Soviet Union

Vladimir Lenin

Leader of the Bolsheviks; led the Russian Revolution and became the first head of the Soviet Union.

Bolsheviks

Radical Marxist group that seized power in Russia in 1917 under Lenin.

Reds

The Bolshevik (communist) forces during the Russian Civil War.

Leon Trotsky

Bolshevik leader and founder of the Red Army; rival of Stalin.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Lenin’s temporary compromise with capitalism to revive the Soviet economy after the Civil War.

Joseph Stalin

Dictator of the Soviet Union after Lenin; known for authoritarian rule and massive purges.

Collectivism

Policy of consolidating individual land and labor into collective farms.

Five-Year Plans

Stalin’s centralized economic plans to industrialize the USSR rapidly.

The Great Terror

Stalin’s campaign of political repression