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Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855-1964 > Key Terms > Flashcards

Key Terms Flashcards

1
Q

Geography

A

The nature and relative arrangement of places and physical features

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2
Q

Population

A

All the inhabitants of a particular place

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3
Q

St Petersburg

A
  • Known as Petrograd from 1914-1924 and Leningrad from 1924-91
  • Capital of the Russian Empire from 1712-1917
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4
Q

Moscow

A

The current capital of the Russian Federation

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5
Q

Winter Palace

A

Official residence of the Russian monarchs in St Petersburg, including the Tsars

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6
Q

Russian Upper Classes

A
  • Royalty, nobility, higher clergy: 12.5% of the population

- Staffed most of the Russian government until the February Revolution of 1917

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7
Q

Russian Serfs

A
  • An unfree peasant of the Russian Empire

- Tied to the land they worked on until the abolition in 1861

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8
Q

Russian Middle Classes

A
  • Merchants, bureaucrats, professionals: 1.5% of the population
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9
Q

Agronomist

A

The profession concerned with applying science and technology to use plants for food, fuel and fibre

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10
Q

Anarchy

A

The absence of government or authority, usually leading to disorder

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11
Q

Annexation

A

Taking over the territory of other countries and joining it to own country

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12
Q

Artel

A

Co-operative association of craftsmen living and working together

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13
Q

Autocracy

A

System of government where there are no constraints on the power of the ruler

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14
Q

Biological yield

A

The maximum possible yield of the standing crop in the field at the moment of maximum ripeness

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15
Q

Bourgeoisie

A

Wealthy middle classes - industrialists, manufacturers, wealthy merchants etc

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16
Q

Burzhooi (bourgeois)

A

A term of abuse used against employers, officers, landowners, priests, Jews, merchants, or anybody seemingly well-off after 1917

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17
Q

Calendar

A

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.

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18
Q

Capitalism

A

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

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19
Q

Third Section

A

Secret police set up by Nicholas I, closed down in 1880

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20
Q

Okhrana

A

Secret police established in 1881

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21
Q

Cheka

A

The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage; the Soviet secret police from 1917-22

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23
Q

GPU (sometimes OGPU)

A

The Cheka was renamed the GPU (Main Political Administration) in 1922

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24
Q

MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs)

A

The secret police in charge of jails and camps in the post-war era

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25
Q

NKVD

A

The name for the secret police between 1934 and 1943

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26
Q

CIA

A

United States Central Intelligence Agency, active in the Cold War

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27
Q

Cold War

A

Post-1945 hostility between the democratic West and the Soviet Union; a war of threats and propaganda rather than actual conflict

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28
Q

Comintern

A

Communist International, set up in March 1919 to support worldwide revolution

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29
Q

Commissar

A

Russian word for a minister (socialist government ministers)

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30
Q

Communism

A

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

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31
Q

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)

A

New name adopted by the Bolshevik Party in 1919

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32
Q

Constituent Assembly

A

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

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33
Q

Corpus

A

A body of collection of writings

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34
Q

Counter-revolution

A

When the supporters of the old system of government try to take back power

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35
Q

Desyatina (plural desyatiny)

A

Russian measurement of land, equivalent to 2.7 acres

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36
Q

Dues

A

Payments in cash or kind (for example, produce) made by serfs to nobles

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37
Q

Duma

A

Russian parliament after 1906

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38
Q

Factionalism

A

Forming of ‘factions’ or groups in the Party which argue about policy and ideology

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39
Q

Faction

A

A small organised political group within a larger one

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40
Q

Fifth column

A

A term used to describe enemy sympathisers

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41
Q

Greens

A

Peasant armies often made up of deserters from the Whites or Reds. Some of these armies fought for the Bolsheviks, some against.

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42
Q

Gulag

A

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.

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43
Q

Haemophilia

A

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.

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44
Q

Historiography

A

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

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45
Q

Icon

A

A religious painting, usually of a holy figure, often on wood and used as an aid to devotion

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46
Q

Institutions

A

The formal structures on which a society depends, e.g. the government, administrative system, the law, education, or the economy

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47
Q

Intelligentsia

A

The educated and more enlightened section of Russian society, often critical of the Tsarist regime

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48
Q

Kolkhoz (plural Kolkhozy)

A

A collective farm. The peasants who lived on these farms were called Kolkhozniks.

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49
Q

Komsomol

A

Party youth organisation open to those ages between 14 and 28

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50
Q

Kulak

A

Better-off peasants who owned animals and hired labour

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51
Q

Lend-Lease

A

US aid to Britain in March 1841, later extended to the USSR

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52
Q

Mir

A

The peasant commune

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53
Q

MTS

A

Machine and tractor stations - 2,500 MTS were used to control the countryside and provide machinery and advice

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54
Q

Nationalise

A

To take industries and banks out of private ownership and put them under the control of the state

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55
Q

Neopatriarchal

A

A new form of male domination

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55
Q

Nepmen

A

Traders during the NEP period

56
Q

Nihilism

A

From the Latin nihil, meaning ‘nothing’. A philosophy which takes different forms, often denying and rejecting religious and moral principles

57
Q

Novy Mir

A

A literary journal in which One Day in the Life of Iván Denisovich and other work representative of Stalinist repression was published

58
Q

Oligarchy

A

A state where a small group holds power

59
Q

Orgburo

A

Short for Organisation Bureau, which turned Politburo policies into practice

60
Q

Plebian apparatchiki

A

Working-class communist officials

61
Q

Pogrom

A

An organised, violent attack on the homes and businesses of Jews (often arson, raping and looting)

62
Q

Politburo

A

Short for Political Bureau: the top body of the Communist Party making key decisions about policy

63
Q

Poll tax

A

Tax on all men of the lower orders. Nobles and clergy were exempt. Abolished in 1883-7.

64
Q

Popular revolution

A

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.

65
Q

Populists (Narodniks)

A

Revolutionary group in the 1870s who believed in peasant-based socialism

66
Q

Proclamation of the Abolition of Serfdom (also referred to as the Emancipation Manifesto)

A

The document in which Alexander II announced the emancipation to the people, read out by parish priests in March-April 1961

67
Q

Productionism

A

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.

68
Q

Proletariat

A

Industrial workers, typically the exploited lower classes

69
Q

Real wages

A

Wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought

70
Q

Redemption payments

A

Payments made by peasants to the government to fully redeem the land they had been allocated in the emancipation

71
Q

Red Guards

A

Armed militia trained by Bolsheviks

72
Q

Reds

A

The Bolsheviks and their supporters

73
Q

Samizdat

A

System of secretive publication of banned literature in the USSR

74
Q

Serfs

A

Peasants bound to the estates of nobles

75
Q

Slavophiles

A

Wanted to preserve Slav culture and the autocratic system of government, saw western values and institutions as unsuited to Russia

76
Q

Smychka

A

The alliance between the working class and the peasantry

77
Q

Socialism

A

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

78
Q

Socialist realism

A

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

79
Q

Soviet

A

Russian word for council of representatives

80
Q

Soviet Procuracy

A

The government bureau concerned with pursuing dissenters accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda

81
Q

Sovnarkom

A

Council of the People’s Commissars; the top Bolshevik governing body (30-40 members) set up after the October Revolution of 1917

82
Q

Statutes of February 19th 1861

A

Statutes which abolished serfdom

83
Q

Three-field rotation system

A

Crops would be grown in two fields while one field was left fallow each year to recover

84
Q

Total war

A

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

85
Q

Totalitarian state

A

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)

86
Q

Troika (plural Troiki)

A

A three-man commission set up in all regions and territories to consider the cases of those subjected to ‘punitive measures’ (punishment)

87
Q

Union of Liberation

A

Liberal organisation established in 1903 pressing for constitutional change and social and political evolution along European lines

88
Q

Union of Russian People

A

Right-wing supporters of the Tsar who organised paramilitary groups to attack socialists and Jews

89
Q

Vesenkha

A

Supreme Council of National Economy

90
Q

Vozhd

A

Russian term for a supreme leader

91
Q

Warsaw Pact

A

A military alliance of east European communist states formed in 1955 as a response to the admission of West Germany into NATO

92
Q

Wehrmacht

A

The German army

93
Q

Westernisers

A

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

94
Q

Whites

A

The opponents of the Bolsheviks in the civil war including monarchists, nationalists, liberals, moderate socialists and Socialist Revolutionaries and other groups

95
Q

White Russians

A

People who live in the area we now call Belarus

96
Q

Zemgor

A

A joint organisation of zemstva and towns to organise care of the wounded and provide hospitals and supply military equipment

97
Q

Zemstvo (plural Zemstva)

A

Elected district and provincial councils

98
Q

Zionist

A

Someone who supports Zionism; the idea of creating a Jewish national homeland in Palestine

99
Q

Anti-Semitism

A

Prejudice or hatred towards Jews

100
Q

Bolshevik Party

A

Led by Lenin, this faction broke away from the Social Democratic Workers’ Party in 1903. It seized power in Russia in October 1917.

101
Q

Bureaucrats

A

Civil servants who undertake administrative tasks

102
Q

Central Committee

A

A body elected by the party congress

103
Q

Conscription

A

Forced service, for example in the army

104
Q

Constitutional monarchy

A

A monarchy in which the ruler’s power is limited by an elected assembly

105
Q

Crimean War

A

A war in 1853-56 in which the British and French fought on Turkey’s behalf against Russia

106
Q

Dual authority/power

A

A power-sharing arrangement in 1917 between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet

107
Q

Edict

A

An official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority (e.g. the emancipation of the serfs)

108
Q

Import tariffs

A

Monetary dues paid to the state when goods are brought into the country

109
Q

Kadets

A

Members of the Constitutional Democratic Party who accepted the October Manifesto in 1905

110
Q

Kronstadt

A

St Petersburg’s main seaport

111
Q

Land Captains

A

Noble officials with extensive local powers, including the right to overrule the local Zemstva

112
Q

Land and Liberty

A

An organisation derived from the Populist belief that land should be divided between the peasants

113
Q

Liberals

A

Those wanting more personal and economic freedom. Term was often applied to those in favour of representative, elected governments.

114
Q

Mandate

A

The authority to carry out a policy

115
Q

Marxism

A

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

116
Q

Menshevik Party

A

A Marxist party that split from the Bolsheviks in 1903

117
Q

Narodnik

A

The Russian name for a populist (someone who believes in the power of the people)

118
Q

Nomenklatura

A

A privileged elite of officials who ran the party machine

119
Q

Octobrists

A

A moderate Conservative party, supported by landowners and industrialists, that accepted the October Manifesto

120
Q

October Manifesto

A

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.

121
Q

Provisional Government

A

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.

122
Q

Purge

A

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).

123
Q

The Great Purge/Terror

A

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.

124
Q

Radical

A

‘Radix’ is the Latin word for ‘root’, hence radical change is fundamental change - from the roots

125
Q

Reaction

A

Backward-looking behaviour which meant returning to former (conservative) ways. Alexander III was a reactionary, as shown by his counter reforms.

126
Q

Russification

A

The practise of imposing Russian language and culture on national minority groups while repressing their own ethnicities

127
Q

Show trials

A

Propagandist trials held in front of an audience for political purpose (Stalin)

128
Q

Social Democratic Workers’ Party

A

A Marxist Party founded in 1898. In 1903, it split into the two factions: Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

129
Q

Socialist Revolutionary Party

A

A party built on populism, founded in 1901. It supported land redistribution among peasants and advocated terrorist methods, including assassination.

130
Q

Stakhanovite

A

A movement named after a miner who broke all records with the amount of coal he mined in one shift in 1935

131
Q

St Petersburg

A

The capital of Russia (known as Petrograd from 1914 and later Leningrad)

132
Q

Trade unions

A

Organisations which represent workers in negotiations with employers. These were illegal in Russia before 1905.

133
Q

Tsar

A

Emperor of Russia. Derived from the Latin word ‘Caesar’ meaning ‘Emperor’.

134
Q

Universal suffrage

A

The vote for all adults; in the nineteenth century, this usually meant the vote for all men

135
Q

War credits

A

Special loans granted in wartime

136
Q

Winter Palace

A

The home of the Tsar in the centre of St Petersburg

Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855-1964 (2 decks)

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