Key Historical Terms: Europe & Russia 1879-USSR
Posted on Mar 31, 2025 in History
- Armed Peace
- Period from 1879 until the start of the First World War in 1914. It was a period of peace in Europe based on respect for the status quo in the Balkans established by the Berlin Congress, altered only by conflicts elsewhere in the world as major powers engaged in intense rearmament.
- Triple Alliance
- Alliance formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Created by Bismarck in 1882, it was defensive, aimed at establishing a balance of power in Europe favorable to Germany.
- Triple Entente
- Formed by the United Kingdom, France, and Russia, aimed at counterbalancing the Triple Alliance.
- War of Movement
- Conflict in which armies and fronts move dynamically due to the war effort.
- War of Positions
- Conflict where the front consolidates, and belligerents defend the territories achieved (also known as trench warfare).
- War of Attrition
- Military strategy aimed at causing the surrender of the enemy through the prolongation of war, leading to the exhaustive depletion of their human and economic resources.
- Free Trade
- Economic system that favors international trade by removing tariffs and customs duties.
- Protectionism
- Economic policy that protects domestic production from foreign competition by imposing taxes (tariffs) on imports entering the country.
- Acculturation
- Result of a process in which a person or group acquires elements of a new culture, often inadvertently.
- Colony
- Territory dominated and administered by a foreign power.
- Protectorate
- State that exercises partial sovereignty over a territory not fully incorporated into its domains, which retains its own authorities.
- Domain
- Territory governed or administered by another state.
- Mandate
- System established after WWI where territories (former colonies of defeated powers) were administered by Allied powers under the supervision of the League of Nations.
- Monroe Doctrine
- Doctrine asserting that no European state had the right to extend its domination over America.
- Mensheviks
- Political faction arguing that Russia should undergo a bourgeois revolution and capitalist economic development before undertaking a socialist revolution. They conceived of the party as a mass organization open to members.
- Bolsheviks
- Political party that intended to overthrow the Tsarist regime and establish a revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry. They envisioned the party as a tight, disciplined organization.
- Soviet
- (Russian word meaning council or assembly). Assembly typically consisting of workers from a locality, which became key organisms of the revolution.
- Duma
- Russian Parliament, elected by broad suffrage and possessing legislative powers (though often limited by the Tsar).
- Provisional Government
- Government formed in Russia after the Tsar’s abdication, which intended to convene a constituent assembly and implement reforms to transition from the Tsarist regime to a liberal parliamentary system.
- April Crisis
- Crisis resulting from disagreements between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks/Provisional Government regarding the war effort and the liberal ideas the latter sought to establish.
- Red Army
- Led by Trotsky, the army subject to strict military discipline, incorporating former Tsarist military officers controlled by Communist political commissars.
- Trotskyism
- Political movement led by Trotsky, advocating for genuine workers’ democracy with freedom of expression and permanent revolution.
- Politburo
- Political Bureau of the Central Committee. The steering committee and maximum authority of the Communist Party of the USSR.
- Collective Farms (Kolkhoz)
- Collectively owned farms established in the Soviet Union by expropriating land from the kulaks (wealthier peasants).
- State Farms (Sovkhoz)
- State-owned farms in the Soviet Union, operating based on economic planning and commercial production, employing wage laborers.
- Five-Year Plans
- Series of nationwide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union, implemented over five-year periods with ambitious objectives aimed at transforming the USSR into a global industrial power.
- Nomenklatura
- Social group comprising individuals holding key administrative positions in the Communist Party and the state bureaucracy, forming a privileged class with a significantly higher standard of living than the rest of the population.
- Gulag
- System of forced labor camps in the USSR, primarily located in Siberia, used for political repression and economic exploitation.
