After failing to identify Barents Sea as an answer it was time for a run through the lengthy Russian questions. Some nasty stuff in here, particularly the prehistory questions that need some fleshing out. A few non-Russian Olympic questions as well, but I was following a thread, so see those killers as a bonus!
Questions
Regarded as the greatest freestyle wrestler of all time, who won 3 non-consecutive golds for Russia between 1996 and 2008? He later became a State Duma deputy for Dagestan.
BUVAISAR SAITIEV
Which Soviet athlete won 3 triple jump golds from 1968 to 1976? Born in Georgia, he could only manage a silver in Moscow.
VIKTOR SANEYEV
Which Dutch lady won 3 dressage golds from 1996 to 2008? She is the only athlete to compete at every edition of the World Equestrian Games and has been linked to the controversial training method ‘rollkur’.
ANKY VAN GRUNSVEN
Which Finnish rower won 3 single sculls golds from 1976 to 1984? He had a great rivalry with German sculler Peter-Michael Kolbe who despite winning more sculling medals than everyone else at major championships, never brought home an Olympic gold.
PERTTI KARPPINEN
Which Georgian athlete won 3 weightlifting golds from 1992 to 2000? He first won representing the Unified Team, with the latter two coming for Greece.
KAKHI KAKHIASHVILI
Which Turkish athlete won 3 weightlifting golds from 1996 to 2004? Nicknamed ‘Dynamo’, he was later banned for steroid use.
HALIL MUTLU
Which Japanese martial artist won 3 Judo golds from 1996 to 2004? He is the only judoka to have won three judo golds in a row.
TADAHIRO NOMURA
Also home to the Theotokos, one of the most celebrated Orthodox Christian items, which town 200km east of St. Petersburg in Leningrad oblast was Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov born in?
TIKHVIN
Dedicated to the memories of Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin, what is the name of Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous overture that is considered to be the last of his great orchestral works?
RUSSIAN EASTER FESTIVAL / GREAT RUSSIAN EASTER OVERTURE
Named for a legendary hero of a bylina, what is the name of both a tone poem and opera by Rimsky-Korsakov? This character caught a gold-finned fish that made him rich, but after failing to pay due respect to the Tsar, his ships were stopped and he sacrificed himself to the sea after drawing lots went badly for him.
SADKO
Which symphonic suite by Rimsky-Korsakov is based on a title character who is an enemy of mankind and becomes a recluse in the desert, during which time he saves a gazelle from a large bird?
ANTAR
With the title coming from a word meaning ‘bride’, in which Rimsky-Korsakov tale about ancient Slavs does Cleopatra make an appearance?
MLADA
Based on an 1855 play by Lev Mei, which Rimsky-Korsakov opera was set during the reign of Nero? The sudden reappearance of her lover Valerius leads to the death of the title character who had renounced the world.
SERVILIA
What five letter acronym gives its name to a permanent general purpose trade show and amusement park in Moscow? Its English translation is ‘Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy’.
VDNKH
Named for a town in Tver oblast, which World War II battles, where the Russians suffered massive casualities, are known as the ‘Meat Grinder’?
RZHEV
What is a Russian oral form of narrative, used by Andrei Bely? Derived from the Russian for ‘to tell’, it was applied to Gogol’s “The Overcoat”.
SKAZ
Which Tsarist actor is featured in the Kuleshov effect? There is a popular myth that he was signed by Hollywood as a replacement for Rudolph Valentino following that actor’s early demise, but he never managed to replace him as star-billing material.
IVAN MOSJOUKINE
Who directed the 1927 silent film “The End of St. Petersburg”? Other films by him include “The Mother” and “Chess Fever”.
VSEVOLOD PUDOVKIN
Which Russian general was shot in the head twice fighting the Turks in the 18th century and still somehow survived? He was an elderly character in “War and Peace”, had an order named for him second only to the Order of Zhukov and has a statue in St. Petersburg.
MIKHAIL KUTUZOV
What double-barreled branch of psychology is associated with Lev Vygotsky? Alexander Luria was another name highly associated with this ‘circle’. Vygotsky referred to the ‘new man’ of Communist society as ‘superman’.
CULTURAL-HISTORICAL
What is the name of the first grid-connected nuclear power plant in the world, situated in Kaluga oblast south-west of Moscow? Its flag depicts an atomic model.
OBNINSK
Which Soviet nuclear physicist discovered spontaneous fission and directed a letter to Joseph Stalin to start the Soviet atomic bomb project?
GEORGY FLYOROV (FLEROV, as in 114 flerovium)
What is the name of the main football club from Samara? They returned to the top flight in 20-21 and finished third in 2004. In one of their two forays into Europe they were embarrassingly dumped out by St. Patrick’s.
KRYLIA SOVETOV
Who has been serving an the Russian Prime Minister since 2020? Succeeding Dmitry Medvedev, he previously served as director of the Federal Taxation Service for ten years, so must be a right barrel of laughs!
MIKHAIL MISHUSTIN
Also the year when Francis I died and Catherine Parr secretly married Thomas Seymour, in which year was the Tsardom of Russia founded?
1547
Also the year when the “Brandenburg concertos” were completed and Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, in which year was the Russian Empire founded?
1721
Meaning ‘jagged mount’, what is the second highest mountain in Russia, as well as Europe?
DYKH-TAU
Named for a Circassian speaking people and a Turkic speaking people, which double-barreled oblast has Nalchik as its capital and is home to both Elbrus and Dykh-Tau?
KABARDINO-BALKARIA
Its name meaning a social estate of poor town residents and today used pejoratively for a narrow-minded phillistine, in which district of Moscow can you find the FSB’s Lubyanka building?
MESCHANSKY
“Come and See” is considered to be one of the best films of all time. Which Russian directed it, who was married to fellow director Larisa Shepitko, the second female to win the Golden Bear for her film “The Ascent”?
ELEM KLIMOV
The Tunguska event occurred in which Krai, the third largest subnational governing body in the world after Sakha and Western Australia?
KRASNOYARSK KRAI
Which Russian national hero and martyr of the Time of Troubles is the basis of Mikhail Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar”?
IVAN SUSANIN
The Tunguska event is mentioned in “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”, a novel by whom, with sequels in the series indluding “Hollow City” and “Library of Souls”?
RANSOM RIGGS
About 2 million years ago representatives of Homo Erectus migrated to which peninsula, which lies between the Sea of Azov to the north, the Strait of Kerch to the west and the Black Sea to the south?
TAMAN
Russia was home to some of the last surviving neanderthals about 45,000 years ago, discovered in which cave situated in the North Caucasus Republic of Adygea?
MEZMAISKAYA CAVE
Named for two villages, which double-barreled archaeological complex is found in Voronezh oblast, known for its high concentration of remains of anatomically modern humans?
KOSTYONKI-BORSHCHYOVO
Known for its well-preserved burial sites, which archaeological site in Vladimir oblast is one of the earliest records of modern Homo sapiens in Europe?
SUNGIR
Which Paleolithic site in Komi Republic is particularly known for its mammoth tusk, giving rise to the name of the site?
MAMONTOVAYA KURYA
Which double-barreled steppe stretches from the Northern shore of the Black Sea to the northern area around the Caspian Sea? Nomadic pastoralism developed here in the Chalcolithic and in classical antiquity it was known as Scythia.
PONTIC-CASPIAN STEPPE
Which type site in Chelyabinsk oblast is named for a tributary of the Tobol with the site characterised as a ‘fortified metallurgical industrial center’? The site of Arkaim also belongs to this culture.
SINTASHTA
Included in the Golden Mountains of the Altai world heritage site, which culture is notable for its Scythian-type kurgan tombs?
PAZYRYK
Providing the name for two tablets that are seen as important for information on early Croatian history, which ancient Greek city lay in the Maeotian marshes, this area now being known as the Don river delta and found in Rostov Oblast?
TANAIS
Taking its name from a colonist who was among those who left the Peloponnese during the Persian Wars, which emporium was the largest Greek city on the Taman peninsula and once capital of Old Great Bulgaria?
PHANAGORIA
Jordanes’ “Getica” tells of how a legendary king called Filimer expelled the haliurunnas from which Gothic territory in Scythia that had a name indicating its place amidst the ‘water’? These haliurunnas were witches that supposedly gave birth to the Huns who later ran riot in the region.
OIUM
The longest serving Roman client Kingdom, which Greco-Scythian state in Crimea and the Taman peninsula existed from around 438 BC to 527 AD?
BOSPURAN KINGDOM
How was the Strait of Kerch known in Hellenistic times?
CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS
Which Khaganate was made up of semi-nomadic Turkic people and lasted from about 650 to 969, dominating the area between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea?
KHAZAR KHAGANATE
Which historical city in Belarus was a key site in the East Slavic migration and is known for being the exact geographic centre of the European continent?
POLOTSK
Assassinated in the brief New Spain capital of Coyoacan, now a suburb of Mexico City, and born within the borders of modern Ukraine, what was Leon Trotsky’s birth name?
LEV BRONSTEIN
An active revolutionary who remained in Mexico after her husband was assassinated, what was the birth name of Leon Trotsky’s second wife? They married in 1903 after he had divorced Aleksandra Sokolovskaya.
NATALIA SEDOVA
What revolutionary socialist organisation consists of Trotskyists, whose declared goal is overthrowing global capitalism and establishing world socialism through an international revolution?
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
The “Rus’ Primary Chronicle”, along with very similar names, is also known as what ‘Tale’, this coming from its opening sentence?
TALE OF BYGONE YEARS
Who had Kiev been paying tribute to when Rurik’s successor Oleg conquered it in 882?
KHAZARS
Which short-lived son of Igor the Old is famous for his persistent campaigns which led to the collapse of Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire? He was ambushed and slain by the Pechenegs, who made his skull into a chalice.
SVIATOSLAV
What was the first East Slavic written code called?
RUSSKAYA PRAVDA
Traditionally perceived as a cradle of the Great Russian language, which double-barrelled state was one of the successors to Kievan Rus’, gradually evolving into the Grand Duchy of Moscow?
VLADIMIR-SUZDAL
Which event of 1240 that resulted in a Mongol victory was a heavy morale and military blow to Halych-Volhynia and allowed Batu Khan to proceed westward into Europe?
SIEGE OF KIEV
Part of a war that pitted the Novgorod Republic against the the Kingdom of Sweden, at which 1240 battle did Alexander Nevsky repel a force that included Finns and Norwegians in its ranks?
BATTLE OF THE NEVA
Dying in a 1990 car crash, who was the charismatic lead singer of Soviet post-punk band Kino?
VIKTOR TSOI
Derbent sits at the narrow gateway between the Eurasian steppe to the north, Caucasus to the west and the Caspian Sea to the east? Which plateau lies to the south.
IRANIAN
What does the name Derbent loosely translate as from the Persian?
DOOR/GATE/OPENING IN A BARRIER/DAM
The Khanate of Kazan occupied the territory of which former state which includes the name of a modern day country? This state initially had Tengrism as its religion before converting to Sunni Islam.
VOLGA BULGARIA
The Khanate of Kazan’s territory included that of what two-word modern day republic that has its capital at Yoshkar-Ola.
MARI EL
The Khanate of Kazan’s territory included which modern day republic with a name that refers to a Turkic people? Having its capital at Cheboksary, its flag is a stylised red tree of life on a yellow background.
CHUVASHIA
The Khanate of Kazan’s territory included that of what modern day republic that has its capital at Saransk, one of the host cities for the 2018 World Cup?
MORDOVIA
The Khanate of Kazan’s territory included that of what modern day republic with a name that means ‘meadow people’? Its capital Izhevsk is the birthplace of Olympic figure skating champion Alina Zagitova.
UDMURTIA
The Khanate of Kazan’s territory included that of what modern day republic that has its capital at Ufa, that place having a football team where Ukrainian midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko played before his move to Manchester City?
BASHKORTOSTAN / BASHKIRIA
Along with the Old Tatar language, what other language was official in the Khanate of Kazan, being the lingua franca and of use in court as well as literature? This language is seen as the predecessor of modern Uzbek with it still being studied in that country as part of its national heritage.
CHAGATAI
The World heritage monastery known as Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius can be found in which Russian town that lies 70km north-east of Moscow?
SERGIYEV POSAD
St. Sergius, who blessed Dmitry Donskoy prior to the 1380 Battle of Kulikovo, was known as St. Sergius of which historic village in Moscow oblast located about 15km from Sergiyev Posad?
RADONEZH
Which principality that was annexed by Moscow in 1485 gives its name to an oblast that was known as Kalinin oblast from 1935 to 1990 after Mikhail Kalinin, a Soviet revolutionary?
TVER
Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, niece of what final Byzantine emperor? Ivan made the double-headed eagle his own, claiming succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman empire.
CONSTANTINE XI
Which Grand Prince of Moscow is mockingly referred to as ‘The adequate’ due to his rule being rather uneventful in comparison to his predecessor Ivan the Great, and successor Ivan the Terrible?
VASILI III
Including among its cast singer Vladimir Vysotaky who died at the age of 42, which 1968 Yevgeny Karelov film is about the Russian civil war, in particular the Crimean peninsula?
TWO COMRADES WERE SERVING
What two-word term is a theological and political concept asserting that Moscow is the successor of the Roman empire? Ivan IV was crowned Tsar under these ideas.
THIRD ROME
Meaning ‘assembly of the land’, what was a parliament active during the 16th and 17th centuries? It represents Russia’s feudal classes and could be summoned by the Tsar.
ZEMSKY SOBOR
What was a code of law introduced by Ivan III in 1497 and revised by Ivan IV in 1550?
SUDEBNIK
Along with Kazan, which Khanate around the mouth of the Volga river was annexed by Ivan IV, contributing to him vastly increasing Russian territory?
ASTRAKHAN
Along with Kazan and Astrakhan, which Khanate in southwestern Siberia did Ivan IV acquire, contributing to him vastly increasing Russian territory?
SIBIR (OR TURAN)
In which battle of 1572 was a Crimean force led by Devlet I Giray thoroughly defeated by Ivan IV, gaining revenge for the burning of Moscow the previous year?
MOLODI
Which merchant from Nizhny Novgorod became a national hero for his role in defending the country against the Polish invasion in the early 17th century?
KUZMA MININ
Which prince who formed the Second Volunteer Army with Kuzma Minin received the unprecedented title ‘Saviour of the Fatherland’, becoming a Russian folk hero and honoured in a monument to them both in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral?
DMITRY POZHARSKY
Which Ukrainian Hetman led an uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that led to an independent Ukrainian Cossack state? He is remembered for putting Ukraine under Russian control and the murder of tens of thousands of Jews.
BOHDAN KHMELNYTSKY
Who was Tsar from 1645 to 1676 when Ukraine came under Russian control?
ALEXIS
Russia’s war with which country ran from 1654 to 1667, also being called the Thirteen Years’ War and First Northern War?
POLAND
What three-word term is given to the main ways of communication in Russian Siberia before the 1730s when roads began to be built?
SIBERIAN RIVER ROUTES
Which Russian explorer of Siberia was the first European to sail through the Bering strait, 80 years prior to the man who has all the credit?
SEMYON DEZHNEV
Dissolved in 1991, what initialism was the successor to the NKVD in 1946?
MVD
With the ‘N’ standing for ‘Narodnyy’, what does the K stand for in NKVD?
KOMMISSARIAT
What does the V stand for in NKVD?
VNUTRENNIKH
What does the D stand for in NKVD?
DEL
Succeeded as first director of the NKVD from 1934 to 1936 by the Vanishing Commissar Nikolai Yezhov, who later became a victim of the Great Purge himself in the Trial of Twenty-One, the last of the major Soviet show trials of the 1930s?
GENRIKH YAGODA
Following on from Lavrentiy Beria, who became the final director of the NKVD in 1945, continuing in its successor the MVD until 1956? He died in mysterious circumstances in 1977, with accidentally being hit by a train one possibility.
SERGEI KRUGLOV
The World Heritage listed city of Yaroslavl is at the confluence of the Volga and which other river, that flows 132 km from Lake Nero near Rostov?
KOTOROSI
What is the name of the football club from Yaroslavl who have not been in the top flight since 2008, but did have two seasons where they played in the Intertoto Cup being knocked out by Valencia and União de Leiria?
FC SHIHNIK (YAROSLAVL)
During Vladimir Lenin’s final illness, Leon Trotsky’s brother-in-law Lev Kamenev formed a troika with Joseph Stalin and which other figure, with both figures falling out with Stalin and being executed in 1936?
GRIGORY ZINOVIEV (Yes, him of the ‘letter’!)
Remaining unsolved, the assassination of which Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary led to the first Great Purge?
SERGEI KIROV
Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev were executed following which 1936 show trials, that occurred during the first Great Purge following Sergei Kirov’s assassination?
TRIAL OF THE SIXTEEN (Followed by 17 and 21)
Following the attempted assassination of Vladimir Lenin, Fanny Kaplan was executed by which secret police that existed from 1917 to 1922 and did much of their work at the bidding of her target?
CHEKA
The city of Murmansk sits on both shores of which estuarine inlet of the Barents Sea that can be considered as a modest fjord?
KOLA BAY
Coming from Galician, which short term is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea, being characterised by a dendritic, treelike outline with Kola Bay being one possible example? It can easily be confused with a fjord.
RIA
Lappish, Eastern Sámi and Kola Sámi are alternate terms for which Sámi language that is spoken on the Kola Peninsula?
KILDIN SÁMI
Murmansk benefits from which current, that extends the Gulf Stream northeastward?
NORTH ATLANTIC CURRENT
Because of the North Atlantic Current Murmansk compares favourably to which tiny port of less than 1,000 people on the Kara Sea on a headland at the mouth of the Yenisei Gulf, named for a Swedish Arctic pioneer?
DIKSON
Because of the North Atlantic Current Murmansk compares favourably to Iqaluit, which sits on which bay, an inlet of the Davis Strait at the southeastern corner of Baffin Island?
FROBISHER BAY
What is the second largest city in the Arctic Circle, situated in Krasniyarsk Krai and further north than Murmansk? It and Yakutsk are the only large cities in the continuous permafrost zone.
NORILSK
Discovered in 1988 and named for a Soviet geophysicist of German descent, which gas field in the Barents Sea north of the Kola Peninsula is the largest to have never had any of its resources tapped, with the latest proposed development being closed down in 2019?
SHTOKMAN FIELD
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