Countries that Bordered the USSR

No idea if this make any sense, but would East Berlin count as USSR, creating a border with East Germany, and maybe West Germany?

Ridiculous suggestion, unless you wish to claim the French, British and American sectors of West Berlin as parts of France, Britain and the USA.

Kaliningrad is next to east germany so, not that ridiculous...

It was traditionally German, but the USSR took it for Russia and gave the surrounding area to Poland.

Kaliningrad is not next to any part of Germany, it's like 200 miles away from Germany...

Kaliningrad was part of Germany, it was Königsberg.

Almost forgot Norway due to its very tiny common border, but got it with 30 secs. to spare.

Still 10x the length of the North Korean border :)

and 1310x longer than the Zambia-Botswana border

And infinity times longer than the Namibia-Zimbabwe border.

Also infinity times more than the Japan-El Salvador border.

And probably (not that I'm sure about the Norway-Russia/USSR border) 3 hours shorter than the Botswana-Zambia border!

Norway and USSR were (and Norway and Russia are) neighbors just because USSR stole Petsamo area from Finland in WW2.

Finland shouldn't have put the swastika on all their military stuff.

Yeah, the swastika was used by Finland long before Hitler was even born, let alone when the 3rd Reich was born, That's like saying that because Communist China and the Soviet Union have (or had) stars on their flag, They are like the US or the other way around.

Wayyyyy before that, it was a Hindu symbol. Oh, why did Hitler have to bring a bad name to that...

Apparently it was bost of a broken cross or something. Nothing to do with the Buddhism thing.

It was originally the symbol for Jainism, similar to Buddhism

What a lucky bunch of countries...

The bunch that was inside was even "luckier".

Considering most were puppets, they were probably forced to feel lucky

I used to live in South Korea. They were quite happy to have had the help from the USA to maintain their independence. You think they would have been better off taken over by the Soviet-backed North? Really? You'd rather have been born in Afghanistan than in Seoul? My god you're a whacko. Iran was better off under the Shah than the Ayatollahs, too. I'm not arguing that the US is unimpeachable, but seriously, how out of touch and biased can a person get? Have you ever even been to any of these places and talked to them about how they feel about Russia and the Soviets? Your map shows you've been to Ukraine. Are your blinders that thick?

Thanks, Voda. So you're saying that Afghanistan is a nicer place to live than South Korea. Yeah you must know what you're talking about. Thanks for weighing in.

Okay well I didn't say anything about Serbia here. And though I don't recall the specific comment you are referencing, there are racist people everywhere, including Serbia. My negative opinion of Serbia has a lot to do with my negative experiences there and how I was treated, but I realize that's anecdotal evidence and not worth very much. I don't think that discredits anything I said above, or makes canadry's view any less biased or more credible.

Whenever the size of Russia impresses(or scares) you, remember that Soviet Union was 30% bigger.... :)

And the St Vincent and the Grenadines Empire was even bigger than that!

Don't forget the Tuvaluan Empire, that was 50 billion times larger than the puny British Empire!

And the Vatican beats the lot!

St Vincent and the Grenadines and Tuvalu (part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands) were part of the British Empire

Y’all can’t forget the biggest: SEALAND

JackintheBox, I don’t think many people care, as it’s this thing you would commonly call, a joke.

@ABritishCat I know. I was just stating a fact amongst a whole comment section of jokes. Another fact (again, many people wouldn't care, but a fact nevertheless) is that St Vincent and the Grenadines and Tuvalu are both Commonwealth realms, so they retain the British monarch as head of state.

How could you forget the Alien empire...

You've all forgotten about the EMPIRE OF ATLANTIUM!

what about Emperor Xenu's Galactic Empire?

That must be remarkably small.

Now, now... the Monowi Empire was the largest in history.

No, it's definitely the empire of Paul Atreides. With a death toll of 60 billion, no one has killed more than him!

What is going on?

What's going on is the Empire of Jupiter has brainwashed the inhabitants of this Solar System that there are no aliens, every once and a while you come in contact and we have to start the process over again, ever wonder why your 2 puny world wars happened? that was you being discovered by Mars and Venus respectively.

I missed czechoslovakia... Tried slovakia many times hahaha didnt remember it was WWII naming

Thank you for 5 points!

Only now did I realize those monthly "happening" quizzes don't appear every calends! :P

Technically, all of the countries that formed the USSR (except Russia) bordered it as they declared their independence before the USSR was dissolved (26.12.1991). Even if you'd like to count only countries which independence USSR has officially recognised, it would still be three more than there are now in the answers: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been recognised as independent by the Soviet government on 06.09.1991

I guess post WWII means directly after.

but wouldnt north korea and eastern germany then also be counted as USSR territory?

Kazakhstan was the last country that left the USSR, even after Russia

Then the USSR must have been a significant lot smaller.

Almost forgot North Korea.

Don't forget Ni- oh wait, I might get cancelled.

Couldn't for the life of me figure out the spelling of Czechoslovakia with only 15 secs left...

First put Czech, then an o, then a Slovakia. Done!

Kazakhstan?

Those Soviets really needed their potassium...

How about Googlestan?

Lol

.

Excuse me... did you just say Googlestan? we only allow Yahoostan and Bingastan on this site, it's not at all like I'm using the G word right now.

I think the Googlestan empire rules.

lol

Well, I don't know but Kazakhstan was a part of Sovietstan

YES

Agreed

North Korea is only the Korea

but South Korea is also Korea, and North Korea is a democratic Korea

i thought of this too

Unlike you ChaosLord, some of us are not perfect.

Well, we would expect him to be, he is a pretty high level, and has been taking these quizzes for a while.

First put a Czech, then an o, then a Slovakia.

Before World War 2 Japan took over the Korean peninsula and Manchuria, so wouldn't Japan be a option?

I wonder how close Pakistan was to bordering the USSR.

I think it's about 20km, that's the narrowest bit of Afghanistan between Pakistan and Tajikistan.

I forgot about Czechoslovakia

12/12 with 2:14 remaining

*Guesses Czech Republic and Slovakia* Hmmm, I wonder what it could be? Not Yugoslavia, not India... Wait a minute, could it be Czechoslovakia?

YES 100%

Korea and North Korea should be accepted as both bordered the USSR after WWII

Korea wasn't unified at any point after the Second World War. The Japanese empire conquered Korea and when the empire was dissolved Korea was split between the USA and the USSR. It is arguable that at this stage neither North not South Korea were really countries yet, but they were occupied by two different countries and were certainly not one country.

What about Tanna Tuva?

That was a state just before world war 2, this is after ww2

Dprk should be accepted for north korea

That's like saying Ukgbni for the United Kingdom, there is already a defining difference between the 2 Koreas as in North and South.

Ukgbni doesn't have to be accepted for the United Kingdom, as the first two letters are already accepted for it.

how did i forget about mongolia???

OH MY GOD WHY DID I FORGET CHINA AND MOMGOLIa

I don't understand China, but you just misspelled Mongolia; hence you didn't get it.

Forgets Mongolia and Finland after getting all the less obvious ones.

Well Finland and Mongolia were both part of the USSR at one point so maybe you just subconsciously thought of it as part of it already.

What?

No they weren't

Wasn't Finland part of the Russian Empire and Mongolia part of Qing Dynasty China?

0:45 left

As north korea was only officially formed in 1948, i think korea and even south korea are also good answers for that question, even though all the three are somewhat wrong

nice and interesting quiz by the way! :)

Good.

Slovakia maybe, Czechia definitely not. But no, the USSR bordered a country called Czechoslovakia.

Turkey bordered Armenia, which was part of the USSR with Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Gahhhh only missed Czechoslovakia, tried Czechia and Slovakia but totally forgot that they were the same country after WWII.

I wonder what would happen if the USSR won the Cold War. Would the USA break up into 50 states? Good thing that didn't happen, otherwise the Countries of the World Quiz would be much harder.

The Soviet Union disintegrated. The United States remained the world's only superpower. The US and its allies clearly won. Unless you are saying that the entire exercise was unproductive and wasteful which, if so, fair enough.

If the United States ever broke apart into different successor states I think it's more likely that many of them would form different clusters. I imagine independent states of... Hawaii, Alaska, Texas, California, and Florida. But after that probably New England that would include New York, a new Southern Confederacy, a mountain state centered around Denver or Salt Lake City, a Pacific Northwest state with a capital in Seattle, a midwest farm belt state, Chicago maybe as an independent city-state, and an Eastern seaboard state from Pennsylvania down to Northern Virginia and perhaps extending down the coast as far as Norfolk and Virginia Beach. That would be 12 new countries, not 50. West Virginia and some Native American reservations might declare sovereignty, as well. And maybe Vermont, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Guam, Las Vegas, and Disney World.

The different US states did use to think of themselves as separate sovereign entities, but joined together in a common federation of independent states, probably similar to how different member states of the EU feel today. But that's pretty ancient history, now. Slowly the USA moved closer to something like the UK, where the constituent entities were independent and "states" ("countries") in name only, power was increasingly concentrated at the federal level, and citizens of individual states began to think less of themselves as Virginians or New Yorkers and more as Americans. Until finally we got to the status quo of the day where, in the US, if you hold allegiance to your state or city higher than to your country this is usually seen as quaint or cute but unrealistic, and only kooks and dingbats like Ted Cruz openly talk about secession, and then are publicly ridiculed for it.

Yeah, even in our age of polarization, no one is talking about the breakup of the United States. The difference is that the Soviet Union was really a successor state to the Russian Empire, which was made of dozens of ethnicities with their own histories and geographic regions. The weakening of the Soviet Union in the late '80s was the perfect time for these nations to regain sovereignty and break free of Russian influence. In contrast, most parts of the US have the same acknowledged history, and while we are ethnically diverse, our diversity isn't based around geography or history.

Maybe in the far future, regional cultures in North America will become distinct enough for the US to break up, but I doubt it'll happen anytime this century.

dang, bro... I put in Czechia and Slovakia but I forgot to combine them lmao. I forgot all about Czechoslovakia.

.. forgot Norway bordered Russia...

Nice quiz. Would perhaps be more of a head-scratcher if you included the whole of the USSR's history.

you need to put post-1949, because until then east germany was still theirs, making a border with the us, france, the uk and denmark i think. dont know when korea got independent tho

USSR never owned Finland. Russian Empire did

Can you please accept Czechia for Czechoslovakia?

No, Königsberg / Kaliningrad was part of USSR, but it borders Poland, not Germany (then East Germany). It also borders Lithuania, but that was just another part of USSR.

I feel like there should be a caveat that some of these countries may not still exist.

I didn't think to type former countries.

Nice Quiz, Long live our Soviet Motherland