Booklet 5 Flashcards
antisemitism
hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews.
brown shirts (SA)
the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. The SA were also called the “Brownshirts” from the colour of their uniform shirts
bolsheviks
member of a wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, which, led by Lenin, seized control of the government in Russia (October 1917) and became the dominant political power.
bolshevism
the communist form of government adopted in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.
censorship
the act of restricting freedom of acecss to ideas or works, usually by governments, and usually to protect the percieved common good; may be related to speech, writings, works of art, religious practices, or military manners
collectivization
an economic policy where all land is taken away from private owners and combined in large, collectively worked farms
communism
a system of society with property vested in the community and each member working for the common benefit according to his or her capacity and recieving according to his or her needs
communist party (CPSU)
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union).
controlled participation
Controlled Participation Actions of authoritarian or totalitarian government to force citizens to take part in mock elections or attend parades and sporting events as a propaganda tool to show their regime is supported by the people
cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when a regime uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods such as government-organized demonstrations to create an idealized, heroic, and at times worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.
dissent
the political act of disagreeing; the right to disagree.
enabling act
a 1933 Weimar Constitution amendment that gave the German Cabinet – in effect, Chancellor Adolf Hitler – the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag. lasted 4 years
eugenics
a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population. controlling human repopulation so that desirable genetic traits are encouraged and undesirable traits are eliminated.
fascism
an extreme, right-wing, anti-democratic nationalist movement which led to totalitarian forms of governemnt in germany and italy from the 1920s to 1940s.
government by the elite
oligarchy, government led and formed by an elite group usually a family or ethnic minority
great depression
an economic crisis that began in late 1929 with the stock market crash and continued through the 1930s. during this period, banks failed, factories closed, many people became unemployed, and international trade declined.
gulag
In Russia, the government agency created under Vladimir Lenin which reached its peak as the Soviet forced labor camp system during Joseph Stalin’s rule from the 1930s up until the 1950s.
hitler
a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer (“Leader”) of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator, Hitler initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and was central to the Holocaust.
hitler youth
the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany; used to ensure the future of the reich, taught to report any anti-nazi behaviour
holocaust
a genocide during World War II in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, aided by its collaborators, systematically murdered some six million European Jews
holodomor
a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed an officially estimated 7 million to 10 million people. stalin used it to break the spirit of the people
indoctrination
the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.
kristallnacht
a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues were smashed.
kulaks
a category of affluent peasants in the early Soviet Union. The word kulak originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire who emerged from the peasantry and became wealthy. The label of kulak was broadened in 1918 to include any peasant who resisted handing over their grain to detachments from Moscow. During 1929–1933, Stalin’s leadership of the total campaign to collectivize the peasantry meant that “peasants with a couple of cows or five or six acres more than their neighbors” were labeled “kulaks”.
lenin
a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party communist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism.
minority groups
a category of people differentiated from the social majority, those who hold the majority of positions of social power in a society, and it may be defined by law.
nationalism
patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts.
national socialism
more commonly known as Nazism is the ideology and set of practices associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party, Nazi Germany and other far-right groups.
night of the long knives
a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler’s absolute hold on power in Germany. Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis’ own paramilitary organization, colloquially known as the “Brownshirts” due to the color of their uniforms.
NKVD
the leading Soviet secret police organization from 1934 to 1946. It is known for its role in political repression and for carrying out the Great Purge under Joseph Stalin. administered the gulag, had predetermined quotas
NSDAP
The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party
nuremburg laws
antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany; pushed denaturalization, stripped citizenship for Jews
reactionary
tending to oppose change.
