Vrylakas' Eastern European History-Question-a-Day Quiz

[Vrylakas]

SKM...I mean Knight-Dra...I mean XIII wrote:

Due to a certain someone's request, I've thought up of a new format for a quiz. While I'm not up to putting up a full quiz of like 20-30 questions, I think I can still manage with 1 every now and then. A question will be posed; posters can try at giving an answer - I'll declare who's provided the answer closest to what I'd in mind. Any issues - of course we can discuss over the answers; I'm not all-knowing, unlike some of you guys. A new question will then be posed.

You can do searches on the Net, or look up books - mine questions will probably be quite challenging and obscure.

Pls note that this is not a cumulative quiz, with the 'winner' posing a new question. I want to control the questions so as to maintain the 'flavour' of the quiz. I also encourage other knowledgeable posters (like Vrylakas and Calgacus etc) to put up similar themed (like Eastern European and Scottish/Celtic etc) quizzes.

Not a bad idea XIII!

Here goes the first one:

Sandomierz, bugler at Kraków, bloody Legnica, the walls of Olomouc, but already Mohi before a bloody nose at Grobnok. What am I talking about, and what especially happened at Grobnok?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Vrylakas
SKM...I mean Knight-Dra...I mean XIII wrote:

Very funny...

Not a bad idea XIII!

Yeah I know. All of my ideas are great!

Sandomierz, bugler at Kraków, bloody Legnica, the walls of Olomouc, but already Mohi before a bloody nose at Grobnok. What am I talking about, and what especially happened at Grobnok?

A really really wild guess - the Mongols' invasion?

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

He got punched in the face?

 

[Porphyrogenitos]

XIII is right I assume. The Mongol invasion of the 1240's led by Batu and others is what Vrylakas is talking about. All the names mentioned are either cities or places where battles raged between the Christian forces and those of the Mongols. The Mongols crushed them in all of those instances except at Grobnok where the Croations managed to repel them. The foray into Croatia was half-hearted as the Mongols had outreached themselves and were too far from their operational bases. Logistics essentially determined the reasn for their withdrawl from the Eastern nations they had just recently ravaged.

 

[Vrylakas]

XIII and Porphyrogenitos are correct, and Porphyrogenitos took it further by correctly describing the significance of Grobnok! Great job guys!

RIII wrote:

Yeah I know. All of my ideas are great!

Wait until you're married...

OK, next question, which I think I asked once before in another thread though not sure:

Q: Who was Jan Ziszka, who was he fighting to support, and what military innovation is credited to him?

 

[pawpaw]

jan ziska was a czech military leader for jan hus, leader of the husite- a break away religious group based at tabor in bohemia. ziszka used massed numbers of hand guns in his armies and fortified wagon trains to base his armies on in the field.- he used artillary also. p.s. he was blind from war wounds

 

[Vrylakas]

Pawpaw wrote:

jan ziska was a czech military leader for jan hus, leader of the husite- a break away religious group based at tabor in bohemia. ziszka used massed numbers of hand guns in his armies and fortified wagon trains to base his armies on in the field.- he used artillary also. p.s. he was blind from war wounds.

Yes! Right on!

Next question tomorrow.

 

[thedirk]

Technically Ziska was leader of the Taborites, a faction within the larger collection of groups refered to as the Hussites. The Hussite groups emerged in protest over the burning at the stake of Jan Hus at the western church council at Constance (among many other greivances).

Sorry, I did a major research project on Jan Hus in college so I had to clarify.

 

[Vrylakas]

theDirk wrote:

Technically Ziska was leader of the Taborites, a faction within the larger collection of groups refered to as the Hussites. The Hussite groups emerged in protest over the burning at the stake of Jan Hus at the western church council at Constance (among many other greivances).

Sorry, I did a major research project on Jan Hus in college so I had to clarify.

Thanks for the input; most impressed. Some Westerners do learn Eastern European history!

New question:

There have been three occasions for Polish military cemeteries in Italy. What were they?

Hints:

1. See the current Polish national anthem.
2. Well, we were kicked out anyway, so we thought we'd help you do what we wanted to do ourselves...
3. What? With Indians?

 

[pawpaw]

o.k. here we go, #1 refers to general jan dabrowski and the polish legions that joined napolean in 1795 to fight austria and gain napoleans support for a free poland. #2 a ploish legion formed in italy to fight the austrians after the fail uprising in 1848, the legion fought in 1849 in the uprising against austria. # 3 polish troops with the allied forces in italy, 1944 fought at the battle of monte cassino.

 

[Vrylakas]

Pawpaw wrote:

o.k. here we go, #1 refers to general jan dabrowski and the polish legions that joined napolean in 1795 to fight austria and gain napoleans support for a free poland. #2 a ploish legion formed in italy to fight the austrians after the fail uprising in 1848, the legion fought in 1849 in the uprising against austria. # 3 polish troops with the allied forces in italy, 1944 fought at the battle of monte cassino.

[stunned silence, Vrylakas' jaw wide open]

Yes! Excellent! Right on!

Next:

Why did Alexander Stamboliskii lose his head?

 

[pawpaw]

he was prime minister in post ww 1 bulgaria and was killed in a coup

 

[Vrylakas]

Pawpaw wrote:

he was prime minister in post ww 1 bulgaria and was killed in a coup

Right! Pawpaw, you're cleaning up. I'm going to have to go hard-nosed now...

Next:

What's a Honvédség and when did it first come into use?

 

[Hitro]

A Honvédség? I always thought the Honvedseg was the Hungarian army? I've heard the term both connected to the Revolution of 1848/49 (for the quiz I say that's it's first "use") and of course the football club Honved Budapest.

 

[pawpaw]

the honvedseg is the hungarian army, . i have found it mentioned in the 1848 uprising but the first offical time is by the austro-hungarian emperor when mentioning the merger of their arm forces in 1867

 

[Pangur Bán]

Question to Porphyrogenitos and Vrylakas: are you two the same people? Your user profiles are very similar, so similar in fact, that you were both born on December 31, 1969, although one is admittedly in Palermo/ Japan while the other is in New Jersey!

If not, then that is seriously weird. Or maybe I'm simply missing your common liking for Withnail and I

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by calgacus
Question to Porphyrogenitos and Vrylakas: are you two the same people? Your user profiles are very similar, so similar in fact, that you were both born on December 31, 1969, although one is admittedly in Palermo/ Japan while the other is in New Jersey!

If not, then that is seriously weird. Or maybe I'm simply missing your common liking for Withnail and I

No, they're not; not unless one can zip fr the US to Japan in a split second.

Regarding the birthdays, I think anyone who registered their birthdays as before 1970 will get this. Something to do with the forum s/w problem as I understand it...

 

[Pangur Bán]

Just checked it. You seem to be correct

I guess that means lots of Happy Birthday threads will be opened on December 31st

 

[Vrylakas]

Hitro wrote:

A Honvédség? I always thought the Honvedseg was the Hungarian army? I've heard the term both connected to the Revolution of 1848/49 (for the quiz I say that's it's first "use") and of course the football club Honved Budapest.

Pawpaw wrote:

the honvedseg is the hungarian army, . i have found it mentioned in the 1848 uprising but the first offical time is by the austro-hungarian emperor when mentioning the merger of their arm forces in 1867.

Yes - the Honvédség was the 19th century Hungarian army (literally "Home Defense Force"), first created in the 1848-49 Revolution but based on a concept from the anti-Habsburg revoly in 1701-11. Good job guys!

Calgacus wrote:

Question to Porphyrogenitos and Vrylakas: are you two the same people? Your user profiles are very similar, so similar in fact, that you were both born on December 31, 1969, although one is admittedly in Palermo/ Japan while the other is in New Jersey!

If not, then that is seriously weird. Or maybe I'm simply missing your common liking for Withnail and I.

OMG! A döppelganger!

Actually, my birthday is on 01. December. Also, while I took my wife to a hibachi grill for her birthday a few months ago, I definitely prefer Chinese or Thai to Japanese food.

Question: What connection existed between Józef Pilsudski and Japan?

 

[pawpaw]

pilsudski was a polish radical who on the outbreak of the russo-japanese war of 1905 went to japan to talk about a polish legion coming to aid japan against the russians.