Key Terms

Question 1

Absolute monarch

Answer 1

A monarch who wields unrestricted political power over the state and its people.

Question 2

Agrarian Socialism

Answer 2

taking estates from landowners and dividing the land between the peasants to be farmed communally.

Question 3

anti-semitic

Answer 3

being prejudiced against and persecuting jews

Question 4

apparat

Answer 4

The party ‘apparatus’ or administrative system

Question 5

autocratic

Answer 5

Having no limits on a ruler’s power.

Question 6

Black hundreds

Answer 6

nationalist gangs, devoted to ‘Tsar, church and Motherland.’

Question 7

bureaucracy

Answer 7

a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

Question 8

burzhui

Answer 8

anyone considered a hindrance to worker or peasant prosperity

Question 9

Capital accumulation

Answer 9

building up money reserves in order to invest

Question 10

capitalism

Answer 10

private enterprise, which includes making money out of a capital investment.

Question 11

Central committee

Answer 11

elected by the party congress and, in turn, elected the Politburo between each party congress.

Question 12

Cheka

Answer 12

the name given to the Bolshevik secret police

Question 13

civil servant

Answer 13

someone working for the government.

Question 14

civil society/institutions and rule of law

Answer 14

all members of society a society where all members enjoy the protection of laws, which are applied equally and fairly, while organisations exist in which the people of the country can express their views and influence decisions.

Question 15

closed court sessions

Answer 15

a trial held in secret to which no observers were permitted and where no reporting was allowed.

Question 16

command economy

Answer 16

making the government responsible for economic coordination

Question 17

conscription

Answer 17

compulsory enlistment of a person into military service

Question 18

constitution

Answer 18

set of rules by which a country is governed

Question 19

constitutional monarch

Answer 19

a monarch who rules in conjunction with an elected assembly and whose powers are limited by that assembly.

Question 20

cottage industry

Answer 20

work done in the worker’s own home or a small workshop

Question 21

Dacha

Answer 21

a second home in the country often used by russians in the summer.

Question 22

democratic centralism

Answer 22

communist idea of democracy whereby members of the local soviets were elected who, in turn, chose those who would sit on higher-level soviets and the All Russian Congress of the Soviets.

Question 23

dual power

Answer 23

whereby Russia was governed by an alliance of the Provisional Government and the Soviet

Question 24

Duma

Answer 24

an elected governing assembly; a state or national duma is usually capitalised, while town dumas are lower-case.

Question 25

edict

Answer 25

an official order issued by a person of authority

Question 26

electorial colleges

Answer 26

in a system of electoral colleges, individuals vote for others who then cast votes on their behalf.

Question 27

emancipation

Answer 27

freeing from bondage

Question 28

former people

Answer 28

dispossessed old elites who had no place in the new Russia

Question 29

general strike

Answer 29

a strike that involves all workers so that the country is at a standstill.

Question 30

Gosplan

Answer 30

the state general planning commission (1921-91) helped coordinate economic development and, from 1925, drafted economic plans.

Question 31

great turn

Answer 31

the move from NEP to the five-year plans and collectivisation of agriculture entailed a move to central planning and a ‘command economy’

Question 32

gulags

Answer 32

economic colonies where millions of prisoners were used to dig mines and canals, build railways and clear forests.

Question 33

Holy Synod

Answer 33

A group of bishops, which forms the ruling body of the Orthodox church

Question 34

indirect voting

Answer 34

a citizen elects a delegate to vote in the general election on their behalf.

Question 35

Intelligentsia

Answer 35

the more educated members of Russian society, including writers and philosophers with both humanitarian and nationalist concerns.

Question 36

Internal market demand

Answer 36

the desire and ability to buy the products of manufacturing within the country.

Question 37

Kolkhoz

Answer 37

a collective operated by a number of peasant families on state-owned land.

Question 38

Komunalki

Answer 38

communal family dwellings formed of formally private apartments that were resettled shortly after the revolutions.

Question 39

Kulak

Answer 39

a prosperous landed peasant

Question 40

Landowning elite

Answer 40

those who owned land and who were a privileged minority in Russian society.

Question 41

Land-Lease

Answer 41

a programme under which the USA supplied the USSR with food and wartime material between 1941-45

Question 42

mandate

Answer 42

the authority to carry out a policy; this is usually given by the electorate to a party or candidate that wins an election.

Question 43

martial law

Answer 43

an extreme measure involving the use of military force; military leaders are used to enforce the law and normal civil liberties are suspended.

Question 44

military colony

Answer 44

where the conscripts lived and trained, all under strict military discipline.

Question 45

mir

Answer 45

a peasant commune

Question 46

mortgage

Answer 46

involves borrowing money by providing a guarantee

Question 47

national ideology

Answer 47

a belief in the strength of the country, language and traditions

Question 48

nationalisation

Answer 48

taking businesses out of private hands and placing them under state control.

Question 49

nepmen

Answer 49

speculative traders who bought up the produce from peasants to sell in the towns, and consumer items in the towns to sell in the peasant market - making a profit on both transactions

Question 50

nomenklatura

Answer 50

a category of people who held key positions in areas such as government, industry, agriculture and education, appointed by the Communist Party in the region.

Question 51

Orthodox church

Answer 51

following a split in the Christian church, the eastern orthodox church developed its own beliefs and rituals.

Question 52

Over-Procurator

Answer 52

appointed by the Tsar from the laity; this was the highest church official.