World HistoryName:

Mr. Fitz-PatrickPeriod:

Mapping the Russian Empire in 1914

Old School world of cartography and love of maps versus New School world of digital world and Google Maps.

As you answer each of the following questions, be sure to also label it on your map. Be sure to fill in your symbols for Mountains, Plains, Plateau, and River in the upper right hand corner. Remember, a map is to be read = NEAT!

  1. Which mountain range, rising to the west of the Western Siberian Plains, separates Europe from Asia?
  2. Which mountain range would you have to cross to travel by land from northern Iran to Moscow?
  3. What is the enormous peninsula in eastern Siberia that extends into the Bering Sea?
  4. Which ocean lies north of Russia?
  5. What is the body of water that borders Sweden, Russia, and Poland?
  6. Which inland body of water borders both Iran and Russia?
  7. In which body of water are islands of the United States and Russia separated by only a few miles?
  8. Into what body of water do the Dnieper and Don rivers flow?
  9. What body of water lies east of the Caspian Sea?
  10. What river flows past Moscow to the Caspian Sea?
  11. Which river flows through the cities of Smolensk and Kiev and empties into the Black Sea?
  12. Which major river, which flows into the Black Sea, is west of the Volga River and east of the Dnieper River?
  13. Which river flows through the middle of the Western Siberian Plains?
  14. What river flows from the Ural Mountains into the Caspian Sea?
  15. Which plains lie east of the Ural Mountains?
  16. Which plateau lies east of the Ob River?
  17. Which major Russian city borders the Baltic Sea?
  18. What is the capital of Russia?

Add the following: St. Petersburg (Petrograd), Moscow, Rostov on Don, Novgorod, Yekatirinburg, Vladivostok.

Refer to your complete map and answer the following:

  1. How would you describe the Russian empire’s physical borders?
  2. Describe how the western, eastern, southern, northern, and central areas of the Russian Empire differ.
  3. Given these physical features of Russia, why might it be difficult for a government to rule this territory?
  4. How might a government unify such a vast and diverse country?
  5. In what region of Russia are most of the cities located? What explanation might there be for this?