mwh unit 4 key terms

Appeasement

the policy of making concessions to an aggressor to avoid war

Authoritarianism

a system of ruling that advocates for complete obedience to authority over individual rights

Blitzkrieg

lightning war or a high-speed offensive attack

Bolsheviks

the radical Russian political party led by Lenin that seized power in 1917

Capitalism

an economic system based on private property and a profit-based economy

Cheka

the first Bolshevik secret police force used to eliminate political opposition

Collectivization

a policy of combining individual farms into larger state-run units

Communism

a political and economic system calling for the elimination of private property and a classless society

Corporatism

an economic system where the state controls labor and industry through state-appointed associations

Eugenics

a pseudoscience aimed at improving a population's genetics by controlling reproduction

Fascism

a nationalist movement stressing absolute state power and dictatorial rule

Great Purge

Stalin’s 1930s campaign to eliminate perceived "enemies of the people"

Gulag

a system of forced labor camps spread across the Soviet Union

Holodomor

a man-made famine in Ukraine resulting from Soviet economic policies

Kulak

a derogatory term for prosperous peasants targeted by the Soviet regime

Lebensraum

living space or territory sought for national expansion

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Lenin’s 1921 compromise allowing limited private trade to revive the economy

Proletariat

the working class in Marxist theory

Reparations

money or territory a defeated country owes the winners after a war

Total War

a conflict requiring the complete mobilization of a society's resources and people

Totalitarianism

a government asserting total control over both the public and private lives of its citizens.