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USSR True or False

Can you guess whether these statements about the Soviet Union are true or false?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: May 30, 2024
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First submittedMay 30, 2024
Times taken15,864
Average score80.0%
Rating4.51
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1. The flag of the USSR was mostly red
True
False
2. The USSR invaded Afghanistan
True
False
3. The Soviets had a military base on the North Pole
True
False
4. The USSR was the first country to send a satellite into orbit around the Earth
True
False
5. The USSR landed a man on the moon about 4 years after the U.S. did
True
False
To date, the U.S. is the only country to land a person on the moon
6. The USSR had a higher population than the United States in 1989
True
False
7. Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union
True
False
8. From 1925–1961, the city of Moscow was known as Stalingrad
True
False
Stalingrad was the former name of what is today Volgograd
9. Tetris was invented in the Soviet Union
True
False
10. About 30% of Politburo members were female
True
False
Only four women ever served on the Poltiburo
11. The USSR signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany
True
False
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed in August 1939. The next month, both countries invaded Poland.
12. Money was banned in the Soviet Union
True
False
Workers were paid in Soviet rubles, although there were limits on what you could buy
13. The Soviet Union moved nuclear missiles to Cuba in 1962, but removed them shortly after
True
False
This was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis
14. On his death bed, Lenin named Stalin as his successor
True
False
Stalin took power after a multi-year power struggle
15. The Warsaw Pact included China, North Korea, and (after 1975) Vietnam
True
False
The Warsaw Pact included only the Sovet Union and seven European countries
37 Comments
+21
Level 78
May 30, 2024
Wow. The population one surprised me. I can’t believe I didn’t know that.
+20
Level 71
May 30, 2024
For anyone wondering, according to Wikipedia, the USSR had a population of 287 million in 1989 while the United States only had 250 million.
+7
Level 75
May 30, 2024
Thanks saved me googling those
+2
Level 79
Jun 9, 2024
This would be super easy to pop under the question when the quiz ends and would be especially helpful because it's a tricky question.
+5
Level 85
May 30, 2024
That surprised me too! I looked it up - in 1989, USA pop. was 246.8 million, while the USSR pop. was 286.7 million. Of the Soviet Union's 286.7 million, Russia made up 51.4% of the total, with the remainder living in the other republics.
+12
Level 79
May 31, 2024
I completely underestimated how many people lived in the non-Russia parts of the USSR, so I got that question wrong.
+5
Level 68
May 31, 2024
historically it’s been about half-half.
+2
Level 62
Jun 7, 2024
I genuinely thought it was closer to 80-20. Learn something new every day.
+7
Level 70
May 30, 2024
The only one I got wrong was the missile one. I was convinced the missiles never made it to the island.
+2
Level 84
Jun 7, 2024
Quite. I thought that the missile carrying ships were turned back at sea. The USSR certainly intended to deliver nuclear missiles to Cuba,
+1
Level 45
Jun 7, 2024
Maybe it's the missiles being on the island but not the warheads themselves
+1
Level 60
May 30, 2024
Who was the only female Politburo member?
+5
Level 76
May 31, 2024
Josephina Stalin
+5
Level 74
Jun 7, 2024
Actually there were three (or so says Wikipedia). The first was Elena Stasova, an original Bolshevik who somehow survived the Great Purge, although she came close to being arrested. The second was Yekaterina Furtseva, who ascended into prominence by denouncing a famous actor for mocking Soviet leaders, then became a protege of Khrushchev's during deStalinization, then lost her position for criticizing Khrushchev in a phone call that was overheard. The last was Aleksandra Biryukova, who was a Soviet functionary up until the demise of the USSR. I know, fascinating.
+1
Level 52
Jun 7, 2024
yeah, should this be corrected?
+2
Level ∞
Jun 7, 2024
The quiz has been corrected.
+3
Level 66
Jun 7, 2024
*Stalina
+1
Level 56
May 31, 2024
why is this quiz the only true-false quiz I completed 15/15
+4
Level 84
May 31, 2024
I'm shocked that, at the time of writing, over 35% of quizzers thought that as many as 30% of the Politiburo would have been women. In the USA today, congress is less than 30% women (although it's close).

People who thought so, please respond: why would you think this could be true?

+14
Level 83
Jun 1, 2024
The USSR was often seen as a more gender-egalitarian country than the USA. Women certainly made up a much higher percentage of the workforce as a whole. (This for various reasons; a good part of it being that the male population was decimated in WW2 and the government needed to find some way to pick up the slack. But either way...)

It's certainly not remotely inconceivable that the soviets would have had (far) more women in government than the USA does today. In fact I would be surprised if that wasn't the case.

As it turns out, that didn't extend to the higher echelons of power. Which is maybe not so surprising. But I also wouldn't have been surprised to learn that it did.

+1
Level 68
Jun 7, 2024
I had the same thought process.
+5
Level 78
Jun 7, 2024
The USSR also did some big shows of gender equality, like sending a woman into space around 20 years before the US did so.
+1
Level 60
Jun 7, 2024
lol I had just never heard of the Politiburo and assumed it was an ethnic group or something
+2
Level 68
Jun 7, 2024
Misconceptions are common. What percentage of the world is Jewish?
+2
Level 78
Jun 8, 2024
Rwanda's parliament is currently majority female. Western countries aren't always ahead of everyone else on this sort of thing.
+3
Level 67
Jun 10, 2024
Yeah, the US seems to be behind many countries in this regard. Pakistan, India, and the Philippines all had female leaders in the 80s or earlier. Mexico's just-completed election was between two women (and the winner was Jewish, which to me seems inconceivable in the US). We've had 44 white Christian men and one half-Black Christian man. Not exactly leading the charge here.
+3
Level 85
Jun 7, 2024
14/15...so close! Forgot that the Soviet military base wasn't at the North Pole, but in Bielefeld.
+2
Level 67
Jun 7, 2024
As if someone would believe you, Bielefeld never existed.
+1
Level 68
Jun 7, 2024
Did the USSR maintain outposts on arctic ice sheets? I thought I'd read stories of seasonally or temporarily supplied stations for radio operations, or something like that. But I can see how that is neither qualifies as a "base" nor "the North Pole"

-Maybe not. Seems like ice camps may not last more than days/weeks, there's some stories about US/UK Ice Camps, including one near Alaska Ice Camp Nautilus from ICEX-2014.

+1
Level 66
Jun 7, 2024
By reflex I read "higher population density".

Normally the word "larger" is used when talking about population size.

+1
Level 76
Jun 7, 2024
"Only one woman ever served on the Poltiburo"

but on Wikipedia I read "Only four women ever served in the Politburo; Elena Stasova, Yekaterina Furtseva, Alexandra Biryukova and Galina Semenova."

+2
Level ∞
Jun 7, 2024
Not sure how I messed that up. Fixed.
+1
Level 60
Jun 7, 2024
Technically the bolsheviks banned money in 1919 but quickly reverted due to hyperinflation and potential collapse of the economy.
+1
Level 54
Jun 9, 2024
25% got the moon question wrong?? absurd
+1
Level 84
Jun 11, 2024
In JetPunk, you answer the quiz.

In Soviet Russia, the quiz answers you!!!

+1
Level 69
Jun 11, 2024
13/15, the money question tricked me, also missed the population one
+1
Level 12
Jun 25, 2024
i didnt knew that tetris is form USSR