Key Terms Flashcards
Geography
The nature and relative arrangement of places and physical features
Population
All the inhabitants of a particular place
St Petersburg
- Known as Petrograd from 1914-1924 and Leningrad from 1924-91
- Capital of the Russian Empire from 1712-1917
Moscow
The current capital of the Russian Federation
Winter Palace
Official residence of the Russian monarchs in St Petersburg, including the Tsars
Russian Upper Classes
- Royalty, nobility, higher clergy: 12.5% of the population
- Staffed most of the Russian government until the February Revolution of 1917
Russian Serfs
- An unfree peasant of the Russian Empire
- Tied to the land they worked on until the abolition in 1861
Russian Middle Classes
- Merchants, bureaucrats, professionals: 1.5% of the population
Agronomist
The profession concerned with applying science and technology to use plants for food, fuel and fibre
Anarchy
The absence of government or authority, usually leading to disorder
Annexation
Taking over the territory of other countries and joining it to own country
Artel
Co-operative association of craftsmen living and working together
Autocracy
System of government where there are no constraints on the power of the ruler
Biological yield
The maximum possible yield of the standing crop in the field at the moment of maximum ripeness
Bourgeoisie
Wealthy middle classes - industrialists, manufacturers, wealthy merchants etc
Burzhooi (bourgeois)
A term of abuse used against employers, officers, landowners, priests, Jews, merchants, or anybody seemingly well-off after 1917
Calendar
Tsarist Russia used the Julian calendar while most of Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar. There was a difference of thirteen days between the two calendars. This symbolises Russia’s backwardness at the time. The Bolshevik government adopted the Gregorian calendar in January 1918.
Capitalism
An economic system based on private enterprise and the profit motive in which the market determines the price of goods, the supply of raw materials, and the distribution of products
Third Section
Secret police set up by Nicholas I, closed down in 1880
Okhrana
Secret police established in 1881
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage; the Soviet secret police from 1917-22
GPU (sometimes OGPU)
The Cheka was renamed the GPU (Main Political Administration) in 1922
MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs)
The secret police in charge of jails and camps in the post-war era
NKVD
The name for the secret police between 1934 and 1943
CIA
United States Central Intelligence Agency, active in the Cold War
Cold War
Post-1945 hostility between the democratic West and the Soviet Union; a war of threats and propaganda rather than actual conflict
Comintern
Communist International, set up in March 1919 to support worldwide revolution
Commissar
Russian word for a minister (socialist government ministers)
Communism
Last stage in Marx’s notion of the evolution of history: everybody would be equal and people would take what they needed from a central pool of goods, people would have more leisure time
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
New name adopted by the Bolshevik Party in 1919
Constituent Assembly
An elected parliament whose main job is to write a constitution which sets out a new system of government including the relationships between the different organs of government, the legal system, and the checks and balances of the system
Corpus
A body of collection of writings
Counter-revolution
When the supporters of the old system of government try to take back power
Desyatina (plural desyatiny)
Russian measurement of land, equivalent to 2.7 acres
Dues
Payments in cash or kind (for example, produce) made by serfs to nobles
Duma
Russian parliament after 1906
Factionalism
Forming of ‘factions’ or groups in the Party which argue about policy and ideology
Faction
A small organised political group within a larger one
Fifth column
A term used to describe enemy sympathisers
Greens
Peasant armies often made up of deserters from the Whites or Reds. Some of these armies fought for the Bolsheviks, some against.
Gulag
An acronym for the Main Administration of Corrective Labour Camps and colonies. Thousands of kulaks were transferred to these camps during collectivisation as means of dekulakisation.
Haemophilia
A condition in which blood does not clot and may cause internal bleeding. Alexei, Nicholas II’s only son, had this condition. It was believed by Alexandra that Rasputin had the ability to heal him.
Historiography
The study of history writing, talking about different schools of thought on a historical subject; how the circumstances in which history is written affect what historians say about the subject
Icon
A religious painting, usually of a holy figure, often on wood and used as an aid to devotion
Institutions
The formal structures on which a society depends, e.g. the government, administrative system, the law, education, or the economy
Intelligentsia
The educated and more enlightened section of Russian society, often critical of the Tsarist regime
Kolkhoz (plural Kolkhozy)
A collective farm. The peasants who lived on these farms were called Kolkhozniks.
Komsomol
Party youth organisation open to those ages between 14 and 28
Kulak
Better-off peasants who owned animals and hired labour
Lend-Lease
US aid to Britain in March 1841, later extended to the USSR
Mir
The peasant commune
MTS
Machine and tractor stations - 2,500 MTS were used to control the countryside and provide machinery and advice
Nationalise
To take industries and banks out of private ownership and put them under the control of the state
Neopatriarchal
A new form of male domination
Nepmen
Traders during the NEP period
Nihilism
From the Latin nihil, meaning ‘nothing’. A philosophy which takes different forms, often denying and rejecting religious and moral principles
Novy Mir
A literary journal in which One Day in the Life of Iván Denisovich and other work representative of Stalinist repression was published
Oligarchy
A state where a small group holds power
Orgburo
Short for Organisation Bureau, which turned Politburo policies into practice
Plebian apparatchiki
Working-class communist officials
Pogrom
An organised, violent attack on the homes and businesses of Jews (often arson, raping and looting)
Politburo
Short for Political Bureau: the top body of the Communist Party making key decisions about policy
Poll tax
Tax on all men of the lower orders. Nobles and clergy were exempt. Abolished in 1883-7.
Popular revolution
A revolution that is accepted and welcomed by the majority of the people in a country. Many of the people may have been involved in carrying out the revolution.
Populists (Narodniks)
Revolutionary group in the 1870s who believed in peasant-based socialism
Proclamation of the Abolition of Serfdom (also referred to as the Emancipation Manifesto)
The document in which Alexander II announced the emancipation to the people, read out by parish priests in March-April 1961
Productionism
Production at any price. Maximising economic output had to be the first priority in the conditions of 1918-22, but it also had a vital ideological dimension.
Proletariat
Industrial workers, typically the exploited lower classes
Real wages
Wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought
Redemption payments
Payments made by peasants to the government to fully redeem the land they had been allocated in the emancipation
Red Guards
Armed militia trained by Bolsheviks
Reds
The Bolsheviks and their supporters
Samizdat
System of secretive publication of banned literature in the USSR
Serfs
Peasants bound to the estates of nobles
Slavophiles
Wanted to preserve Slav culture and the autocratic system of government, saw western values and institutions as unsuited to Russia
Smychka
The alliance between the working class and the peasantry
Socialism
Workers’ control of state. Means of production e.g. factories and machines are owned collectively and run by the state, everybody is equal, and wealth and goods are shared out fairly
Socialist realism
The ideological philosophy that guided literature and the arts after 1934; creative writing and art had to celebrate the achievements of the proletarians and leaders building the new Soviet vision
Soviet
Russian word for council of representatives
Soviet Procuracy
The government bureau concerned with pursuing dissenters accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda
Sovnarkom
Council of the People’s Commissars; the top Bolshevik governing body (30-40 members) set up after the October Revolution of 1917
Statutes of February 19th 1861
Statutes which abolished serfdom
Three-field rotation system
Crops would be grown in two fields while one field was left fallow each year to recover
Total war
A war which is not restricted to the war front and where the economy and lives of citizens are bound up in prosecuting the war
Totalitarian state
A state in which power is concentrated in the hands of one man or small group, exercising excessive control of individuals and denying them fundamental civil and political liberties; monitoring and control of aspects of individuals’ lives carried out by secret police who are accountable only to the political elite. (Stalin’s dictatorship is an example of a totalitarian state)
Troika (plural Troiki)
A three-man commission set up in all regions and territories to consider the cases of those subjected to ‘punitive measures’ (punishment)
Union of Liberation
Liberal organisation established in 1903 pressing for constitutional change and social and political evolution along European lines
Union of Russian People
Right-wing supporters of the Tsar who organised paramilitary groups to attack socialists and Jews
Vesenkha
Supreme Council of National Economy
Vozhd
Russian term for a supreme leader
Warsaw Pact
A military alliance of east European communist states formed in 1955 as a response to the admission of West Germany into NATO
Wehrmacht
The German army
Westernisers
People who believed Russia should adopt certain western values e.g. the rule of law, and develop institutions along the lines of those in Western Europe
Whites
The opponents of the Bolsheviks in the civil war including monarchists, nationalists, liberals, moderate socialists and Socialist Revolutionaries and other groups
White Russians
People who live in the area we now call Belarus
Zemgor
A joint organisation of zemstva and towns to organise care of the wounded and provide hospitals and supply military equipment
Zemstvo (plural Zemstva)
Elected district and provincial councils
Zionist
Someone who supports Zionism; the idea of creating a Jewish national homeland in Palestine
Anti-Semitism
Prejudice or hatred towards Jews
Bolshevik Party
Led by Lenin, this faction broke away from the Social Democratic Workers’ Party in 1903. It seized power in Russia in October 1917.
Bureaucrats
Civil servants who undertake administrative tasks
Central Committee
A body elected by the party congress
Conscription
Forced service, for example in the army
Constitutional monarchy
A monarchy in which the ruler’s power is limited by an elected assembly
Crimean War
A war in 1853-56 in which the British and French fought on Turkey’s behalf against Russia
Dual authority/power
A power-sharing arrangement in 1917 between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet
Edict
An official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority (e.g. the emancipation of the serfs)
Import tariffs
Monetary dues paid to the state when goods are brought into the country
Kadets
Members of the Constitutional Democratic Party who accepted the October Manifesto in 1905
Kronstadt
St Petersburg’s main seaport
Land Captains
Noble officials with extensive local powers, including the right to overrule the local Zemstva
Land and Liberty
An organisation derived from the Populist belief that land should be divided between the peasants
Liberals
Those wanting more personal and economic freedom. Term was often applied to those in favour of representative, elected governments.
Mandate
The authority to carry out a policy
Marxism
A political ideology derived from the theories of Karl Marx, who taught that all history is driven by economic forces which, in turn, create class struggles
Menshevik Party
A Marxist party that split from the Bolsheviks in 1903
Narodnik
The Russian name for a populist (someone who believes in the power of the people)
Nomenklatura
A privileged elite of officials who ran the party machine
Octobrists
A moderate Conservative party, supported by landowners and industrialists, that accepted the October Manifesto
October Manifesto
A document issued by Nicholas II in 1905 promising political reforms following popular unrest about the future of Russia. It promised the formation of a state Duma (passing laws) elected by the people of Russia, and outlined improvements to individual rights and freedoms. Supported by most reformists, particularly liberals and moderate socialists. Many were satisfied by the apparently imminent changes to society and gave the regime some breathing space following the Manifesto.
Provisional Government
The government that ruled the Russian Empire on a temporary basis after the fall of the Tsar in 1917. Deposed by Lenin’s October Revolution.
Purge
A ‘cleaning out of impurities’. Stalin used purges as means of getting rid of his enemies (e.g. The Great Purge/Terror of 1936-38).
The Great Purge/Terror
A campaign of political repression hosted by Stalin from 1936-38. It involved large-scale purge of the communist party and government officials, repression of peasants and the Red Army leadership, widespread police surveillance, imprisonment, and arbitrary executions. Between 600,000 and 3 million people died during the Purge.
Radical
‘Radix’ is the Latin word for ‘root’, hence radical change is fundamental change - from the roots
Reaction
Backward-looking behaviour which meant returning to former (conservative) ways. Alexander III was a reactionary, as shown by his counter reforms.
Russification
The practise of imposing Russian language and culture on national minority groups while repressing their own ethnicities
Show trials
Propagandist trials held in front of an audience for political purpose (Stalin)
Social Democratic Workers’ Party
A Marxist Party founded in 1898. In 1903, it split into the two factions: Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
Socialist Revolutionary Party
A party built on populism, founded in 1901. It supported land redistribution among peasants and advocated terrorist methods, including assassination.
Stakhanovite
A movement named after a miner who broke all records with the amount of coal he mined in one shift in 1935
St Petersburg
The capital of Russia (known as Petrograd from 1914 and later Leningrad)
Trade unions
Organisations which represent workers in negotiations with employers. These were illegal in Russia before 1905.
Tsar
Emperor of Russia. Derived from the Latin word ‘Caesar’ meaning ‘Emperor’.
Universal suffrage
The vote for all adults; in the nineteenth century, this usually meant the vote for all men
War credits
Special loans granted in wartime
Winter Palace
The home of the Tsar in the centre of St Petersburg
