Q 01/05

Moscow stands on the banks of which river?

A) The Moskva

B) The Volga

C) The Neva

D) The Don

Answer · why

A) The Moskva

The Moskva joins the Oka, which in turn feeds the Volga, so water from Moscow's river does reach Russia's most famous one, far downstream.

Q 02/05

Which prince hosted an ally at Moscow in 1147, the city's first recorded mention?

A) Alexander Nevsky

B) Yuri Dolgorukiy

C) Ivan Kalita

D) Dmitry Donskoy

Answer · why

B) Yuri Dolgorukiy

Yuri Dolgorukiy's meeting is simply the first time Moscow is named, yet 1147 became the city's traditional founding date and Yuri its founder.

Q 03/05

What is a resident of Moscow called in English?

A) Moscowite

B) Moskvan

C) Muscovite

D) Moscower

Answer · why

C) Muscovite

Muscovite comes from Muscovy, the old Western name for the Moscow state; the mica called muscovite was 'Muscovy glass', once used there for window pan...

Q 04/05

In Moscow in 1547, the 16-year-old Ivan the Terrible became the first Russian ruler crowned with which title?

A) Emperor

B) Grand Prince

C) Khan

D) Tsar

Answer · why

D) Tsar

Tsar is the Slavic form of Caesar, the Roman emperors' title; until then, Moscow's rulers had been crowned only as grand princes.

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

Peter the Great made St Petersburg his capital while Sweden still claimed the ground it stood on; the war for that coast did not end until 1721.