By Year – Seventeen Moments in Soviet History

ACSSR

Autonomous Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic.

AES

Atomic-electric station.

AKhRR

(Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia) Artistic organization that promoted the “proletarianization” of the visual arts during the Cultural Revolution. Active in Moscow and Leningrad in 1922-32.

AMO

Automobile Manufacturing Company, established in 1916 in Moscow.

ARA

The private charitable relief effort organized to help Volga region during the great famine of 1921-23.
Headed by Herbert Hoover, it operated the American Volga Relief Society (AVRS), created by a merger of theVolga Relief Society (VRS), which solicited funds from Volga German communities in America for the relief of relatives in Russia, and the Central States Volga Relief Society (CSVRS), which arose at the same time in Nebraska.

ARCEC

All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

ASSR

A territorial and administrative subdivision of some union republics, created to grant a degree of administrative autonomy to some major minority groups. Directly subordinate to its union republic. In 1989 the Soviet Union had twenty autonomous republics, sixteen of which were in the Russian Republic.

ATSSR

Autonomous Turkestan Socialist Soviet Republic.

AUCCTU

All-Union Central Council of the Trade Unions.

AVIAKhIM

Society of Friends of the Airforce and Chemicas Industry, a semi-official organization popular in 1920s and ’30s.

Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Home academy of Trofim Lysenko, the biologist who dominated scientific life after the war and whose hostility to Mendelian genetics destroyed the Soviet biological sciences.

Academy of Sciences

The Soviet Union’s most prestigious scholarly institute, which conducted basic research in the physical, natural, mathematical, and social sciences. Established in 1725 by Peter the Great, it carried out long-range research and developed new technology. Union republics also had academies of sciences. The Academy of Sciences was under the direction of the Council of Ministers. (Alternative term: Akademiia nauk.)

Agentstvo pechati novosti; NPA

News Press Agency. The news agency responsible for disseminating Soviet information abroad in the post-Khrushchev era. (The word novost’ means news or something new.)

Akademiia nauk

All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions; All-Russian Council of Trade Unions

Russian acronym: VTsSPS.

All-Union Central Council of the Trade Unions

English acronym: AUCCTU.

American Relief Administration

Arbat

One of the principal commercial streets in central Moscow; before reconstruction in the 1970s, one of Moscow’s oldest and most charming neighborhoods.

Artek

A Pioneer summer health camp on the Black Sea coast of Crimea.

Aurora

Russian naval vessel seized in course of October Revolution; used to fire on Winter Palace.

Autocephalous Church

Independent or self-governing; an Orthodox church that was headed by its own patriarch.

Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Autonomous oblast

A territorial and administrative subdivision of a union republic or of a krai in the Russian Republic, created to grant a degree of autonomy to a national minority within that krai or union republic. In 1989 the Soviet Union had eight autonomous oblasts, five of which were in the Russian Republic.

Autonomous okrug

A territorial and administrative subdivision of a krai or oblast in the Russian Republic that granted a degree of administrative autonomy to a nationality; usually found in large, remote areas of sparse population. In 1989 the Soviet Union had ten autonomous okruga, all of which were in the Russian Republic.

acceleration

Under Gorbachev, an on-going effort to speed up the rate of growth and modernization of the economy.

agitprop

Agitation and Propaganda Department, established by the Central Committee of the party in 1920. Absorbed by the Ideological Department in 1988. The term agitprop means the use of mass media to mobilize the public to accomplish the regime’s demands.

aktiv

Local Communist Party activists, recognizable by their constant involvement in official community affairs.

all-union

National, with purview throughout the entire territory of the Soviet Union.

all-union ministries

Ministries of the Soviet central government that did not have counterpart ministries at the republic level. Other ministries were termed union-republic ministries.

anarcho-syndicalism

Radical ideological current and movement preaching all power to producers.

apparat

Soviet or party office with administrative responsibilities; often used perjoratively to refer to the Soviet bureaucracy.

apparatchik

Russian colloquial expression for a person of the party apparatus, i.e., an individual who has been engaged full time in the work of the CPSU. Often used in a derogatory sense.

arioso

In classical music, arioso is a style of solo opera singing between recitative and aria.

ariq

Irrigational ditches that ran alongside roads in Central Asia.

arshin

unit of length equal to two feet, four inches.

artel

Russian artisans’ or farm co-operative.

ataman

Cossack chief; the word was also used for the heads of criminal gangs during the first decade following the October Revolution.

aul

A fortified village often found in the Caucasus region.

autonomous republic

BAM

A second trans-Siberian railroad, running 100 to 500 kilometers north of the original Trans-Siberian Railway and extending 3,145 kilometers from the western terminus at Ust’-Kut to the eastern terminus at Komsomol’sk-na- Amure. Opened in 1989, the BAM was designed and built to relieve traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway, lessen rail traffic’s vulnerability to Chinese military incursion, and facilitate transport of natural resources from huge, unexploited deposits in eastern Siberia. (English: Baikal-Amur Main Line; alternative term: Baikalo-Amurskaia Magistral’.)

BSSR

Belorussian Socialist Soviet Republic; or Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic.

Baikal-Amur Main Line

Baikalo-Amurskaia Magistral’

Baikonur

Rocket launching site in Kazakhstan.

Basmachi

Central Asian “bandits” who opposed Soviet power, especially active in early 1920s.

Basmachi Rebellion

A sporadic and protracted revolt by Central Asian Muslims against Soviet rule beginning in 1918 and continuing in some parts of Central Asia until 1931.

Bezbozhnik

Godless, the title of a journal issued by the Society of the Militant Godless in the 1920s and ’30s.

Black Hundreds

The Union, called the Black Hundreds by their opponents, were right-wing, proto-fascist extremist organization that took as its mission the maintenance of the truest traditions of the Russian people. Made the first extensive use of the ‘pogrom’ as a form of organized anti-Semitic terror. (Russian: chernosotensty; alternative term: Union of the Russian People.)

Black Marias

Cars used by the NKVD to transport people who had been arrested during and after the Great Terror.

Bloknot agitatora

(Agitator’s Notebook) Pocket-sized booklet issued weekly to suggest timely slogans and brief arguments to be used in speeches and conversations among the masses. Published by the Propaganda Departments of regional and city party committees of the Communist Party, and from 1942 by Soviet Communist Party twice monthly. The publication gained readers in the late 1950s due to its section on City History Facts. In 1987 the Bloknot Agitatora was renamed Dialog and its format enlarged. The publication was shut down in 1991.

Bol’shevik

Faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party that seized power during the October Revolution. Also a journal, later renamed Kommunist.

Bolsheviki; RKP(B); Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

A member of the radical group within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, which, under Vladimir I. Lenin’s leadership, staged the Bolshevik Revolution. The term bol’shevik means a member of the majority (bol’shenstvo) and was applied to the radical members of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party after they won a majority of votes cast at a party congress in 1903. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks formed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) and began calling themselves Communists. That party was the precursor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

Bolsheviks

Brezhnev Doctrine

The Soviet Union’s declared right to intervene militarily to prevent other states from eliminating the leading role of the communist party and returning to capitalism once they have achieved socialism. First expressed after Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring in 1968 and used as justification for the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. In the late 1980s, Mikhail S. Gorbachev made statements interpreted by some in the West as repudiating the Brezhnev Doctrine.

Bukhara

One of the centers of Central Asian Muslim culture, located in Uzbekistan.

Butyrki

Prison in Moscow.

baba

Derogatory term for elderly woman, usually peasant.

bagmen

Illegal traders during Russian civil war.

bai

Wealthy Central Asian landlord.

balance of payments

The international transactions of a country, including commodity and service transactions, capital transactions, and gold movements.

balance of trade

The relationship between a country’s exports and imports.

banya

Traditional Russian steam bath.

bast shoe

Soft shoes made of the bark of a tree, and worn by the poorer peasants.

batiushka

Sire: traditional Russian title of respect, whether of peasants for their master, or all Russians for their tsar.

bedniak

Poor peasant, owning some land but usually not enough to support a family.

bednota

The poorest sector of the rural community, used as a wedge against wealthier peasants (kulaks) during collectivization. Also a Soviet newspaper in 1920s devoted to interests of poor peasants.

besprizornye

Orphaned or abandoned children who were particularly numerous during the 1920s.

blat

Profitable connections, influence, pull, or illegal dealings, usually for personal gain.

blatnoi

Goods and services obtained via unofficial system of exchange; also refers to the culture and society of the criminal underworld.

bogatyr

Knight; hero of traditional Russian tales.

borshch

beet soup, a specialty of Russian and Ukrainian cuisine

byt

daily life

CARC

State council (1944-1965) that kept a watch on and sometimes supervised church affairs after the reestablishment of the Patriarchate in 1943. (English: Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults.)

CEC

All-Russian, later All-Union executive arm of the Soviet government, the effective ruling body of the Soviet governmental system. (English: Central Executive Committee; Russian acronym: TsIK; alternative terms: VTsIK; Tsentral’nyi ispolnitel’nyi komitet.)

CEMA; CMEA

(Council for Mutual Economic Assistance). A multilateral economic alliance headquartered in Moscow; it existed from 1949-91. Members in 1989 were Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam. Comecon was created in January 1949, ostensibly to promote economic development of member states through cooperation and specialization, but actually to enforce Soviet economic domination of Eastern Europe and to provide a counterweight to the Marshall Plan.

CER

Chinese-Eastern Railway. Built by Russia in 1897-1903; claimed by Japan after its occupation of Manchuria in 1931; sold to Japan in 1935.

CIS

Commonwealth of Independent States. (SNG: Sodruzhestvo nezavisimykh gosudarstv). Official designation of the former republics that remained loosely federated in economic and security matters of common concern, after the Soviet Union disbanded as a unified nation in 1991. Members in 1993 were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

CP; VKPb; VKPU; VKP; VSKP(b)

Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The official name of the communist party in the Soviet Union since 1952. Originally the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, the party was named the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) from March 1918 to December 1925, the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) from December 1925 to October 1952, and the CPSU thereafter.

CPC

Communist Party of China.

CPSU

The official name of the communist party in the Soviet Union since 1952. Originally the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, the party was named the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) from March 1918 to December 1925, the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) from December 1925 to October 1952, and the CPSU thereafter.

CSCE

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Originating at the meeting that produced the Helsinki Accords in 1975, a grouping of all European nations (the lone exception, Albania, joined in 1991) that subsequently sponsored joint sessions and consultations on political issues vital to European security.

CSSR

Czechoslovak Soviet Socialist Republic.

Cadets

Constitutional Democratic Party (1906-17); moderate liberals.

Carpatho-Ukraine

An area historically belonging to Hungary but, attached to Czechoslovakia from 1918 to October 1938. In October 1938, Carpatho-Ukraine became autonomous, and in March 1939, it became independent as Subcarpathian Ruthenia. But Hungary occupied it nine days later and after World War II, ceded the area to the Soviet Union. Populated mostly by Ukrainians, who, prior to World War II, were sometimes referred to as Ruthenians. (Alternative term: Subcarpathian Ruthenia.)

Central Black-Earth Region

Literally, black earth. The zone of rich, black soil that extends across the southwestern Soviet Union. (Russian: chernozem.)

Central Bureau of Statistics

Central Statistics Department of the government. (Russian acronym: TsSU; alternative term: Tsentral’noe statisticheskoe upravlenie.)

Central Committee of the Communist Party

Central ruling body of the Soviet Communist Party. Membership in the Central Committee was a mark of the highest Soviet elite. The business of the Central Committee was directed by the Politburo in the periods between its congresses. (Russian acronym: TsK; alternative term: Tsentral’nyi komitet.)

Central Control Commission

Highest body of the Communist Party (1920-34) for supervision of party members; it served as the instrument of the initial party purges in the early 1930s.

Central Executive Committee

All-Russian, later All-Union executive arm of the Soviet government, the effective ruling body of the Soviet governmental system.

Central Powers

Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey (Ottoman Empire) in World War I.

Cheka

The political police created by the Bolsheviks in 1917; supposed to be dissolved when the new regime, under Lenin, had defeated its enemies and secured its power. But the Vecheka, also known as the Cheka, continued until 1922, becoming the leading instrument of terror and oppression as well as the predecessor of other secret police organizations. Members of successor security organizations continued to be referred to as “Chekisty” in the late 1980s.

Cheliuskin Arctic expedition

Soviet ship under command of Otto Schmidt which attempted to navigate sea from Murmansk to Vladivostok in 1933 but became stuck in ice and was rescued.

Chernobyl’

A town in the Ukrainian Republic, site of the world’s most catastropic nuclear accident. On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl’ nuclear power plant exploded and irradiated areas as far away as Sweden. Most radioactivity contaminated large sections of rich farmland in the Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian republics and affected millions of their inhabitants. Soviet and Western experts believe that damage to the people’s health, to the economy, and to the environment will be felt for decades. As of 1989, the accident had cost hundreds of lives and billions of rubles, caused a major slowdown in what had been an ambitious nuclear energy program, and provided an impetus to the fledgling environmental movement in the Soviet Union. Although the accident was caused by a combination of human error and faulty reactor design, the remaining three reactors at the Chernobyl’ power plant and reactors of this type remained operational elsewhere in the Soviet Union in 1989.

Chinese-Eastern Railway

Built by Russia in 1897-1903; claimed by Japan after its occupation of Manchuria in 1931; sold to Japan in 1935.

Comecon

Cominform

Communist Information Bureau. An international organization of communist parties, founded and controlled by the Soviet Union in 1947 and dissolved in 1956. The Cominform published propaganda touting international communist solidarity but was primarily a tool of Soviet foreign policy.

Comintern

An international organization of communist parties founded by Lenin in 1919. Initially, it attempted to control the international socialist movement and to foment world revolution; later, it also became an instrument of Soviet foreign policy. Dissolved by Stalin in 1943 as a conciliatory measure toward his Western allies.

Commonwealth of Independent States

(SNG: Sodruzhestvo nezavisimykh gosudarstv). Official designation of the former republics that remained loosely federated in economic and security matters of common concern, after the Soviet Union disbanded as a unified nation in 1991. Members in 1993 were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany in the years following the First World War.

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Originating at the meeting that produced the Helsinki Accords in 1975, a grouping of all European nations (the lone exception, Albania, joined in 1991) that subsequently sponsored joint sessions and consultations on political issues vital to European security.

Congress of People’s Deputies

The highest organ of legislative and executive authority, according to the Soviet Constitution. Existed in the early Soviet period as the Congress of Soviets and was resurrected in 1988 by constitutional amendment.

Congress of Soviets

First met in June 1917 and elected the All-Russian Central Committee of over 250 members dominated by the leaders of the Petrograd Soviet. The Second Congress of Soviets met on October 25, 1917, one day offer the start of the Bolshevik Revolution. Dominated by Bolshevik delegates the Second Congress of Soviets approved the Bolshevik coup d’¦tat and the decrees on peace and loud issued by Lenin. It also confirmed the Council of People’s Commissars, drawn exclusively from Bolshevik Ranks, as the new government and elected the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It adjourned on October 27 and was not reconvened.

Constituent Assembly

Elected in November 1917 on the basis of universal franchise; assembled for one session in January 1918 before being dissolved by Soviet Red Army.

Control Commission

Highest body of the Communist Party (1920-34) for supervision of party members; it served as the instrument of the initial party purges in the early 1930s.

Cossack

Originally peasants, primarily Ukrainian and Russian, who fled from bondage to the lower Dnepr and Don river regions to settle in the frontier areas separating fifteenth-century Muscovy, Poland, and the lands occupied by Tatars. The cossacks, engaged in hunting, fishing, and cattle raising, established permanent settlements and later organized themselves into military formations to resist Tatar raids. Renowned as horsemen, they were absorbed into the Russian army as light cavalry or irregular troops by the late eighteenth century.

Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults

State council (1944-1965) that kept a watch on and sometimes supervised church affairs after the reestablishment of the Patriarchate in 1943.

Council of Defense

The chief decision-making organ of the Soviet national security apparatus, composed of selected members of the Politburo and headed by the general secretary of the CPSU and the chairman of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee.

Council of Labor and Defense

See entry for Soviet of Labor and Defense.

Council of Ministers

The highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union, according to the Constitution. In practice, its members directed most day-to-day state activities.

Council of People’s Commissars; Council of People’s Commissaries

The first central institution of the Soviet state, formed immediately after the October Revolution to coordinate the work of the various commissariats. The Sovnarkom had an overlapping and sometimes conflicting mandate with other important Soviet institutions such as the Party, the military, and various economic councils. Renamed the Council of Ministers in 1946.

Cultural Revolution

Policy of Communist Party (1928-31) to proletarianize the arts by removing bourgeois personnel and influences and promoting those of proletarian background.

Cyrillic

An alphabet based on Greek characters that was created in the ninth century to serve as a medium for translating Eastern Orthodox texts into Old Church Slavonic. Named for Cyril, the leader of the first religious mission from Byzantium to the Slavic people, Cyrillic is used in modern Russian and several other Slavic languages.

cadre

Organized group of party activists. A party member who holds a responsible position (usually administrative) in either the party or the government apparatus. In a more restricted sense, a person who has been fully indoctrinated in party ideology and methods and uses this training in his or her work.

centner

One centner =100 kilograms.

chai-khan

Tea house in Central Asia where males congregated for conversation and recreation.

chastushka

Rhymed ditty characteristic of pre-revolutionary popular culture; its salty language could be easily adapted to satiric purposes.

chernosotensty

chernozem

Literally, black earth. The zone of rich, black soil that extends across the southwestern Soviet Union.

chervonets

Soviet gold-backed ruble introduced in July 1922.

collective farm

(Kollektivnoe khoziaistvo). An agricultural “cooperative” where peasants, under the direction of party-approved plans and leaders, are paid wages based, in part, on the success of their harvest.

collectivization

Stalin’s policy of confiscating privately owned agricultural lands and facilities and consolidating them, the farmers, and their families into large collective farms and state farms. Forced collectivization took place from 1929 to 1937.

combine

An economic entity of an industrial or service nature that consists of several specialized, technologically related enterprises.

commanding heights

The main or crucial levers of the economy (large-scale industry, banking, foreign commerce) controlled by the state during the New Economic Policy.

cosmodrome

Soviet space center.

cult of personality

A term coined by Nikita S. Khrushchev at the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU in 1956 to describe the rule of Stalin, in which the Soviet people were compelled to deify the dictator. Leonid I. Brezhnev also established a cult of personality around himself, although to a lesser extent than Stalin. Similar cults of saints, heroes, and the just tsar formed a historical basis for the cult of personality.

DDR

German Democratic Republic. East Germany of the divided Cold-War Germanies (see FRG).

DOSAAF

Dobrovol’noe obshchestvo sodeistviia armii, aviatsii i flotu (Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Air Force, and Navy). Responsible for premilitary training of Soviet youth.

DRA

Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The socialist government defended by the Soviet invasion of 1979.

Dashnak

Armenian nationalist movement (1880s – 1920s).

Defense Council

Defensist

A moderate socialist (or any other leftist) who during the First World War supported the Russian war effort as a defense against aggressive German designs.

Deutsche Demokratische Republik

German Democratic Republic. East Germany of the divided Cold-War Germanies (see FRG).

Dinamo

Sports organization sponsored by Soviet police; name of soccer and hockey teams based in Moscow and other large cities.

Dneproges; Dneprostroi

Dam and hydroelectric station on the Dnepr river near Zaporozh’e built in 1927-32; one of the great construction projects of the Soviet industrial revolution.

Donbass

Donets Basin. A major coal-mining and industrial area located in the southeastern Ukrainian Republic and the adjacent Russian Republic.

Duma

Lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, established by Nicholas II after the Revolution of 1905. Absent during Soviet times, the name was revived for the post-communist Russian legislature.

dekkan

Ordinary peasant in Central Asia.

dekulakization

Euphemism for the forced displacement, exile and often execution of better-off peasants during the years of collectivization that followed 1929.

democratic centralism

A Leninist doctrine requiring discussion of issues until a decision is reached by the party. After a decision is made, discussion concerns only planning and execution. This method of decision making directed lower bodies unconditionally to implement the decisions of higher bodies.

democratization

Campaign initiated by Gorbachev to enable different interest groups to participate in political processes to a greater extent than previously allowed.

demokratizatsiia

Campaign initiated by Gorbachev to enable different interest groups to participate in political processes to a greater extent than previously allowed.

desiatin

Measure of land, 2.7 acres or 1.1 hectares.

detdom

Home for orphaned or abandoned children.

dialectical materialism

A Marxist tenet describing the process by which the class struggle between bourgeois capitalist society and the exploited workers produces the dictatorship of the proletariat and evolves into socialism and, finally, communism.

dictatorship of the proletariat

According to Marxism-Leninism, the early stage of societal organization under socialism after the overthrow of capitalism. It involves workers’ dominance in suppressing the counterrevolutionary resistance of the bourgeois “exploiting classes.”

druzhinniki

Para-police force established under Khrushchev to maintain social order in cities.

dual power

Referring to the uneasy division of real governmental power by Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in the months leading up to the October Revolution.

dvoevlastie

EBRD

A bank founded under sponsorship of the European Community in 1990, to provide loans to East European countries (Bulgaria, the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia) to establish independent, market-driven economies and democratic political institutions. Some fifty-eight countries were shareholders in 1992.

EC

A group of primarily economic communities of Western European countries, including the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom or EAEC) and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). Executive power rested with the European Commission, which implemented and defended the community treaties in the interests of the EC as a whole. Members in 1993 were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Name changed to European Union (EU), December 1993.

ECCI

Executive Committee of the Communist International.

EKO

(Economics and Organization of Industrial Production) Bi-monthly publication put out by the Institute of Economics and Organization of Industrial Production of the Soviet Academy of Sciences from 1965. Aimed at economists, planners, policy makers, plant managers and others involved in the administration and operation of the Soviet economy.

Eastern-Rite Catholics; Ukrainian Greek Catholic; Ukrainian Uniate Church

A branch of the Catholic Church that preserved the Eastern Rite and discipline but submitted to papal authority. Established in 1596 at the Union of Brest. In the Soviet Union, the Uriate Church is found primarily in the western Ukrainian Republic, where it has been referred to as the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Also known as the Greek Catholic Church or the Byzantine Rite Church.

Eighth Congress

Congress of the Bolshevik Party held in March 1919. Its most important resolution decreed the separation of Party and Soviet organizations.

Ekonomika i organizatsiia promyshlennogo proizvodstva

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

European Community

Exarch

Non-resident church leader, or ruler from outside.

Ezhovshchina

The Great Terror prosecuted under N. I. Ezhov, People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs (1936-38).

edinolichnik

Independent farmers; i.e., those peasants who did not join collective farms, most of whom were destroyed or forced into collective farms by the late-1930s.

emploi

A defined range of characters defined for a given actor, which define their acting roles or, for singers, their voice and character range.

enemy of the people

Characterization of victims of the Great Terror (1936-38).

estrada

Genre of popular musical performance, from “estrada” (stage).

executive committee

Executive committee of soviets and the party from the local to the All-Union level.

FRG

Known as West Germany before the reunification of the two Germanys (see DDR).

Federal Republic of Germany

Known as West Germany before the reunification of the two Germanys (see DDR).

Fellow Travellers

Term coined by Trotsky in his 1923 LITERATURE AND REVOLUTION for the talented writers who pursued their own creative paths, but were not hostile to the Bolsheviks. Many of the fellow travellers were in fact sympathetic to Bolshevik policies in the mid-1920s, though some would later suffer under the Stalinist literary establishment.

Finland Station

Railroad station in Petrograd where Lenin arrived in April 1917.

First Clause of the Party Statute

The wording of this clause, which defined Party membership, was one of the sharpest points of difference between Lenin and Martov in the Split of the Russian Social Democratic party into the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions.

First Secretary

The title of the head of the CPSU Secretariat that was adopted after Stalin’s death in 1953; used by Khrushchev, and by Brezhnev until 1966 before the title was changed back to General Secretary.

Five-Year Plan

A comprehensive plan that sets the economic goals for a five- year period. Once the Soviet regime stipulated the plan figures, all levels of the economy, from individual enterprises to the national level, were obligated to meet those goals.

Five-hundreder

A worker producing at least 500 percent of quota. See the entry for Stakhanovite.

Fontanka

Graceful canal in the center of Petersburg, associated with painters and poets from Pushkin to Akhmatova.

Formerly TsGAOR (Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv oktiabr’skoi revoliutsii)

Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (State Archive of the Russian Federation).Archival holdings include government institutions of the Russian Empire, Provisional Government, RSFSR, Soviet Union and the Russian Federation from the early nineteenth century until the present. Archives on non-Communist political parties and the emigre community are also held. Catalogues accessible at http://garf.narod.ru/. (Russian acronym: GARF.)

Foros

Resort area on the south coast of the Crimea that was site to the luxurious dachas of the highest members of the Soviet elite.

Fourth Congress of the Third International

Held 1922-23 in Moscow. The Third International was the Bolshevik-dominated Communist international movement, usually known as the ‘Comintern’, so called to distinguish it from the Second or ‘socialist’ International.

fabrichno-zavodskie komitety

Committee elected to exercise workers’ control in 1917; absorbed by trade unions in 1918.

fabzavkom

Committee elected to exercise workers’ control in 1917; absorbed by trade unions in 1918.

face to the countryside

Slogan of the Communist Party; adopted in 1925 to promote interests of peasants.

factory committee

Committee elected to exercise workers’ control in 1917; absorbed by trade unions in 1918.

fartsovshchik

Black-marketeer.

food detachments

Food detachments, better known as Food Requisition Detachments, were groups of armed city workers who were organized either by trade unions or by individual factories and sent to food-surplus regions to requisition grain from the peasants. The organization of these detachments was authorized by the Soviet government on August 6, 1918.

GAKhN

Gosudarstvennaia akademiia khudozhevennykh nauk (Soviet Academy of Arts), which enforced the standard of socialist realism during the years of Stalinism, and beyond. Members of the academy were given great benefits in Soviet society, and artists who were not included had difficulty exhibiting their works or making a living as an artist.

GARF

GATT

An integrated set of bilateral trade agreements among more than 100 contracting nations. Originally drawn up in 1947, GATT aimed at abolishing quotas and reducing tariffs among members. The Soviet Union eschewed joining GATT until 1987, when it applied for membership.

GDP

The total value of goods and services produced exclusively within a nation’s domestic economy, in contrast to gross national product, usually computed over one year.

GES

Electric-producing dam, such as the giant projects built on the Dnepr, Bratsk or Angara rivers.

GKChP

Coup launched on August 18, 1991 by high ranking members of the Soviet government against the possibility of signing the Union Treaty. (Alternative terms: Gosudarstvennyi komitet chrezvychainogo polozheniia; State Committee for the State of Emergency.)

GNP

The total value of goods and services produced within a country’s borders and the income received from abroad by residents, minus payments remitted abroad by nonresidents. Normally computed over one year.

GOELRO

State Commission for the Electrification of Russia.

GPU

Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie (State Political Directorate). The security police successor to the Cheka from 1922 to 1923.

GRU

Main Intelligence Directorate. A military organization, subordinate to the General Staff of the armed forces, that collected and processed strategic, technical, and tactical information of value to the armed forces. It may also have included special units for engaging in active measures, guerrilla warfare, and sabotage.

GUGB

Main Directorate for State Security. The security police, successor to the OGPU, subordinate to the NKVD. Existed from 1934 to 1941, 1941 to 1943, and 1953 to 1954.

GULAG

Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps. The penal system of the Soviet Union, consisting of a network of harsh labor camps where criminals and political prisoners were forced to serve sentences.

GUM

State Department Store located on Moscow’s Red Square across from the Kremlin; the main and best supplied department store in the Soviet Union open to the public.

Gdansk Agreement

The first of several major concessions made by the Polish communist government in late 1980 to the rising Solidarity movement. The agreement granted public expression to many groups in Polish society hitherto restricted, promised new economic concessions, removed discredited communist officials, and recognized workers’ right to establish free trade unions.

Gen-sek

The title of the head of the CPSU Secretariat, who presides over the Politburo and has been the Soviet Union’s de facto supreme leader. Stalin became general secretary of the Russian Communist Party (Bolskevik) in 1922 and employed the positions to amass personal powers. After Statin’s death in 1953, the title was changed to first secretary, which was used by Khrushalea and by Brezhnev until 1966, when the title of general secretary was reinstituted. Brezhnev’s successors–Iurii Androkov, Konstantin Chernenko, and Mikhail S. Gorbachev–were all general secretaries.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

General Secretary

Genoa Conference

International conference (1922) to revitalize international trade after WWI.

GlavPUR

The organ the CPSU used to control the armed forces of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. An organ of the CPSU in the Ministry of Defense, it was responsible for conducting ideological indoctrination and propaganda activities to prepare the armed forces for their role in national security.

Glavkomtrud

Committee of Universal [Compulsory] Labor, established toward the end of the civil war to help mobilize labor to win the war and reconstruct the economy after. An embodiment of the Bolshevik tendency during the Civil War on compulsory methods of labor mobilization.

Glavlit

Glavnoe upravlenie po delam literatury i izdatel’stv (Main Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs). Created in 1922 under the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR to administer Soviet literary life, Glavlit eventually became the necessary clearing house and censor for all print publications in the Soviet Union. Renamed Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press in 1946. The acronym Glavlit continued to be used in the late 1980s.

Glavnoe razvedyvatel’noe upravlenie

Glavnoe upravlenie gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti

Main Directorate for State Security. The security police, successor to the OGPU, subordinate to the NKVD. Existed from 1934 to 1941, 1941 to 1943, and 1953 to 1954.

Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel’no- trudovykh lagerei

Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps. The penal system of the Soviet Union, consisting of a network of harsh labor camps where criminals and political prisoners were forced to serve sentences.

Glavnyi komitet po kontroliu za zrelishchami i repertuarom

Committee established in 1923 under the People’s Commissariat of Education to control theatrical, film, and other cultural productions and sanctioned their release for public viewing. Glavrepertkom functioned as the de facto theater censor with the advent of Stalinist cultural policies. The acronym, Glavrepertkom, continued in use although the organization was changed from a committee (komitet) to an administration (upravelenie) under the Ministry of Culture.

Glavrepertkom

Gorkom

City party committee.

gorodki

An ancient Russian folk sport. Similar in concept to to horseshoes, the aim of the game is to knock out groups of wickets arranged in various patterns by throwing a bat at them. The wickets or pins, are called gorodki.

Gosbank

State Bank. The main bank in the Soviet Union, which acted as a combination central bank, commercial bank, and settlement bank. It issued and regulated currency and credit and handled payments between enterprises and organizations. It received all taxes and payments to the state and paid out budgetary appropriations.

Gosizdat

State Publishing House.

Goskino

Gosudarstvenyi komitet po kinematografii (State Committee for Cinematography). Created in 1933, Goskino consolidated and controlled all facets of the film industry, from scenario writing to production. Goskino allowed the Soviet state to exert complete control over the industry. Absorbed by the Ministry of Culture in 1953, it became an independent organization again in 1963.

Goskomizdat

State Committee for Publishing Houses, Printing Plants, and the Book Trade. Supervised the publishing and printing industry and exercised all-union control over the thematic trend and content of literature.

Goskompriroda

State Committee for the Protection of Nature. Formed in 1988, the government agency charged with responsibility for overseeing environmental protection in the Soviet Union.

Goskomstat

State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics.

Goskomtsen

State Committee on Prices. The government body that established, under party guidance, the official prices of virtually everything produced in the Soviet Union, including agricultural produce, natural resources, manufactured products, and consumer goods and services.

Gosplan

Gosudarstvennyi planovyi komitet (State Planning Committee). Under party guidance, it was primarily responsible for creating and monitoring five-year plans and annual plans. The name was changed from State Planning Commission in 1948, but the acronym was retained.

Gostelradio

State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting. Established in 1957 as the Committee for Radio Broadcasting and Television. Upgraded to a state committee in 1970.

Gosudarstvennyi komitet chrezvychainogo polozheniia; State Committee for the State of Emergency

Coup launched on August 18, 1991 by high ranking members of the Soviet government against the possibility of signing the Union Treaty.

Gosudarstvennyi komitet po delam izdatel’stv poligrafii i knizhoi torgovli

Gosudarstvennyi komitet po okhrane prirody

State Committee for the Protection of Nature. Formed in 1988, the government agency charged with responsibility for overseeing environmental protection in the Soviet Union.

Gosudarstvennyi komitet po tsenam

Gosudarstvennyi universal’nyi magazin

State Department Store located on Moscow’s Red Square across from the Kremlin; the main and best supplied department store in the Soviet Union open to the public.

Gosudarstvennyy komitet po televideniyu i radioveshchaniiu

State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting. Established in 1957 as the Committee for Radio Broadcasting and Television. Upgraded to a state committee in 1970.

Guardsmen

The name given to WWII regiments that had earned special distinction in a military campaign, for example, by taking a major city. Such regiments were supplied somewhat better than their ordinary counterparts, receiving larger rations of sugar, vodka, and dried food.

Gvardeitsy

glasnost’

Public discussion of issues; accessibility of information so that the public can become familiar with it and discuss it. Gorbachev’s policy of using the media to make information available on some controversial issues, in order to provoke public discussion, challenge government and party bureaucrats, and mobilize greater support for his policy of perestroika.

glavki

Main administrations; branch units of the Vesenkha, the state agency regulating the economy.

gorispolkom

City, town or municipal executive committee, the operating arm of local soviet power.

gross domestic product

The total value of goods and services produced exclusively within a nation’s domestic economy, in contrast to gross national product, usually computed over one year.

gross national product

guberniia

Administrative unit of the Tsarist empire, roughly equivalent to a province.

gubkom

Guberniia (province) committee of the Communist Party.

Helsinki Accords

Signed in 1975 by all countries of Europe except Albania (which signed in 1991), plus Canada and the United States, at the conclusion of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Helsinki Accords endorsed general principles of international behavior and measures to enhance security and addressed selected economic, environmental, and humnitarian issues. In essence, the Helsinki Accords confirmed existing, post-World War II national boundaries and obligated signatories to respect basic principles of human rights. Helsinki watch groups were formed in 1976 to monitor compliance. The term Helsinki Accords is the short form for the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and is also know as the Final Act.

Helsinki watch groups

Informal, unofficial organizations of citizens monitoring their regimes’ adherence to the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords.

Holy Synod

Chief tsarist state administrative body with responsibility for oversight of Russian Orthodox Church; the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Russian Church stood at the head of Church administration.

hard currency

Currency that was freely convertible and traded on international currency markets. The Soviet ruble was not hard currency, and Soviet citizens from the mid-1920s were not allowed to hold hard currency, eventually creating a huge black market in dollars.

hectare

One hectare = 2.5 acres.

hydro-electric station

lectric-producing dam, such as the giant projects built on the Dnepr, Bratsk or Angara rivers.

IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency.

IMF

International Monetary Fund. Established along with the World Bank in 1945, the IMF is a specialized agency affiliated with the United Nations and responsible for stabilizing international exchange rates and payments. Its main function is to provide loans to its members (including industrialized and developing countries) when they experience balance of payments difficulties. These loans frequently have conditions that require substantial internal economic adjustments by the recipients, most of which are developing countries.

Industrial Workers of the World; IWW

Radical labor union in North America popularly known as the Wobblies.

International Monetary Fund

Established along with the World Bank in 1945, the IMF is a specialized agency affiliated with the United Nations and responsible for stabilizing international exchange rates and payments. Its main function is to provide loans to its members (including industrialized and developing countries) when they experience balance of payments difficulties. These loans frequently have conditions that require substantial internal economic adjustments by the recipients, most of which are developing countries.

Intourist

Official Soviet state tourist organization for foreign tourists.

Iskra

(Spark). Party journal of the Russian Social Democrats, of which Lenin was member of the editorial board from December 1900 to October 1903.

Izvestiia

The second most authoritative paper (after Pravda). Published by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., and the official national publication of the Soviet government until 1991. Circulated to between 8 and 10 million people daily. Contained official government information and general news and an expanded Sunday section composed of news analysis, feature stories, poetry, and cartoons. Its extensive coverage of international relations made it the principal voice for Soviet foreign policy. Under the editorship of Nikita Khrushchev’s son-in-law, Alexei Adzhubei, became a lively, readable and popular daily newspaper that included photographs, bigger headlines, shorter and more interesting articles, and a generally high standard of design.

Izvestiia TsIK; Izvestiia TsK KPSS

iconostas

The holy partition wall dividing the altar from the congregation in an Orthodox church, bearing icons of saints in four ranks.

indigenization

Rooting in: a policy of the late 1920s and 1930s that encouraged the advancement of local or native ethnic cadres into the upper-ranks of national-republic administrations and other positions of power.

intelligentsia

Intellectuals constituting the cultural, academic, social, and political elite. Often the source of opposition to the oppressive state in tsarist and Soviet times.

internal passport

Government-issued document, presented to officials on demand, identifying citizens and their authorized residence. Used in both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union to restrict the movement of people, in conjunction with the propiska system.

ispolkom

Executive committee of soviets and the party from the local to the All-Union level.

Jadidism

Radical secularist movement among Central Asian intelligentsia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Julian calendar

A calendar, named for Gaius Julius Caesar and introduced in Rome in 46 B.C., that established the twelve-month year of 365 days. It was adopted throughout much of the Western world, including Kievan Rus’ and Muscovy. The Julian calendar’s year, however, was over eleven minutes too long compared with the solar year, i.e., thetime the earth requires to make one revolution around the sun. Because of this discrepancy, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a revised calendar in 1582 that had a shortened year and then omitted the ten excess days that had accumulated since A.D. 325, the year of the Council of Nicea, which was chosen as the base year. Although most of the Western world adopted the Gregorian calendar, Russian regimes retained the Julian calendar (termed old style or O.S.) until after the Bolshevik Revolution. On February 1, 1918 O.S., the Bolsheviks introduced the Gregorian calendar and omitted the thirteen excess days that had accumulated since A.D. 325, thus making that day February 14, 1918 (new style or N.S.). The Russian Orthodox Church and other Eastern Christian churches continue to use the Julian calendar.

June Offensive

Last major offensive of Russian Imperial army (June-July 1917).

Junkers

Military cadets of the tsarist era. Junker units were the final troops to defend the Winter Palace in October, 1917.

KAPD

Communist Workers’ Party of Germany, competitor of the VKPD in the years following the First World War.

KGB

Committee for State Security. The predominant security police organization from its establishment in 1954, it was broken up into internal and external security organs after the fall of the Soviet Union.

KOR

KOR, or KSS-KOR [Committee of Social Self-Defense – Worker Defense Committee] was the union of dissident intellectuals and workers organized in 1976, which helped inspire the strong resistance to Communist dictatorship in Poland, and constituted the core for the later Solidarity movement.

KPSS

KSS-KOR

Kadet

Constitutional Democratic Party (1906-17), moderate liberals.

Kalym

Bride price traditional in some Muslim cultures, particularly in Kyrgyzstan. The practice was stamped out by Soviet power, and has undergone a revival in post-Soviet times.

KamAZ

Largest truck factory in the Soviet Union which began production in 1972; located in Naberezhnye Chelnyi on the Volga.

Kamenev-Zinoviev trial

First of the major Show Trials of the Great Terror (August 1936).

Karakum Canal

An irrigation and water supply canal, which is navigable, in the Turkmen Republic. Under construction since 1954, the 1,100 kilometers completed by 1988 diverted a significant amount of the Amu Darya’s waters west through and into the Kara Desert and Ashkhabad, the republic’s capital, and beyond. The canal opened up expansive new tracts of land to agriculture, while contributing to a major environmental disaster, the drying up of the Aral Sea. The primitive construction of the canal allows almost 50 percent of the water to escape en route.

Kavbiuro

Caucasian Bureau of the Communist Party set up during the civil war to provide political leadership in Transcaucasia, much of which was not under Bolshevik control.

Kazakhstan

Literally, land of the Kazakhs. A vast region in Central Asia settled by the Golden Horde in the thirteenth century that the Russian Empire acquired during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1924 the Soviet regime began dividing Kazakhstan into its major nationality groups, the Kazakhs and the Kirgiz. Subsequently, both of these groups was given union republic status in the Soviet Union.

KhSSR

Khorezm Soviet Socialist Republic.

Khanate

Dominion or territorial jurisdiction of a Mongol khan (ruler).

Khokhol

Perjorative Russian term for Ukrainian, implying provincial slowness. The traditional Ukrainian rejoinder was to call the Russian “Moskal.”

Khorezm

The central Asian khanate based in the present city of Khiva, from which shifted the Soviet administrative center in Bukhara. Both became part of the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, with its capital in the modern city of Tashkent.

Kievan Rus’

An East Slavic state, centered on Kiev, established by Oleg ca. 880. Disintegrated by the thirteenth century.

Knigotsentr

Literally: Book Center, the central distribution point for state publishers.

Komintern; Third International, Communist International

Komitet Samoobrony Spolecznej – Komitet Obrony Robotnikow

Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti

Kommunist

Organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from 1940 (previously Bol’shevik). Kommunist was often the forum in which party doctrines on important theoretical and political were enunciated.

Komsomol; Kommunisticheskii soiuz molodezhi; Vsesoiuznyi Leninskii kommunisticheskii soiuz molodezhi

All-Union Lenin Communist Youth League (YCL). An organization administered by the CPSU for youth between ages fourteen and twenty-eight. Since its establishment in 1918, the Komsonol has helped the party prepare new generations for an elite role in Soviet society. It has instilled in young people the principles of Marxism-Leninism and involved them in large-scale industrial projects, such as factory construction and the virgin land campaign. Members were expected to be politically conscious, vigilant, and loyal to the communist cause. Membership privileges included better opportunities for higher education and preferential consideration for career advancement. In 1982 the Komsomol had 41.7 million members.

Komsomol’skaia pravda

(Komsomol Truth) Morning daily newspaper published in Moscow that was the official voice of the Central Council of the Komsomol, or Communist youth league. Aimed at young people aged 14 to 28. Under the editorship of Nikita S. Khrushchev’s son-in-law, Alexei Adzhubei, in the 1950s, it introduced more travel articles, sports pieces, and short fiction and reduced the amount of propaganda. At its peak in the 1970s and early ’80s, its circulation was more than 15 million.

Komsomolka

Either a female member of the Komsomol, or a diminutive form for the newspaper Komsomol’skaia pravda.

Kornilov affair

Attempt by General Lavr Kornilov, Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, to crush Soviets in August 1917.

Krasnaia Presnia

Historically working-class district of Moscow, site of street battles during 1905 revolution.

Krasnaia gazeta

(Red Gazette) A daily newspaper which at different times of its existence was an organ of the central, provincial, city committees of the All-Union Communist Party and the Petrograd/Leningrad Soviet. It circulated from January 1918 to 1939, when it was merged with Leningradskaia Pravda.

Kremlin

Central citadel in many medieval Russian towns, usually located at a strategic spot along a river. Moscow’s Kremlin, situated on the Moscow River on a spot found by Prince Iurii Dolgorukii in 1147, became the fortress of the Muscovite princes and then tsars. Deprived of ruling status when Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg, it recovered its status as seat of the CPSU and the government of the Soviet Union in 1918.

Krokodil

(Crocodile). Thrice-monthly 14-18-page magazine of humor and satire, published 1922-1991. One of the most popular publications in the Soviet Union; with a circulation of approximately 6 million. Printed in color. Featured excellent artistic political cartoons and feature stories that pushed the envelope of ideologically correctness. Its humor was chiefly directed against what it termed Western imperialism and bourgeois ideology, but it also assailed “undesirable elements” in Russian society.

Kuomintang

Chinese nationalist movement led by Chiang-Kai Shek which routed Chinese Communists in 1927 and was defeated and exiled to Taiwan in 1949.

Kurile Islands

Archipelago extending southwards from Kamchatka peninsula; occupied by USSR during WW II, and the source of great contention between the Soviet Union and Russia, and later Russia and Japan.

Kuzbass

Kuznetsk Basin (Kuznetskii bassein). A major coal-mining and industrial area located in southern Siberia, east and southeast of Novosibirsk.

kerenka

Popular name of currency issued by the Provisional Government under Aleksander Kerenskii, which to succumbed to the hyper-inflation of the war-time economy.

khozraschet

A system of “self-supporting operations,” applied to such individual enterprises as factories, encompassing a wide range of activities, including samofinanserovanie, and a management process involving a large number of individuals.

khutor

Ukrainian village.

kishlaq

Central Asian or Afghan village.

kolkhoz

(Kollektivnoe khoziaistvo). An agricultural “cooperative” where peasants, under the direction of party-approved plans and leaders, are paid wages based, in part, on the success of their harvest.

kolkhoznik

Collectivized peasant-farmer.

kombedy

(Committees of the Poor). Organizations of rural poor established in 1918 to serve as base of Soviet power in countryside.

kombinat

An economic entity of an industrial or service nature that consists of several specialized, technologically related enterprises.

kommuna

(Commune) The most complete collective farm in which there was no private property; all land was worked collectively and its produce shared. Sometimes included collective eating and living.

korenizatsiia

krai

A large territorial and administrative subdivision found only in the Russian Republic, where there are six, all of which are thinly populated. The boundaries of a krai are laid out primarily for ease of administration but may also contain lesser political subdivisions based on nationality groups–autonomous oblast, or autonomous okrug, or both. Directly subordinate to its union republic.

krasnyi ugolok

The corner of a peasant reserved for the display of icons and other religious items. Capitalizing on the two meanings of the Russian word “krasnyi” (both beautiful and red), the Soviets encouraged kolkhoz peasants to arrange their own “Red Corners” devoted to pictures and the works of Lenin.

kul’tzmichki

Ukrainian: cultural link, as in the Russian smychka.

kulak

Literally, fist. A successful, independent farmer of the period of Soviet history before collectivization. According to the Bolsheviks, any peasant who hired labor. The term eventually was applied to any peasant who opposed collectivization.

L’Humanite

Official newspaper of the French Communist Party.

L’Unita

Newspaper of the Italian Communist Party.

LEF

Acronym of Left Front, leftist artistic movement of 1920s, and also name of the movement’s journal.

Lake Chudo

Lake where Aleksandr Nevskii threw back the Teutonic Knights in 1242 in the famous Battle on the Ice, memorialized in Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 film, Aleksandr Nevskii.

League of Nations

Organization for international cooperation established by the victorious Allied Powers at the end of World War I. The Soviet Union joined in 1934 but was expelled in 1939.

Left Opposition

Faction of Communist party led by Trotsky against bureaucratic maneuverings of Stalin (1925-27); ended with Trotsky’s exile, and most former members eventually perished in the Great Terror.

Left SRs

Faction of Socialist-Revolutionary Party that sided with Bolsheviks in 1917, briefly participated in Soviet government, but went into opposition after March 1918.

Lend-Lease Law

A foreign aid program initiated by the United States in March 1941 that authorized the transfer of substantial quantities of war materiel, such as tanks, munitions, locomotives, and ships, to countries opposing the military aggression of the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) while the United States mobilized for war. In November 1941, the Soviet Union was added to the list of recipients and, during the course of World War II, received supplies and equipment worth billions of dollars.

Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (LAAAS)

Home academy of Trofim Lysenko, the biologist who dominated scientific life after the war and whose hostility to Mendelian genetics destroyed the Soviet biological sciences.

Leningrad Affair

Arrest and execution of high-ranking party officials in Leningrad (1949) following death of A. Zhdanov.

Literaturnaia gazeta

(Literary Newspaper) Weekly 16-page newspaper published by the USSR s Union of Writers from 1929-1990. Contained authoritative statements and perspectives concerning literature, plays, cinema, and literary issues of popular interest, but also included political and social content. Acquired greater influence in the post-World War II period, becoming one of the most authoritative and influential publications in the country. Faithfully reflected government policy (both political and literary) but also attempted to show the human face of Soviet society. Was the national newspaper most likely to push the limits of censorship. Most interesting to its readers were reports on the international political scene, and especially on cultural life in countries outside the Soviet sphere of influence.

Little Entente

Alliance of Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Yugoslavia formed in 1921.

Living Church

Break-away movement within Russian Orthodox Church, sponsored by Soviet government in 1920s.

Lubianka

Building in central Moscow that served as headquarters of the political police (Cheka – OGPU – NKVD – KGB), and where its holding prison was located.

Luftwaffe

German Air Force.

labor day; laborday

Method of payment to collective farmers based on gradated occupational category and number of days worked per year.

lapti

Soft shoes made of the bark of a tree, and worn by the poorer peasants. (English: bast shoe.)

lavra

A large monastery given particular prestige within the Orthodox Church.

lishentsy

Category of former bourgeois, tsarist officials, police, and clergy deprived of civil rights (1917-36).

lubok

Cheap popular print or literature produced in 19th c.

MGB

Ministry of State Security. The paramount security police organization from 1946 to 1953; replaced by the KGB.

MOOP

Ministry for the Preservation of Public Order. Functioned between 1962 and 1968, and was in charge of the druzhinniki.

MOSSKh

Moscow Section of the Union of Soviet Artists. Formed in 1932. The Painting Section represented half of its membership. Of these, over two to one were stylistic traditionalists. This section of the Artists’ Union was one of the most active in expelling members who did not conform with the socialist realistic aesthetic.

MTS

Provided collective farms with mechanized equipment in return for portion of harvest. Motor-tractor stations were abolished in 1958 in an effort to give collective farms more autonomy and economic flexibility.

MVD

Ministry of Internal Affairs, and successor to the NKVD. Existed from 1946 to 1991; from 1968 it exercised regular police functions.

Magadan

One of the principal labor camps of the GULAG located in the far Northeast of the USSR.

Magnitka

Popular name for Magnitogorsk, steel city located east of Urals.

Main Committee for Control of Entertainment and Repertory

Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy

Marshall Plan

A plan announced in June 1947 by United States secretary of state George C. Marshall for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. The plan involved a considerable amount of United States aid to Western Europe, but the Soviet Union refused the offer of aid and forbade the East European countries it dominated from taking part in the Marshall Plan. As a counterweight, the Soviet Union created the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).

Marxism

The economic, political, and social theories of Karl Marx, a nineteenth-century German philosopher and socialist, especially his concept of socialism, which includes the labor theory of value, dialectical materialism, class struggle, and the dictatorship of the proletariat until a classless society can be established. Another German socialist, Friederich Engels, collaborated with Marx and was a major contributor to the development of Marxism.

Marxism-Leninism

The ideology of communism, developed by Karl Marx and refined and adapted to social and economic conditions in Russia by Lenin, that has guided the party and the Soviet Union. Marx talked of the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, as a transitional socialist phase before the achievement of communism. Lenin added the idea of a communist party as the vanguard or leading force in promoting the proletarian revolution and building communism. Stalin and subsequent leaders contributed their own interpretations of the ideology.

May Day

International workers’ holiday, celebrated in Soviet Union and many other European countries.

Melodiia

State-owned record company, with a monopoly on the production and distribution of recorded music within the USSR.

Mendelism-Morganism

In August, 1948, at a disastrous session of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lysenko’s dogma, approved by Stalin personally and named “Michurinian biology”, was proclaimed to be the greatest achievemet in Soviet biological science. “Weismanism-Mendelism-Morganism” was announced to be a “bourgeois pseudo-science” and was anathemized. Mendelism-Morganism was, of course, the foundations of the science that would soon be known in the west as genetics. Soviet biology never recovered from the attack.

Menshevik

A member of a wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party before and during the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Unlike the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks believed in the gradual achievement of socialism by parliamentary methods. The term Menshevik is derived from the word menshenstvo (minority).

Messidor

One of the months of the French revolutionary calendar, adopted in 1793 and intended to rationalize the inconsistent old system of months and seasons. Months (beginning at the autumnal equinox), included Vend¯miaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Niv se, Pluvi se, Vent se, Germinal, Flor¯al, Prairial, Messidor, Thermidor, and Fructidor.

Metropolitan

The primate of an ecclesiastical province of the Orthodox Church, usually housed in a large city, such as Moscow, Petersburg or Kiev.

Military Revolutionary Committee

Formed in the days before the October Revolution to coordinate the seizure of power, the Revvoensovet continued to be an important director of armed might during the Civil War.

Milton

Slang for militiaman or cop.

Ministerstvo gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti

Ministry of State Security. The paramount security police organization from 1946 to 1953; replaced by the KGB.

Ministerstvo okhrany obshchestvennogo poriadka

Ministry for the Preservation of Public Order. Functioned between 1962 and 1968, and was in charge of the druzhinniki. (Russian acronym: MOOP.)

Ministerstvo vnutrennykh del

Ministry of Internal Affairs, and successor to the NKVD. Existed from 1946 to 1991; from 1968 it exercised regular police functions.

Mongol yoke

Period of Mongol domination of much of eastern Europe by the Golden Horde from the mid-thirteenth century to the end of the fifteenth century.

Morganism-Mendelism; Morganists; Weismannist-Morganist Movement; Mendelism

See the entry for Mendelism-Morganism.

Mosfilm

Main film studio located in Moscow.

Mosselprom

Short for Moscow Rural and Industrial Products. Soviet department store built in the 1920s to compete against the private goods that dominated the consumer market during the years of the New Economic Policy.

Mossovet

Moscow City Soviet.

makhorka

Cheap tobacco, usually smoked in hand-rolled form. Makhorka was the tobacco of choice for the lower classes and lower ranks of the military during the years of revolution and the Great Patriotic War [World War II], and an item of ready exchange and barter.

matreshka

Traditional Russian embedded doll, the “dolls within the doll.”

medres

Islamic religious school.

meshochniki

Illegal traders during Russian civil war.

mir

A peasant commune established at the village level in tsarist Russia. It controlled the redistribution of farmland and was held responsible for collecting taxes and levying recruits for military service. In Russian, mir also means ‘world’ and ‘peace.’

motor-tractor station

mujahideen; mujahidin

Derived from the word jihad, the term means holy warriors and was used by and applied to the Afghan resistance or freedom fighters.

mullah

Muslim man trained in Islamic law and doctrine.

muzhik

Derogatory term for Russian peasant.

NATO

An alliance founded in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and their postwar European allies to oppose Soviet military presence in Europe. Until the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, NATO was the primary collective defense agreement of the Western powers. Its military and administrative structure remained intact after the threat of Soviet expansionism had subsided.

NDPA

The ruling party of Afghanistan during its period of Soviet tutelage.

NEP

Novaia ekonomicheskaia politika. Instituted in 1921, it let peasants sell produce on an open market and permitted small enterprises to be privately owned and operated. Cultural restrictions were also relaxed during this period. NEP declined with the forced collectivization of farms and was officially ended by Stalin in December 1929.

NKGB

Narodnyi komissariat gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti (People’s Commissariat of State Security). Security police which functioned in 1941 and again from 1943 to 1946.

NKVD

Narodnyi komissariat vnutrennykh del (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs). The commissariat that administered regular police organizations from 1917 to 1946. When the OGPU was abolished in 1934, the NKVD incorporated the security police organization until 1946.