Soviet Union 1917-1914

Question 1

abdication

Answer 1

abdication the resignation of a monarch from their political role

Question 2

agrarian

Answer 2

agrarian relating to the land, especially the use of land for farming

Question 3

apparatchik

Answer 3

apparatchik Soviet bureaucrat; term used to describe the new kind of civil servant who emerged during the 1920s and 1930s; derived from the notion of complete loyalty to the state apparatus

Question 4

autocracy

Answer 4

autocracy government by a single person or small group that has unlimited power or authority, or the power or authority of such a person or group

Question 5

belligerents

Answer 5

belligerents parties fighting in a war

Question 6

Bolsheviks

Answer 6

Bolsheviks a revolutionary political party begun by Lenin after splitting with the Mensheviks in 1903

Question 7

bourgeois

Answer 7

bourgeois belonging to or typical of the middle class

Question 8

bourgeois specialist

Answer 8

bourgeois specialist a term used by the Bolsheviks after taking power in 1917, to denote people who had been associated with the previous regimes

Question 9

Central Executive Committee

Answer 9

Central Executive Committee elected from the Bolshevik/Communist Party Congress, it was in theory the major policy-making body of the Party; in reality its functions and direction were taken over by the Politburo; lost its real influence over Bolshevik policy within four days of the October/November coup

Question 10

Cheka

Answer 10

Cheka Extraordinary Commission against Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation, its aim was to find and eliminate ‘enemies of the state’. During the civil war its activities became so notorious it was referred to as ‘the Red Terror’. The forefather of the KGB, it was shut down in 1922 and replaced by the GPU (State Political Administration).

Question 11

collaborator

Answer 11

collaborator a person who works with an enemy

Question 12

Comintern

Answer 12

Comintern abbreviation of Communist International – formed in Moscow in 1919, its purpose was to link and coordinate the efforts of all Communist parties throughout the world in the effort to spread the revolution

Question 13

command economy

Answer 13

command economy a planned economy, directed by the central government through Gosplan

Question 14

Constituent Assembly

Answer 14

Constituent Assembly a political body promised by the Provisional Government, whose role was to draw up a new constitution for Russia. The November 1918 election results for the Constituent Assembly showed a lack of widespread support for the Bolsheviks.

Question 15

defeatism

Answer 15

defeatism a way of thinking or behaving that shows that you have no hope and expect to fail. This was the view Lenin had of Russia’s involvement in World War I.

Question 16

defensist

Answer 16

defensist Bolshevik Party policy which supported the continuation of Russia’s involvement in World War I. Lenin denounced the policy on ideological grounds, arguing that only capitalist powers could gain anything from waging war.

Question 17

deification

Answer 17

deification to make someone or something into a god – i.e. Stalin’s ‘deification’ of Lenin and his deliberate association of himself with Lenin as a means to consolidate his power

Question 18

dialectic

Answer 18

dialectic Bolshevik interpretation of Marxism, which explained the dynamic, evolutionary nature of man in society. It specifically dealt with modes of production.

Question 19

Dual Power

Answer 19

Dual Power the situation which existed in Russia throughout most of 1917 – i.e. the civilian government was essentially in the hands of the Provisional Government, while the Petrograd Soviet also claimed the right to govern; Order No. 1 gave the Petrograd Soviet jurisdiction over the armed forces

Question 20

Duma

Answer 20

Duma the Russian word for elected parliament

Question 21

emasculate

Answer 21

emasculate to take away the power and effectiveness of something

Question 22

Ezhovschina

Answer 22

Ezhovschina the so-called ‘Great Terror’; the climate of fear, suspicion and denunciation which gripped the Soviet Union from 1938; tens of thousands of people fell victim, including many for simply refusing to denounce others; named after Yezhov, Head of the NKVD, who was also one of its victims

Question 23

garrison troops

Answer 23

garrison troops government troops deployed to defend a village, town or city

Question 24

Gosplan

Answer 24

Gosplan State Planning Commission. Formed in 1921 as part of Vesenkha; main task was to prioritise the economic plans for the Soviet Union by setting guidelines and production targets.

Question 25

gulag

Answer 25

**gulag** the system of detention camps scattered about the eastern Siberian regions of the Soviet Union. Gulags had been used by the Tsars from the beginning of the nineteenth century, but they were most famously used by Stalin in the 1930s to exile/punish political enemies.

Question 26

hierarchy

Answer 26

**hierarchy** a system in which members of a society are ranked according to relative status or authority

Question 27

insurrection

Answer 27

**insurrection** an organised attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence

Question 28

intelligentsia

Answer 28

**intelligentsia** highly educated people in a society, especially those interested in the arts and politics

Question 29

Kadets

Answer 29

**Kadets** political party, also known as the Constitutional Democrats. The first liberal party formed in Russia to implement the reforms outlined by the Tsar in 1905\.

Question 30

kulaks

Answer 30

**kulaks** wealthy peasants who were seen as dubious characters in the village, characterised as greedy, they owned land and employed others to work for them

Question 31

mixed economy

Answer 31

**mixed economy** an economic system in which some industries are controlled privately and some by the government

Question 32

Nepmen

Answer 32

**Nepmen** the New Economic Policy created new bourgeois groups within society, including Nepmen – private traders and middlemen – who came to control the majority of the retail trade

Question 33

NKVD

Answer 33

**NKVD** the Peoples’ Commissariat for Internal Affairs; replaced OGPU (Unified State Political Administration) – which had replaced the GPU in 1924 following the creation of the Soviet Union – as the internal security force; used by Stalin to remove enemies from within the Party, the armed forces, the state bureaucracy and the general community

Question 34

nomenklatura

Answer 34

**nomenklatura** the system whereby influential posts in government and industry were filled by Communist Party appointees

Question 35

Octobrists

Answer 35

**Octobrists** political party; group of liberal-minded politicians formed to implement the reforms of the Tsar in 1905; more conservative than the Kadets, and took their name from the October Manifesto

Question 36

people’s courts

Answer 36

**people’s courts** courts made up of members of the proletariat

Question 37

Petrograd Soviet

Answer 37

**Petrograd Soviet** representative body of workers and soldiers in Petrograd; re-emerged in 1917 and came to challenge the Provisional Government for control of the Russian state

Question 38

pig-iron

Answer 38

**pig-iron** a type of iron that is not pure

Question 39

pogrom

Answer 39

**pogrom** the organised persecution or massacre of a particular ethnic group

Question 40

Politburo

Answer 40

**Politburo** controlling committee of the Bolshevik (later Communist) Party; made up of senior Party members, it ran the Party and determined government policy on internal and international matters; in 1925 the Communist Party Congress was told the Politburo was the highest institution in the country

Question 41

Presidium

Answer 41

**Presidium** the executive body of the Supreme Soviet

Question 42

proletariat

Answer 42

**proletariat** the Marxist term for the working class

Question 43

Provisional Government

Answer 43

**Provisional Government** temporary civilian government formed from the State Duma following the February/March Revolution; saw its major function as maintaining stable government until elections could be held for the Constituent Assembly

Question 44

purge

Answer 44

**purge** to remove people from an organisation

Question 45

Red Army

Answer 45

**Red Army** army of the Bolsheviks during the civil war period; initially a rabble, with the enthusiasm and organisational genius of Trotsky it became more disciplined and efficient

Question 46

Red Guards

Answer 46

**Red Guards** Bolshevik militia which later became the Red Army

Question 47

revolution

Answer 47

**revolution** a change in the way a country is governed, usually to a different political system and often using violence or war

Question 48

shock brigades

Answer 48

**shock brigades** groups of young workers used by the state to set an example of correct work habits; competed with other groups to improve output and were never absent from work; their example was used to put pressure upon fellow workers

Question 49

show trials

Answer 49

**show trials** public trials of prominent ‘enemies’ of the Soviet state from within the Party membership; used by Stalin to eliminate possible opponents and consolidate his power, especially in the 1930s

Question 50

smychka

Answer 50

**smychka** the Leninist notion of the cooperation between peasants and urban workers

Question 51

Social Democratic Workers’ Party

Answer 51

**Social Democratic Workers’ Party** political party formed in Minsk in 1898 by splinter Marxist groups; stressed the importance of the industrial workers in the fight against the autocracy

Question 52

socialisation

Answer 52

**socialisation** learning to behave in a way that was acceptable to society

Question 53

socialism

Answer 53

**socialism** the set of beliefs that states that all people are equal and should share equally in a country’s money, or the political systems based on these beliefs

Question 54

Socialist Realism

Answer 54

**Socialist Realism** artistic movement of the late 1920s, 1930s; major elements were the depiction of the working people involved in the progress of communism; strength, joy and a sense of common purpose were important characteristics

Question 55

Socialist Revolutionaries

Answer 55

**Socialist Revolutionaries** political party; political agitators who grew out of the reforms of Alexander II in the 1860s

Question 56

soviet

Answer 56

**soviet** a committee of workers

Question 57

Sovnarkom

Answer 57

**Sovnarkom** the Council of People’s Commissars; in theory the executive and legislative organ of the Soviet state, this institution was actually controlled by the Bolshevik (later Communist) Party

Question 58

suffrage

Answer 58

**suffrage** the right to vote in an election

Question 59

Supreme Soviet

Answer 59

**Supreme Soviet** chief legislative body of the Soviet Union under the 1936 Constitution; divided into two houses – the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of the Nationalities; power was actually limited with most legislation being generated by the Politburo

Question 60

tenure

Answer 60

**tenure** the legal ownership of land

Question 61

troika

Answer 61

**troika** a group of three people, especially government officials

Question 62

Tsar

Answer 62

**Tsar** Russian word for ruler

Question 63

ultimatum

Answer 63

**ultimatum** a threat in which a person or group of people are warned that if they do not do a particular thing, something unpleasant will happen to them

Question 64

Whites

Answer 64

**Whites** forces that opposed the Bolsheviks during the civil war; lacked a common purpose and leadership, were scattered throughout Russia and often fought among themselves