Ch 9, Eurasia Flashcards
Autonomous areas
Minor political subunits created in the former Soviet union and designed to recognize the special status of minority groups within existing republics.
General def: any part of a country that has been given a certain degree of independence from the central government.
Bolsheviks
A member of the Russian communist movement led by Lenin that successfully took control of the country in 1917.
Industrial working class overthrowing capitalism, large scale elimination of private property, state ownership, etc.
Centralized economic planning
An economic system in which the state sets production targets and controls the means of production.
Communism
A political belief based on the writings of Karl Marx, in which all property is publicly owned and all workers are paid according to their abilities and needs.
Exclave
A portion of a country’s territory that lies outside it’s contiguous land area.
Glasnost
A policy of greater political openness initiated in the 1980s by the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
Iron Curtain
The term coined by British leader Winston Churchill during the Cold War to define the western border of Soviet Power in Europe. The notorious Berlin wall was a concrete manifestation of the iron curtain.
Perestroika
A program of partially implemented, planned economic reforms (or reconstructing) undertaken during the Gorbachev years in the Soviet union and designed to make the Soviet economy more efficient and responsive to consumer needs.
Permafrost
A cold climate condition in which the ground remains permanently frozen.
Russification
A policy of the Soviet union designed to spread Russian settlers and influences to non-Russian areas of the country.
Socialist realism
A artistic style once popular in the Soviet union that was associated with realistic depictions of workers in their patriotic struggles against capitalism.
Taiga
The vast coniferous forest of Russia that stretches Urals to the pacific ocean. The main forest species are fir, spruce, and larch.
