A
- Agitprop
- Soviet propaganda department focused on agitation and propaganda to spread communist ideology.
- All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
- Name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) before 1952.
- Andropov, Yuri
- General Secretary (1982–1984), former KGB head, emphasized discipline and anti-corruption.
B
- Beria, Lavrentiy
- Head of the NKVD (secret police), key figure in Stalinist repression and the Gulag system.
- Bolsheviks
- Radical faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party led by Lenin, seized power in 1917.
- Brezhnev, Leonid
- Soviet leader (1964–1982), associated with stability, stagnation, and détente.
C
- CCCP
- The Cyrillic abbreviation for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- Cheka
- Early Soviet secret police (founded 1917), predecessor to NKVD and KGB.
- Collectivization
- Policy of consolidating individual peasant farms into collective farms (kolkhozes), often violent.
- Comintern (Communist International)
- Organization promoting world revolution, founded 1919, dissolved 1943.
D
- Détente
- Period of eased Cold War tensions between the USSR and the West (1970s).
- Dissidents
- Intellectuals, activists, and writers who opposed Soviet policies, often repressed.
- Dubček, Alexander
- Czechoslovak leader during the Prague Spring (1968), crushed by Soviet intervention.
E
- Eastern Bloc
- Soviet-aligned socialist states in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
- Elections
- In theory existed, but usually limited to one candidate approved by the Communist Party.
- Era of Stagnation
- Term describing economic slowdown and lack of reforms under Brezhnev.
F
- Five-Year Plans
- Centralized economic goals, first launched in 1928, focused on industrialization.
- Finlandization
- Western term for Finland’s policy of neutrality under Soviet pressure.
- First World War (WWI)
- Catalyst for the Russian Revolution and collapse of Tsarist Russia.
G
- Gagarin, Yuri
- First human in space (1961), major Soviet propaganda victory.
- Gosplan
- State Planning Committee, central to managing the planned economy.
- Gulag
- Network of forced labor camps for political prisoners and criminals.
- Glasnost
- Policy of openness introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s.
H
- Hungarian Uprising (1956)
- Revolt against Soviet domination, crushed by Soviet tanks.
- Hoover Institution
- Western academic archive with extensive Soviet records (important for historians).
- High Stalinism
- Period (late 1940s–early 1950s) of intense repression and cult of personality.
I
- Iron Curtain
- Term coined by Churchill to describe division of Europe under Soviet influence.
- Industrialization
- Rapid Soviet economic modernization in the 1930s under Stalin.
- Interkosmos
- Soviet program sending allied nations’ cosmonauts into space.
J
- Janajev, Gennady
- Vice President who played a role in the failed August 1991 coup against Gorbachev.
- Juche
- Though North Korean, its development was influenced by Soviet ideology.
- Jewish Autonomous Oblast
- Soviet-created region in the Russian Far East for Jewish settlement (1934).
K
- KGB
- Soviet intelligence and security agency (1954–1991).
- Khrushchev, Nikita
- Soviet leader (1953–1964), initiated de-Stalinization, Cuban Missile Crisis.
- Komsomol
- Communist youth organization, feeder into the CPSU.
L
- Lenin, Vladimir
- Leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and first head of the Soviet state.
- Leningrad
- Former name of St. Petersburg during Soviet times, besieged in WWII.
- Lysenkoism
- Pseudoscientific agricultural theory endorsed by Stalin, harmful to Soviet science.
M
- Molotov, Vyacheslav
- Soviet foreign minister, namesake of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
- Moscow Trials
- Show trials of the 1930s during Stalin’s Great Purge.
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Last Soviet leader, introduced glasnost and perestroika, oversaw USSR’s collapse.
N
- NEP (New Economic Policy)
- Lenin’s temporary retreat to limited capitalism (1921–1928).
- Nomenklatura
- Elite class of party officials with access to privileges and positions.
- NATO
- Western military alliance, Soviet adversary during the Cold War.
O
- October Revolution
- Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1917 (October by old calendar).
- Ogpu
- Secret police successor to Cheka, predecessor to NKVD.
- Ostpolitik
- West German policy of reconciliation with Eastern Europe, including the USSR.
P
- Perestroika
- Gorbachev’s policy of restructuring the Soviet economy.
- Politburo
- Central policymaking body of the Communist Party.
- Purge
- Political repression campaigns, particularly under Stalin.
Q
- Quotas
- Mandatory production targets in planned economy, often manipulated or falsified.
- Quisling
- Term for collaborators with occupiers; Soviets used it to label Nazi collaborators.
- Quarantine (Cuban)
- U.S. term for naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
R
- Red Army
- Soviet armed forces, founded by Trotsky.
- Ruble
- Soviet currency, centrally managed and largely non-convertible.
- Rasputitsa
- Seasonal mud that hampered both Nazi and Soviet armies during WWII.
S
- Stalin, Joseph
- Soviet leader (1924–1953), responsible for industrialization, WWII victory, purges, repression.
- Samizdat
- Underground circulation of banned literature.
- Satellite States
- Eastern European countries under Soviet dominance.
T
- Trotsky, Leon
- Revolutionary leader, rival to Stalin, assassinated in Mexico (1940).
- Terror, Great
- 1930s purges under Stalin eliminating “enemies of the people.”
- Tito, Josip Broz
- Yugoslav leader who defied Stalin, leading to Yugoslavia’s independence from Soviet control.
U
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
- Multinational federation (1922–1991).
- Ukraine
- Soviet republic, heavily affected by collectivization, Holodomor, and WWII.
- Uzbek SSR
- Example of Soviet Central Asian republic, later independent Uzbekistan.
V
- Voznesensky, Nikolai
- Economic planner, executed in Stalin’s later purges.
- Virgin Lands Campaign
- Khrushchev’s effort to boost agriculture by cultivating steppe regions.
- Vorkuta
- Infamous Gulag camp in the Arctic Circle.
W
- Warsaw Pact
- Soviet-led military alliance formed in 1955.
- Winter War (1939–40)
- Soviet invasion of Finland, revealed Red Army weaknesses.
- Wall, Berlin
- Dividing wall erected in 1961, symbol of Soviet control in Eastern Europe.
X
- Xenophobia
- Soviet mistrust of foreign influence, especially in Stalinist period.
- X-Day
- Western intelligence code term for potential Soviet invasions during Cold War planning.
- Xerox Revolution
- Term for how photocopiers enabled underground dissident publications in the 1980s.
Y
- Yeltsin, Boris
- First President of Russia, rival of Gorbachev, helped dissolve USSR.
- Yalta Conference (1945)
- Allied meeting shaping postwar Europe, confirmed Soviet sphere in Eastern Europe.
- Yezhov, Nikolai
- NKVD chief during the height of Stalin’s purges (“Yezhovshchina”).
Z
- Za Pobedu (For Victory)
- Powerful and ubiquitous slogan during the Great Patriotic War (World War II).
- Zhenotdel
- Women's Department of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, 1919-1930.
- Zhdanov, Andrei
- Stalin’s cultural enforcer, shaped doctrine of socialist realism.
- Zemlya (Novaya Zemlya)
- Soviet nuclear test site in the Arctic, site of Tsar Bomba detonation (1961).