Russia Vocab

Radical ideology seeking to overthrow all conventional forms of government

Anarchism

"Man of the apparatus" ; full time CPSU functionary

Apparatchik

Selling off firm's property and raw materials for short-term profit

Asset stripping

Dictadorial rejection of democracy, but milder than totalitariansim

Authoritarianism

Absolute rule of one person in a centrilized state

Autocracy

"Majority" in Russian; early name for Soviet Communist Party

Bolshevik

Combining the top civil ruler (caesar) with the top spiritual ruler (pope), as in Russia's tsars

Caesaropapism

Implements used to make other things

Capital goods

Mountainous region between Black and Caspian seas

Caucasus

Region between Caspian sea and China

Central Asia

Large, next-to-top governing body of most communist parties

Central comitee

Associations larger than the family but not part of government, and the pluralistic values that come with them

Civil society

Period of armed tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union; approx. 1947-1989

Cold war

Economic theories of Marx combined with organisation of Lenin

Communism

Capital of Byzantium, conquered by Turks in 1453

Constantinople

Implements used to make other things

Consumer goods

In Marxism, a big, incurable problem that rips the system apart (current equivalent: dysfunction)

Contradiction

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

CPSU

Personal glorification of a dictator

Cult of personality

A country's exports minus its imports

Current account balance

Greek-based alphabet of Eastern Slavic languages

Cyrillic

Country announces that it cannot pay back a loan

Default

Russia's national parliament

Duma

Part of country seperated from main territory

Exclave

Stalin's forced industrialization of Soviet Union starting in 1928

Five-Year plans

money that the owner sends out of the country for fear of losing it

Flight capital

Russian abbreviation for "general secretary"; powerful CPSU chief

Gensek

Influence of geography on politics and use of geography for strategic ends

Geopolitics

Gorbachev's policy of media openness

Glashost

Soviet central economic planning agency

Gosplan

The Soviet central prisons administration

Gulag

noninflating, recognized currencies used in international dealings, such as dollars and euros

Hard currency

Powerful countries turning other lands into colonies

Imperialism

Number of live newborns who die in their first year, per thousand; standard measure of nation's health

Infant mortality rate

Spreadsheet for economy of entire nation

Input-output table

Rule by thieves

Kleptocracy

Supposed blend of capitalism and socialism; also called "third way"

Middle way

Russian for "people," narod; radical populist agitators of late 19th century Russia.

Narodinki

Lenin's economic policy that allowed private activity, 1921-1928

New Economic Policy (NEP)

List of sensitive positions and people elegible to fill them, the Soviet elite.

Nomenklatura

Mountainous region north of Georgia and Azerbaijan, including Chechnya

North Caucasus

Rule by few

Oligarchy

Unreasonable suspicion of others

Paranoia

Russian for "restructuring"; Gobrachev's proposals to reform the Soviet economy

Perestroika

"Political bureau";small, top governing body of most communist countries

Politburo

According to Marx, class of industrial workers

Proleteriat

What a government takes in, what it spends, and how it makes up the difference

Public finances

Stalin's "cleansing" of suspicious elements by firing squad.

Purge

First-order civil division of communist federal systems, equivalent to U.S states

Republic

Leftover portions of a country after dismemberment

Rump state

Influential people use their resources to amass more resources

Runaway system

Sudden replacement of socialist economy by market economy

Shock therapy

To teach political culture, often informally

Socialize

That part of Russia east of the Ural mountains

Siberia

"strong men"; security officials who now control Russia (singular silovik)

Siloviki

19th century Russians who wished to develop Russia along native, non-Western lines; also known as "Russophiles"

Slavophiles

Lower house of Russia's parliament

State Duma

Mongol-origin tribes who ruled Russia for centuries (NOT tartar)

Tatar

Attempts to totally control society, as under Stalin and Hitler.

Totalitarianism

From "Ceasar"; Russian emperor; sometimes spelled old Polish style, czar

Tsar

Coercive rule, usually by one person

Tyranny

Slavic for "borderland"; region south of Russia, now independent

Ukraine

Temporary strict socialism in Russia 1918-1921

War communism

One unable to govern effectively; corrupt and crime ridden

Weak state

19th century Russians who wished to copy the West

Westernizers

Local parliament in old Russia

Zemstvo