AFJROTC // Chapter 4: Russia and the Former Soviet Republics Exam

What South American trading bloc is known as the "Common Market of the South"?

Mercosur

What program was established to address the "loose nukes" problem?

Cooperative Threat Reduction Program

What branch of Islam do most Muslims follow?

Sunni

Under what agreement did the United States send vast amounts of aid and war materiel to the Soviet Union?

Lend-lease Act

What was one of the events that brought the Soviet Union and the United States as close as they ever came to a "hot war" during the Cold War?

1973 Arab-Israeli War

What American action led to an Arab oil embargo in 1973?

American support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War

What was the first international manned spaceflight?

Apollo-Soyuz

What British enterprise was privatized, leading to one of the largest share offerings in history?

British Telecom

What document's ideas were formalized by the US, the Soviet Union, Britain, and China in January 1942?

Atlantic Charter

On what basis were some Western companies able to do business in the Soviet Union before 1987?

Barter as payment

What did the space shuttle Atlantis accomplish during mission STS-71?

Became the first US space shuttle to dock with Mir

What German city was supplied wholly by air by the Western Allies for nearly a year?

Berlin

What radical group did Vladimir I. Lenin lead?

Bolsheviks

How did Kievan Rus Princes Vladimir and Yaroslav increase their power?

By marrying off their female relatives to European kings

What religion did Prince Vladimir make Russia's state religion in AD 988?

Byzantine Christian

What model did the Soviets stick with even though it didn't fit with the modern world?

Central planning

What country agreed to provide the troops for North Korea's invasion of South Korea?

China

What did Muscovite Prince Ivan I do to boost his power and give him an edge over his rivals?

Collected tribute money for the Mongol overlords

What country fought as a proxy for the Soviet Union against US-aided forces in Angola and Mozambique?

Cuba

What type of government did the Provisional Government want to bring to Russia?

Democracy

What was the general economic state of the Soviet Union in the period after World War II?

Economic growth rates outpaced the United States

Why do energy resources represent a vulnerability for Russia?

Energy prices rise and fall in fairly wide swings

Which of the following countries is a Baltic state?

Estonia

How is the Russo-Japanese War remembered?

First major military defeat of European power at Asian hands

What country invaded Russia in 1812 but was eventually defeated?

France

What country's western border lies along the Black Sea?

Georgia

Which country is NOT a permanent member of the UN Security Council?

Germany

What initiative addresses some of the same problems as the Nunn-Lugar program, but is a global effort with Russian partnership?

Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism

How did President Roosevelt feel about the Soviet Union's founding role in the UN?

He wanted it that way

What is an example of a question NASA and Russian scientists hoped to answer through experiments in space in the 1990s?

How plants and animals, including humans, function in space

What do many observers worry might happen to disrupt world oil supplies, including those of the United States?

Israel might mount a military attack to try to halt Iran's nuclear program

Where did most Muslims live in the Soviet Union?

In the Central Asian countries

What country, which has always been a democracy, introduced significant free-market reforms in 1991?

India

What was the first arms-control treaty that actually called for the destruction of existing weapons?

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

What country has been the target of a number of resolutions demanding that it follow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines?

Iran

What does Russia need South Korean support for?

Its bid to join the World Trade Organization

What is the westernmost point of Russia?

Kaliningrad

What country shares its northern border with Russia?

Kazakhstan

What inheritance issue led to the czar holding more and more power and the people less and less?

Lack of primogeniture kept noblemen from accumulating property

What soured many Russians soon after Russia marched into World War 1 in August 1914?

Military reversals and government incompetence

What moves by Nikita Khrushchev alarmed the Chinese?

Moves toward de-Stalinization

What was the US-Soviet alliance during World War II born out of?

Neccissty

What organization's establishment helped lead to the founding of the Warsaw Pact?

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

What country is Russia currently working with the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea to bring into the family of nations?

North Korea

What might Russia's decrease in oil production in 2009 mean?

Only a few countries can still increase oil production

In what area does Vladimir Putin get high marks?

Overall economic politics

What is expected to be up and running between Russia and China in 2010?

Pipeline to carry Russian oil to China

What did Khrushchev's tenure bring about in Soviet life?

Relative liberalization

What was the reaction of Europeans to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) between Gorbachev and Reagan?

Relief that these missiles were eliminated

What was part of the system that Stalin created?

Repression and terror

What territory is still disputed by the Russians and Japanese?

Southern Kurils

What country's envoys boycotted UN functions in 1950 following the Chinese revolution?

Russia

What is the world's second largest crude oil produce and exporter?

Russia

Why did Russia have the largest Jewish population in the world at the end of the 18th century?

Russia absorbed much of Poland and its Jewish population

What worries some experts about the International Space Station (ISS)?

Russia could try to use it as a bargaining chip

What caused a clash between Stalin and Roosevelt and Churchill during their February 1945 meeting?

Stalin's plan to extend Soviet influence to Poland

What did China's leaders feel was the best approach to foreign policy as the People's Republic of China was getting established?

Stand with other communist countries

From what country would Peter the Great have said he took back the land St. Petersburg was built on?

Sweden

What country did Peter the Great make war on to to get a Russian port on the Baltic?

Sweden

What was the result of farm collectivization under Joseph V. Stalin?

Tens of millions of peasants starved to death

What was a factor in the serious economic crisis of 1998 in Russia?

The government borrowed too much money to pay for its budget deficit

What was the result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk for the Soviet Union?

They gave away an enormous part of the Russian Empire

What strategy do the permanent members of the UN Security Council use to avoid vetoes of resolutions since the end of the Cold War?

They try to work out differences in advance

How did the government troops respond to the 1917 riots and strikes in Petrograd?

They turned their guns over to the angry crowds

What is the primary purpose of the International Space Station (ISS)?

To carry out research projects

Why did President Kennedy open talks with Soviet Nikita Khrushchev in 1962?

To discuss teaming up in space

What is one of the promises made by the signers of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism?

To not let terrorists use their countries as bases

What country is considered "the breadbasket of the Soviet Union?"

Ukraine

What is one of the countries that gave up its nuclear weapons when the Soviet Union dissolved?

Ukraine

What happened when Hungary took down the barriers along the border with Austria in 1989?

Vacationing East Germans poured into Austria

What is one of the five "influential authoritarian states" that Freedom House said are "actively undermining democracy within their borders and abroad?"

Venezuela

What right did the Soviet Union insist upon for the UN Security Council?

Veto right for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council

What benefit did the Soviets receive from their Western allies during World War II?

Weapons and equipment

What has Russia already done that demonstrates their use of oil and gas as geopolitical leverage?

Withheld supplies to force prices up in Europe

What have most countries signed on to as an effort to lower trade barriers, such as taxes, globally?

World Trade Organization