Glossary

ataman

Cossack chieftain

Black Hundreds

extremist right-wing paramilitary groups and proto-parties (for the origin of the term see page 196)

Bund

Jewish social democratic organization

burzhooi

popular term for a bourgeois or other social enemy (see page 523)

Cheka

Soviet secret police 1917—22 (later transformed into the OGPU, the NKVD and the KGB); the Cheka's full title was the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Struggle against Counter-Revolution and Sabotage

Defensists

socialist supporters of the war campaign (1914—18) for national defence; the Menshevik and SR parties were split between Defensists and Internationalists

desyatina

measurement of land area, equivalent to 1.09 hectares or 2.7 acres

Duma

the state Duma was the elected lower house of the Russian parliament 1906—17; the municipal dumas were elected town councils

guberniia

province (subdivided into uezdy and volosti)

Internationalists

socialists opposed to the war campaign (1914—18) who campaigned for immediate peace through international socialist collaboration; the Menshevik and SR parties were split between Defensists and Internationalists

Kadets

Constitutional Democratic Party

kolkhoz

collective farm

Komuch

anti-Bolshevik government established in Samara during the summer of 1918; its full title was the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly

Krug

Cossack assembly

kulak

capitalist peasant (see page 91)

mix

village commune

NEP

New Economic Policy (1921-9)

obshchina

peasant land commune

Octobrists

liberal-conservative political party

pud

measurement of weight, equivalent to 16.38 kg

SDs

Social Democrats: Marxist party (known in full as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party); split into Menshevik and Bolshevik factions after 1903

skhod

communal or village assembly

sovkhoz

Soviet farm

SRs

Socialist Revolutionaries: non-Marxist revolutionary party (PSR); split into Right and Left SRs during 1917

Stavka

army headquarters

uezd

district (sub-division of guberniia)

versta

measurement of distance, equivalent to 0.66 miles

voisko

Cossack self-governing community

volia

freedom; autonomy

volost

rural township and basic administrative unit usually comprising several villages

zemstvo

elected assembly of local government dominated by the gentry at the provincial and district level (1864—1917); a volost-level zemstvo was finally established in 1917 but was soon supplanted by the Soviets.