Soviet history (pre-midterm)
Decree on Land
27 October 1917
First Five-year Plan
Created by Joseph Stalin and implemented from 1928 to 1932. Rapid industrialization was the biggest requirement. Many workers were killed during construction.
May Day, Revolutionary Day
Created by the Istpart. A day to celebrate workers. The US made labor day in response.
Komuch
Czech army. Merged with Siberian army. Created the "people's army". Opposed red army.
To Win or Die
A slogan from the Kronstadt Uprising.
MRC
Military Revolutionary Committee.
War Communism
The Russian policy of nationalizing industry and seizing private land during the civil war.
Gosplan
Agency responsible for economic planning.
Kerensky Offensive
Attempt to regain power for the provisional government by winning WW1.
Bolsheviks
A party of revolutionary Marxists, led by Vladimir Lenin, who seized power in Russia in 1917.
Nomenklatura
A system that was overseen by the orgbiuro, controls who gets into positions of power.
Kornilov Affair
1917 Conservatives threatened to overthrow the Kerensky government. Kerensky leaked the info that ________ was going toward Petrograd, Lenin used it as proof that there was a counter-revolutionary movement.
July Days
3-6 July 1917. Happened in Petrograd. Workers and soldiers protest the provisional government. The provisional government blames Bolsheviks, forces them out. Lenin gave a very ambivalent speech (unclear if he supported it or not). Right after Karensky offensive. More people out on the streets than in February.
Soviet
A Russian council composed of representatives from the workers and soldiers.
Kornilov
A Russian general during the WW1, white army during the civil war. Had the position of commander in chief under the Provisional government. Who planned to seize power from the Provisional Government in September 1917.
Kaganovich
A Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin. Saw to it that perceived enemies of the regime were executed. 1893-1991.
Patriarch Tikhon
A bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church appointed the ruling bishop in Moscow. He was openly opposed His protests were declared as criminal acts by the Bolshevik party.
Peasant Brest-Litovsk
A derogatory term used by opponents of the New Economic Policy. They considered it a peace made with the "peasant adversary". It was compared to the Brest-Litovsk treaty. In both scenarios, Lenin predicted the burdens of each deal would be disrupted by revolution.
Workers' Opposition
A faction that opposed bureaucratization of Soviet Party and Institutions. They posed the most serious threat to party unity among the Bolsheviks. They recommended trade unions elect representatives to control industry and expulsion of all non-proletarian members of the party, with future membership being reliant on performance on manual labor for a period of time first.
Kronstadt
A naval guard post on the Baltic sea near Petrograd, where a rebellion occurred during the civil war. The Bolsheviks were winning the war at this point, but war communism had hurt their economy, so the workers gathered to demand resolutions. The rebellion was suppressed.
Famine '21-'23
A period of starvation in Russia. Came from economic disturbances due to revolution and civil war, war communist policies such as Prodrazvyorstka, and flooding and droughts. Killed approximately 6 million people.
Left SRs
A socialist party. They were furious at the treaty of Bresletovsk, when the Soviet government surrendered way too much land to the Germans. They were so mad that they withdrew from the government (except the Chacka). They took Dzierzinski, who ran the Chacka, hostage, but later freed him.
Third Anniversary of October
A staged performance called the Storming of the White Palace was put on. This was supposed to be a recounting of the Russian revolutions. However, it was largely deceptive, and details were tweaked by the Bolsheviks.
Hammer and Sickle
A symbol for the communist party created during the revolution. The hammer represented workers and the sickle represented peasant/farmers. Combined, the symbol as a whole represented the coming together of the two groups to form an alliance of socialism.
Magnitogorsk
A town that underwent rapid industrialization in the first five-year plan.
Duma
An elected national legislature in Russia instituted after October manifesto. Could be dissolved by Tsar at any time. Elected only by the very wealthy landowners.
Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets
An order went out to arrest Bolsheviks. They went into hiding. Lenin disguises himself as a drunk and reunites with the other Bolsheviks in the Smolny Institute. October 25th, 1917.
Basmachism
An uprising against the Tsar, and later the Bolsheviks, in Muslim parts of the empire. Opposed to Muslims being drafted into the army, opposed to Bolshevik imperial rule. Wanted independence.
Green Army
Anarchists during the civil war. They fought to protect their communities from requisitions or reprisals carried out by third parties. Primarily made up of peasants. The Soviet government tried to build an anti-revolutionary, anti-Communist image of them.
Law of December 27, 1932
Anybody over 16 must carry a passport and register with police when they move to other localities.
Socialist realism
Artistic style whose goal was to promote socialism by showing Soviet life in a positive light
Autonomous Government of Turkestan
Autonomous government that existed during the civil war; was later incorporated into the Soviet Union.
Triumvirate
Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev. They seized power as Lenin was dying. Opponents of Trotsky, who was unable to make it back in time for Lenin's funeral because Stalin told him it was a day earlier than it actually was.
VTsIK
Central executive committee. Meets when Congress of Soviets isn't in session.
Uchraspred
Department within the Orgbiuro of the Communist Party. Operates nomenklatura. Cards on tens of thousands of government employees by 1923. Used to staff positions. Created by Stalin. Allowed Stalin to build up a client network because he was staffing posts.
Lenin's Death
Despite being ill in his last years, Lenin continued to practice politics. When he died the party was paralyzed and a funeral was held. Stalin masterfully made himself seem like the heir. Lenin denounced Stalin before his death but Stalin covered it up
25,000ers
During agricultural collectivization, approximately 25,000 workers voluntarily went from cities to rural areas to improve the performance of Kolkhozes. They conducted political and cultural work as well as helping the farm work.
Apparat
Full-time, professional functionary of the Soviet government, with the exception of the higher ranks of management. Colloquially, the diminutive -chik ending was usually added, indicating someone playing a small part in a bigger scheme of things.
Brusilov
General that Kerensky recruits to achieve his great victory. It was a disaster. June 1917.
Yakov Sverdlov
Head of state during the revolutionary years. Lenin's right-hand-man for a while. He was in charge of the nomenclatura system to keep track of all members of the party. In the party from the beginning, an "old Bolshevik".
8th Party Congress
Held in Moscow, March 1919. Expanded the size of the party's Central Committee. Established the Politburo, Orgburo, and Secretariate.
Istpart
Historical committee of the communist party. Created in 1920. Creates holiday calendar, May day. Organizes "memory nights" to create the narrative of the October revolution. Creates "Leninism", the biblical-style canon of Lenin's writings after his death.
Directory
In 1918, the Siberian Provisional Government and other local anti-Soviet governments met agreed to form a new Provisional All-Russian Government in Omsk, headed by a _________ of five: two Socialist-Revolutionaries, two Kadets, and General Vasily Boldyrev.
Civil Code
Introduced by Lenin. Based upon western European civil law. 10th Party Congress, Moscow. 1921.
Prodrazvyorstka
Introduced to maintain the supplies of the red army and urban Russian population in 1919. Bolsheviks confiscating the agricultural products produced by the peasants for a fixed price based on quotas. The NEP in 1921 replaced it with a food tax.
Tenth Party Congress 1921
It started halfway through the Kronstadt uprising Bolsheviks made concessions due to revolts It banned factions of the Bolsheviks. NEP was created NEP decided that trade, banks, and heavy industry would stay in the hands of the state and the rest would be privatized.
Stalin
Leader of the Soviet Union
Alexander Kolchak
Leader of the White Army
Peace, Land, and Bread
Lenin and Bolsheviks promised this to the war-weary Russian people
Anton Denikin
Lieutenant General in the Imperial Russian Army and afterward a leading general of the White movement in the Russian Civil War. 1872-1947.
USSR
Many different nationalities within one empire. Communist, dictatorial, and had little regard for human rights, at least in practice. Stretched from eastern Europe to the Pacific Ocean.
Order No. 1
March 1, 1917
Dual Power
March-October 1917. Once the Tsar was overthrown, the members of the Duma and the Petrograd Soviet ruled at the same time until the October revolution. Ended because of the Kornilov affair. Replicated all around the country.
15th Party Congress
Moscow, December 1927. repudiation of the United Opposition. Central Committee adopted a set of theses regarding industrialization.
Decree on Peace
October 1917
Zinoviev
Old Bolshevik and leader of Communist party in Petrograd. Also head of Comintern.
Kamenev
Old Bolshevik and leader of the Communist party in Moscow. One-third of the triumvirate. Didn't initially want to overthrow the government, opposed the October revolution. Ended up being kicked out of the party and killed.
Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party
Orgbiuro (kept files on all members, placed members in different positions, controlled by Stalin), Politbiuro (thinking up policy), and Secretariat (administrative work, sending letters, etc.). Most important people of the party, most important decisions.
Right deviation
Party members who were to the right of Stalin. Made up of Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Mikhail Tomsky and their supporters within the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. sidelined and removed from important positions within the Communist Party and the Soviet government from 1928-1930.
Komsomol
Party's youth organization
Smychka
Peasants and workers together (many many more peasants than workers, proletariate must be created because of Marxism, so they must be allied). An ideological tool to adapt Marxism to Russian conditions. Institutionalized through NEP.
Narkomnats
People's Commissariat of Nationalities. Chaired by Stalin. The idea was that these nationalities had been oppressed by Russia, so they should have a special say in things. Union Republics and Autonomous Republics.
Lenin's testament
Published during the period of Lenin's illness, taken to be genuine at the time. He spoke about who should take power after him. He said that Stalin was loyal, trusted, and a powerful comrade, but too rude.
Anchor Square Resolutions
Resolutions during the Kronstadt rebellion for immediate elections, freedom of speech, and the right of assembly.
Constituent Assembly
Russia's first free election parliament
Baron Wrangel
Russian aristocrat whose memoirs exemplified the growing social awareness of the problem of serfdom
Miliukov
Russian constitutional democrat who wanted a new czar, leader of the cadets who supported Kornilov
Alexander Kerensky
Russian lawyer and politician who served as the minister of the Russian Provisional Government
Leon Trotsky
Russian revolutionary and Communist theorist who helped Lenin and built up the army
Anchor Square
Square in Kronstadt, a very revolutionary town. People gathered here in protest. The general meeting of the Kronstadt happened here, the start of the Kronstadt uprising (1921, opposed to Soviet power).
Rabkrin
Stalin was the commissar for a time. Department of Control of State. Had the central bureau of complaints, which Stalin shut down. Grew out of the money-management office in the old regime.
Molotov
Stalin's foreign minister who declares that Western Democracies are enemies of the Soviet Union
Provisional Government
Temporary government led by Alexander Kerensky
Sovnarkom
The Council of People's Commissars or the government of Russia.
Red Terror
The campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government
Kadets
The constitutional democrats who represent intelligentsia, want a constitutional monarchy
Contents of Order No. 1
The Soviet has authority over the military. The Soviet creates committees of soldiers. Dismantles Russia's military organization. Soviet tells soldiers in the city to return to garrisons.
"socialism in one country"
The idea that the communist revolution can be built within one country; doesn't necessarily have to occur on a global scale as Marx predicted.
Cheka
The secret police under Lenin and his Communist Party
RSFSR
This one of the four original republics. It was established in November 1917 as a sovereign state with a communist ideology. It was primarily Russian in ethnicity and contained Moscow, the center of where the centralized government's affairs took place.
Resolution on party unity
This was a ban on factions. Created at the 10th Congress. Its justification was on the basis that Bourgeoisie enemies of the current state would exploit uprisings to overthrow the Bolsheviks. Those members accused of being members of a faction would be banned.
Treaty of Brest Litovsk
Treaty between Russia and Germany that would end Russia's involvement in WWI in March 1918. Effects mitigated by German withdrawal. Trotsky led the delegation. Caused tension with the SR's, SR's withdraw from sovnarkom. Takes things from bad to worse.
Left Opposition
Trotsky's followers in Russia who were oppressed
United Opposition
Trotsky, Zinoviev & Kamenev combine to oppose Stalin and Right Communists.
Zasada
When Bolsheviks would sit in arrested people's homes and wait to arrest anyone who came to visit. The arrested people would be detained in Lubyanka. They were then either executed, had their possessions confiscated, or were sent to camps in the North and Siberia. Part of the Red Terror.
April Crisis
Workers chant "down with Miliukov" in Petrograd. Miliukov resigns. Provisional government collapses. The remaining members turn to the Soviet for help.
Durnovo Memorandum
Written by Pyotr _______, who was a close advisor of the Tsar. He opposed going to war with the Germans. Forecast that Russian defeat would be followed by "social revolution in its most extreme form". The tsar didn't listen.
Law of August 7, 1932
a law to protect grain produced from Kolkhozes from theft. The law was used, while prosecuting real thieves, also against those who took very little grain for their own survival during the Soviet famine of 1932-33.
Kulaks
a peasant who has their own property; resisted Stalin's forced collectivization; millions were arrested, exiled, or killed; many chose to slaughter their livestock rather than give to collective farms.
Social Revolutionaries
a political party; were very violent; wanted to take away land from the rich
Machine Tractor Station (MTS)
a state-owned enterprise for ownership and maintenance of agricultural machinery in Kolkhozes. It regulated Kolkhozes' production.
Shockworkers
a title of honor awarded when workers over-fulfill the production targets. Served as a campaign to encourage workers to over-work.
Kolkhoz
in the Soviet Union, a small farm worked by farmers who shared in the farm's production and profits
NEP
introduced by Lenin as a temporary transition from the nationalized state to one of a mixed socialist and capitalist economy. Heavy industry, banks, and foreign investment were state-run. Other institutions, such as grain sold by farmers, were privatized. The Prodrazvyorstka was replaced with a tax on food, thus incentivizing the production of agriculture.
Council of Nationalities
one of the two chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Composed of the nationalities of the Soviet Union. formed on the basis of equal representation of all the Republics of the Soviet Union, autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, and national districts.
Moscow Metro
opened in 1935 as the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. Its lavish and modern design was viewed as a victory for socialism. It was built for the people of the Soviet Union.
Five Year Plans
plans outlined by Joseph Stalin in 1928 for the development of the Soviet Union's economy
April Theses
promised the Russian people peace, land, and bread.
Mensheviks
the minority party that opposed the Bolsheviks; wanted peaceful socialism; were disorganized. Opposed to the seizure of power. Separated from the Bolsheviks early on in the 20th century. Represented quite strongly in the Petrograd Soviet.
Volunteer Army
Добровольческая армия, an anti-Bolshevik army in South Russia during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920. began forming in November/December 1917 under the leadership of Gen. Mikhail Alekseyev in Novocherkassk and Gen. Lavr Kornilov and his supporters.
