Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key terms, people, events, and concepts from the notes on socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution.

Liberal

A nineteenth-century group favoring religious tolerance, limits on dynastic power, and representative government; opposed universal franchise and women's voting rights.

Radical

A group seeking government by the majority, opposing concentrated private property, and often supporting broader suffrage, including women.

Conservative

A group wary of rapid change, preferring slow, traditional reforms while respecting the past.

Suffragette movement

A campaign to achieve women’s right to vote.

Industrialisation/Industrial Revolution

The period of rapid industrial growth, urbanisation, and social/economic change driven by factories and new technologies.

Cooperative (cooperatives)

Associations of people who produce or work together and share profits; promoted by socialists to democratise production.

New Harmony

Robert Owen’s planned cooperative community in Indiana, USA.

Karl Marx

19th-century socialist thinker who argued capitalism exploits workers and proposed a socialist/communist future with common ownership.

Friedrich Engels

Marx’s collaborator who helped develop fundamental socialist theory.

Capitalism

An economic system in which private individuals own the means of production and pursue profit.

Socialism

A political-economic system advocating collective or state control of production to serve social welfare.

Communism

A radical, classless, stateless society with common ownership of production.

Capitalist

Someone who owns capital or the means of production in a capitalist system.

Paris Commune

1871 uprising in Paris where a workers’ government briefly controlled the city and became a socialist symbol.

Second International

An 1889 federation of socialist and labour parties aiming to coordinate international socialist activity.

SPD (Social Democratic Party)

A major socialist party in Germany that participated in parliamentary politics.

Bolshevik

Radical Russian socialist faction led by Lenin that seized power in October 1917.

Menshevik

faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party favoring a more inclusive, slower approach to socialism.

Vladimir Lenin

Leader of the Bolsheviks; authored the April Theses and led the October Revolution.

Leon Trotsky

Bolshevik leader who helped organise the October Revolution and chaired the Military Revolutionary Committee.

Duma

The Russian elected assembly established after 1905 reform attempts; part of the Tsar’s system.

Provisional Government

The temporary government formed after the Tsar’s abdication in 1917, sharing power with Soviets.

Soviet

A workers’ and soldiers’ council that played a key role in the 1917-1918 Russian revolutionary period.

April Theses

Lenin’s 1917 plan calling for ending the war, land distribution to peasants, nationalising banks, and Bolshevik leadership.

Brest-Litovsk

1918 treaty in which Soviet Russia exited World War I by ceding territory to the Central Powers.

Five Year Plans

Centralised economic plans under Stalin to rapidly industrialise and modernise the USSR.

Collectivisation

Policy of merging individual peasant farms into large collective farms (kolkhozes) under state control.

Kulak

Wealthier peasant targeted for dispossession and punishment during collectivisation.

Magnitogorsk

A major Soviet industrial city developed to demonstrate rapid industrial growth.

Cheka/OGPU/NKVD

Successive Soviet secret police agencies used to suppress opposition.

Comintern (Third International)

International Communist Association promoting global socialist revolution.

Jadidists

Muslim reformers in the Russian Empire advocating modernisation of Islam and education.

Autonomy

The right of a people or region to govern themselves within a larger state.

Nomadism

A lifestyle of moving from place to place, often seen in Central Asia’s peasantry.

February Revolution (1917)

Tsarist autocracy’s collapse sparked by mass strikes and worker protests in Petrograd.

October Revolution (1917)

Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd, leading to a one-party Soviet state.