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Centralization
Concentration of political authority in the national government.
Collectivisation
The policy of consolidating individual landholdings and labour into collective farms, implemented most notably by Stalin in the Soviet Union from 1929, often through coercion and force.
Demokratizatsiya
Gorbachev's policy of limited political reform (from 1988), introducing competitive elections and reducing the Communist Party's monopoly on power. It led to the creation of the Congress of People's Deputies in 1989 and the repeal of Article 6 in 1990.
Détente
Détente was a period during the Cold War in the 1970s when the USA and USSR sought to reduce tensions and improve relations through diplomacy, arms control, and trade agreements.
It included initiatives such as the SALT treaties, increased cultural exchanges, and efforts to avoid direct military confrontation between the superpowers.
Five-Year Plans
Economic programs aimed at industrial and agricultural development through state-led planning.
Glasnost
Policy of openness that encouraged free discussion and criticism of government actions.
Gosplan
Gosplan was the Soviet State Planning Committee responsible for setting production targets and coordinating the economy under the Five-Year Plans from 1921 to 1991.
Gulag
The Main Administration of Camps, a vast Soviet network of forced labor camps where millions of political prisoners, criminals, and perceived enemies of the state were imprisoned. The Gulag served both as a tool of political repression and as a source of forced labor for economic projects.
Holodomor
Holodomor ("death by hunger") refers to the 1932-1933 famine in Soviet Ukraine that killed millions. Many historians and governments recognise it as a deliberate act of genocide by the Stalin regime.
Hyperinflation
extremely rapid loss of a currency’s value
Kulaks
Kulaks were wealthier peasants in Russia who owned larger farms or hired labour. Stalin targeted them for elimination as a class during collectivisation (1929-1933), resulting in mass deportation, imprisonment, and death.
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs - the Soviet secret police responsible for political repression, surveillance, running the Gulag system, and enforcing state security from 1934 to 1946.
Oligarchs
Oligarchs were wealthy businessmen who acquired vast state assets during Russia's privatisation in the 1990s, often through corrupt deals. They wielded enormous political influence during the Yeltsin era.
Perestroika
Economic reform policy designed to restructure the Soviet economy by introducing market-like changes.
Politburo
Politburo was the highest policy-making body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, responsible for all major political and economic decisions. Its members were the most powerful figures in the USSR.
Provisional Government
Temporary government formed after the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917, intended to govern Russia until a democratically elected Constituent Assembly could be convened.
Shock therapy (economics)
A rapid transition from a planned economy to a free market economy through sudden liberalisation of prices, trade, and privatisation of state enterprises. Applied in Poland (1990) and other post-communist states, it caused short-term hardship but aimed for long-term growth.
Show Trials
Show Trials were staged public trials in the USSR (1936-1938) in which prominent Old Bolsheviks were forced to confess to fabricated charges of treason and sabotage before being executed.
Stakhanovite movement
Stakhanovite movement was a Soviet propaganda campaign promoting exceptionally productive workers as heroes. Named after miner Alexei Stakhanov, it encouraged competition and higher output in factories and mines.