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Soviet Union Country Quiz

Can you guess these facts about the former country of the USSR?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: September 29, 2020
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First submittedMarch 23, 2017
Times taken55,714
Average score75.0%
Rating4.77
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Hint
Answer
First leader of the Soviet Union
Vladimir Lenin
Only political party
Communist Party
Soviet version of an astronaut
Cosmonaut
Soviet version of the CIA
KGB
Official state newspaper
Pravda
Soviet address meaning
"fellow citizen"
Comrade
Name for the Soviet army
Red Army
Most important export
Oil
Satellite launched in 1957
Sputnik 1
Nuclear plant that melted
down in 1986
Chernobyl
Hint
Answer
First person to orbit the Earth
Yuri Gagarin
Person who ruled the USSR from
the 1920s until 1953
Joseph Stalin
Native language of the above
Georgian
Country invaded in 1979
Afghanistan
Innermost ruling committee
Politburo
Term for a Soviet prison camp
Gulag
Countries invaded in 1939
Finland
Poland
Military alliance similar to NATO
Warsaw Pact
Last leader of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev
+5
Level 81
Mar 23, 2017
Very interesting quiz
+22
Level 77
Mar 23, 2017
So when attempting to use Gulag for one of my own quizzes, I discovered that GULAG is actually not the name of a Soviet prison camp, but rather the acronym for the government bureau that ran their prison camps. I've been using the word wrong for years. And so has Jetpunk.
+17
Level ∞
Mar 24, 2017
The quiz is correct. The acronym GULAG has been adapted into the word gulag, meaning prison camp:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gulag

In other news, I'd highly recommend the book Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum.

+4
Level 84
Mar 27, 2017
I'll second Quizmaster's recommendation. An impressive book, if a bit depressing at times.
+9
Level 69
Sep 22, 2017
I'd recommend a far better book written by an insider: "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
+1
Level 65
Sep 30, 2023
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich? I didn't realize he was also a survivor. I'll have to read that. Thanks for the recommendation
+2
Level 29
Nov 25, 2023
fourth level comments? what?
+5
Level 82
Feb 16, 2020
Having read both, they both have their merits. Applebaum has far more resources at her disposal and is more academic, Solzhenitsyn is more literary and emotive.
+1
Level 58
Feb 10, 2021
Another good one is "A World Apart: The Journal of a Gulag Survivor" by Gustav Herling
+1
Level 45
Feb 28, 2023
Quizmaster, I do think that Gulag is used incorrectly here- it's an acronym for the entire system of labor camps, the institution that commanded them all, not merely an individual camp. Note that the definition from the Wikimedia site you've linked says virtually the same. It is incorrect, or just coloquial if anything, to refer to the term of just one camp as a gulag.
+4
Level 72
Feb 28, 2023
It's quite common for acronyms to become words on their own. For example, the word laser used to be an acronym. It stood for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". Let's just stick with calling it laser.
+9
Level 86
Mar 23, 2017
In fact, the army was the Red Army from 1917 to 1946, then became the Soviet Army until 1991.
+1
Level 62
Aug 14, 2022
I want to write the same
+1
Level 77
Apr 24, 2017
Should have accepted just "Yuri" or "Gagarin". Also, it's so weird I can forget KGB...
+7
Level 60
Jun 17, 2020
Yup. Justa as typing "George" works for the first US president. :-)
+4
Level 58
Dec 29, 2022
Good point, but Gagarin should still be accepted.
+2
Level 70
Aug 15, 2017
Should mention the Baltic states they invaded.
+1
Level 74
Aug 15, 2017
Seconded.
+8
Level 76
Aug 17, 2017
Soviet invasion of the Baltic states occurred in 1940. The clue mentioned 1939.
+1
Level 44
Mar 19, 2018
those were later. 1939 was teh Winter War and they were sided with the Nazis at that time.. a weird arrangement, but its what happened.
+2
Level 59
Jan 6, 2022
They did not side with the Germans,they simply had a non-aggression pact,never in the Molotov Ribbentrop pact did it say anything about Soviets helping or defending if France or the UK attacked.Finland technically didn't side with the Nazi's either,Hitler was just quiet fond of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim,president of Finland during the winter war.
+3
Level 45
Mar 1, 2023
What? Of course the Soviet Union did side with the Germans, it's a grave misunderstanding of history when you state otherwise. There was a secret Protocol to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that divided Eastern Europe into Hitler's (Western Poland, Lithuania) and Stalin's (Eastern Poland, the Baltic states, Finland, Bessarabia) "spheres of influence", de facto this meant the desire of annexation of these territories. If it hadn't been for the Soviet's commitment as an ally of Germany to invade and partition Poland, support Hitler with ores, wood and other resources, and allow Hitler to invade Western Europe, the war wouldn't have broken out in the first place. Hitler was waiting for the pact with Stalin - only then could he start the invasion of Poland.
+1
Level 17
Feb 7, 2024
Mannerheim was not the president of Finland during the Winter War. He was the commander in chief of the Finnish defence forces. He was the president 1944-1946.
+12
Level 66
Aug 15, 2017
I think CPSU should be added at least as a type-in, even better would be using CPSU as the correct answer and Communist as type-in. Like Nazi Party, Communist Party wasn't the actual name of the party.
+1
Level 60
Jun 18, 2020
I highly doubt that the real official name was in english though. So it wold have to be "KHCC" (not acually H, but that cyrillic character I don't have on my keyboard). And before you start to argue, in your own example of the nazi party, I'm sure you ment "NSDAP," which is in german, only an insane person would ment "NSGWP," as it would have been in english.
+2
Level 37
Feb 14, 2021
Well, the difference is that the abbreviation NSDAP neither in academic nor colloquial contexts gets translated (even though colloquially probably Nazi Party is used more often).

Meanwhile it is standard procedure to translate the names of Communist parties and use their abbreviations such as the CPSU, CPC (or CCP) and so on. The same is even true for other languages, e.g. in German the CCP is abbreviated KPCh and the CPSU is usually written as KPDSU.

Again, it's mostly Germany where this is not the case, since the Socialist Unity Party usually also just is abbreviated SED like in Germany.

As you mentioned, КПСС or KPSS would be of course in principle even ''more correct'', but since nobody would write that I think the answer should be simply CPSU.

+1
Level 73
Aug 15, 2017
I tried to spell "tavaritch" instead of "comrade"...
+4
Level 72
Aug 16, 2017
"tovarish" worked for me
+13
Level 85
Aug 15, 2017
The most important export was revolution!
+6
Level 76
Aug 15, 2017
My first guess for 'most important export' was 'vodka'...
+1
Level 44
Mar 19, 2018
I guessed weapons, I was about to type in T-34s but.. LOL and then I was like Vodka, oh wait I know! lol
+4
Level 75
Aug 15, 2017
i'm pleasantly surprised the comments have been a trump-free zone! (sorry for ending that streak, though). :)
+5
Level 55
Aug 16, 2017
Time for a law comparable to Godwin's Law.
+1
Level 41
Aug 16, 2017
90%, not bad I guess.
+2
Level 42
Aug 18, 2017
Could you include petroleum as an answer for exports - that's the official term.
+3
Level 61
Aug 19, 2017
Nice quiz otherwise, but I dare to disagree with Finland being invaded in 1939. Or at least it sounds a bit misleading as it was more of a tried invasion than a successful one.
+1
Level 55
Aug 19, 2017
Seconded.
+6
Level 82
Aug 19, 2017
A "tried" invasion? You mean like... the Russians were gearing up to invade Finland... they all piled in to their van... and then got a flat tire before they were able to cross the border?

If there were ever Soviet troops on Finnish territory without being invited there, then Finland was invaded.

+5
Level 61
Aug 21, 2017
No, I means as in Finland was never fully invaded. The USSR was never able to invade the whole Finland. So saying that "Finland was invaded" just sounds wrong to me. The USSR attacked Finland, tried to invade it, didn't succeed and Finland never lost its independence. But I'm also starting to believe this is just a language thing as English isn't my first language and maybe I'm just somehow misunderstanding the whole meaning of the word invade/invasion. Because what I understand when someone says "this country was invaded" is that the enemy troops have spread to every part of that country and it has lost its independence.
+12
Level 82
Sep 7, 2020
An invasion can be in any part of a country. It doesn't require that you occupy that country in its entirety. Once troops have crossed the border, an invasion has occurred.
+4
Level 70
Feb 11, 2021
A nation can be said to have invaded another even without achieving their desired end result.
+3
Level 72
Feb 28, 2023
All of these comments have renewed relevance after February 24, 2022.
+1
Level 56
Nov 7, 2023
When you twist it this way, then Soviet Union was also invaded by Finland In WW2. But that's not what happened, is it? So I would say Soviets and Finland were in a serious conflict, but no invasion happened.
+12
Level 70
Feb 21, 2018
"Invaded" is not the same as "Conquered". An unsuccessful invasion is still an invasion.
+2
Level 44
Mar 19, 2018
that would be like saying the Nazis didn't invade Prokhorovka .. during the Battle of Kursk. or that the Russians didn't invade Crimea during world war II either.. ;)

irony since they got lost on GPS and by accident invaded Crimea again not that long ago :)

+7
Level ∞
Sep 29, 2020
This has come up in other quizzes as well. I believe it may be an English as a second language issue. "Invaded" merely means that troops from a country violated the territory of another country. It does not mean they conquered it.
+3
Level 61
Aug 22, 2017
It's funny that the newspaper's name was "Pravda". It actually means truth.
+1
Level 44
Mar 19, 2018
yes. It meant "truth". It was propaganda.. so whenever anyone says the word truth I always ask whose Truth.. lol
+1
Level 66
Feb 26, 2019
It's also a bit ambiguous - Pravda was the official party newspaper, the official state newspaper was Izvestia.
+1
Level 70
Feb 10, 2021
Yeah, I remembered that it meant truth, but just couldn't remember the Russian name for it. Tried typing "truth," just in case that was accepted, but no luck.
+1
Level 75
Feb 28, 2023
Tried Izvestia before Pravda.
+1
Level 62
Aug 4, 2018
Damn it, I kept typing GagaREV, not Gagarin! Would have gotten that one otherwise...
+2
Level 52
Dec 2, 2018
19/20. Comrade Lenin, I salute you!
+1
Level 63
Feb 8, 2019
Got all the answers right with 2:48 remaining at 3:39:59 PM on February 8, 2019. My point total increased by 5 points, to 776. I am currently at Level 29 working towards 800 points to reach Level 30. All this coming from an American.
+1
Level 49
Jun 13, 2019
15/20 I have failed you
+1
Level 37
Jul 18, 2019
Can't believe that I missed Warsaw Pact. Brain freeze.
+1
Level 62
Jul 25, 2019
can you please accept "Communism" for "Communist Party"? Thanks!
+4
Level 23
Aug 30, 2021
Communism is an economic/ political system. It is not a political party or the name of any communist party. So it is incorrect.
+6
Level 85
Feb 28, 2020
Please accept "CPSU" (Communist party of the Soviet Union)
+1
Level 57
May 18, 2020
Vladimir Lenin doesn't work
+5
Level 82
Sep 7, 2020
That's because he's on the dole.
+1
Level 66
Oct 7, 2020
Please start a series of country quizzes with historic countries. There is already a well done East Germany quiz by the user TvB!
+2
Level 78
Feb 10, 2021
Link to that quiz. Good quiz, but probably tough for foreigners.
+2
Level 72
Feb 10, 2021
Please accept "Kosmonaut" too.
+1
Level 43
Feb 10, 2021
When you featured the Greenland Country Quiz, I believed in you that we are going to stop. Now we have the 199th quiz! What country will be the 200th? Yugoslavia? LOL!
+2
Level 59
Feb 10, 2021
You should make a badge like "country trivia", but it only contains former countries.
+4
Level 71
Feb 10, 2021
Thank goodness the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore. And with that, communism across the globe became a fraction of what it once was. Lose your freedom in the name of equality, good riddance!

Although sadly today we're starting to have our freedoms infringed upon for the sake of a divisive media and oversensitive people who don't seem to understand the difference between hate speech and fact. Complacency will of course only help this problem.

+2
Level 65
Feb 10, 2021
100% agree
+12
Level 67
Feb 10, 2021
This is not correct. The censorship to which you are alluding is a badge of freedom: the citizenry is expressing its opinion on the issue and media networks (i.e., the free market) are responding accordingly. People are making demands and they are being met. This is totally different than government censorship. The government is not passing laws banning free speech; it's not even involved. On top of that, you're still free to say whatever you want, any time you want. But there is no requirement that Twitter or whoever accommodate you. They, as part of their freedom, can kick you out of their domain, just as I have the freedom to tell you to tell leave my home if you starting spouting bigotry. This is freedom at work. You are free to say what you want, and others are free to call for your ouster as a result. If the results are bad, that's a failure of the people, not the government.
+1
Level 74
Feb 10, 2021
While the censorship may not be directly implemented by the government or technically infringe upon our freedom of speech, I would argue that certain members of the free market (the influential media networks for example) are blatantly censoring things that people say which are contrary to their political ideals. They claim that all of the censorship is in the name of fact vs. "fake news," but sadly this is no longer the case. This is still censorship, and I wouldn't be surprised if the scale at which it is present (the "big" social media networks, Facebook/Twitter) is somewhat comparable to communist censorship, just in our modern society. (Mainly because social networks and media networks have such an incredible degree of influence today.)
+5
Level 67
Feb 11, 2021
I disagree. Government censorship brings penalties. Fines. Jail. It scares people from speaking their minds. Having a Facebook post taken down isn't a big deal, frankly, and I return to the refrain that it is entirely within people's power to just not rely on Facebook. It's only so powerful because the people let it be. I don't use Facebook. I'm not uninformed (I daresay not using it has made me more informed). I can still find reliable news by going to reliable networks. If you read the Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist (and stay off the op-ed pages!) you'll get lots of good information, and the biases, though extant, are negligible enough that it's pretty easy to parse out what actually happened. Facebook's dominance is just another consequence of the free market. McDonald's is more popular than steamed vegetables, but you can still get a healthy meal if you're disciplined about it. Power to the people.
+3
Level 82
Nov 12, 2022
Moderation on Facebook is a bit of a dumpster fire right now, mostly run by very poorly coded AI bots, but.... if you're having a large number of your posts taken down or flagged as misinformation... then... you probably are spreading misinformation. Also, what jmellor said. FB is a private company and under no obligation to publish or broadcast whatever garbage you decide to upload to it. Particularly if it poses a public health risk, is likely to incite violence, or in any other way opens the company up to liability, litigation, or criticism. Facebook isn't speech. It's a medium you can use to speak. One run by a for-profit corporation. If you end up in jail for expressing an opinion, then come back and talk to us.
+1
Level 60
Feb 10, 2021
Pravda means "True" in Russian
+1
Level 59
Feb 11, 2021
That is true.
+1
Level 32
Aug 24, 2021
In Slovakian too
+1
Level 64
Feb 11, 2021
I spend one minute trying to spell Khrushchev only to better read the dates and realized it was much easier
+1
Level 64
Feb 12, 2021
2:01

easy but lots of fun

Thanks!

+1
Level 32
Aug 24, 2021
In Slovakia, we also have a newspapers called "Pravda" - but of course it´s not the only one. And we use both astronaut and kozmonaut without their connection to some country, they are just synonyms for me, so that´s the only I didn´t know.
+2
Level 68
Aug 31, 2022
R.I.P. Mikhail Gorbachev
+1
Level 46
Sep 3, 2022
just want her back :(
+3
Level 57
Jan 11, 2023
The last Soviet leader was Boris Yeltsin. He was elected in June 1991, and the Soviet Union didn't dissolve until December 1991.
+1
Level 48
Feb 28, 2023
A good quiz but some small factual issues:

The Red Army changed its name into the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union already in 1946.

The KGB was more of a version of the CIA, NSA, FBI, DEA, FTP and many other law enforcement agencies. It wasn't only an intelligence agency.

The term for "fellow citizen" would be "Grazhdanin" (litterally, citizen), "Comrade" would only be used in formal speach and almost exclusively while speaking to party members or military personel.

"GULAG" is in fact an abreviation of the authority within the former Ministry of Interior that was responsible for managing prison camps. In Russian it was rarely used to actually describe a camp.

Thanks.

+1
Level 63
Feb 28, 2023
Did anyone else fail to get "comrade" cuz they thought it was spelled "comrad"?
+2
Level 70
Feb 28, 2023
Very picky.

tried entering Gorby, but not accepted. Clearly anyone would know I was referring to Gorbachov.

+1
Level 67
Mar 2, 2023
Just missed Pravda
+1
Level 68
Jan 17, 2024
I got Lenin, Gorbachev, and Gagarin, but I forgot Stalin, why?