Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution – Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering major terms, people, events, and concepts from the lecture on Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution.

French Revolution

The 1789 uprising in France that introduced ideas of freedom, equality, and the possibility of restructuring society.

Estates

Pre-revolutionary European social divisions, typically clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Aristocracy

Hereditary nobility that held economic and social power before modern reforms.

Liberals

19th-century reformers who wanted constitutional governments, religious tolerance, and property-based suffrage, but not universal adult franchise.

Radicals

Political group demanding government by the majority, wider voting rights including for women, and limits on property concentration.

Conservatives

Those preferring gradual, respectful change and preservation of past traditions after the French Revolution.

Suffragette Movement

Campaign for women’s right to vote, supported by many radicals.

Industrial Revolution

18th–19th-century transformation marked by factories, railways, and urban growth causing social problems and new political responses.

Nationalists

Activists seeking self-governing nations with equal rights for citizens; often allied with liberals and radicals.

Giuseppe Mazzini

Italian nationalist (1805-1872) whose writings inspired movements for unified, republican nations.

Socialism

Ideology advocating collective or social ownership of property and production to address social inequalities.

Private Property (Capitalist View)

Individually owned assets used for personal profit; seen by socialists as root of social ills.

Cooperative

Association where members jointly produce goods and share profits, proposed by early socialists.

Robert Owen

English manufacturer (1771-1858) who attempted a model cooperative community at New Harmony, USA.

New Harmony

Robert Owen’s experimental cooperative settlement in Indiana (1825).

Louis Blanc

French socialist (1813-1882) who urged government-backed cooperatives to replace capitalist enterprises.

Karl Marx

German thinker (1818-1883) who argued workers must overthrow capitalism to establish communism.

Friedrich Engels

Marx’s collaborator (1820-1895) who co-authored works laying foundations of scientific socialism.

Capitalism

Economic system where private owners control industry for profit, criticized by Marxists.

Communist Society

Marx’s envisioned classless society with social ownership of all property.

Second International

Federation (founded 1889) coordinating socialist parties across Europe.

Social Democratic Party (SPD)

German socialist party that gained parliamentary seats with worker support.

Labour Party (Britain)

Political party formed in 1905 by British socialists and trade unionists.

Socialist Party (France)

French political party advocating socialist reforms, founded in early 20th century.

Tsar Nicholas II

Autocratic ruler of Russia (1894-1917) overthrown during the 1917 revolutions.

Russian Orthodox Church

Dominant religion in the Russian Empire, historically linked to the state.

Duma

Elected consultative parliament created in Russia after the 1905 Revolution.

Bloody Sunday

9 January 1905 massacre of peaceful protesters in St Petersburg, triggering nationwide unrest.

1905 Revolution

Wave of strikes, peasant unrest, and political protest forcing limited reforms in Russia.

Jadidists

Muslim reformers in the Russian Empire advocating modernised Islam and social change.

Central Powers

World War I alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey.

Allied Powers

WWI coalition of France, Britain, Russia (later Italy, Romania, USA).

Petrograd

World War I name for St Petersburg; epicentre of the 1917 revolutions.

February Revolution (1917)

Mass uprising in Petrograd that toppled the Tsar and led to a Provisional Government.

International Women’s Day (1917)

22 February strike by female workers that sparked the February Revolution.

April Theses

Lenin’s 1917 program calling for ‘Peace, Land, Bread,’ power to soviets, and party renamed Communist.

Bolsheviks

Lenin-led faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party advocating a disciplined revolutionary vanguard.

Mensheviks

Moderate faction favouring broad party membership and gradual reform rather than immediate revolution.

Leon Trotsky

Bolshevik leader who headed Petrograd Soviet and organised the October insurrection.

October Revolution (1917)

Bolshevik seizure of power on 24-25 October (7 November Gregorian), overthrowing the Provisional Government.

Soviet

Council of workers’, soldiers’, or peasants’ deputies that emerged during the Russian revolutions.

Cheka

Bolshevik secret police (later OGPU/NKVD) created in 1917 to suppress opposition.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

March 1918 peace agreement by which Soviet Russia exited WWI, ceding territory to Germany.

One-Party State

Political system where only the Communist Party was legal in Soviet Russia after 1918.

Russian Civil War

1918-1921 conflict between Red (Bolshevik), White (Tsarist/liberal), and Green (peasant) forces.

USSR

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, multinational socialist state formed in 1922.

Five Year Plan

Centralised economic program setting production targets for industry and agriculture (first launched 1928).

Collectivisation

Stalin’s policy forcing peasants into large collective farms (kolkhozes) from 1929 onward.

Kolkhoz

State-controlled collective farm where peasants worked and shared profits.

Kulak

Relatively wealthy peasant targeted during collectivisation as a class enemy.

Budeonovka

Distinctive pointed woollen cap introduced as the Red Army’s Soviet uniform in 1918.

Magnitogorsk

Planned industrial city built rapidly in the 1930s as a symbol of Soviet steel production.

Comintern

Communist International (1919-1943) promoting world revolution and coordinating communist parties.

Communist University of the Workers of the East

Moscow institution training revolutionaries from Asia and colonial regions.

Rabindranath Tagore

Indian Nobel laureate who visited USSR in 1930 and wrote on Soviet social achievements.

Shaukat Usmani

Indian revolutionary who praised Soviet equality after visiting Russia in 1920.

Centralised Planning

Economic system where state agencies set production quotas, prices, and resource allocation.

OGPU / NKVD

Successor organisations to the Cheka responsible for state security and political repression.

Second Five Year Plan (1933-1938)

Soviet program emphasizing heavy industry, transport, and further industrial growth.

Great Purge

Late 1930s campaign of political repression and executions under Stalin.