| UKRAINIANS | In 1991 these Eastern European people gained independence from the Soviet Union |
| LITHUANIA | First nation to restore its independence from the Soviet Union |
| SLAV | One of an eastern European people (4) |
| SULTANS | Amazing Al stuns these eastern rulers (7) |
| PANSLAV | Representing all of some Eastern European peoples (3-4) |
| BAHRAIN | Located in the gulf named after it, which country gained independence from the UK in 1971? (7) |
| LATVIA | Baltic state, capital Riga, that gained independence from the USSR in 1991 (6) |
| LESOTHO | Landlocked African country which gained independence from the UK in 1966 (7) |
| PANAMA | Country that gained independence from the Spanish Empire on November 28, 1821 (6) |
| MIKHAIL | Mr. Baryshnikov (Headlines-making ballet dancer who defected from the Soviet Union while on tour with the Bolshoi in Toronto in 1974) |
| OLGA | ___ Korbut, former gymnast from the Soviet Union nicknamed the Sparrow from Minsk (4) |
| BOLSHOI | Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union in 1974 while on tour in Toronto with what ballet company? |
| TROTSKY | Ukrainian-born Marxist, expelled from the Soviet Union by Stalin in 1929 and later assassinated (7) |
| DJIBOUTI | Country in north-eastern Africa which gained independence from France in 1977 (8) |
| KENYA | Republic in eastern Africa that achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1963 (5) |
| HOCHIMINH | The main figure in the Vietnamese struggle for independence from the French (2,3,4) |
| MALDIVES | This island country in the Indian Ocean gained independence from Great Britain on July 26, 1965. |
| CHAD | A republic in North Central Africa that gained independence from France in 1960 (4) |
| MONTENEGRO | Country on the Adriatic Sea which gained independence from Serbia in 2006 (10) |
| NIGERIA | Country in west Africa that gained independence from British rule in October 1960 (7) |
