Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917-41

Flashcards based on key vocabulary from the lecture on Russia and the Soviet Union, covering essential terms and their definitions.

Propaganda

Information, especially biased or misleading, used to promote a political cause or point of view.

Censorship

The state control of what information is circulated, which can limit free expression and access to knowledge.

Bolsheviks

A faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, led by Lenin, which seized power in Russia in the October Revolution.

Cheka

The Bolshevik secret police organization tasked with combatting counter-revolution and political dissidence.

Collectivization

Stalin's policy of consolidating individual peasant farms into collective farms to increase agricultural production.

War Communism

The economic and political system that existed in Russia from mid-1918 to 1921, characterized by the nationalization of industry and the forced requisitioning of agricultural products.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

A state capitalism policy introduced by Lenin in 1921 that allowed for some private enterprise and small-scale private production to rebuild the economy after War Communism.

Stakhanovite movement

A campaign to increase worker productivity, named after miner Alexey Stakhanov, who exceeded his quotas and became a national hero.

Five-Year Plans

A series of nationwide state-directed economic plans that aimed to rapidly industrialize the Soviet Union.

Great Terror

A campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, characterized by widespread purges and extrajudicial killings.

Decree on Land

A policy made by the Bolshevik government that redistributed land from landowners to peasants.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

A peace treaty signed in 1918 between the Bolshevik government and the Central Powers, resulting in significant territorial losses for Russia.

Show Trials

Public trials held in the USSR during the Great Terror to demonstrate the regime's power, often resulting in predetermined convictions.

Totalitarianism

A political system in which the state recognizes no limits to its authority and seeks to regulate every aspect of public and private life.

Red Army

The army and military force of the Soviet Union, initially formed from the Bolshevik militia.

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the Soviet secret police and security organization during Stalin's rule.

Famine in Ukraine (Holodomor)

A man-made famine in the Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, which resulted from Stalin's policies of collectivization and requisitioning grain.

Glavlit

The Soviet Agency for censorship, controlling all forms of media and ensuring that only state-approved information was disseminated.

Cult of Personality

A situation in which a public figure is presented to the populace in an idealized manner, often through propaganda to promote a strong fanatical devotion.