Russian Revolution Vocabulary

Czar Nicholas II

(1868-1918) Czar of Russia (1894-1917). He was overthrown during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Later, he and his family were killed by the revolution's leadership.

Bloody Sunday

1905; peaceful march by russians turned deadly when Czar's guards fire on crowd, killing hundreds

Russian Civil War

1918-1920: conflict in which the Red Army successfully defended the newly formed Bolshevik government against various Russian and interventionist anti-Bolshevik armies. Red vs. White Army.

Great Terror

1934- 1938 The worst time of Stalin's purge trials when the most counterrevolutionaries were killed by the KGB/ Cheka

War Communism

A system introduced under Bolshevik rule after 1917 which involved land being seized and redistributed, factories given to the workers, banks being nationalized, and church property being granted to the state. This was enforced by the Cheka.

Rasputin

An uneducated Siberian preached (nicknamed Rasputin, the Degenerate) who claimed to have mysterious healing powers. He could stop the bleeding of Czarina Alexandra's son--possibly through hypnosis--and was thus able to gain influence in the czar's court, much to the dismay of top ministers and aristocrats, who finally arranged for his murder. The czarina's relationship with Rasputin did much to discredit Czar Nicholas's rule.

Kornilov Coup

Attempted Coup by General Lavr Kornilov to try and topple Aleksandr Kerensky in August/September, 1917, in between the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the October Revolution. Kornilov asks Bolsheviks for help.

Treaty of Rapallo

Between Germany and Soviet Union in 1922. Established normal diplomatic relations with each other. Germany was struggling with the Peace Treaty requirements to which the Soviets had not been a party. There was much trading between the two countries. Even sent German officers to help train the Red Army. Relationship caused much apprehension in the West.

Leon Trotsky

Lead the Bolsheviks of Russian along side Lenin. He was a spellbinding revolutionary orator and independent racial Marxist, who brilliantly executed the Bolshevik seizure of power by convincing the Petrograd Soviet to form a special military-revolutionary committee and make him its leader. His soldiers joined with the Bolsheviks to overtake members of the provisional government and win the vote of the Congress of soviets. He was also leader of the Red Army in the civil war. Lenin wants Trotsky to take power after him, but Stalin ousts him.

The July Days

People are mad that things aren't changing fast enough, so there is an uprising at Petrograd; makes provisional government weak. The Provisional government blames Lenin and Lenin is forced to flee.

Bolsheviks

Radical Marxist political party founded by Vladimir Lenin in 1903. Under Lenin's leadership, the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917 during the Russian Revolution. (See also Lenin, Vladimir.) (p. 761)

April Theses

Radical document calls (1) for Russia to withdraw from the war, (2) for the soviets to seize power on behalf of workers and poor peasants, and (3) for all private land to be nationalized.

Joseph Stalin

Russian leader who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist Party and created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition (1879-1953)

Brest-Litovsk Treaty

Signed between the revolutionary government of Russia and Germany in March 1918; Russia withdrew from World War I and granted substantial territories to Germany in return for peace.

Five-Year Plan

Stalin's economic policy to rebuild the Soviet economy after WWI. tried to improve heavy industry and improve farm output, but resulted in famine

Bukharin

Stalin's first 'right hand man' who he works with to take out Trotsky, Kamenev, Zenoviev. Stalin eventually also has him killed for being a 'secret counter-revolutionary'

Peace, Land, and Bread

The slogan used by Lenin to win the support of the people; Peace appealed to the soldiers; Land appealed to the peasants; and Bread appealed to the workers.

Kulaks

They were the better off peasants. Stalin instructed party workers to liquidate them as a class. Stripped of land and livestock, the kulaks were generally not even permitted to join the collective farms. Many starved or were deported to forced labor camps for "re-education." (963)

Great Purge

a campaign of terror in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, in which Joseph Stalin sought to eliminate all Communist Party members and other citizens who threatened his power

Totalitarianism

a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Red Terror

brutal campaign in which opponents of Bolsheviks were killed

Reds, Whites, Greens

colors of factiones

Lenin

founded the Communist Party in Russia and set up the world's first Communist Party dictatorship. He led the October Revolution of 1917, in which the Communists seized power in Russia. He then ruled the country until his death in 1924.

Alexander Krensky

headed provisional government; decided to carry on war to preserve Russia's honor

CHEKA

secret police, formed by Lenin

Collectivization

system in which private farms were eliminated, instead, the government owned all the land while the peasants worked on it.

Petrograd

Capital city of Russia, during the beginning of March 1917, a series of strikes led by working-class women broke out here. "March Revolution"

October Revolution

Leon Trotsky's red army took over the winter palace and arrested Kerensky and the provisional government. Russia was controlled by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who renamed themselves the communist party.

NEP

New Economic Policy, (1921) allowed capitalist ventures, state kept control of banks, foreign trade, and large industries, small businesses were allowed to reopen for private profit stopped harassing peasants for grain, and peasants held on to small plots of land and sold surplus

Provisional Government

The government established in 1917 which replaced Nicholas II when he abdicated. The only mistake of this government was not getting Russia out of the brutal World War I.

February Revolution

of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It occurred March 8-12 (February 23-27 Old Style) and its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The non-Communist Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov replaced the Tsar. After the July Days, Lvov was succeeded by Alexander Kerensky. The Provisional Government was an alliance between liberals and socialists who wanted to instigate political reform, creating a democratically-elected executive and constituent assembly. This revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any real leadership or formal planning. The tensions that had built up for so long finally exploded into a revolution, and the western city of Petrograd (called Saint Petersburg prior to the First World War) became the focal point of activity.[1] The February Revolution was followed in the same year by the October Revolution, bringing Bolshevik rule and a change in Russia's social structure, and paving the way for the USSR. The two revolutions constituted a change in the composition of the country: the first overthrew the Tsar, and the second instituted a new form of government

Golags

the network of Labor camps in the soviet Union. Where Kulaks are sent

Russo-Japanese War

was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea.