Significant Terms
Russian term for new openness in areas of politics, social issues, and media.
What is Glasnost?
A permanently frozen layer of soil beneath the surface of the ground.
What is permafrost?
Ruler of Russia until 1917; originally from the Latin word Caesar, the title of Roman emperors.
What is Czar?
The last czar of Russia who was forced to abdicate in 1917 by the Russian Revolution; he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
Who is Nicholas II?
A political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
What is communism?
Government program that required everyone in the empire to speak Russian and to adopt Christianity.
What is Russification?
Rich, black topsoil found in the northern European Plain, especially in Russia and Ukraine.
What is chernozem?
Illegal traffic or trade in officially controlled or scarce commodities.
What is a black market?
A Russian lawyer, revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party and of the October Revolution. He was the first leader of the USSR and the government that took over Russia in 1917.
Who is Vladimir Lenin?
German-born empress of Russia (1762–96) who led her country into full participation in the political and cultural life of Europe, carrying on the work begun by Peter the Great.
Who is Catherine the Great?
Phrase coined by Peter the Great to describe the warm water port capital city of St. Petersburg.
What is window on the west?
The effect of extreme variations in temperature and very little precipitation with the interior portions of a landmass.
What is continentality?
A German philosopher, author, social theorist, and an economist. He is famous for his theories about capitalism and communism.
Who is Karl Marx?
Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union from the mid–1920s until 1953 as the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and premier of the Soviet Union (1941–1953). Despite initially governing the Soviet Union as part of a collective leadership, he eventually consolidated power to become the country's de-facto dictator by the 1930s.
Who is Joseph Stalin?
A medieval political federation located in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and part of Russia (the latter named for the Rus, a Scandinavian people).
What is Kievan Rus?
An economic system in which production and prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.
What is the market economy?
A nation controlled by another nation, notably Eastern European countries controlled by the Soviet Union by the end of World War II.
What is satellite nation?
A change to private ownership of state-owned companies and industries.
What is privatization?
Chemical compounds that are used to kill insects, rodents, fungi, and unwanted plants
What is a pesticide?
Byproduct from nuclear reactors, fuel processing plants, hospitals and research facilities
What is nuclear waste?
Russian term for "restructuring"; A plan for reforming the Soviet economy and government.
What is Perestroika?
A 1986 accident at a nuclear power station in the Soviet Union, the worst failure of its kind in the history of nuclear power generation.
What is the Chernobyl Disaster?
Czar of Russia who introduced ideas from western Europe to reform the government; he extended his territories in the Baltic and founded St. Petersburg (1682-1725)
Who is Peter the Great?
A class of chemicals where the nucleus of the atom is unstable.
What is radioactive material?
A former federal union of 15 constituent republics, in Eastern Europe and Western and Northern Asia, comprising the larger part of the former Russian Empire: dissolved in December 1991.
What is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)?