Russian Quizzo/Trivia Round

[Превед]

Side question...did Alexandra Pavlovna die in child birth? So young...very sad.

Yes, from puerperal fever, only 17 years old, in the city where Ignaz Semmelweiss were to make his groundbreaking discovery regarding puerperal fever a few decades later.

[edubs31]

Side question...did Alexandra Pavlovna die in child birth? So young...very sad.

Yes, from puerperal fever, only 17 years old, ithe city where Ignaz Semmelweiss were to make his groundbreaking discovery regarding puerperal fever a few decades later.

Thanks for that. I didn't know for certain but looking at the closeness of dates between giving birth to her stillborn child and her own death made it seem likely the two were connected.

Additional side question...with higher mortality rates and shorter life expectancy it made sense for most couple to get started in the child bearing process sooner rather than later. That said was their thought given at the time to a young woman's age and how that could be a benefit or detriment in having a healthy pregnancy?

17 is obviously young. I assume 16 - female "adulthood" at the time - was the cutoff. Were there higher rates of infant mortality and death of the mother having children between, say 16-18 than maybe waiting til the mother was a few years older (20-22 range)?

[Превед]

Additional side question...with higher mortality rates and shorter life expectancy it made sense for most couple to get started in the child bearing process sooner rather than later.

For royals who were desperate for (male) heirs, yes, but not for most people, who rather wanted to limit the numbers of mouths to feed and the number of heirs sharing an inheritance / farm / livelihood. One of the traits that made Western Europe stand out from the rest of the world and spearhead modernity (and romantic love?) was exactly this pattern of late marriage (mid to late 20s) and a significant minority remaining lifelong singles and thus fewer children, who were better provided for. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_European_marriage_pattern. Russia and European royalty were in this respect "east of the Hajnal line", while you can observe the pattern very well in Norwegian peasants before industrialisation, with mothers as young as Alexandra Pavlovna being very uncommon and mostly tragic cases of out-of-wedlock births, arranged marriages for very rich heiresses (early marriage as some kind of status symbol or pawn in alliance building) or other odd circumstances.

Most peasant girls and boys worked for a few years in their teens and early 20s as maids and farmhands (and engaged in nattefrieri, night courting, i.e. all kinds of romantic sleepovers, heavy petting and probably oral sex etc. without full intercourse), saved money and didn't marry (someone more or less of their own choosing) untill they could support a family, which could be the stereotypical 10-15-20 children where half of them died in infancy, but just as likely 5-6-7, where most survived. Upper-class women who did not breastfeed their babies themselves were probably fertile more often than peasant women, whose fertility was not only limited by their later marriage, but also by breastfeeding.

That said was their thought given at the time to a young woman's age and how that could be a benefit or detriment in having a healthy pregnancy?

I'm sure there was, but as with Semmelweis's case I'm sure there were very conflicting opinions.

[Превед]

Which large Russian island is named in honour of an important Romanov relative, with the neighbouring island not named in honour of this relative's mother, as one would presume, but in honour of the predecessor of a princess of an Ascanian fief on the Lahn?

edubs almost cracked this one, but no-one took it further:

These Russian islands are part of the Arctic Franz Joseph Land / Земля Франца-Иосифа in the Barents Sea (east of Svalbard / Spitsbergen). (And as a Norwegian I of course think they should have gone with the post-Revolutionary proposal Fridtjof Nansen Land. (Another pre-Revolutionary proposal was Romanov Land / Земля Романовых!))

The large westernmost islands of the archipelago are called Prince George Land / Земля Георга, named by a British explorer for George V of the UK. The neighbouring island Alexandra Land / Земля Александры was named in honour of Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna (1783–1801), married to Archduke Joseph of Austria, Paladin of Hungary, who after her early and tragic death due to childbirth remarried to Princess Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym (Anhalt = Ascanian, Schaumburg is on the Lahn - see this post for more info). This according to the English Wikipedia, which leads you to believe this island was named by the Austrian-Hungarian North Pole Expedition who named the archipelago itself.

But then I now see that the Russian and German Wikipedias claim that Alexandra Land was actually named by a British explorer after George V's mother, Alexandra of Denmark! It is more logical, as the Austrian-Hungarian expedition seems to have concentrated on the islands further east (Prince Rudolph Island, Wiener Neustad Island! etc.)

Anyways lots of turn-of-the-century royal names up there in the realm of die Könige auf dem ewigen Eis - the kings on the eternal ice. (Ostalgic pop hit about polar bears from DDR / GDR.)

[edubs31]

Thanks for shedding some light there. I have always been curious about how & why those islands got their names and their etymology. It would seem that it's less straight forward than we'd assume.

[Превед]

An Advent quiz question:

Which royal, whose son has a typical Romanov name and sports a title previously enjoyed by a Romanov by right of marriage, hails from the same region as a famous royalty-related monumental vase in a Russian location better known for a huge piece of the same type of material? The son's father shares a name with the donator of the vase, who also had a monumental vase from this material in the grounds of his palace on an island neighbouring the one where the boy and his family live; the boy's first cousin is the namesake of the recipient of the vase.
Brownie points for explaining all the details.

[Превед]

Merry Christmas, everyone!
No-one who can crack the one above?

This one, from my local paper's Christma tour of the world in quiz questions, I'm struggling with myself. Any help is appreciated!

"In a Norwegian reference work, from November this year, a group of people [Native Americans] will not be called the same as before [Indians]. Many in this group [Native Americans] are found in a region that has the same name as a geographic point where copper, mountains, honey bees and the good feeling meet. Six governments have jurisdiction here, and the point is administered by an ethnic / cultural nation. Almost everyone who visits the site also visits an almost 450 km long area where one can study two billion years of development."

The last sentence makes me think of the Grand Canyon (the numbers fit), but the answer must be placed roughly between Québec and Ohio because of the preceding and following questions. Six governments administering an area makes me think of the Arctic, with Russia as one of them.

[TimM]

Six governments administering an area makes me think of the Arctic, with Russia as one of them.

Here are six possible nations.

1.  The United States
2.  Canada
3.  Russia
4.  Norway
5.  Sweden
6.  Finland

[Превед]

This one, from my local paper's Christmas tour of the world in quiz questions, I'm struggling with myself. Any help is appreciated!

"In a Norwegian reference work, from November this year, a group of people [Native Americans] will not be called the same as before [Indians]. Many in this group [Native Americans] are found in a region that has the same name as a geographic point where copper, mountains, honey bees and the good feeling meet. Six governments have jurisdiction here, and the point is administered by an ethnic / cultural nation. Almost everyone who visits the site also visits an almost 450 km long area where one can study two billion years of development."

The last sentence makes me think of the Grand Canyon (the numbers fit), but the answer must be placed roughly between Québec and Ohio because of the preceding and following questions. Six governments administering an area makes me think of the Arctic, with Russia as one of them.

I am leaning more and more towards the point being Four Corners, the quadripoint where the four states Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet, in addition to the Navajo nation and Ute Mountain Ute tribe, thus six governments have authority there. The mysterious names / things represent the states and their symbols, mottos and nicknames:
Copper - Arizona - the copper state
Honey bees - Utah - the beehive state
Good feeling - New Mexico? - Land of Enchantment
Mountains - Colorado - the Rocky Mountain state

OK, so the route from Québec to Ohio via the Southwest is not quite logical, everything fits too well with Four Coners and the Grand Canyon.

Six governments administering an area makes me think of the Arctic, with Russia as one of them.

Here are six possible nations.

1.  The United States
2.  Canada
3.  Russia
4.  Norway
5.  Sweden
6.  Finland

Denmark is actually more of an Arctic and polar state than both Sweden and Finland, because of Greenland.

[Превед]

BTW this Christmas tour of the world quiz also contains this gem:

"A monarchist would like to buy areas in this state, which might disappear. There he wants to build a safe haven for supporters of a dynasty that was abolished in 1917, and to restore a form of government. The state has a geographical position like no other country."

This one should be easy for the esteemed members of this forum!

[TimM]

Denmark is actually more of an Arctic and polar state than both Sweden and Finland, because of Greenland.

Whoops, forgot about Greenland.

[Превед]

An Advent quiz question:

Which royal, whose son has a typical Romanov name and sports a title previously enjoyed by a Romanov by right of marriage, hails from the same region as a famous royalty-related monumental vase in a Russian location better known for a huge piece of the same type of material? The son's father shares a name with the donator of the vase, who also had a monumental vase from this material in the grounds of his palace on an island neighbouring the one where the boy and his family live; the boy's first cousin is the namesake of the recipient of the vase.
Brownie points for explaining all the details.

I am disappointed that nobody cracked this one:
Which royal = Princess Sofia of Sweden
whose son has a typical Romanov name = Prince Alexander
and sports a title previously enjoyed by a Romanov by right of marriage = Duke of Södermanland, Maria Pavlovna being Duchess of Södermanland
hails from the same region as a famous royalty-related monumental vase in a Russian location better known for a huge piece of the same type of material? = Princess Sofia hails from Älvdalen, just like the Porphirovaya (Porphyrite) or Elfdalenskaya (Älvdaleian) Vaza (Vase) (see Wikipedia) in the Summer Garden of St. Petersburg , which is more famous for the Bronze Horseman on a huge slab of Finnish granite
The son's father shares a name with the donator of the vase = Prince Carl Philip and King Carl XIV Johan
who also had a monumental vase from this material in the grounds of his palace on an island neighbouring the one where the boy and his family live = Rosendal Palace (with porphyrite vase in the garden) on the island of Djurgården, opposite Sofia and Carl Philip's home on Norra Djurgården (OK, not an island, but a distinct peninsula and part of the larger North Stockholm peninsula)
the boy's first cousin is the namesake of the recipient of the vase. = Princess Madeleine's son Prince Nicolas and Emperor Nicholas I.

[Превед]

BTW this Christmas tour of the world quiz also contains this gem:

"A monarchist would like to buy areas in this state, which might disappear. There he wants to build a safe haven for supporters of a dynasty that was abolished in 1917, and to restore a form of government. The state has a geographical position like no other country."

This one should be easy for the esteemed members of this forum!

The answer is the Pacific state of Kiribati, which straddles both the Equator and the 180th meridian, putting the country in both the northern, southern, eastern and western part of the Earth. The Yekaterinburg native Anton Bakov, a Russian businessman and leader of the Russian Monarchist Party, is negotiating with several small states, among them Kiribati, concerning aquiring territory where he can set up an independent micro state called the Romanov Empire.

[TimM]

The Yekaterinburg native Anton Bakov, a Russian businessman and leader of the Russian Monarchist Party, is negotiating with several small states, among them Kiribati, concerning aquiring territory where he can set up an independent micro state called the Romanov Empire.

Well, fancy that.