Which of the following statements about Russia are true?
I. Russia had close ties with the Byzantine Empire, from which it adopted Greek Orthodox Christianity.
II. Vlad the Impaler was the first Russian tsar.
III. The region that became Russia was settled by Vikings.
IV. Russia became a communist state following the October Revolution in 1917.
Explanation
Answer: D - All four statements are true. Vikings, who were primarily from Northern Europe, sailed to what became Russia in the ninth century, giving it the name Rus’. In the tenth century, Kievan Rus’ and the Byzantine Empire became trading partners, and the former ultimately adopted the Byzantine’s religion: Greek Orthodox (or Eastern Orthodox) Christianity. Less than a millennium later, the Russian Empire was the largest contiguous empire on the planet, covering over 15 percent of the world’s land area. In 1917, the monarchy fell as the Bolsheviks took control of the government during the October Revolution (a two-day event in the larger eight-month Russian Revolution). Under the Bolsheviks, Russia became a communist (then a socialist) state. They formally created the Soviet Union in 1922 at the end of the Russian Civil War.
