Slav 50 Final

Culture

The shared beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors that characterize a specific group or society.

Nation, nationality

A nation is a group of people united by common history, language, or descent; nationality is the legal or social status of belonging to one.

Ethnicity

A social group that shares a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or heritage.

Myth

A traditional story, often involving supernatural beings, that explains the early history of a people or natural phenomena.

Who are the Slavs?

An ethno-linguistic group in Europe who speak various Slavic languages and share similar cultural roots.

Which languages do Slavs speak?

Slavic languages, which are a major branch of the Indo-European language family.

East Slavic languages

Includes Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian.

West Slavic languages

Includes Polish, Czech, and Slovak.

South Slavic languages

Includes Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, and Slovene.

Which alphabet did St. Cyril invent?

Glagolitic alphabet, which was a precursor to the Cyrillic alphabet.

Which Slavic peoples use the Cyrillic alphabet?

Primarily Orthodox Slavic peoples, including Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs.

Who was Rurik?

A Varangian (Viking) prince who established the Rurikid dynasty in Novgorod in 862.

What was Kievan Rus?

A loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to mid-13th century, centered in the city of Kyiv.

When and where did Vladimir convert Rus to Christianity?

In 988 in the city of Kyiv.

Which Slavs are Orthodox?

Generally includes the East Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) and most South Slavs (Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians).

When did Ivan IV (the Terrible) rule?

1533 to 1584.

What period of Russian history is called the Time of Troubles?

Political crisis and social unrest between the death of the last Rurikid Tsar in 1598 and the start of the Romanov dynasty in 1613.

Who was Boris Godunov?

Ruled as Tsar during the Time of Troubles.

When did Peter the Great rule?

From 1682 to 1725.

To which dynasty did Peter belong?

Romanov.

Which city did Peter build? Why?

He built St. Petersburg to serve as a 'window to the West' and to modernize the Russian Empire.

What is an empire?

A collection of states under one ruler with the goal to expand territory.

Which empires did we discuss?

Russian, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian.

Who was Catherine the Great? When did she rule?

An Empress of Russia who ruled from 1762 to 1796, expanding the empire and promoting Enlightenment ideals.

When was the Patriotic War? Against whom was it fought? Who won?

It was fought in 1812 against Napoleon’s French Empire; Russia was the victor.

Who were the Decembrists? What were their goals?

Russian army officers who led an unsuccessful uprising in 1825 to demand a constitution and the abolition of serfdom.

When were the serfs emancipated in Russia?

The serfs were emancipated in 1861 by Tsar Alexander II.

When did World War I begin?

It began in 1914.

What were its main causes?

Militarism, competing alliances, imperialism, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Who were the opposing sides?

The Allied Powers (including Russia, France, Britain) vs. the Central Powers (including Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire).

Who was the last Russian tsar? How did the Romanov dynasty end?

Nicholas II; the dynasty ended when he abdicated in 1917, and his family was later executed by the Bolsheviks.

Who was Rasputin?

Self-proclaimed holy man who got close to the Romanovs.

What was 'Bloody Sunday'?

A 1905 massacre where unarmed demonstrators were fired upon by the Imperial Guard in St. Petersburg, sparking the 1905 Revolution.

When was the February Revolution?

It occurred in February 1917, leading directly to the abdication of the Tsar.

When was the October Revolution?

It occurred in October 1917, which brought the Bolsheviks to power.

What were two or three causes of the Russian Revolutions of 1917?

Extreme poverty and famine, heavy losses and demoralization in WWI, and long-standing resentment of autocratic rule.

Who was Karl Marx?

A German philosopher whose theories on class struggle and communism formed the ideological basis of the Soviet state.

Who was Vladimir Lenin?

The leader of the Bolshevik party and the first head of the Soviet state.

Who were the Bolsheviks?

A radical faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party that seized power in 1917.

Why are the Soviets called 'Soviets'?

The word means 'councils,' referring to the local workers' and soldiers' committees that coordinated the revolution.

Who belongs to the proletariat? The lumpenproletariat? The bourgeoisie?

Proletariat (urban working class); Lumpenproletariat (the marginalized underclass); Bourgeoisie (property-owning capitalist class).

What is the meaning of the red flag?

It symbolizes the blood of the working class shed in the struggle for liberation.

What happened immediately after the Bolshevik Revolution?

A brutal Civil War broke out between the 'Reds' (Bolsheviks) and 'Whites' (anti-Bolsheviks).

What was the country like after the Civil War?

The country was devastated, facing extreme famine, economic collapse, and massive social displacement.

What happened to the economy?

It was in total collapse due to 'War Communism,' with industrial production and agriculture severely diminished.

What was the New Economic Policy (NEP, 1921–1928)?

A temporary policy that allowed a few private businesses to exist, to allow the economy to recover from the war.

Who became the Soviet leader after Lenin?

Joseph Stalin.

What was collectivization?

The forced consolidation of individual peasant farms into state-run collective farms.

What is a kolkhoz?

A collective farm in the Soviet Union.

Who were the kulaks?

Slightly wealthy peasants who were targeted and eliminated as class traitors.

What was industrialization?

Rapid, state-led development of heavy industry funded by extracting resources from the peasantry through the 5 Year Plans.

Why is 1937 significant in Russian/Soviet history?

It was the height of the Great Terror (Great Purge), characterized by mass executions and labor camp imprisonments.

What was Soviet nationalities policy?

Initially promoted national cultures to gain support, but later shifted toward centralized control and Russification under Stalin.

When was World War II?

1939–1945.

Who were the opposing sides?

The Allied Powers (USSR, USA, UK) vs. the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan).

What is the Great Patriotic War? What are its dates?

The Soviet term for the war specifically on the Eastern Front against Nazi Germany (1941–1945).

What was the Munich Pact? When was it signed?

A 1938 agreement allowing Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia, famously associated with the failed policy of appeasement.

What is the difference between annexation and occupation?

Annexation is the formal legal incorporation of a territory into a state; occupation is temporary control by military forces without legal claim.

What was the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact? When was it signed?

A 1939 non-aggression pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany that secretly divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

What was the Holocaust?

The state-sponsored systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime.

Why do we begin discussing the Soviet Bloc after World War II?

Because the USSR established communist satellite states in Eastern Europe following their liberation from Nazi control.

Which countries were part of the Soviet Bloc?

Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania.

What was the Prague Spring? What happened?

A 1968 period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia that was violently crushed by a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion.

What was Charter 77?

A dissident human rights manifesto in Czechoslovakia that criticized the government for failing to uphold civil rights.

Who was Václav Havel?

A dissident playwright and leader of Charter 77 who became the first president of post-communist Czechoslovakia.

What was Solidarity?

The first independent trade union in a Soviet-bloc country, founded in Poland in 1980.

Who was Lech Wałęsa?

A shipyard electrician who co-founded Solidarity and later became the President of Poland.

Which countries were formerly part of Yugoslavia?

Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

Who was Josip Broz Tito?

The revolutionary leader who led Yugoslavia as a communist state independent of Soviet control until his death.

Why did communism succeed in Slavic countries?

Hopes for rapid modernization and social equality.

Why did communism ultimately fail?

Economic stagnation, lack of political legitimacy, and the suppression of national and civil liberties.

What was the Warsaw Pact? When was it signed, and by whom?

A 1955 collective defense treaty signed by the Soviet Union and its satellite states as a counter to NATO.

What were the Helsinki Accords? When were they signed, and by whom?

A 1975 agreement signed by Western and Eastern bloc nations to improve Cold War relations with human rights provisions.

What was the Thaw? Who was the leader at the time?

A period of liberalization and de-Stalinization under leader Nikita Khrushchev.

What was the period of stagnation? Who was the leader then?

A time of economic and social slowdown under leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Which Soviet dissidents can you name?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author) and Andrei Sakharov (physicist/human rights activist).

What were the main reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991?

Economic failure, rising ethnic nationalism in the republics, and the unintended consequences of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms.

Who was the first (and last) president of the Soviet Union?

Mikhail Gorbachev.