Q 01/05

Moscow stands on the banks of which river, from which the city takes its name?

A) The Moskva

B) The Volga

C) The Neva

D) The Don

Answer · why

A) The Moskva

The name may come from an old Balto-Slavic root meaning 'wet' or 'marshy'; 49 bridges cross the river and its canals inside the city limits.

Q 02/05

Under which year is Moscow first mentioned in the chronicles, as a meeting place of Yuri Dolgorukiy?

A) 1240

B) 1147

C) 1325

D) 1480

Answer · why

B) 1147

It was then a minor border town of Rostov-Suzdal; the 800th anniversary was marked with a special medal in 1947.

Q 03/05

What is the English demonym for a resident of Moscow?

A) Moscovian

B) Moskvan

C) Muscovite

D) Mosser

Answer · why

C) Muscovite

The city is also one of twelve Soviet Hero Cities and has long carried the epithet 'the third Rome'.

Q 04/05

In which year was Ivan the Terrible crowned in Moscow as the first tsar of all Russia?

A) 1682

B) 1584

C) 1613

D) 1547

Answer · why

D) 1547

That same year fires destroyed much of the town, and in 1571 Crimean Tatars burned everything except the Kremlin.

Q 05/05

Which ruler moved the Russian capital away from Moscow to a newly built city on the Baltic in 1712?

A) Catherine the Great

B) Alexander I

C) Peter the Great

D) Nicholas I

Answer · why

C) Peter the Great

Moscow's population fell from 200,000 to 130,000 by 1750 before growing tenfold over the rest of the imperial era.