Russian Revolution
Sovnarkum
council of people's commissars. SNK was a government institution formed shortly after october rev 1917. Highest government authority of executive power under the Soviet system.
Politburo
created in Russia by the Bolshevik Party in 1917 to provide strong and continuous leadership during the Russian Revolution.
Cossacks
group of predominantly East Slavic-speaking people who became known as members of autonomous, semi-military communities, predominantly located in Ukraine and in Russia.
Nicholas II
inherited the throne when his father, Alexander III, died in 1894. Nicholas II's handling of Bloody Sunday and World War I incensed his subjects and led to his abdication. Bolsheviks executed him on July 17, 1918, in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Kronstadt Rebellion
major unsuccessful uprising against the bolsheviks in the later years of the Russian Civil War. Reason why it loosened control of the Russian economy with the NEP
Stolypin
monarchists and hoped to strengthen the throne. last major statesmen of imperial russia with clearly defined public policies and the determination to undertake major reforms
Communist Party
new name given to the Bolshevik Party; Lenin also moved the capital of the USSR to Moscow.
Grigorii Zinoviev
revolutionary who worked closely with Lenin in the Bolshevik Party before the Russian Revolution of 1917 and became a central figure in the Communist Party leadership in the Soviet Union in the 1920s.
OGPU
secret police of the soviet union from 1923-1934
Sovhozy
state-owned farm
Bolsheviks
A faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. They were the majority faction in a crucial vote, hence their name. They ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. They came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and founded the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic which would later in 1922 become the chief constituent of the Soviet Union.
Petrograd Soviet
Capital of Russian Empire. Rival power Provisional Government.
Kolkhozy
Collective farm in USSR. 1000-7000 acres with 100 or more families who were paid based on quality and quantity of labour contributed.
Duma
Council assemblies which were created by the Tsar of Russia. Simply, it is a form of Russian governmental institution that was formed during the reign of the last Tsar, Nicholas II.
Bloody Sunday
Death toll 200, wounded 800. never reached winter palace. asked for working day to be cut to eight hours,right to strike, and election of a constituent assembly
October Manifesto
October 30 1950 in Russian history that marked the end of unlimited autocracy in Russia. Promised civil liberties, establish broad franchise, create a legislative body (Duma). Satisfied moderate participants in the revolution. Duma only had limited control.
Provisional Government
Provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up to manage a political transition, generally in the cases of new nations, or following the collapse of the previous governing regime.Provisional governments maintain power until a new government can be appointed by a regular political process, which is generally an election.
Rasputin
Rasputin became a wanderer and eventually entered the court of Czar Nicholas II because of his alleged healing abilities. Known for his prophetic powers, he became a favorite of the Nicholas's wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, but his political influence was minor. Rasputin became swept up in the events of the Russian Revolution and met a brutal death at the hands of assassins in 1916.
Sergei Witte
author of the october manifesto of 1905 and chairman of the council of ministers of the russian empire.
Collectivization
Policy forced individual peasant households into collective farms called "kolkhozes" 1920-1930 in hopes of producing more grain.
Nicolay Bukharin
Marxist theoretician and economist, who was a prominent leader of the Communist International (Comintern).
Permanent Revolution
Marxist theory. explanation by Trotsky for how socialist revolutions could occur in societies that had not achieved advanced capitalism.
Bourgeoisie
Middle class, capitalist class who owns most of society's wealth and means of production
Constitution of 1936
The 1936 Soviet constitution, adopted on December 5, 1936, and also known as the Stalin constitution, redesigned the government of the Soviet Union. Beginning in 1936, December 5 was celebrated as Soviet Constitution day in the USSR until the 1977 Soviet Constitution moved the day to October 7.
Kulaks
They were a category of relatively affluent farmers in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union. The word originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire who emerged from the peasantry and became wealthy following the Stolypin reform, which began in 1906. The label was broadened in 1918 to include any peasant who resisted handing over their grain to detachments from Moscow. During 1929-1933, the Stalin leadership's total campaign to collectivize the peasantry meant that "peasants with a couple of cows or five or six acres more than their neighbors" were being labeled as this.
Five Year Plan
They were a series of nation-wide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union. The plans were developed by a state planning committee based on the Theory of Productive Forces that was part of the general guidelines of the Communist Party for economic development. Fulfilling the plan became the watchword of Soviet bureaucracy. The same method of planning was also adopted by most other communist states, including the People's Republic of China. In addition, several capitalist states have emulated the concept of central planning, though in the context of a market economy, by setting integrated economic goals for a finite period of time.
Vladmir Lenin
A Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as the leader of the Russian SFSR from 1917, and then concurrently as Premier of the Soviet Union from 1922, until his death. Politically a Marxist, his theoretical contributions to Marxist thought are known as _, which coupled with Marxian economic theory have collectively come to be known as Marxism-_.
Constitutional Democrats
A Russian party formed in October, 1905, called Cadets from its abbreviated name for members of the Constitutional-Democratic Party, and also known as the "Party of the People's Freedom".The Cadet party were reformists who sought to retain the monarchy but establish parliamentry rule over Russia.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
1848 - Marx and fellow German thinker Friedrich Engels published "The Communist Manifesto," which introduced their concept of socialism as a natural result of the conflicts inherent in the capitalist system.
Mensheviks
A faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1904 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. The dispute originated at the Second Congress of that party, ostensibly over minor issues of party organization. Neither side held a consistent majority over the course of the congress. The split proved to be long-standing and had to do both with pragmatic issues based in history such as the failed revolution of 1905, and theoretical issues of class leadership, class alliances, and bourgeois democracy. While both factions believed that a "bourgeois democratic" revolution was necessary, this one generally tended to be more moderate and were more positive towards the "mainstream" liberal opposition.
Socialist Revolutionaries
A group of Marxists who believed that a worldwide revolution would begin in Russia with the peasants; they won the elected of 1917 following the Second Revolution but Lenin arrested them and tried them as enemies of the state.
Social Democrats
A group of Marxists who believed that a worldwide revolution would begin in Russia with the workers; they were divided into the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.
Alexander Kerensky
A respected member of the Duma and a Soviet; he was chosen to be the leader of the provisional government that replaced Nicholas II.
Joseph Stalin
A revolution leader who was cold and impersonal; As party secretary, he worked behind the scenes to appoint his supporters to positions of power; he succeeded Lenin.
Autocrat
A ruler with absolute power; in Russia they were called czars
Totalitarian State
A type of government ruled by a dictator; the government controls every aspect of life; there is one-party rule and surpemacy of the state over the individual. In the USSR, there was collective ownership, centralized planning, censorship and secret police.
General Kornilov
Accused of attempting to overthrow the provisional government established in Russia after Feb Rev of 1917 and to replace it with military dictatorship. Tried to restore discipline and efficiency in disintegrating Russian Army.
"April Theses"
April Theses, Russian Aprelskiye Tezisy, in Russian history, program developed by Lenin during the Russian Revolution of 1917, calling for Soviet control of state power; the theses, published in April 1917, contributed to the July Days uprising and also to the Bolshevik coup d'etat in October 1917.
Romanovs
In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Czar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks, bringing an end to the three-century-old Romanov dynasty.
New Economic Policy
In response to the failing socialist policies, Lenin established a temporary compromise with capitalism; Under the NEP, farmers could sell their surplus, individuals could buy and sell for profit and some private ownership of land and business was allowed.
Order #1
Issued March 1, 1917. Following February Revolution in response to actions taken before by Provisional Committee. Order instructed soldiers and sailors to obey officers if it didn't contradict the Soviet.
"Pravda" (truth)
It is a Russian political newspaper associated with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The newspaper was started by the Russian Revolutionaries during pre-World War I days and emerged as a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution. The newspaper also served as a central organ of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and the CPSU between 1912 and 1991.
Comintern
It is an abbreviation for the Communist International, which is also known as the Third International (1919-1943). It was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State." It was founded after the 1915 Zimmerwald Conference in which Vladimir Lenin had organized the "Zimmerwald Left" against those who refused to approve any statement explicitly endorsing socialist revolutionary action, and after the 1916 dissolution of the Second International.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
It was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, between Russia and the Central Powers marking Russia's exit from World War I. While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year, it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, who were tied up in fighting the Russian Civil War, by renouncing all territorial claims on Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania.
Gulags
It was the Soviet Union government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems during the Stalin era, from the 1930s through the 1950s. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of extrajudicial punishment. It is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union.
Father Gapon
Led the march of bloody sunday.
"What is to be done"
Lenin wrote 1901 - to outline the concept of vanguard revolutionary party run according to principles of democratic centralism
Constituent Assembly
The Russian Constituent Assembly was established in Russia in the wake of the October Revolution of 1917 to form a new constitution after the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government.
Russian Civil War
The battle between the Bolsheviks (Red Army) and their opponents (White Army); the Bolsheviks won, however, 15 million Russians were dead, the economy was in ruins, trade was at a standstill and there was a shortage of skilled labor.
War Communism
The economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War, from 1918 to 1921. According to Soviet historiography, this policy was adopted by the Bolsheviks with the goal of keeping towns and the Red Army stocked with weapons and with food. The system had to be used because the ongoing war disrupted normal economic mechanisms and relations.
Cheka
The first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created on December 20, 1917, after a decree issued by Vladimir Lenin, and was subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky. It was an important military and security arm of the Bolshevik communist government
Stakhanovite
Worker in the former Soviet Union who was exceptionally hardworking and productive
Proletariat
Workers or working-class people regarded collectively. Lowest or one of the lowest economic and social classes in society
Leon Trotsky
a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army. He was initially a supporter of the Menshevik Internationalists faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He joined the Bolsheviks immediately prior to the 1917 October Revolution, and eventually became a leader within the Party. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army as People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. He was a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918-20). He was also among the first members of the Politburo.
July Days
a period in the Russian Revolution during which workers and soldiers of Petrograd staged armed demonstrations against the Provisional Government that resulted in a temporary decline of Bolshevik influence and in the formation of a new Provisional Government, headed by Aleksandr Kerensky. In June dissatisfied Petrograd workers and soldiers, using Bolshevik slogans, staged a demonstration and adopted resolutions against the government. A public reaction set in against the Bolsheviks; they were beaten and arrested, their property destroyed, their leaders persecuted.
Socialism in one-country
a theory put forth by Stalin in 1924 elaborated by Bukharin and adopted by USSR as state policy
