Ukraine As You Never Knew It Trivia Quiz

Answer: Uzhhorod

Uzhhorod (also sometimes spelled Uzhgorod) is a city on the River Uzh, which serves as the capital of Zakarpattia Oblast (an oblast is an administrative division similar to a province in Canada or a county in England). Uzhhorod was previously known as Ungvar. I have tried to consult the official website of Uzhhorod, but it is in Ukrainian only. So unless you're fluent in Ukrainian, you won't decipher the local information.

Darmstadt (Germany), Jaroslav (Poland) and Corvallis (Oregon, USA) are three of the about a dozen twin cities for Uzhhorod.

Answer: Carpathians

The Hora Hoverla carries a Hungarian name, which translates roughly to "Snowy Mountain". It contains the source of the River Prut.

The Carpathians are a set of mountain ranges in Eastern Europe: the southern part of Poland, almost all of Slovakia, the western provinces in Ukraine and almost all Romania, but also parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Serbia are covered by the Carpathians.

The Apennines are in Italy, the Pyrenees form the border between Spain and France, and the Urals are in Russia.

Answer: Dniester

The Dniester is the most western river in Ukraine. Its source is near the Polish border, and it flows roughly to the south. At first it forms the border between Ukraine and Moldova, and a bit further it separates the western part of Moldova from the Moldovan province Transnistria (and this for almost 400 km). The Dniester mouths in the Black Sea, after a stretch of 1,362 km. Thus the Dniester is longer than the Rhine (which flows for 1,236 km).

The Inn is an Austrian tributary to the Danube. The Berezina is a Belorussian tributary to the Dniester, and was famous for one of Napoleon's few defeats. The Donets is a Russian-Ukrainian tributary to the Don.

Answer: Dnieper

The Dnieper is the longest river in Ukraine and the fourth longest European river, after the Volga, the Danube and the Ural. The Dnieper starts in Russia, flows through Belarus and then enters Ukraine. Some of the main Ukrainian cities on the Dnieper are Chernobyl, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson. By the way: Kyiv is the transliteration of the Ukrainian spelling of the national capital, while Kiev is the transliteration of the Russian spelling.

Although there are probably some dissenting opinions, the most prominent etymologists think the word Dnieper means something like "the river from the far side", whereas the Dniester would be "the near river". It seems obvious that the words for the Dnieper and the Dniester have similar etymologies.

The Amur is a Russian river near Mongolia, China and North-Korea. The Neva is a Russian river that mouths near Saint-Petersburg. The Volga is the longest European river, with a source about 325 km north of Moscow and a mouth in the Caspian Sea.

Answer: Isthmus of Perekop

The Isthmus of Perekop is a piece of land about five to seven km wide between the Black Sea and the Sivash lagoons, which mouth into the Sea of Azov. The "main" settlement on this isthmus connecting the Crimea with Khersonska Oblast (Province of Kherson) is of course the small village of Perekop.

Auckland Isthmus is in New Zealand, the Isthmus of Catanzaro is the narrowest point of the Italian mainland, and the Isthmus of Avalon is situated in Canada.

Answer: Strait of Kerch

The Strait of Kerch is the narrow stroke of water between the Crimean Peninsula (near the city of Kerch) and the Russian Taman Peninsula, with the nearest settlement Ilyich. There is a regular ferry service.

Kerch was founded by Greek colonists in the seventh century BC. Nowadays it counts about 145,000 inhabitants (according to the 2013 census), many of whom who work in the local metallurgic factories or the ship wharves.

The Strait of Johor separates Singapore from Malaysia. The Strait of Bonifacio is situated between Corsica and Sardinia. And the Strait of Magellan is near the southern tip of South America, between mainland Argentina or Chile on the one hand, and Tierra del Fuego on the other hand.

Answer: Luhans'k

Luhans'k is the present name of the city once known as Voroshilovgrad. It is the capital of the easternmost Oblast (province) in Ukraine, and is situated near the confluence of the rivers Luhan and Olchowa. Luhans'k inhabitants speak Russian fluently. Even the native Ukrainians frequently use the Russian language. The Scottish engineer Charles Gascoigne founded in this city a steel factory in 1795, thus introducing the heavy industry.

Novosibirsk is a Russian city, Tobruk is in Libya, and Kirkuk is a city in Iraq. 

Answer: Reni

Reni is a small town, yet there are several high schools, including a branch of the Dnipropetrovsk University. Reni was founded in 1548 at the confluence of the Prut and the Danube rivers. Reni has changed hands several times: once a Romanian or a Moldovan city, it has also been a Russian port.

The name Reni translates to something like "sandy places", but it happens also to be the surname of an Italian Baroque painter. Hence the false options: (Michelangelo) Buonarotti, (Rafaello) Sanzio and (Tiziano) Vecellio were all very famous Italian artists during the Renaissance.

Answer: Kryvyi Rih

As Ukrainian names are written in the Cyrillic alphabet, one may encounter different orthographies in English for Ukrainian names. The name Kryvyi Rih can also be transliterated Kryvyy Rih (the more obsolete spelling), which seems even more at odds with English spelling.

Kryvyi Rih was built next to a rich iron ore deposit, so the steel industry is quite important. The name translates to "Crooked Horn", but the etymology of this name is disputed. Kryvyi Rih is the capital of the eponymous raion (district) in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast (province).

The false answers are not in Ukraine at all. Szczecin is a Polish city, Krk is a Croatian island, and Xhendelesse is a Belgian village.

Answer: Zaporizhzhya

Zaporizhzhya is situated in the territory where the Cossacks felt home. At the end of the eighteenth century, Empress Catherine the Great ordered the construction of Fort Alexander, which grew into a city named Alexandrovsk. The name was later changed into Zaporizhzhya, which translates to "land near the rapids".

Zaporizhzhya has a substantial minority of ethnic Russians. One of the most interesting sites in Zaporizhzhya is the Khortyts'a Island, on which a museum is dedicated to the Cossack culture. It also hosts a famous horse show.

Yalta is on the Crimean Peninsula. Odessa borders the Black Sea, to the southwest of Dnipropetrovs'k. Kharkiv is north to northeast of Dnipropetrovs'k.