A Selective Russian Revolution Glossary

(Source: U.S. Library of Congress, http://countrystudies.us/russia/91.htm)

boyar
Between the tenth and seventeenth centuries, a member of the upper level of the nobility and state administration in Kievan Rus' and Muscovy. Abolished as a class by Peter the Great.

Brezhnev Doctrine
The Soviet Union's declared right to intervene in the internal affairs of another socialist state if the leading role of that state's communist party was threatened. Formulated as justification for the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Mikhail S. Gorbachev implicitly abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine in 1989.

chernozem
Literally, black earth. A type of rich, black soil indigenous to large parts of Ukraine and southwestern Russia. collective farm (kollektivnoye khozyaystvo--kolkhoz)
In the Soviet agricultural system, an agricultural "cooperative" where peasants, under the direction of party-approved plans and leaders, were paid wages based in part on the success of their harvest. Still in existence in the 1990s.

communism/communist
A doctrine based on revolutionary Marxist socialism (q.v.) and Marxism-Leninism (q.v.). As the official ideology of the Soviet Union, it provided for a system of authoritarian government in which the CPSU (q.v.) alone controlled state-owned means of production. Communism nominally sought to establish a society in which the state would wither away and goods and services would be distributed equitably.

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
The official name of the communist party in the Soviet Union after 1952. Originally the Bolshevik (q.v.) faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, the party was named the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) from March 1918 to December 1925, then the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) from December 1925 to October 1952. After the August 1991 Moscow coup, Russian president Boris N. Yeltsin banned the party in Russia and ordered its property turned over to the government.

Cossacks
Originally an amalgamation of runaway peasants, fugitive slaves, escaped convicts, and derelict soldiers, primarily Ukrainian and Russian, settling frontier areas along the Don, Dnepr, and Volga rivers. They supported themselves by brigandry, hunting, fishing, and cattle raising. Later the Cossacks organized military formations for their own defense and as mercenaries. The latter groups were renowned as horsemen and were absorbed as special units in the Russian army.

Cyrillic
An alphabet based on Greek characters that was created in the ninth century for translating Eastern Orthodox religious texts into Old Church Slavonic (q.v.). Named for Cyril, the leader of the first religious mission from Byzantium to the Slavic people, the alphabet is used in Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. The Central Asian republics, Moldova, and Azerbaijan used a modified Cyrillic alphabet in the Soviet period.

duma (pl., dumy)
An advisory council to the princes of Kievan Rus' and the tsars of the Russian Empire. Duma (In full, Gosudarstvennaya duma--State Assembly)
Lower chamber of the legislature of Russia, established by Nicholas II after the Revolution of 1905, and functioning until 1917. Unlike advisory bodies such as the boyar (q.v.) dumy of the Kievan Rus' period and city dumy of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Duma originally was to be a national representative body with the power to approve legislation. The first two Dumy (1905-07) were quickly dissolved because they opposed tsarist policies; the next two (1907-17) were more conservative and served full five-year terms.

East Slavs
A subdivision of Slavic peoples including Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians.

five-year plan
A comprehensive plan that set the middle-range economic goals in the Soviet Union. Once the Soviet regime stipulated plan figures, all levels of the economy, from individual enterprises to the national level, were obligated to meet those goals. Such plans were followed from 1928 until 1991.

Golden Horde
A federative Mongol state that extended from western Siberia to the Carpathian Mountains from the mid-thirteenth century to the end of the fifteenth century. Generally, it exacted tribute and controlled external relations but allowed local authorities to decide internal affairs.

Great Terror
A period from about 1936 to 1938 of intense repression in the Soviet Union when millions were imprisoned, deported, and executed by Stalin's secret police for spurious political or economic crimes. The Great Terror affected all of Soviet society, including the highest levels of the party, government, and military.
gross domestic product (GDP) A measure of the total value of goods and services produced by the domestic economy during a given period, usually one year. Obtained by adding the value contributed by each sector of the economy in the form of profits, compensation to employees, and depreciation (consumption of capital). Only domestic production is included, not income arising from investments and possessions owned abroad.

internal passport (propiska)
Government-issued document presented to officials on demand, identifying citizens and their authorized residence. Used in both the Russian Empire (q.v.) and the Soviet Union to restrict the movement of people. More limited use continued in some parts of Russia in the 1990s.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Established along with the World Bank (q.v.) in 1945, the IMF has regulatory surveillance and financial functions that apply to its more than 150 member countries. The IMF is responsible for stabilizing international exchange rates and payments. Its main function is to provide loans to its members (including industrialized and developing countries) when they experience balance of payments (q.v.) difficulties. These loans frequently have conditions that require substantial internal economic adjustments by the recipients, most of which are developing countries.

KGB (Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti)
Committee for State Security. The predominant Soviet agency for espionage and internal security since 1954. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia inherited the central agency in Moscow. Governments of other former Soviet republics took over KGB property on their territory.

kray (territory)
Term for six widely dispersed administrative subdivisions whose boundaries are laid out primarily for ease of administration. Two include subdivisions based on nationality groups--one autonomous oblast (q.v.) and two autonomous regions (okruga--q.v.).

kremlin (kreml')
Central citadel in many medieval Russian towns, usually located at a strategic spot along a river. Moscow's Kremlin is the seat and symbol of the Russian government.

Marxism/Marxist
The economic, political, and social theories of Karl Marx, a nineteenth-century German philosopher and socialist, especially his concept of socialism (q.v.).

Marxism-Leninism/Marxist-Leninist
The ideology of communism (q.v.) developed by Karl Marx and refined and adapted to social and economic conditions in Russia by Vladimir I. Lenin. Marxism-Leninism was the guiding ideology for the Soviet Union and its satellites.

Menshevik
A member of a wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party that existed until 1917. Unlike the Bolsheviks (q.v.), the Mensheviks believed in the gradual achievement of socialism (q.v.) by parliamentary methods. The term Menshevik is derived from the word men'shinstvo (minority).

New Economic Policy (Novaya ekonomicheskaya politika--NEP)
Instituted in 1921, it let peasants sell produce on an open market and permitted private ownership of small enterprises. Cultural restrictions also were relaxed during this period. NEP declined with the introduction of collectivization and was officially ended by Joseph V. Stalin in December 1929.

oblast
A major territorial and administrative subdivision in the newly independent states. Russia has forty-nine such divisions, which approximate provinces.

okrug (pl., okruga)
An autonomous territorial and administrative subdivision of a territory (kray--q.v.) or oblast (q.v.) in the Russian Federation that grants a degree of administrative autonomy to a nationality; most are in remote, sparsely populated areas. In 1997 the Russian Federation had ten such jurisdictions.

Old Believers
A sect of the Russian Orthodox Church that rejected the liturgical reforms made by Patriarch Nikon in the mid-seventeenth century.

Old Church Slavonic (also known as Old Church Slavic)
The first Slavic literary language, which influenced the development of the modern Slavic languages, including literary Russian. Used in liturgies of the Slavic Orthodox churches. After the twelfth century, known as Church Slavonic.

patriarch
Head of an independent Orthodox Church, such as the Russian Orthodox Church or one of the Uniate (q.v.) churches.

permafrost
Permanently frozen condition of soil except for surface soils that thaw when air temperatures rise above freezing. Thawing and refreezing cause instability of the soil, which greatly complicates the construction and maintenance of roads, railroads, and buildings. Permafrost covers roughly the northern one-third of the Russian Federation.

rayon
A low-level territorial and administrative subdivision for rural and municipal administration. A rural rayon is a county-sized district in a territory (kray--q.v.), oblast (q.v.), republic (q.v.), region (okrug--q.v.), or autonomous oblast. A city rayon is similar to a borough in some large cities in the United States.

ruble
The monetary unit of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation; divided into 100 kopeks. The exchange rate as of July 1997 was 5,790 rubles per US$1. Historically, the ruble has not been considered hard currency (q.v.). It became convertible on the international market in June 1996.

Russian Empire
Successor state to Muscovy. Formally proclaimed by Tsar Peter the Great in 1721 and significantly expanded during the reign of Catherine II, becoming a major multinational state. The empire's political structure collapsed with the revolution of February 1917, but most of its territory was included in the Soviet Union, which was established in 1922.

Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
(Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika--RSFSR). Official name of the largest of the fifteen union republics of the Soviet Union. Inhabited predominantly by Russians, the RSFSR comprised approximately 75 percent of the area of the Soviet Union, about 62 percent of its population, and more than 60 percent of its economic output.

serf
Peasant legally bound to the land. Serfs were emancipated by Tsar Alexander II in 1861.

Slavophiles
Members of the Russian intelligentsia in the mid-nineteenth century who advocated the preservation of Slavic, and specifically Russian, culture rather than opening Russian society and institutions to the influences of West European culture. Philosophically opposed to Westernizers (q.v.).

socialism/socialist
According to Marxism-Leninism (q.v.), the first phase of communism (q.v.). A transition from capitalism in which the means of production are state owned and whose guiding principle is "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his work." Soviet socialism bore scant resemblance to the democratic socialism that some West European countries adopted in the twentieth century.

sovkhoz
See state farm.

state farm (sovetskoye khozyaystvosovkhoz)

A government-owned and government-managed agricultural enterprise where workers are paid salaries. Still in existence in 1997.

taiga
The extensive, sub-Arctic evergreen forest of the Soviet Union. The taiga, the largest of the five primary natural zones, lies south of the tundra (q.v.).
territory. See kray.

tundra
The treeless plain within the Arctic Circle that has low-growing vegetation and permanently frozen subsoil (permafrost--q.v.). The northernmost of the five primary natural zones of the Soviet Union.

Uniate
A branch of the Roman Catholic Church that preserves the Eastern Rite (Orthodox) liturgy and discipline but recognizes papal authority.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Successor state to the Russian Empire. Officially founded by Vladimir I. Lenin, head of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), in 1922. Dissolved on December 25, 1991.

Westernizers
Russian intellectuals in the mid-nineteenth century who emphasized Russia's cultural ties with the West as a vital element in the country's modernization and development. Opposed by the Slavophiles (q.v.).

White armies
Various noncommunist military forces that attempted to overthrow the Bolshevik (q.v.) regime during the Civil War (1918-21). Operating with no unified command, no clear political goal, and no supplies from the Russian heartland, they were defeated piecemeal by the Red Army.

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