Russia

Question 1

Boris Yeltsin

Answer 1

The first president of of the Russian Federation.

Question 2

“Shock therapy”

Answer 2

Reforms by Yeltsin that pointed the country in the direction of democracy and a free-market economy.

Question 3

Oligarchy

Answer 3

A small group of family members and advisors who took control from the weakened president.

Question 4

Vladimir Putin

Answer 4

First elected in 2000 and 2004 without much conflict. Worked to increase centralized power. Followed the constitution of 1993 by stepping down after two terms, but announced his intentions to stay on as prime minister under new president Medvedev.

Question 5

Demiti Medvedev

Answer 5

President after Putin stepped down the first time. Between 2008-2012.

Question 6

Nomenklutura

Answer 6

An ordered path from local party soviets to the commanding heights of leadership.
The process of party members selecting promising recruits from lower levels.

Question 7

Tsars

Answer 7

The leaders of Russia before 1917. Autocratic rule.

Question 8

Marxism-Leninism

Answer 8

…

Question 9

Democratic centralism

Answer 9

Power centered in one place.

Question 10

Stalinism

Answer 10

Changed the regime to totalitarianism

Question 11

Totalitarianism

Answer 11

A more complete, invasive form of strong-man rule than the tsars ever were able to implement.

Question 12

Constitution of 1993

Answer 12

Created a three-branch government, with a strong president, a prime minister, the Duma, and a Constitutional Court.

Question 13

Duma

Answer 13

The lower house of the legislature. Checked the power of the president.

Question 14

Cultural heterogeneity

Answer 14

Russia is home to people of wide cultural diversity.

Question 15

Slavophile

Answer 15

“Lover of slavs” tradition has led to a pride in Slavic costumes, language, religion, and history that causes Russia to resist outside influences. They value isolation and nationalism. Resisted influence from the West.

Question 16

Westerners

Answer 16

Took ideas from Europe: industrialization, economic development, technological innovation.

Question 17

Tsar Peter the Great

Answer 17

In the late 17th and early 18th century he introduced western technology and culture in attempt to increase Russia’s power and influence.

Question 18

Catherine the Great

Answer 18

Came from Germany. Ruled Russia during the late 18th century. She managed to gain warm water access to the Black Sea.
Became known as an “enlightened despot” or one who rulers absolutely, but with clear goals for the country in mind.

Question 19

V.I. Lenin’s Bolcheviks

Answer 19

Renamed Russia the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (U.S.S.R.).

Question 20

Statism

Answer 20

Russians came to value a strong state that could protect them from their geographic vulnerabilities.

Question 21

Glasnost

Answer 21

A new emphasis on freedom of speech and press.
A losening/ tightening system that tried to incorporate democracy and a free market economy.
Allowed more open discussion of political, social and economic issues.

Question 22

What was the revolution is 1917 called?

Answer 22

The Bolshevik Revolution

Question 23

When did the Tsars rule Russia?

Answer 23

14th to the early 20th century.

Question 24

When did the Communist Party rule Russia?

Answer 24

Communist rule began in 1917.

Question 25

When did Russia change to procedural democracy and a free market?

Answer 25

1991. Russia switched to the Russian Federation.

Question 26

Russian Orthodox Church

Answer 26

The tsars headed the church, so that were seen as both political and religious leaders.

Question 27

Decembrist Revolt of 1825

Answer 27

Russia came into direct contact with the West when Napoleon invaded. Alexander 1 resisted the attack, but at great cost to the empire. Western thought also influenced Russian intellectuals who saw no room for western political institutions to grow under tsars’ absolutism.

Question 28

Crimean War

Answer 28

The Crimean War was a conflict in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia.
The Crimean War convinced many of the tsar’s critics that Russian ways were indeed backward and in need of mejor reform.

Question 29

Zemstvas

Answer 29

Regional assemblies set up by Alexander 1.

Question 30

Bolsheviks

Answer 30

Lenin’s followers. They took control of the government in late 1917.

Question 31

White Army

Answer 31

Led by Russian military leaders and funded by the Allied Powers.

Question 32

Red Army

Answer 32

Led by Lenin.

Question 33

When was the civil was between the White Army and the Red Army?

Answer 33

1918. The Reds won in 1920.

Question 34

New Economic Policy

Answer 34

Instituted by Lenin. Allowed a great deal of private ownership to exist under a centralized leadership.

Question 35

Central Committee

Answer 35

Most top governmental officials belong to it. 300 people who meet twice a year.

Question 36

Politburo

Answer 36

The heart and soul of the Communist Party.

Question 37

“Collective farms”

Answer 37

Stalin replaced the NEP with “collective farms” that were state run and supposedly more efficient. Private ownership was done away with, and the farms were intended to feed workers in the cities who contributed to the industrialization of the nation.

Question 38

Kulaks

Answer 38

The peasants, particularly those who owned larger farms, who resisted the “collective farms.”

Question 39

Five Year Plan by Stalin

Answer 39

Set ambitious goals for production of heavy industry, such as oil, steel, and electricity.

Question 40

Gosplan

Answer 40

The Central State Planning Commission.

Question 41

Stalinism

Answer 41

This two-pronged program of collectivization and industrialization, carried out by central planning, and executed with force and brutality.

Question 42

Nikita Khrushchev

Answer 42

After Stalin died in 1953, Nikita was chosen as party secretary and primer of the U.S.S.R.

Question 43

Secret speech

Answer 43

Given by Nikita Khrushchev in which he reviled the existence of a letter written by Stalin before ehe died. Khrushchev used it to denounce Stalin’s rules and practices.

Question 44

deStalinization

Answer 44

A process that led to reforms, such a loosening government censorship of the press, decentralization of economics decision making, and restructuring of collective farms.

Question 45

Leonid Brezhnev

Answer 45

Ended the reforms.

Question 46

Mikhail Gorbachev

Answer 46

A young reformer who replaced Brezhnev who died 1982. Very open to western-style reforms.

Question 47

Democratization

Answer 47

Gorbachev believed that he could keep the old Soviet structure, including the Communist Party control, but at the same time insert a little democracy into the system.

Question 48

Perestroika

Answer 48

A reform by Gorbachev. It was his most radical, but also his least successful. It transferred many economic powers help by the central government to private hands and the market economy.