Q 01/05

Mikhail Gorbachev holds what place in Soviet history?

A) Its first elected premier

B) Its last leader

C) Its longest-serving leader

D) Its only non-Russian leader

Answer · why

B) Its last leader

Its last leader. He took over in 1985 meaning to reform the Soviet system, not to end it; six years later he resigned as president of a country that h...

Q 02/05

Which Western leader, after meeting Gorbachev in 1984, declared that they could 'do business together'?

A) Ronald Reagan

B) François Mitterrand

C) Margaret Thatcher

D) Pierre Trudeau

Answer · why

C) Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher, the fierce anti-communist a Soviet journalist had dubbed the Iron Lady, told the BBC 'I like Mr Gorbachev' three months before he t...

Q 03/05

As a teenager Gorbachev spent his summers operating what on a collective farm?

A) An irrigation pump

B) A combine harvester

C) A mechanical milking parlour

D) A grain elevator

Answer · why

B) A combine harvester

A combine harvester. He worked the harvests beside his father and, still a teenager, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for it, which p...

Q 04/05

What did Gorbachev study at Moscow State University, graduating in 1955?

A) Economics

B) Law

C) Engineering

D) History

Answer · why

B) Law

Law. A close friend on the course was a Czech student, Zdeněk Mlynář, who went on to be one of the brains behind the 1968 Prague Spring, the reform mo...

Q 05/05

Gorbachev married Raisa Titarenko in 1953, months after which Soviet leader's death?

A) Lenin

B) Brezhnev

C) Khrushchev

D) Stalin

Answer · why

D) Stalin

Stalin. Both of Gorbachev's grandfathers had been arrested in the 1930s, yet he joined the crowds that queued to see the dictator lying in state.