DSST Soviet Union flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Kievan Rus Christianization

Vladimir I adopted Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium in 988, linking Russia culturally and religiously to the Byzantine world rather than to Latin Christendom.

Table of Ranks

Peter the Great's 1722 system ranked nobles and officials in fourteen grades, tying status and privilege to state service rather than to birth alone.

Emancipation of 1861

Alexander II freed the serfs, granting personal liberty but requiring redemption payments and preserving communal land tenure, which left many peasants impoverished and discontented.

October Manifesto

Issued in 1905 by Nicholas II in response to revolution, it promised civil liberties and a legislative Duma, though the Fundamental Laws of 1906 preserved autocratic power.

February Revolution

In March 1917 (February, O.S.) bread riots and strikes in Petrograd led to the abdication of Nicholas II, ending the Romanov dynasty and creating dual power.

April Theses

Lenin's 1917 program rejected support for the Provisional Government, called for 'All power to the Soviets,' and demanded an end to the war.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Signed in March 1918, this treaty ended Russia's role in the First World War by ceding vast territories to Germany, a humiliating concession to the Bolsheviks.

Kronstadt rebellion

A March 1921 uprising by sailors demanding Soviet democracy and an end to Bolshevik dictatorship; it was crushed and helped prompt the New Economic Policy.

NEP tax in kind

Under the New Economic Policy, grain requisitioning was replaced by a fixed tax in kind, allowing peasants to sell surpluses and stimulating agricultural recovery.

Scissors crisis

In 1923 industrial prices rose faster than agricultural prices, hurting peasants and prompting state price controls; the term describes the diverging price lines.

Left Opposition

Led by Trotsky from 1923, it advocated rapid industrialization and criticized party bureaucratization; it was defeated and Trotsky was exiled in 1929.

Dekulakization

The campaign from 1929 to eliminate wealthier peasants (kulaks) during collectivization, involving property confiscation, deportation, and execution.

First Five-Year Plan

Launched in 1928, it set ambitious targets for heavy industry and was accompanied by collectivization, marking the end of the New Economic Policy.

Great Purges

The 1936-1938 terror campaign that included show trials of Old Bolsheviks, mass arrests, and executions carried out by the NKVD under Stalin's direction.

Stakhanovism

A movement from 1935 celebrating workers who exceeded production norms, used to raise labor intensity and justify higher output targets across Soviet industry.

Operation Barbarossa

The German invasion of the Soviet Union that began on 22 June 1941, inflicting massive initial losses and opening the Eastern Front of the Second World War.

Battle of Stalingrad

The 1942-1943 battle that ended with the surrender of the German 6th Army in February 1943 and marked the turning point on the Eastern Front.

Yalta Conference

The February 1945 meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin that shaped postwar Europe, including the division of Germany and the future United Nations.

Lend-Lease aid

US and British material support during the Second World War that supplied transport, food, and industrial goods, supplementing Soviet production after the 1941 evacuations.

Cominform

Founded in 1947, this Soviet-led organization coordinated European communist parties and was used to enforce ideological discipline, including the 1948 expulsion of Yugoslavia.

Zhdanovshchina

The 1946-1948 ideological campaign enforcing cultural and scientific conformity, attacking 'cosmopolitanism' and restricting artistic and intellectual expression.

Berlin Blockade

The 1948-1949 Soviet blockade of West Berlin, answered by a Western airlift; it deepened the Cold War division of Europe and preceded NATO's formation.

Secret Speech

Khrushchev's February 1956 address to the 20th Party Congress denouncing Stalin's crimes, which launched de-Stalinization and unsettled communist parties worldwide.

Virgin Lands campaign

Khrushchev's program from 1954 to cultivate grain in Kazakhstan and Siberia; it produced initial gains but suffered from soil erosion and unreliable harvests.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The 1962 confrontation over Soviet missiles in Cuba, resolved when the USSR withdrew them in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and removal of missiles from Turkey.

Brezhnev Doctrine

The doctrine asserted after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia that the Soviet Union could intervene in socialist states to preserve communist rule.

Helsinki Accords

The 1975 agreement recognizing postwar borders and committing signatories to human rights, which dissidents used to monitor Soviet compliance.

Era of stagnation

The term for the Brezhnev period's declining economic growth, gerontocracy, and emphasis on heavy industry, alongside a growing shadow economy.

Perestroika

Gorbachev's policy of economic restructuring from 1985, introducing limited market mechanisms and decentralization without fully abandoning state ownership.

Glasnost

Gorbachev's policy of openness, permitting greater public discussion, press freedom, and disclosure of past abuses, which weakened party control.

August 1991 coup

A failed coup by hardliners against Gorbachev that accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of Boris Yeltsin.

Belovezha Accords

The December 1991 agreement by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus dissolving the USSR and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.