Cold War Europe (1985) quiz

What's on this map

Europe in 1985, the last years of the Cold War. The continent is split by the Iron Curtain. The Soviet Union reaches from the Baltic to the Black Sea and includes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, none of them independent yet. Germany is two states: West Germany, with its capital at Bonn, and East Germany, with East Berlin. West Berlin is an island of the West inside East Germany. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia are still whole.

The study view gives each country's bloc. NATO is the Western alliance: the UK, France, West Germany, Italy, the Benelux countries, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and, since 1982, Spain. The Warsaw Pact is the Soviet alliance: the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The rest are neutral or non-aligned: Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Malta, Cyprus and the microstates.

The places people miss

• East and West Germany – the border runs north to south, west of Berlin. Bonn, not Berlin, is the western capital.
• Albania – communist, but it left the Warsaw Pact in 1968 and was isolated from both blocs.
• Yugoslavia – communist but non-aligned, never part of the Warsaw Pact.
• Austria and Finland – neutral, sitting right on the line between the blocs.
• Czechoslovakia – one country, with its capital in Prague, until 1993.
• Turkey and Greece – both NATO members, although they were often at odds with each other.

How to learn it

• Start with the Iron Curtain: find the Warsaw Pact states from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
• Then learn the two Germanies and their capitals. Most people get these wrong at first.
• Use Study mode to check each country's bloc. NATO is the hardest group to finish, because it is spread from Iceland to Turkey.
• Finish with Sudden death. The microstates get tap circles, so you have nothing to blame but your memory.