My Lucky Star Trivia Quiz

Answer: Soviet Union

This flag was used throughout the October Revolution of 1917, the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, then long beyond the Comintern's dissolution in 1943, until the dissolution of the state altogether in 1991.

The Roman Republic of the last 500 years BC long predates the term "communism". The Ottoman Empire of Turkey ran from 1300 to the early 1900s. Most communism today descends from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 19th-century philosophers and activists. The Paris Commune of 1871 was a significant influence on Marx and Engels.

Answer: Vietnam

The five points of the yellow star represent five classes: businesspeople, farmers, intellectuals, soldiers and workers.

The Vietnamese leader Ho Chí Minh is one of the most famous communists in history. Highly respected by Vietnamese citizens, he led the country from 1945 to 1969, through most of the Vietnam War.

The Vietnamese were incredibly successful considering the number of soldiers and munitions used against them by the United States. However, the U.S. succeeded in destabilizing the region. It killed 1-3 million Vietnamese people and destroyed 20-50% of jungles and mangroves in the country. Protests against the Vietnam War by U.S. citizens were some of the largest in history and public opinion turned from strongly pro-war to strongly anti-war over the 20 years it lasted.

Answer: Cuba

Cuba has been led by Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl and by Miguel Díaz-Canel since its independence. The U.S. sought to overthrow the Cuban government particularly during Fidel Castro's leadership, supporting the dictator Fulgencio Batista. U.S. involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, economic embargo and literally hundreds of assassination attempts were all ultimately unsuccessful by the measure that Castro led the country into his 80s.

Answer: Zimbabwe

The flag's Zimbabwe Bird is thought to be an eagle - it was found in ruins of sculptures from the country's early history.

The late Robert Mugabe went through a variety of roles, parties and ideologies from his birth in 1924 to his death in 2019. He is associated with African nationalism, Marxism-Leninism and socialism. Mugabe was Prime Minister (1980-7) and President (1987-2017) and led the political party ZANU and its successor ZANU-PF.

Answer: China

There were several different designs of China's flag, but it has remained unchanged since the country became independent in a 1949 revolution.

The country's leader Mao Zedong thought the peasantry would be the main revolutionary class. This contrasted with Karl Marx, who said the proletariat would be. At the instruction of the Stalin-controlled Comintern, Chinese communists initially worked within the petite bourgeois-dominated Kuomintang, believing the national question to take priority over workers' revolution. However, conflict between the CCP and the Kuomintang culminated with the country's independence under the CCP, with Mao Zedong as chair.

Answer: Angola

The gear and machete on this flag modernizes the traditional hammer and sickle symbol of communism - one represents the industrial proletariat (gear and hammer) and the other represents the peasantry and agricultural workers (machete and sickle).

The other countries are in Northern Africa.

Answer: Venezuela

The colors and horizontal stripes have been part of the flag since the 1800s, but the number and positioning of the stars has changed several times. In 1817, the eighth star was decreed by Simón Bolívar - a military leader who worked for the independence of Spanish Empire-controlled regions of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

Answer: Singapore

Around three-quarters of Singaporeans are of Chinese descent; this ethnic group largely wanted a flag designed around China. 15% of citizens are Malay, and it was Malay influence that added the Muslim crescent symbol. Officially, the five stars represent democracy, equality, justice, peace and progress.

Singapore has a small population - around 5 million - but is renowned worldwide for its education (particularly in science). It has military conscription and extremely high military spending, and serves as a tax haven.

Answer: Mozambique

Mozambique's flag was designed using the colors of the political party FRELIMO - red, green, yellow and black. FRELIMO is a democratic socialist party that opposed Portuguese colonialism. The party has run the country effectively since independence was won in 1975, first as a one-party state and since through democratically elected governments.

Independence was hard-fought, with FRELIMO receiving some support from the Soviet Union and Cuba but having to fight anti-communist armies, including that of the bordering apartheid South Africa.

Answer: Ethiopia

The current version of the flag was adopted in 2009. Ethiopia is a republican country run by a bourgeois parliament. It is a landlocked country in East Africa.

Ethiopia has over 100 million inhabitants, two-thirds of whom are Christian and one-third of whom are Muslim. Ethiopia and Liberia were the only countries to remain independent during the "Scramble for Africa" of the 19th century that saw European colonization of the continent. Dozens of languages are spoken in the country, including the official languages Oromo, Amharic, Somali, Tigrinya and Sidamo.