Czar

A party of revolutionary Marxists, led by Vladimir Lenin, who seized power in Russia in 1917.

Proletariat

Workers or working class
The Bourgeoisie (business owners) take advantage of this class

Bourgeois

of or characteristic of the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes.

"Whites"

Anti Communists who were loyal to the czar.

Duma

The elected parliament. Though through establishing this is seemed like the Czar was giving his people power, in reality he could easily get rid of this if they made any laws or such that he didn't like.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

treaty between Russia and Germany that would end Russia's involvement in WWI in 1917. Russia gave up Ukraine, its Polish and Baltic territories, and Finland to appease the Germans.

Command Economy

Economy in which production, investment, prices, and incomes are determined centrally by a government.

War Communism

The application of centralized state control during the Russian civil war, in which the Bolsheviks seized grain from peasants, introduced rationing, Government took over all banks and industry, and required everyone to work. Also involved land being seized and redistributed, This was enforced by the Cheka.

NEP ( New Economic Policy)

A small scale version of capitalism. Allowed peasants to sell excess crops & allowed small factories and businesses to be under private ownership. (Govt. still controlled major businesses & factories); replaced War Communism

Totalitarianism

government control over every aspect of public and private life. does not permit individual freedom.

Cheka

Secret police set up by Lenin-arrested "enemies of the revolution".

Soviet

council of workers and soldiers set up by Russian revolutionaries in 1917, formed to represent workers and soldiers

Gulag

in the Soviet Union, a system of forced labor camps in which millions of criminals and political prisoners were held under Stalin

Red Terror

The campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government; a group of secret police killed thousands labeled as "enemies of the Revolution"

Great Purge

A campaign of terror directed at eliminating anyone who threatened Stalin's power

Dissent

to disagree; disagreement

Censorship

restriction on access to ideas and information

Czar Nicolas II (Romanov)

last czar of Russia. He ruled at a time when the Russian people were becoming increasingly discontented with imperial rule. Nicholas II was czar during World War I, but in 1917, his rule was ended by the Russian Revolution. His downfall marked the end of Imperial Russia and paved the way for the creation of the Soviet Union. He was executed by Bolsheviks after November Revolution (1917)

Grigori Rasputin

A Russian peasant and self-proclaimed mystic (holy man) who gained significant influence over CZar Nicholas II's wife, Alexandra, prior to the revolutions of 1917. Rasputin's behavior caused scandals, and the Russian people began to believe that the Czar himself was under Rasputin's influence. Supporters of the CZar had Rasputin killed in late 1916

Vladimir Lenin

Leader of the Bolshevik (later Communist) Party. He lived in exile in Switzerland until 1917, then returned to Russia to lead the Bolsheviks to victory during the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed. Believed Marxism was the ideal government. Established and led the soviet union.

Peace, Land, and Bread

Peace - Pull out of WWI

Land - Take land from the wealthy

Bread - End food rations

Leon Trotsky

Russian revolutionary intellectual and close adviser to Lenin. A leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), he was later expelled from the Communist Party (1927) and banished (1929) for his opposition to the authoritarianism of Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communists after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush opposition

Five Year Plan (Stalin)

to build up Russia's industry
- Collectivization of agriculture - all of the farmers will work together as one farm.
- Industrialization of Russia -
nobody could reach Stalin's expectations, so people faked making their money. By doing this, the people would have about one week before being caught and killed or sent to a gulag, rather than getting killed immediately by admitting the truth. Use of the gulags as free labor was to transform Russia from an agricultural country into an industrial country.

Holodomor

a man-made famine-genocide in which the USSR starved the people of Ukraine; killed millions