defeat of Napoleon
29. List the Republics of the Caucasus. Armenia, Georgia & Azerbaijan
30. The first country to make Christianity its official religion was ____.Armenia
31. Which country’s Muslims have had major conflicts with the country in the question above? Azerbaijan
32. List the Central Asian Republics. Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
33. The religion of most people in the Central Asian Republics is ______. Muslim
34. The Central Asian republic that has one of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas is ____.Turkmenistan
35. Uzbekistan is one of the world’s largest producers of ____.Cotton
36. Why is Georgia a popular tourist destination? Resorts along the Black Sea coast
37. Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace celebrates ____.Russian victory over Napoleon Bonaparte
38. Recently, Russian troops fought which rebellious ethnic group? Why? Chechens
39. Which is the largest of the Central Asian republics? Kazakhstan