Terms : Hide Images
| 12739353681 | Berlin Wall | Wall constructed by East German authorities in 1961 to seal off East Berlin from the West; it was breached in November 9, 1989 |  | 0 |
| 12739353682 | Bolsheviks | Russian revolutionary party led by Vladimir Lenin and later renamed the Communist Party; the name "Bolshevik" means "the majority" | 1 | |
| 12739353683 | building socialism | Euphemistic expression for the often-forcible transformation of society when a communist regime came to power in a state. | 2 | |
| 12739353684 | Fidel Castro | Revolutionary leader of Cuba from 1959-2008 who gradually turned to Soviet communism and engendered some of the worst crises of the cold war. |  | 3 |
| 12739353685 | Chinese Revolution | Long revolutionary process between 1912-1949 that began with the overthrow of the Chinese imperial system and ended with the triumph of the communist Party under the leadership of Mao Zedong. |  | 4 |
| 12739353686 | cold war | Political and ideological state of near-war between the Western world and the communist world that lasted from 1946-1991. |  | 5 |
| 12739353687 | collectivizations | Process of rural reform undertaken by the communist leadership of both the USSR and China in which private property rights were abolished and peasants were forced onto larger and more industrialized farms to work and share the proceeds as a community rather than as individuals. | 6 | |
| 12739353688 | Comintern | In full, "Communist International"; Soviet organization intended to control the polices and actions of other communist states. |  | 7 |
| 12739353689 | Cuban Missile Crisis | Major standoff between the US and the Soviet Union in 1962 over Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba; the confrontation ended in compromise, with the USSR removing its missiles in exchange for the US agreeing not to invade Cuba. |  | 8 |
| 12739353690 | Cultural Revolutions | China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a massive campaign launched by Mao Zedong in the mid-1960s to combat the capitalist tendencies that he believed reached into even the highest ranks of the Communist Party; the campaign threw China into chaos. | 9 | |
| 12739353691 | Deng Xiaoping | leader of China from 1976-1997 whose reforms essentially dismantled the communist elements from the Chinese economy. |  | 10 |
| 12739353692 | glasnost | Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of "openness," which allowed greater cultural and intellectual freedom and ended most censorship of the media; the result was a burst of awareness of the problems and corruption of the Soviet system. |  | 11 |
| 12739353693 | Mikhail Gorbachev | Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991 whose efforts to reform the USSR led to its collapse. |  | 12 |
| 12739353694 | Great Leap Forward | Major Chinese initiative (1958-1960) led by Mao Zedong that was intended to promote small-scale industrialization and increase knowledge of technology; in reality, it caused a major crisis and exacerbated the impact of a devastating famine. | 13 | |
| 12739353695 | Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution | Mao Zedong's great effort in the mid-1960s to weed out capitalist tendencies that he believed had developed in China. | 14 | |
| 12739353696 | Great Purges | Also called the Terror, the Great Purges of the late 1930s were a massive attempt to cleanse the Soviet Union of supposed "enemies of the people"; nearly a million people were executed between 1938=1941, and 4 or 5 million more were sentenced to forced labor in the gulag | 15 | |
| 12739353697 | gulag | Acronym for the Soviet government agency that administered forced labor camps. |  | 16 |
| 12739353698 | Guomindang | The Chinese Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai-shek from 1928 until its overthrow by the communists in 1949. | 17 | |
| 12739353699 | Nikita Khrushchev | Leader of the Soviet Union from 1953-196 |  | 18 |
| 12739353700 | Lenin | Adopted name of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870-1924), the main leader of Russia's communist revolution and head of the Soviet state from |  | 19 |
| 12739353701 | Mao Zedong | Chairman of China's Communist Party and de facto ruler of China from 1949-1976. |  | 20 |
| 12739353702 | McCarthyism | Wave of anticommunist fear and persecution that took place in the United States in the 1950s. |  | 21 |
| 12739353703 | national security state | Form of government that arose in the United States in response to the cold war and in which defense and intelligence agencies gained great power. Power in general came to be focused in the executive branch. | 22 | |
| 12739353704 | perestoika | Bold economic program launched in 1987 by Mikhail Gorbachev with the intention of freeing up Soviet industry and businesses. | 23 | |
| 12739353705 | Russian Revolution | Massive revolutionary upheaval in 1917 that overthrew the Romanov dynasty in Russia and ended with the seizure of power by communists under the leadership of Lenin. | 24 | |
| 12739353706 | Stalin | Name assumed by Joseph Vissarionovich Jugashvili (1878-1953), leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death; "Stalin" means "made of steel". |  | 25 |
| 12739353707 | Warsaw Pact | Military alliance of the USSR and the communist states of Eastern Europe during the cold war. |  | 26 |
| 12739353708 | Zhenotdel | Women's Department of Communist Party in the Soviet Union from 1919-1930; worked strongly to promote equality for women. | 27 | |
| 12739353709 | communism | A political system first developed by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in the 1840s in which the violent overthrow of societies was advocated and the establishment of a classes state run by the proletariat was imagined. According to Marx, this was a final stage of historical development when social equality and collective living would be most fully developed wholly without private property. Socialism, Marx thought, was an intermediate stage along its way to this final goal. | 28 | |
| 12739353710 | USSR | The Soviet Union, included Russia and many surrounding republics; strict government control of the economy. |  | 29 |
| 12739353711 | Nuclear Arms Race | (1949-1989) The competition between the US and the Soviet Union for supremacy in nuclear warfare. Both countries tried to have the largest nuclear arsenals. |  | 30 |
| 12739353712 | Karl Marx | 1818-1883 19th century philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist, and revolutionary. Often recognized as the father of communism. His analysis of history led to his belief that communism would replace capitalism as it had replaced feudalism. Believed in a classless society. |  | 31 |
| 12739353713 | Ho Chi Minh | (1890-1969) Vietnamese leader who is responsible for ousting first the French, then the US from his country. Supported by both communist China and the Soviet Union, he guided Vietnam through decades long warfare to emerge as a communist nation. |  | 32 |
| 12739353714 | Pol Pot | (1925-1998) Leader of the Khmer Ruge regime in Cambodia from 1975-1979. He is most responsible for the deaths of almost 2 million of his own people due to starvation, execution, and beatings. |  | 33 |
| 12739353715 | Nicholas II | (r. 1894-1917) Tsar who took the throne after Alexander II's assassination, a weak ruler who used expansionist ventures to deflect attention from domestic issues and neutralized revolutionary movements. |  | 34 |
| 12739353716 | Marshall Plan | A US program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952) | 35 | |
| 12739353717 | Jiang Jieshi | (1887-1975) Leader of the Guomindang, or Nationalist party in China. fought to keep China from becoming communist, and to resist the Japanese during WWII. He lost control of China in 1949, and fled to Taiwan where he setup a rival government. Also know as Chiang Kai Shek. |  | 36 |
| 12739353718 | Sun Yat-sen | Chinese nationalist revolutionary, founder and leader of the Guomindang until his death. He attempted to create a liberal democratic political movement in China but was thwarted by military leaders. |  | 37 |
| 12739353719 | Tiananmen Square | A huge public space in Beijing, China; in 1989, the site of a student uprising in support of democratic reforms that was crushed by Deng Xiaoping. |  | 38 |
| 12739353720 | Red Guard | 1966-1976 massive movement of students called on by Mao Zedong to perpetuate revolution. Led to a lost generation of students who would have been the future of China, and destruction of intellectual heritage. The attacked "capitalist-roaders" or those who were leading the country slowly toward capitalism. | 39 | |
| 12739353721 | Iron Curtain | A term popularized by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to describe the Soviet Union's policy of isolation during the Cold War. The barrier isolated Eastern Europe from the rest of the world. |  | 40 |
| 12739353722 | Korean War | (1950-1953) A conflict between UN forces (primarily US and S Korea) against North Korea, and later China; Gen. Douglas Macarthur led UN forces and was later replaced by Gen. Ridgeway; Resulted in Korea remaining divided at the 38th parallel. | 41 | |
| 12739353723 | Vietnam War | A prolonged war (1954-1075) between the communist armies of North Vietnam who were supported by the Chinese and the non-communist armies of South Vietnam who were supported by the United States. The war ended with North Vietnam uniting the South under communist control. | 42 | |
| 12739353724 | Afghanistan | Location for an extended war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan (1979-1989) that frequently been compared with the Vietnam War for the US. The US supplied weapons for the Mujahideen who fought against the Soviets (and won) forcing the Soviets to withdraw in 1989. | 43 | |
| 12739353725 | Third World | Also known as developing nations; nations outside the capitalist industrial nations of the first world and the industrialized communist nation of the second world; generally less economically powerful, but with varied economies. | 44 | |
| 12739353726 | Second World | During the Cold War, the group of countries, including the Soviet Union, its (then) Eastern European allies, and China, that embraced communism and central planning to propel economic growth. | 45 | |
| 12739353727 | First World | The industrialized capitalist countries of western Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia. | 46 | |
| 12739353728 | Tiananmen Square Massacre | A political and social protest by university students in Beijing, China in 1989. The protest called for political and social reforms and resulted in the government using the military to end it, which caused hundreds of deaths, thousands of injured and many more imprisoned. |  | 47 |
| 12739353729 | European Union | An international organization to European countries formed after WWII to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members. |  | 48 |
