Key figures Flashcards
Okrhana
The tsarist secret police, whose special task was to hunt down subversives who challenged the tsarist regime
Liberal ideas
Notions that called for limitations on the power of rulers and greater freedom of the people
Capital
The essential financial recourse which provides the means for investment and expansion
Agrarian economy
A system in which food is produced on the land by arable and dairy farming
Dark Masses
Used contemptuously in the imperial court and government circles to describe the peasants, who made up 4/5 of the population
Slavophiles
Those who regarded Western values as corrupting and urged that the nation should preserve itself as ‘holy Russia’
Autocratic
The absolute rule of one person
Representative government
A form of rule in which ordinary people choose their government and have the power to replace it if it does not serve their interests
Sergei Witte (1849-1915)
Minister of finance 1893-1903 and chief minister 1906-6
Peter Stolypin (1862-1911)
A political conservative but a progressive in agricultural matters, chief minister 1906-11
Revolutionaries
Those who believed that Russia could not progress unless the tsarist system was destroyed
Reformers
Strong critics of the tsarist system who believed it could be changed for the better by pressure from without and reform from within
Social Democrats
The all Russian Social Democrats workers party
Class struggle
A continuing conflict at those who possess economic and political power and those who do not
Proletariat
The exploited industrial workers who would triumph in the last great class struggle
Bourgeoisie
The owners if the capital, the boss class, who exploited workers but who would be overthrown by them in the revolution to come
Duma
The Russian parliament which existed from 1906-1017
Constitutional Monarchy
A system of government in which the king or emperor rules but governs only through elected representatives who decisions he cannot countermand
Soviet
Russian word for council made up of elected representatives
Inflation rate
A measure of the decline in the value of money over a period of time. More money being needed for the same quantity of goods
Martial law
The placing of the population under direct military authority
Dual Authority
Lenin first coined this term to describe the balance of power between the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government
Constituent Assembly
A full gathering of the elected representatives of the Russian people
Prince Lvov
Prominent landowner and progressive reformer, he headed the provisional government between March to July 1917
Lev Kamenev
Returned from exile to hold key positions under Lenin between 1917 and 1924. He became a victim of Stalin’s purges and was executed in 1936
General Kornilov
Distinguished by his bravery as a soldier, he was a fierce Russian patriot who hated Russia’s revolutionaries
Grigor Zinoviev
A close colleague of Lenin since the formation of the Bolshevik party. Also executed during Stalin’s purges.
Red Guards
A force of some 10,000, largely made up of elderly men
Commissars
Russian for ministers
Left Communists
Those Bolsheviks who were convinced that their first task was to consolidate the October Revolution by driving the German imperialist armies from Russia
Admiral Alexander Kolchak
Former commander of the Russian Balkan fleet. Proclaimed himself as ‘Supreme ruler of the Russian state’ during the civil war.
Cheka
Secret police force established by Lenin. Fought counter revolution, sabotage and speculation.
Patronage
The right to appoint individuals to official posts in the party and government
Bureaucratisation
The growth in power of the secretariat; which was able to make decisions and operate policies without reference to ordinary party members
Gosplan
The government body responsible for national economic planning
Collectivisation
The taking over by Soviet state of land and property previously owned by the peasants, accompanied by the requirement that the peasants now live and work communally
Second Revolution
The modernisation of the Soviet economy by means of state direction and central control
De-Stalinisation
The movement which begun in 1956, to expose Stalin’s crimes and mistakes made against the party
Cult of personality
The projection through constant propaganda of an individual as a heroic figure above ordinary politics and therefore entitled to unlimited authority
Command economy
A system where all main areas of the economic activity are under central government control and direction
