Siberia, Land of Exile

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1. Which mountain range divides European Russia from Siberia? Urals Sayan mountains Pamirs Carpathians

2. Siberia was opened up largely thanks to the building of the Trans-Siberian railway line. From which Moscow railway station do the Trans-Siberian trains depart? Yaroslavsky station Kievsky station Byelorussky station Pavelyetsky station

3. The remoteness of Siberia has made it a favoured place of exile throughout Russia's history. Dostoyevsky was exiled for four years in which Siberian city? Tobolsk Irkutsk Omsk Yekaterinburg

4. Eastern Siberia contains the world's largest (by volume) freshwater lake. What is it called? Lake Issyk-Kul Lake Ladoga Lake Balaton Lake Baikal

5. Lake Baikal is home to many species of plant and animal which are found nowhere else on earth. One is a fish which locals consider a tasty delicacy. What is it called? omul pike sturgeon golomanka

6. In December 1825 a group of noblemen revolted against the Tsar. The uprising was suppressed, and many of its instigators exiled to Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia. What was the group known as? Whites Republicans Bolsheviks Decembrists

7. Much of Siberia is covered by vast swathes of mainly coniferous forest. What is it called in Russian? steppes tundra taiga permafrost

8. Many of the most notorious Soviet labour-camps were scattered throughout Siberia. Many thousands of prisoners died in the gold and uranium mines of which area? Kolyma Peninsula Yakutia Kamchatka Peninsula Vorkuta

9. Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918 in a Western Siberian city which was subsequently named after the official who ordered their execution. After the fall of the Soviet Union it reverted to its pre-revolutionary name. What is it? Yekaterinburg Omsk Krasnoyarsk Bratsk

10. The Eastern Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk stands on a river which is, in volume, the largest in Russia, and is 4129 kilometres long. What is it called? Irtysh Lena Angara Yenisei