The Soviet State under Stalin and Foreign Policy Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the totalitarian nature of Stalin's USSR, culture, propaganda, and Soviet daily life, and foreign policy between 1917 and 1941.

Totalitarianism

A form of government in which the state controls all aspects of the lives of its people, characterized by a single party, a charismatic dictator, and state control over the economy and media.

Benito Mussolini

The Italian dictator who first used the term "totalitarianism" in 1923 to provide a positive look for his Fascist Movement.

Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski

Academic writers who in the mid-1950s listed five specific criteria for a totalitarian state, including state use of terror and party control over the armed forces.

1984

A book published by George Orwell in 1948 depicting a totalitarian society; its image of "Big Brother" was often linked to Stalin's regime by western propagandists.

Thoughtcrime

A concept from George Orwell's 1984 described by the quote: "Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death."

Socialist Realism

The only acceptable style for the arts in Stalinist Russia, used to present the party line and inculcate correct thinking.

Komsomol

The Young Communist League for members aged 14 to 28, who acted as "soldiers of production" and reported on popular mood and hidden enemies.

The Cultural Revolution (1928-1931)

A period accompanying Stalin's "Great Turn" characterized by attacks on bourgeois cultural values and the old intelligentsia in the arts, education, and religion.

The Shakhty Trial (1928)

A show trial of 53 managerial and technical staff from a coal mine accused of counter-revolutionary activities, used to stir up class war.

Pavlik Morozov

A 13-year-old boy hailed as a martyr and legend among children after denouncing his father to the NKVD in 1932.

Alexei Stakhanov

A miner who allegedly mined $227\,\text{tonnes}$ of coal in one shift in 1935, becoming the face of the movement to revere heroic proletarian labor.

Narkompros

The People’s Commissariat for Education, which oversaw the politicization of history and the elevation of teachers' status to meet Five-Year Plan goals.

The "Great Retreat"

A shift in the late 1930s where Stalin returned to traditional family values, banning abortion and homosexuality and making divorce more difficult.

Mother Heroine

A title and medal awarded to Soviet women for raising 10 or more children, including an award of $500\,\text{roubles}$ a year for five years.

RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers)

The dominating force in Soviet literature that required themes of socialist construction and class struggle to be central to all works.

Museum of Atheism

The repurposing of the Kazan Cathedral in Leningrad by Stalin to promote state-mandated atheism and eradicate religious social consciousness.

Comintern (Communist International)

An organization led by the USSR to unify revolutionary socialist parties worldwide and promote the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie.

Socialism in One Country

Stalin's policy that focused on national economic development and internal security rather than fanning immediate world revolution.

Treaty of Rapallo (1922)

An agreement between the USSR and Germany to normalize diplomatic relations and focus on economic cooperation, neutralizing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Zhenotdel

The "Women's department" of the party established in 1919 and dissolved by the Politburo in 1930 under the claim that the "woman question" had been solved.

German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact (1939)

Also known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, it ruled out military action between the two powers for 10 years and included a secret protocol to divide Poland.

Popular Front

A policy adopted by the Comintern in the mid-1930s encouraging communists to seek alliances with other left-wing groups to combat fascism.

Operation Barbarossa

The German invasion of the Soviet Union launched on 22 June 1941, which forced the USSR into an alliance with Great Britain and the USA.

Obshchestvennitsy

Volunteer "wife activists," often the wives of Stakhanovites, who ran literacy programs and monitored sanitation in workers' hostels.

Internal Passports

Documents introduced during collectivization and industrialization to increase state control over where Soviet citizens lived and worked.