Russia Flashcards
Boris Yeltsin
The first president of of the Russian Federation.
“Shock therapy”
Reforms by Yeltsin that pointed the country in the direction of democracy and a free-market economy.
Oligarchy
A small group of family members and advisors who took control from the weakened president.
Vladimir Putin
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.
Demiti Medvedev
President after Putin stepped down the first time. Between 2008-2012.
Nomenklutura
An ordered path from local party soviets to the commanding heights of leadership.
The process of party members selecting promising recruits from lower levels.
Tsars
The leaders of Russia before 1917. Autocratic rule.
Marxism-Leninism
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Democratic centralism
Power centered in one place.
Stalinism
Changed the regime to totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
A more complete, invasive form of strong-man rule than the tsars ever were able to implement.
Constitution of 1993
Created a three-branch government, with a strong president, a prime minister, the Duma, and a Constitutional Court.
Duma
The lower house of the legislature. Checked the power of the president.
Cultural heterogeneity
Russia is home to people of wide cultural diversity.
Slavophile
“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.
Westerners
Took ideas from Europe: industrialization, economic development, technological innovation.
Tsar Peter the Great
In the late 17th and early 18th century he introduced western technology and culture in attempt to increase Russia’s power and influence.
Catherine the Great
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.
V.I. Lenin’s Bolcheviks
Renamed Russia the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (U.S.S.R.).
Statism
Russians came to value a strong state that could protect them from their geographic vulnerabilities.
Glasnost
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.
What was the revolution is 1917 called?
The Bolshevik Revolution
When did the Tsars rule Russia?
14th to the early 20th century.
When did the Communist Party rule Russia?
Communist rule began in 1917.
When did Russia change to procedural democracy and a free market?
- Russia switched to the Russian Federation.
Russian Orthodox Church
The tsars headed the church, so that were seen as both political and religious leaders.
Decembrist Revolt of 1825
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.
Crimean War
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.
Zemstvas
Regional assemblies set up by Alexander 1.
Bolsheviks
Lenin’s followers. They took control of the government in late 1917.
White Army
Led by Russian military leaders and funded by the Allied Powers.
Red Army
Led by Lenin.
When was the civil was between the White Army and the Red Army?
- The Reds won in 1920.
New Economic Policy
Instituted by Lenin. Allowed a great deal of private ownership to exist under a centralized leadership.
Central Committee
Most top governmental officials belong to it. 300 people who meet twice a year.
Politburo
The heart and soul of the Communist Party.
“Collective farms”
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.
Kulaks
The peasants, particularly those who owned larger farms, who resisted the “collective farms.”
Five Year Plan by Stalin
Set ambitious goals for production of heavy industry, such as oil, steel, and electricity.
Gosplan
The Central State Planning Commission.
Stalinism
This two-pronged program of collectivization and industrialization, carried out by central planning, and executed with force and brutality.
Nikita Khrushchev
After Stalin died in 1953, Nikita was chosen as party secretary and primer of the U.S.S.R.
Secret speech
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.
deStalinization
A process that led to reforms, such a loosening government censorship of the press, decentralization of economics decision making, and restructuring of collective farms.
Leonid Brezhnev
Ended the reforms.
Mikhail Gorbachev
A young reformer who replaced Brezhnev who died 1982. Very open to western-style reforms.
Democratization
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.
Perestroika
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.
