Key Terms of the Russian Revolution and Soviet History

Definitions of Key Political Terms

Political Factions and Parties

• Mensheviks: The minority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party. They supported the idea that Russia had passed through a bourgeois revolution and needed to develop a capitalist economy.
• Bolsheviks: The majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party. They sought to establish a provisional democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry.
• SRs (Social Revolutionaries): A major political party representing the interests of the peasantry.
• Cadets (Constitutional Democrats): The majority of Duma deputies in the first assembly who demanded a genuine parliamentary system and the redistribution of land from landlords to peasants.

Soviet Institutions and Governance

• Soviets: Action groups formed by workers from specific localities; these became key instruments of the revolution and the Bolshevik Party.
• Duma: The Russian parliament or legislature established by the Tsar.
• Provisional Government: The government that attempted to reform agriculture and the police apparatus. It suffered from weak authority and faced various political crises.
• Central Committee or Politburo: The central policy-making body and the maximum authority of the Communist Party of the USSR.

Soviet Socio-Economic Terms

• Kulak: A social class of wealthy peasants who were often viewed as a social base opposed to the regime.
• Red Army: The military force organized by Trotsky to ensure the survival of the new regime.
• Comintern (Third International): An organization founded in Moscow to promote revolution in all countries, operating under centralized and disciplined Leninist principles.
• Gulag: A system of forced labor and prison camps in the USSR.
• Kolkhoz (Collective Farm): A collective farm where the land belonged to the state.
• Purges: Campaigns of imprisonment and execution targeting political opponents.

Historical Events and Economic Concepts

• April Crisis: A period where Lenin proposed breaking with the interim government to transition from a bourgeois to a socialist revolution, leading to the formation of a coalition government under Kerensky.
• Inflation: A general increase in prices resulting in a decrease in the purchasing power of money.
• Black Thursday: October 24, 1929, the day that marked the beginning of the stock market crash.