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TheHockeyist · 08-14-2020, 03:22 AM

This was a bet I made against myself.

Igor Volkov (Russian: Игорь Волков) of the New England Wolfpack has been challenged to name all 85 of Russia's federal subjects (Russia's equivalent of states/provinces) in one hour without looking at a map of Russia for help.

There are five types of federal subjects: republics, krais, oblasts, okrugs, and cities. I will not go into the differences for the sake of brevity.

A score of 65/85 is the minimum score required. All answers must be written in the Russian alphabet to count. Incorrect spelling in Russian counts as an incorrect answer.

I am so confident that I will score 65/85 that I will delete my SHL account if I score 64 or less.

You heard it. I must recall 65/85 of Russia's federal subjects without using a map to keep my SHL account.

Time starts now. One hour to remember them all.

REPUBLICS:

1. Коми
2. Татарстан
3. Бурятия
4. Карачаево-Черкессия
5. Кабардино-Балкария
6. Крым
7. Якутия (Саха) - the largest of them all!
8. Алтай
9. Калмыкия
10. Удмуртия
11. Карелия
12. Дагестан
13. Чечня
14. Ингушетия
15. Северная Оссетия
16. ...Frick, what's that one that Краснодарский край surrounds? I know it exists, but I cannot think of the name. I want to say А- something.

Further thinking cannot recall the name.

17. Хакасия
18. Башкортостан - I have a friend from there. How did I forget it?!
19. Мордовия
20. Мари-Эль
21. Тыва - interesting culture.
22. Frick. One more and wherever it is, it's not coming to mind. There's a long string of them near the Volga River, and this missing one is probably from around that area.

KRAIS:

1. Алтайский край
2. Пермьский край
3. Приморский край
4. Краснояский край - very large! If I forgot that one then I'd be in serious trouble.
5. Ставропольский край
6. Хабаровский край - most easily forgettable of them. At least for me.
7. Краснодарский край - one Красно-something край should have recalled the other.
8. Камчатский край
9. Забайкальский край - seriously, why doesn't this one border Lake Baikal? It has such a misleading name. I want to say it's where Бурятия is.

A bit difficult, but I managed.

OBLASTS:

1. Еврейская автономная область - Gotta get the easy one first. The name is very misleading. I've heard from Russians that this one is actually one of the most forgotten by Russians themselves!
2. Ленинградская
3. Иркутская
4. Брянская
5. Ростовская
6. Рязаньская
7. Московская
8. Саратовская
9. Тамбовская
10. Тульская
11. Смоленская
12. Свердловская
13. Омская
14. Томская
15. Нижегородская
16. Новгородская
17. Мурманская
18. Астраханьская
19. Амурская
20. Ульяновская
21. Владимирская
22. Ярославская
23. Ивановская - My online Russian tacher is from this place actually.
24. Вологодская
25. Волгоградская
26. Магаданская
27. Самарская

Okay, wow. There are a lot of oblasts. A lot. This has become "name every-" I REMEMBERED THE LAST KRAI!

28. Тюменьская
29. Челябинская
30. Пензеньская
31. Псковская - touches all three Baltic countries.
32. Оренбургская
33. Орловская - I keep forgetting this one - it's like it doesn't exist in my brain - way too many similarly-shaped ones around it.
34. Новосибирская
35. Сахалинская - doesn't touch any other federal subjects.
36. Калиниградская - doesn't touch any other federal subjects.
37. Белгородская - another easily forgettable one.
38. Липецкая - Only ten left. Now I'm trying to remember the last few that may be scattered throughout Russia.
39. Кировская - interesting, distinctive shape. Easily memorable if it weren't for its location.
40. Воронежская - I heard a saying once that in the Russian news, everything that goes wrong occurs here. I don't think it's true. But it helps me remember that it exists.
41. Кемеровская - Sorry, but I only remember you due to a fire disaster that happened there. It's right next to Хабаровский край - so I remember the two together. I thought I had already typed this one, gah. Did I think it was something else other than an oblast?

I'm doing better than I thought. Six more, probably all in the west unless I'm forgetting something very obvious.

42. Архангельская
43. Тверская

After that... minor mistake of forgetting some obvious ones in the northwest (do remember to check that area when visualizing the map of Russia!), four more. Now they're all starting to blur together in my mind and I have to think of names I have already written down to see if that triggers some that I have forgotten.

44. Uh... maybe I should go back to the republics. And neither one of the missing two can be recalled... Going through the list of federal subjects that I did remember, nothing recalls anything else. I do see one in my mind that I thought I forgot before remembering that it no longer exists on the map - it merged with another one that I did remember. So that isn't helpful.
45.
46.
47.

OKRUGS:

1. Ненецкий
2. Ямало-Ненецкий - not to be confused with the previous one. And still, I tend to confuse them.
3. Чукотский
4. Ханты-Мансийский

Easy.

CITIES:

1. Москва
2. Санкт-Петербург
3. Севастополь

Easy.

...Okay, dammit. Aaaaaaaa- I have only eight minutes left and cannot recall anything else. I'll call time and see what I forgot.

TIME!

Republics: The one that I was thinking of at 16. was Адыгея - a minor glitch in my memory. I misspelled 15. Северная Оссетия - should be 15. Северная Осетия. Wrong answer then. For the last one, 22, I recalled its location roughly correctly, but forgot its name - Чувашия. In my defense, it's an easily forgettable republic.

EDIT: Realized I misspelled Марий Эл as Мари-Эль, so I have to deduct one point for incorrect spelling.

18/22 recalled correctly.

Krais: Misspelled Пермьский край. Should be Пермский край with no ь. The city contains the ь in its spelling, so I incorrectly included it in the krai's spelling. Oops.

8/9 recalled correctly.

Oblasts: Missed Калужская (if I had thought of the city of Москва more I would have gotten it - it recently expanded to technically border it), Костромская (thought it was the same as Ивановская? Those two are really close to each other and I usually skip over it by accident), and Курская and Курганская (these two always give me massive headaches - similar names and neither one is really known for much - also they're nearly halfway across the country from each other)... really these are all very confusing similar names for unrelated oblasts. No wonder. Misspelled Пензеньская - should be Пензенская with no ь. And Рязаньская and Тюменьская - same error. Should be Рязанская and Тюменская. Alas, it's a very common error for non-native Russian speakers... like myself. :-/...

40/47 recalled correctly.

Okrugs: No mistakes.

4/4 recalled correctly.

Cities: No mistakes.

3/3 recalled correctly.

Final score:

73/85 federal subjects recalled correctly, or 86%.

If spelling errors in Russian do not count against me, then 79/85 recalled, or 93%.

I said I would delete my SHL account if I recalled less than 65 of Russia's federal subjects. I easily remembered more - 73 were remembered.

So as a result, I get to keep my SHL account.

At least for now.

Zema · 08-14-2020, 04:42 AM

yikes

***Fantobens*** · 08-14-2020, 08:46 AM

This is not media.

Leoben · 08-14-2020, 08:56 AM

Jobin · 08-14-2020, 09:16 AM

This is time I cannot get back.

.bojo · 08-14-2020, 10:53 AM

I love it

***Ace*** · 08-14-2020, 10:55 AM

Russian cartographers HATE HIM.

.bojo · 08-14-2020, 10:58 AM

My wife (born in Russia) said "Holy shit, he's good. I couldn't come close". She also pointed out which one was her hometown (kazaan)

TheHockeyist · 08-14-2020, 01:31 PM

08-14-2020, 10:58 AM.bojo Wrote: My wife (born in Russia) said "Holy shit, he's good. I couldn't come close". She also pointed out which one was her hometown (kazaan)

Huh. In Tatarstan (Татарстан) then. Easily memorable for me - it's probably one of the most famous republics.

SlashACM · 08-14-2020, 03:42 PM

You forgot the 50 US states which are under Russian control

ACapitalChicago · 08-14-2020, 03:42 PM

This is some unique media!

S66 Damian Littleton

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TheHockeyist · 08-14-2020, 06:33 PM

08-14-2020, 03:42 PMACapitalChicago Wrote: This is some unique media!

Thanks.

Kalakar · 08-14-2020, 06:53 PM

???

TheHockeyist · 08-14-2020, 07:19 PM

@Kalakar Imagine naming the 50 states. Replace the United States with Russia and replace the 50 states with 85 Russian federal subjects. Then delete your SHL account unless you can name at last 65 of the federal subjects in an hour.

That's what I did.

***WannabeFinn*** · 08-14-2020, 07:33 PM

08-14-2020, 07:19 PMTheHockeyist Wrote: @Kalakar Imagine naming the 50 states. Replace the United States with Russia and replace the 50 states with 85 Russian federal subjects. Then delete your SHL account unless you can name at last 65 of the federal subjects in an hour.

That's what I did.

Imagine that eh

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