Q 01/05

In which country of the Russian Empire was Stalin born?

A) Armenia

B) Russia proper

C) Ukraine

D) Georgia

Answer · why

D) Georgia

He grew up speaking Georgian and did not start learning Russian until he was eight or nine; he kept the accent all his life.

Q 02/05

What was Stalin's birth surname?

A) Mikoyan

B) Jughashvili

C) Beria

D) Ordzhonikidze

Answer · why

B) Jughashvili

Jughashvili, Russified as Dzhugashvili, was his name at birth in Gori in December 1878, though he later gave his birth date as 21 December 1879.

Q 03/05

What was the trade of Stalin's father, Besarion?

A) Carpenter

B) Shoemaker

C) Wine merchant

D) Blacksmith

Answer · why

B) Shoemaker

Shoemaker Besarion's workshop in Gori slid into ruin, and he became a violent drunk who beat both his wife and his son.

Q 04/05

The 1932–33 famine known as the Holodomor struck which Soviet republic?

A) Belarus

B) Ukraine

C) Uzbekistan

D) Azerbaijan

Answer · why

B) Ukraine

Ukraine lost millions to starvation in 1932–33 under Stalin's forced collectivisation of agriculture.

Q 05/05

What was Stalin training to become when he enrolled in Tiflis in 1894?

A) A Russian Orthodox priest

B) A provincial lawyer

C) A village schoolteacher

D) A church choir cantor

Answer · why

A) A Russian Orthodox priest

A Russian Orthodox priest was the aim, but he left the Tiflis seminary in 1899 without a degree and later claimed he had been expelled for Marxist pro...