Russian Revolution Vocab

Revolution

a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favour of a new system.

Autocracy

a system of government with one person in absolute power.

the Duma

a legislative body in the ruling assembly of Russia (the state assembly)

Soviet

an elected local, district, or national council in the former Soviet Union.

Proletariat

workers or working-class people

Bourgeousie

the capitalist class who own most of society's wealth and means of production.

Bolsheviks

the majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party who wanted revolution instead of gradual democratic change.

Mensheviks

the moderate wing of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party who wanted gradual socialistic development through a parliamentary government

Peasant

a poor farmer of low social status who owns or rents a small piece of land for cultivation

Kulaks

Peasants in Russia wealthy enough to own a farm and hire labor who resisted collectivization and were purged by Stalin.

Populist

someone who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.

Nihilist

modern context: a person who believes that life is meaningless and rejects all religious and moral principles.

russian revolution context: a supporter of an extreme Russian revolutionary party c. 1900 which found nothing to approve of in the established social order.

Gentry

people of good social position

Emancipation

process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation.

Kadets

a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy

April Thesis

Lenin wrote these due to a lack of action by revolutionaries. 

1. Proletariat and peasants to bring about revolution

2. Immediate peace

3. Seizure of gentry land

4. All power to soviets

5. Seizure of factories, means of production and profit

“Peace, Bread, and Land”

Provisional Government

Aka emergency government, transitional government 

Meant to be temporary until elections

• Soviet and duma got together and declared it, made up of mostly moderates and a couple radical soviets

• Promised: 

  • Constituent assembly with universal secret ballot

  • To legalize strikes

Abdicated

(of a monarch) renounce one's throne.

Comissar

an official of the Communist Party responsible for political education and organization.

Politburo

the principal policy making committee in the former Soviet Union, founded in 1917.

Orgburo

The Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union existed from 1919 to 1952

Secretariat

a permanent administrative office or department, especially a governmental one.

White Armies

The counter revolutionary armies that fought against the red army

Red Army

the army and air force of the Bolshevik Party

Comintern

The Communist International was an international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism, and which was led and controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

War communism

War communism was the economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921.

Included:

• Nationalization of all industries and the introduction of strict centralized management

• State control of like everything

• Requisition of agricultural surplus

Kronstadt Rebellion (2.0)

Sailor rebellion against war communism and the bolsheviks in 1921. Trotsky sent red army over the frozen sea to crush the rebellion.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

1. Government stopped taking food from peasants

2. Small factories privatized 

3. New rouble 

Created Kulaks (again) and Nepmen

Party members who were very communist opposed NEP because it’s soft capitalism

Nepmen

Caused by NEP. (soft capitalism)

They earned their living off of trading between peasants and city.

Collectivization

peasantry were forced to give up their individual farms and join large collective farm

Command Economy

an economy in which production, investment, prices, and incomes are determined centrally by a government.

Gulags

a system of labor camps maintained in the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1955 in which many people died.

Show Trials

A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined.

Purge

When Stalin removed (removing, imprisoning, executing) people from the Communist Party or Army/Police

Cult of Personality

a situation in which a public figure is deliberately presented to the people of a country as a great person who should be admired and loved

Tsar Nicholas II

Tsar Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia until his abdication on 15 March 1917.

Known for:

• General failure

• Anastasia :0

Peter Stolypin

The third prime minister and the interior minister of the Russian Empire from 1906 until his assassination in 1911

Known for:

• Stolypin wanted to reform agriculture in order to modernize Russia and make it more competitive with other European powers.

• Supported peasants

• Supported Duma

• also killing lots of people I doRapn’t remember why

Rasputin

ra ra rasputin lover of the russian queen

Known for:

• His parties!!!

• gaining lots of influence over tsar’s family

• destroying russian government and helping cause the march revolution

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist.

Known for:

• visionary of the revolution

• leader of the bolshevik

• He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924.

Leon Trotsky

he was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, journalist, and political theorist.

Known for:

• being killed by an ice pick (rip)

• planned October Revolution

• led red army in Russian Civil War

• “not a type of horse”- racheal folkerts

Mikhail Rodzianko

Former Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

known for:

i don’t know who is this man

Alexander Kerensky

PM of the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months

known for:

• moderate

• he tried his best

Lavr Kornilov

A Russian military general

Known for:

• General in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I

• tried to seize petrograd

• General for white army in Russian Civil War.

Joseph Stalin

bolshevik revolutionary

known for:

• doing the dirty work of the revolution

• leading soviet union after lenin’s death

• the purges and terror