| A | B |
|---|
| Cossack | one of a group of people who controlled the northern Eurasian steppe region beginning in the 1500s |
| homogeneous | of the same kind |
| Why is Ukraine agriculturally productive? | because of fertile soils, summer rains, and level plains allowing commercial farming with modern machinery |
| What resources have helped industrialization in the Ukraine? | coal, iron ore, other minerals, and hydroelectricity |
| Why do so many Ukrainians dislike being called "little Russians"? | Ukrainians cherish an identity separate from Russia |
| What is significant about Crimea? | it is a peninsula that juts out from Ukraine but has many cultural ties to Russia |
| How was Ukraine important to the Soviet Union? | breadbasket for the Soviet Union, and Sevastopol, in Crimea, was the site of an important Societ naval base |
| Why is agriculture limited in much of Belarus? | because it is covered with swamps and marshes |
| What is the capital of Belarus? | Minsk |
| How has Belarus's location influenced its cultural geography? | people speak a Slavic language similar to both Polish and Russian, and they practice both Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic religions |
| Why hasn't Belarus broken with many traditions of the Soviet era? | country had never been independent before 1991, so it lacks historical patterns to create own government |
| What landforms make up the Caucasus? | mountains, valleys, lowlands, and volcanic plateau |
| What is the main source of the violence in Georgia? | unrest among and quarrels between ethnic groups |
| Why have Armenia and Azerbaijan fought each other? | fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is in Azerbaijan but the population is Armenian |
| How has Armenia's location caused problems? | a country landlocked between countries that are its historic enemies and in an area that has severe earthquakes |
| What group claims they are descended from the Cossacks? | Ukrainians |
| Which Caucasus country has the most ethnically homogeneous population? | Armenia |
| Which countries have large Christian populations? | Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia |
| Which countries have large Islamic populations? | Georgia, Azerbaijan |
