NewsTracker Answers for week of Nov. 21, 2022

Q: The missile that landed in Poland last week was not part of a Russian attack, said leaders of NATO and Poland. They said the explosion probably was accidentally caused by an errant Ukrainian air defense missile launched in response to Russian strikes. Where is Poland?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The missile struck a farm and killed two men near Poland’s border with Ukraine, which is ...

A. North of Poland

B. East of Poland

C. South of Poland

D. West of Poland


B. Poland is bordered by the Baltic Sea to the northwest, Russia and Lithuania to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia to the south, Czechia to the southwest, and Germany to the west. Poland has supported Ukraine in its war with Russia, and it has taken in nearly 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children.


Q: The former Soviet Union subjugated both Ukraine and Poland during much of the 20th century. Which of these empires did NOT earlier occupy Poland?

A. British

B. German

C. Hapsburg

D. Russian


A. Poland ceased to exist in the 18th century when it was carved up by the Russian Empire, the Hapsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire and Prussia, which later headed the German Empire. World War I destroyed those empires, and Poland emerged as an independent nation in 1918. World War II started in 1939 after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and again partitioned Poland, The British then declared war on Germany.


Q: After World War II, Poland became one of the Soviet Union’s “satellite states.” The Soviets and its satellites formed a military alliance named after the capital of Poland. What is the capital of Poland?

A. Budapest

B. Kyiv

C. Minsk

D. Warsaw


D. Warsaw dates back to about 1300. It became the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1596. At its peak the Polish-dominated commonwealth was the largest state in Europe, controlling parts of what is now Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and the Baltic States. The Soviets formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955 to counter the U.S.-backed North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.


Q: Poland’s Soviet-backed communist government was brought down in 1990 by a political movement started by what group?

A. Catholic clergy

B. CIA agents

C. Shipyard workers

D. University students


C. The Solidarity Union was founded in 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. It became the first independent trade union to be recognized by a Warsaw Pact state, And, it grew into a large social and political movement with support from the Roman Catholic Church and the United States. Solidarity was credited with encouraging other anticommunist movements and hastening the fall of the Soviet Union. Poland joined NATO in 1999.