Europe: All about Belarus Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cemetery

Kalvaryja is a Catholic cemetery and is known for housing the graves of several Belarusian and Polish celebrities, personalities and politicians from the 19th century. There are graves in this cemetery dating back to the 1800s. The cemetery has a Catholic chapel, used for general worship.

Answer: Latvia

The border between Belarus and Latvia is around 100 miles long.

Belarus also borders Lithuania to the north-west, the border between these two countries being around 400 miles long.

Belarus does border Ukraine, but to the south. The border between Belarus and Ukraine is approximately 700 miles long.

Belarus also borders Poland, but to the west. The border between Belarus and Poland is around 260 miles long.

Belarus also shares a roughly 815 mile long border with Russia to the northeast.

Answer: A Bolshevik revolutionary

Dzyarzhynskaya Hara is around 1,130 feet high, and named after Felix Dzerzhinsky. It is located in the centre of Belarus, near Minsk. There is an abandoned, ruined factory nearby.

Felix Dzerzhinsky was one of the founding members of the KGB. He was involved in the Red Terror (the political oppression and mass executions of dissenters, in Soviet Russia) and the Decossackization of the Soviet Union (the oppression of Cossacks of the Soviet Union).

Answer: Sozh

Displayed on the Belarusian 20-ruble note, Gomel Palace has been the scene of many balls and other high profile events, having guests such as the Russian Romanov imperial family in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is now a museum and a major attraction of Belarus. The building is not only a museum, it is also used for concerts and meetings.

The Sozh river is a left tributary of the Dnieper. Gomel Palace is situated on the right bank of the Sozh river.

The Sozh river is approximately 400 miles long, and flows through Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. It freezes over between November and January, thawing between March and April. The Sozh is one of the two main rivers of Mogilev, a city in eastern Belarus.

Answer: Berezina

Since this catastrophic loss of life for the French, the term "Berezina" has become a colloquial term for a disaster. Napoleon's main army, the Grande Armée, were forced to to retreat and destroy the bridges they had built on the river, leaving 10,000 people stranded on the east bank. 25,000 military combatants were killed, 30,000 non-combatants were killed.

The Berezina river is a right tributary of the Dnieper.

Answer: 40%

Belarus is sometimes nicknamed 'the Lungs of Europe' and is home to the last remaining portion of a primeval forest that once covered Europe, the Białowieża Forest. The green stripe on the flag of Belarus is there to represent the extensive forests of the country.

Around 800 European bison live in the Białowieża Forest. They are the heaviest land mammal of Europe.

Answer: Saddam Hussein

This could possibly be because Alexander Lukashenko (President of Belarus at the time) gave support to Saddam Hussein while he was alive.

The library has been in use since 1922, but has gone through extensive expansions. It is located in Minsk, the capital, and since the renovations beginning in 2002, and completed in 2006, the facade of the building has a striking rhombicuboctahedron shape.

The library has the third most amount of books in Russian, in the world.

Answer: Pinsk

Pinsk was captured by the armed forces of Nazi Germany in 1941. Around 8,000 Jews were murdered just outside the city. A ghetto was later created in Pinsk for the murder of a further approximately 26,000 Jews, around a year after the city was captured.

Pinsk has been part of Belarus since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Answer: Grodno

Grodno is the capital of both the Grodno Region and Grodno District. The city is located in western Belarus.

Grodno also features the large cathedral, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral. Originally this was a Jesuit church, but when the new diocese of Grodno was established in 1991, it was made a cathedral. Founded in 1687, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral survived World War II with very little damage. The church was however closed to the public for nearly 30 years, starting in 1960 at the orders of the Soviet Union, who tried to convert it into a concert hall. Religious services were running again from 1987.

Answer: False

Belarus has no navy, as it is a landlocked country.

Belarus' army is divided into Air and Air Defence Forces, and Ground Forces. Conscription is practiced in Belarus, with the average soldier serving 18 months.