Understanding Key Terms of the Russian Revolution

Vocabulary

Autarky: An economic system that closes the borders of a country to external influence. A country with autarky neither imports nor exports.

Autocracy: A political system where the Tsar governs with absolute power, aided by the church.

Soviet: Meetings and clandestine gatherings of workers and peasants. Later becomes the parliament of the USSR.

Bolshevik: Radical and violent people who want to overthrow the Tsarist regime by force of arms; the Red Army.

Menshevik: Moderates who want to overthrow the Tsarist regime through dialogue; they lost.

Tsarist Regime: The political, economic, and social system in Russia before the Revolution, where the Tsar governs with absolute power.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A political system where the proletariat governs above all other social classes.

Irredentism: A political stance advocating the incorporation of a territory into another nation to which it believes it belongs.

Reich: Hitler's desire to recover territories lost after the Treaty of Versailles. Empire.

New Deal: A new cast.

Gulag: Nazi concentration camps.

SS: Sections Assault.

Gestapo: A group of paramilitaries.

Causes of the Revolution

1. Demoralization of the population, who join the Soviets to overthrow the Tsar.
2. Discontent caused by the disasters of World War I.
3. The absolute monarchy of the Tsar denies individual freedom and prevents the country from modernizing.

Revolution of February 1917

The Soviets forced Czar Nicholas II to abdicate. Barricades were erected in St. Petersburg, and an interim rule was created for the Menshevik Kerensky to govern.

Reform Program:

• Strengthening of democratic institutions.
• Trying to fight the economic crisis.
• An assembly to decide how to apportion the land.
• Tsarist Russia becomes a democratic republic.

October Revolution 1917

The Bolsheviks did not comply with the Mensheviks, led by Lenin, and wanted a dictatorship of the proletariat. They forced Kerensky to resign, and Lenin became the Supreme Soviet of St. Petersburg (Leningrad).

Reform Program:

• Expropriation of land to distribute among peasants.
• Industries controlled by Soviet workers.
• Russia made peace with Germany and withdrew from World War I.
• The dictatorship of the proletariat was established.
• The USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was created.