Russia

Front 1

Lenin’s faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party; later came to mean anyone who followed his views and/or organization.

Back 1

Bolsheviks

Front 2

General secretary of the CPSU from 1964 until 1982. Largely responsible for the stagnation of the USSR.

Back 2

Brezhnev, Leonid

Front 3

Supposedly the most important body in a communist party; its influence declined as it grew in size and the party needed daily leadership.

Back 3

Central Committee

Front 4

The Soviet Union’s first secret police.

Back 4

Cheka

Front 5

Prime minister of Russia, 1993–98.

Back 5

Chernomyrdin, Viktor

Front 6

The interwar coalition of communist parties directed from Moscow.

Back 6

Comintern

Front 7

The new incarnation of the CPSU for Russia.

Back 7

Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Front 8

The party that ran the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.

Back 8

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Front 9

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Back 9

CPSU

Front 10

The Leninist organizational structure that concentrates power in the hands of the party elite.

Back 10

Democratic centralism

Front 11

One of the leading opposition parties in Russia in the 1999 Duma elections.

Back 11

Fatherland–All Russia

Front 12

The largely powerless upper house of the Russian parliament.

Back 12

Federation Council

Front 13

In the former Soviet Union and other communist countries, the period for which Gosplan developed goals and quotas.

Back 13

Five-year plan

Front 14

Reformist politician and acting prime minister of Russia in 1993.

Back 14

Gaidar, Yegor

Front 15

Under Gorbachev, Soviet policies that opened up the political system and allowed for freedom of expression.

Back 15

Glasnost

Front 16

Head of the CPSU and last president of the Soviet Union.

Back 16

Gorbachev, Mikhail

Front 17

The Soviet central planning agency.

Back 17

Gosplan

Front 18

Soviet secret police

Back 18

KGB

Front 19

Russian tycoon arrested on corruption and tax evasion charges in 2003.

Back 19

Khodorkovsky. Mikhail

Front 20

Successor of Josef Stalin as head of CPSU and Soviet Union from 1953 until he was ousted in 1964.

Back 20

Khrushchev, Nikita

Front 21

Architect of the Bolshevik revolution and first leader of the Soviet Union.

Back 21

Lenin, V. I.

Front 22

In Britain, the number-three party and in some ways the most radical; in Japan, the dominant party since the 1950s; in Russia, the neofascist and racist opposition party led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Back 22

Liberal Democratic Party

Front 23

The smaller and more moderate faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party before World War I.

Back 23

Mensheviks

Front 24

Russian term to describe the other fourteen republics of the former Soviet Union.

Back 24

Near abroad

Front 25

New Economic Policy in USSR

Back 25

NEP

Front 26

The Soviet system of lists that facilitated the CPSU’s appointment of trusted people to key positions. Adopted by other communist regimes.

Back 26

Nomenklatura

Front 27

Business and political leaders with what some think is undue influence in Russia.

Back 27

Oligarch

Front 28

New political party chaired by former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

Back 28

Our Home Is Russia

Front 29

Ill-fated program to reform the Soviet economy in the late 1980s.

Back 29

Perestroika

Front 30

Generic term used to describe the leadership of communist parties.

Back 30

Politburo

Front 31

The most important departments in the Russian government.

Back 31

Power ministries

Front 32

The selling off of state-owned companies.

Back 32

Privatization

Front 33

Generic term used to describe temporary governments until a new constitution is written; also the government in Russia between the two 1917 revolutions.

Back 33

Provisional government

Front 34

The systematic removal of people from party, state, or other office; especially common in communist systems.

Back 34

Purge

Front 35

President of Russia since 2000.

Back 35

Putin, Vladimir

Front 36

Official title of the Russian Federation of the old Soviet Union

Back 36

RSFSR

Front 37

Formal name of Russia.

Back 37

Russian Federation

Front 38

Given by Khrushchev in 1957, seen as the start of the “thaw.”.

Back 38

Secret speech

Front 39

Generic term used to describe the bureaucratic leaders of a communist party.

Back 39

Secretariat

Front 40

Policies in formerly communist countries that envisage as rapid a shift to a market economy as possible.

Back 40

Shock therapy

Front 41

Leader of the CPSU and Soviet Union, 1924–53.

Back 41

Stalin, Joseph

Front 42

The lower house of the Russian parliament.

Back 42

State Duma

Front 43

The leading ministers of the Russian government.

Back 43

State Security Council

Front 44

Moscow-dominated organization of communist parties around the world between the two world wars.

Back 44

Third International

Front 45

Occasion of Khrushchev’s “secret speech” launching de-Stalinization.

Back 45

Twentieth Party Congress

Front 46

The political party led by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Back 46

United Russia

Front 47

One of the leading reformist parties in Russia.

Back 47

Yaboloko

Front 48

Former reformist communist leader and president of Russia, 1991–2000.

Back 48

Yeltsin, Boris

Front 49

Leader of the right-wing and racist Liberal Democratic Party in Russia.

Back 49

Zhirinovsky, Vladimir

Front 50

Head of the Russian Communist Party.

Back 50

Zyuganov, Gennady