Russia Case Study Vocab

Question 1

A Just Russia

Answer 1

A small party in the Russian Duma with a social-democratic orientation

Question 2

asymmetric federalism

Answer 2

A system in which power is divided unevenly among regional bodies – for example some regions are given greater power over taxation or language rights than others, a more likely outcome in a country with significant ethnic divisions.

Question 3

Caucasus

Answer 3

Southwest Russia, near the Black Sea and Turkey, where there is a diverse mixture of non-Slavic peoples with distinct languages and customs as well as a much stronger historical presence of Isalm than Orthodox Christianity.

Question 4

Chechnya

Answer 4

Russian republic that has been a source of military conflict since 1991.

Question 5

Cheka

Answer 5

Soviet secret police created by Lenin; precursor to the KGB.

Question 6

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Answer 6

A loosely integrated body that incorporates many former Soviet republics.

Question 7

Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)

Answer 7

Successor party in Russia to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Question 8

Duma

Answer 8

Lower house of the Russian legislature

Question 9

Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)

Answer 9

Economic and political union among several former Soviet states.

Question 10

Federal Security Service (FSB)

Answer 10

Successor to the KGB, the Russian intelligence agency.

Question 11

Federation Council

Answer 11

Upper house of the Russian legislature

Question 12

glasnost

Answer 12

Literally, “openness”; the policy of political liberalization implemented in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

Question 13

insider privatization

Answer 13

A process in Russia whereby the former nomenklatura directors of firms were able to acquire the largest number of shares when those firms were privatized.

Question 14

KGB

Answer 14

Soviet secret police force charged with domestic and foreign intelligence.

Question 15

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Answer 15

Oligarch arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to the Putin administration

Question 16

Kremlin

Answer 16

Eleventh-century fortress in the heart of Moscow that has been the historical seat of Russian state power

Question 17

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Answer 17

Russian revolutionary who led the 1917 Russian Revolution and headed to the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1924.

Question 18

Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR)

Answer 18

Political party in Russia with a nationalist and antidemocratic orientation.

Question 19

Dimitry Medvedev

Answer 19

President of Russia from 2008 to 2012; prime minister of Russia from 2012 to 2020; current head of the United Russia Party

Question 20

Mikhail Mishustin

Answer 20

Prime minister of Russia since 2020

Question 21

Alexei Navalny

Answer 21

Political activist who was detained repeatedly for his opposition to Putin and United Russia; he died under mysterious circumstances in a Siberian prison in February 2024

Question 22

nomenklatura

Answer 22

Politically sensitive or influential jobs in the state, society, or economy that were staffed by people chosen or approved by the Communist Party

Question 23

oligarchs

Answer 23

Russian people noted for their control of large amounts of the Russian economy (including the media), their close ties to the government, and the accusations of corruption surrounding their rise to power

Question 24

Orthodox Christianity

Answer 24

A variant of Christianity separate from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; originally centered in Byzantium (now roughly modern-day Turkey)

Question 25

parties of power

Answer 25

Russian parties created by political elites to support their political aspirations; typically lacking any ideological orientation

Question 26

perestroika

Answer 26

Literally, “restructuring”; the policy of political and economic liberalization implemented in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s

Question 27

Politburo

Answer 27

Top policy-making and executive body of the Communist Party

Question 28

Vladimir Putin

Answer 28

Current president of Russia, as of 2012; also president of Russia from 1999 to 2008; prime minister from 2008 to 2012

Question 29

Rus

Answer 29

Origin of the word Russia, thought to refer to Vikings who settled the region in the ninth century C.E.

Question 30

shock therapy

Answer 30

A process of rapid marketization

Question 31

siloviki

Answer 31

“Men of power” who have their origins in the security agencies and are close to President Putin

Question 32

soviets

Answer 32

Name given to workers’ councils that sprang up in 1917

Question 33

Joseph Stalin

Answer 33

Succeeded Lenin as head of the Soviet Union until his death in 1953

Question 34

tsar

Answer 34

Russian word for emperor (also czar, from Latin Caesar)

Question 35

United Russia

Answer 35

Main political party in Russia and supporter of Vladimir Putin

Question 36

Yabloko

Answer 36

Small party in Russia that advocated democracy and a liberal political-economic system

Question 37

Boris Yeltsin

Answer 37

President of Russia from 1991 to 1999