Slava Bogu! A Russian History Quiz

Eternal wrote:

A. Vladimir I. Uljanov
B. Lev D. Bronstein
C. Iosif V. Dzjugashvili"


B. = Leventri Beria

Njet! We've already cleared this one up; B = Trotsky.

I like Russia very much. I hope to take it over someday. Maybe on my vacation.

Just remember to put it back when you're done.
 
*Sigh*

I guess everyone's lost interest. Bean-spilling time (though you guys mopped up on this one fairly quickly!):

9. Kazaki was a word the Ottomans applied to lawless people who escaped from either their own empire, Russia's, Poland's, Lithuania's, etc. and moved to the Frontier areas of Russia and Ukraine. There, they formed living and fighting communes (called Sech) and made a living by raiding the surrounding states. They also hired themselves out as mercenaries to Ottoman Sultans, Russian Tsars, Polish kings and Teutonic Grand Masters (among others). These kazaki became known to the rest of Europe as the Cossacks...

11. Oprichnina was an informal system Ivan Grozny ("The Terrible") set up in Muscovy that was basically a state-within-a-state. Ivan was bound by the old Muscovite governmental structures that included the Boyar Council but he found them...inconvenient... He founded his own internal system of government that operated extra-legally, enforcing its will through terror and spies. This state system worked very effectively and kept him in power for his whole life, and the Oprichnina made sure that no power could challenge his rule. Some historians today see the Oprichnina as a model for future Russian (and Soviet) governments but some historians strongly disagree.

Thanks to everyone who took part! It was fun!
 
D'oh!

I forgot the second half of # 18!

18 1/2: This was probably too hard and unfair, but Lenin did do something significant to the Russian calendar besides "Gregorianize" it. In fact, "Gregorianizing" it was a part of a larger effort to Westernize it; apparently those years in Switzerland had an impact. Lenin's 2nd major act was to literally adopt Russian-transliterated versions of the Western names for the months! All the Slavic peoples even today use names for the months based on the old Slavic seasonal expressions, so for instance in Polish the months begin "Styczen" (January), "Luty" (February), etc. They're named after seasonal phenomena, like April in Polish is "Kwiecien", after the word "kwiaty" (flowers); April is the first month flowers appear. Today is the last day of "Listopad" (November), although while all the Slavs use these old names they do not always agree, as I learned in a trip to Zagreb once when it turned out the Croats use "Listopad" to mean October... Anyway, because of Lenin's reforms the only month names in the whole Slavic world you'd recognize today is ironically from the country with the absolute least exposure to Western ideals and history. In Russian today the months for you all are recognizable: "Janvar" (January), "Fjevral" (February), "Mart" (March), "Aprjel" (April), "Maj" (May), "Ijun'" (June), "Ijul'" (July), "Avgust" (August), "Sjentabr" (September), "Oktjabr" (October), "Najabr" (November), "Djekabr" (December). You can see they're loosely based on the German version of the months....

I know that was a bit overboard, but it is an important point about how Lenin viewed Russia; as backward and worthy of emulating the more successful West. Even communism was a part of that scheme for Lenin, bringing in a Western socio-economic theory. BTW, another useless but interesting fact about the Russian calendar is what Lenin didn't change; he allowed the old Russian days of the week to remain. This in itself might be unusual but the strange thing is that the Russian term for "Sunday" is "Voskressenje'", meaning "Resurrection Day". How did THAT one slip by for 70 years?

Thanks again folks!
 
For someone who's purportedly very busy, you do seem to have a whole lot of time to post such detailed and really out-of-the-way information, Vrylakas. :D
 
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