The Russian Revolution

GLOSSARY

NOTE: The accent over a Russian letter indicates the stress. The letter “ë” is pronounced “yo” and stressed.

apparátchik/i

Communist bureaucratic “operator/s”

artél’

worker or peasant cooperative

batrák/i

poor peasant/s; farmhand/s

bol’shák

head of peasant household

bunt

rebellion; mutiny

burzhúi

bourgeois

Cheká

Soviet secret police (1917–21)

cherespolósitsa

strip farming

chin

official rank

chinóvnik/i

official/s; bureaucrat/s

derévnia/i

village/s

desiatína/y

land measure equal to 2.7 acres

Dúma

lower house of Russian parliament

duván

division of loot

dvoevlástie

dyarchy

dvor

household; court

dvoriáne

gentry

dvorianín

a member of the gentry

dvorianstvo

the gentry estate

eshelón (echelon

)

military train

Fabzavkóm/y

Factory Committee/s (1917–20)

glásnost’

open government

glávka/i

subdivision/s of VSNKh

gosudár’

sovereign

gosudárstvo

state; government

gubérniia/i

province/s

Gubispolkóm/y

Provincial Soviet Executive Committee/s

Gulág

Administration of concentration camps

inogoródnyi

settler from other towns

intelligént/y

member/s of the intelligentsia

Ispolkóm

Executive Committee

isprávnik

tsarist police official

iúnker

student at military academy

izbá

peasant hut

kátorga

hard labor

khoziáin

same as

bol’shak

khútor

farm; farmstead

kombédy

Committees of the [Village] Poor (1918)

Kompród

Commissariat of Supply

Komúch

Committee of the Constituent Assembly

kramóla

sedition

kresfiáne

peasants

krestiánstvo

peasantry

kulák

prominent peasant; rural exploiter

kustár’

craftsman; artisan

meshcháne

burghers

meshóchnik

illegal food peddler (1918–20)

miatézh

mutiny; revolt

Milrevkóm

Military-Revolutionary Committee

mir

peasant commune

muzhík/í

peasant/s

nadél/y

communal land allotment/s

nagáika

Cossack whip

naród

the people

Naródnaia Vólia

People’s Will

NarodovóPtsy

members of People’s Will

óblast’/i

region/s

obshchína

same as

mir

Okhrána

Imperial security police

otrézok

small land allotment

ótrub

land in the commune privately owned

paëk

ration

páshnia

arable land

peredél

repartition of communal land

peredýshka

breathing spell; respite

Pogróm

beating and looting, usually of Jews

polpréd

Soviet diplomatic representative

poméshchik/i

non-peasant landowner/s

pomés’e/ia

fief/s; landed estate/s

pop

Orthodox priest

pravítel’stvo

government

Pravoslávie

Greek Orthodox religion

prodrazvërstka

requisition of farm produce

prómysly

cottage industries

pud

weight measure equal to 16.38 kilograms

Ráda

Ukrainian for “Soviet”

raskól’niki

pejorative for religious dissenters

razgróm

assaults on property

samoderzhávie

autocracy

samoderzhávnyi

autocratic

seló/á

large village/s

sél’skii skhod

village assembly

soiúz

union; association

soslóvie/ia

legal estate/s

sovét/y

council/s

Sovnarkóm

Council of People’s Commissars

ssýlka

penal exile

staroobriádtsy

Old Believers (lit. “Old Ritualists”)

starósta

elected village official

tiáglo

in Muscovy, obligatory state labor

Trudármiia

Labor Army (introduced in 1920)

Trudovík

member of peasant party in Duma

tsentr/y

same as

glavka/i

uézd

lowest administrative entity

ukász

Imperial decree

vlast’

authority; government

vólia

freedom; license

vólost’

smallest rural administrative unit

vótchina

allodium; patrimony

vozhd’

leader

VSNKh

Supreme Council of the National Economy

zakónnost’

legality

Zemgór

Union of Municipal Councils and Zemstva

zemliá

land

zémstvo/a

organ/s of provincial self-government

zhid/ý

pejorative term for Jew/s