Vocab 9

Question 1

Baikal-Amur Mainline

Answer 1

Key central railroad connection completed in the Soviet era (1984)

Question 2

Trans-Siberian RR

Answer 2

A key railroad corridor to the Pacific Ocean completed under the Russian Empire in 1904. It links Russia with the Russian Far East terminus of Vladivostok

Question 3

Permafrost

Answer 3

A cold climate condition of unstable, seasonally frozen ground that limits the growth of vegetation and makes construction difficult

Question 4

Gulag Archipelago

Answer 4

Collection of political prisons and labor camps, where inmates often disappear. Located in Siberia

Question 5

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Answer 5

Loose confederation of self-governing churches in Eastern Europe and Russia that are historically linked to the Byzantine tradition and to the primacy of the patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul)

Question 6

Cossacks

Answer 6

Mobile, slavic-speaking Christians of the southern Russian steppe who were known for their horsemanship (Doth-raki!!!)

Question 7

Taiga

Answer 7

Vegetation type characterized by acidic soils, high permafrost, and slow growing fir trees which are generally small

Question 8

Exclave

Answer 8

A portion of a country’s territory that lies outside of its contiguous land area

Question 9

Glasnost

Answer 9

Policy that called for greater opennes and political participation in the last years of the former Soviet Union

Question 10

Centralized economic planning

Answer 10

Economic system in which the state sets production targets and controls the means of production

Question 11

Autonomous area

Answer 11

Minor political subunits designed to recognize the special status of minority groups within existing republics

Question 12

Bolsheviks

Answer 12

A faction of Russian communism representing interests of industrial workers, who established the former Soviet Union

Question 13

Commonwealth of Independent States

Answer 13

A loose political union of former Soviet Republics (sans Baltic States) established after the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Question 14

Perestroika

Answer 14

Planned economic restructuring in the former Soviet Union, an early move toward a freer market

Question 15

Russification

Answer 15

Soviet policy of resettling Russians into non-Russian portions of the former USSR in order to increase Russian dominance in outlying portions of the former Soviet Union