APWH CH 12 VOCAB

VLADIMIR LENIN 

Communist revolutionary and founder of the United Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union

BOLSHEVIK

Revolutionary group of communists who founded the United Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union

GUOMINDANG

Major political party in the Republic of China also called the Kuomintang

CHINESE REVOLUTION

Ended brutal civil war in China, Chinese Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China

MAO ZEDONG

Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China

ZHENOTDEL

Section of the Russian Communist party devoted to women's affairs in the 1920s

COLLECTIVIZATION

Government ownership and management of entire industries

CULTURAL REVOLUTION

Decade-long period of political and social reform under the Communist government in China

JOSEPH STALIN

Leader of the USSR from 1920s to 1950s

GREAT PURGE

Campaign in 1930s to eliminate or exterminate political opponents of the Communist Party in USSR

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

Stand-off between US and USSR over Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba in 1962

FIDEL CASTRO

Communist revolutionary and leader in Cuba

NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV

Led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War from 1958 to 1964, initiated a process of "de-Stalinization" that sought to make Soviet society less repressive

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Final leader of the USSR 

DENG XIAOPING

Reformist leader of Communist China from 1970s-90s who pushed for economic reform

PERESTROIKA

Era of economic reform in the USSR in 1980s 

PROXY WAR

War instigated by major powers where two parties don’t fight directly but through other nations or groups

CHIANG KAI-SHEK

Chinese Nationalist and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China on mainland China and later Taiwan

HO CHI MINH

Communist revolutionary and independence leader in Vietnam

SPUTNIK

Soviet satellite, the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth