Lesson 1
Vast, level area of grassy land.
Steppe
Russian farm laborer who could be bought and sold in czarist times
Serf
One of a small group of people who control the government.
Oligarch
Conflict among ethnic groups within a state, country, or region.
Balkanization
What are summers like in Albania and Macedonia?
hot and dry
In 1861, this czar abolished serfdom.
Alexander II
Two largest cities in Western Russia.
Moscow and St. Petersburg
Soviet premier during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Nikita Khrushchev
What is the longest river in Europe and Russia's most important waterway?
Volga
What empire formed in the a.d. 800s covered much of central Europe?
Great Moravia
True or False Question
The transfer of industry to private ownership in Russia did not improve the living conditions for most Russians.
True
True or False Question
The Russian Plain stretches east from Belarus and Ukraine.
True
True or False Question
Most of Russia's vast coal, oil, and natural gas reserves are in Chechnya.
False
Soviet leader who allowed more social and political freedoms.
Mikhail Gorbachev
True or False Question
Early Slavs migrated from Southern Europe and settled in the area that now includes Ukraine and Poland.
False
A Czech writer who was famous for his plays and novels.
Karel Capek
What part of Russia is covered with ice year-round?
Novaya Zemlya
Group of revolutionaries who seized control of the Russian government in 1917.
Bolsheviks
The most diverse group of Slavs.
South Slavs
One of the most powerful Islamic empires to exist.
Ottoman Turks