MCM Year 10-11 History
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| 806279351 | Autocracy | A system of government in which a king or queen has absolute power. | 1 | |
| 806279352 | Russian Orthodox Church | A Christian denomination with slightly different beliefs from the Roman Catholic Church. Its leaders were appointed by the Tsar and it preached that the Tsar was appointed by God. | 2 | |
| 806279353 | Slavophile | Someone who believes in "slavism" - the idea that Russian ways are superior to "Western" ways. | 3 | |
| 806279354 | Pan-Slavism | The idea that all the Slavic people (Russians, Finns, Ukrainians, Serbs, Belarussians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Bulgarians etc, should be united. (Presumably under Russian rule.) | 4 | |
| 806279355 | Land Commandant | Alexander III introduced this position to increase the power of the Tsar and the nobility against the common people. Men appointed to this position were always form the nobility and they could overrule the zemstva. | 5 | |
| 806279356 | Pogroms | Mob attacks on Jews that were semi-officially supported by the government. (Sometimes government officials helped to incite them. Other times they sanctioned them by failing to punish the perpetrators.)These were frequent during the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II. | 6 | |
| 806279357 | Pale of Settlement | An area of the Russian empire (present day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Bessarabia, Ukraine and Eastern Russia) in which Jews were invited to settle in 1791. (Jews were not welcome in other parts of the empire.) | 7 | |
| 806279358 | Zionist Movement | A movement that began in Russia around 1897. Its aim was to make a homeland for the Jewish people in what is now Israel. This movement would eventually succeed in 1948. | 8 | |
| 806279359 | Bund | A Jewish Socialist party founded in Russia in 1897 in response to the Anti-Semitic policies of Nicholas II and Alexander III. They later joined the Mensheviks. | 9 | |
| 806279360 | Tariff | Tax on imports designed to make them more expensive than goods produced within the country. By raising these taxes, Alexander III encouraged Russian industries. | 10 | |
| 806279361 | Coal | Production of this important industrial fuel source more than tripled during the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894) and increased from about 7,000 million kg to about 11,000 million kg between 1881 and 1900. This demonstrates that Russia was industrializing quickly between 1881 and 1914. | 11 | |
| 806279362 | Pig Iron | Production of this important industrial material more than doubled during the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894) and almost doubled again between 1881 and 1900. This demonstrates that Russia was industrializing quickly between 1881 and 1914. | 12 | |
| 806279363 | Railway | Construction of this important modern form of transport was encouraged by Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II. 1546 km were built between 1881 and 1890. This shows that Russia was industrializing quickly, but it was still far behind Western countries of a comparable size. | 13 | |
| 806279364 | Stolypin | Prime Minister of Russia from 1906-1911. He established military tribunals to suppress the ongoing revolutionary activity in 1906 by hanging thousands of dissidents. When the first two Dumas resisted passing legislation proposed by the Tsar, he advised the Tsar to dissolve them. In 1907 he changed the franchise to prevent the poor from voting for the thirds and fourth Dumas. He reformed agriculture by breaking up the mirs and setting up a peasants' bank to help peasants to buy land. This benefitted about 15% of the peasants, who established larger, more productive farms. Many of the peasants who sold their land ended up in the cities, increasing the industrial work force. He clashed with the Tsar because he wanted to increase the power of the local zemstva. He was assassinated in 1911 by a Social Revolutionary who had been an informant for the Okhrana. | 14 | |
| 806279365 | kulaks | Rich peasants. Most of these were peasants who had taken advantage of Stolypin's reforms to accumulate more land. Unlike the ordinary peasants, they produced significantly more than they needed to feed their families, and this surplus was sold to provide food for the growing city populations. Stolypin hoped that these peasants would eventually be in a position to buy the products of Russian industry as well. During the collectivization campaign, Stalin eliminated this class of peasant. | 15 | |
| 806279366 | Rasputin | A starets from Siberia who appeared to be able to control the Tsar's son's haemophilia. As a result, he became very close to the Royal family from 1907 onwards. He had a terrible reputation as a drunkard and a sex maniac, so his perceived influence was very damaging to the royal family's reputation. He was assassinated in 1916. | 16 | |
| 806279367 | Lena Goldfield Massacre | An incident in 1912 when troops attacked unarmed striking miners in Siberia, killing 170 workers and wounding 373. This caused more workers' protests all over Russia from 1912-1914, and further hurt the reputation of the Tsar among ordinary Russians. | 17 | |
| 806279368 | Populists | A movement formed around 1874. It tried to encourage the peasants to rebel against the government and establish a socialist system, but it was not particularly successful. Peasants were conservative and it took a great deal to persuade them to become revolutionaries. This movement later gave rise to the Social Revolutionary Party. | 18 | |
| 806279369 | People's Will | This was the extreme branch of the populist movement, which broke from the Populists in 1879. Its aim was to encourage revolution by assassinating unpopular officials. In 1881, its operatives assassinated Tsar Alexander II | 19 | |
| 806279370 | Russification | Policy followed by Tsar Alexander III and Tsar Nicholas II that aimed to deal with the non-Russian minorities in the Russian empire by trying to make them become Russian. Alexander II also applied this policy in Poland after the 1863 revolt | 20 | |
| 806279371 | Mir | A village commune in Russia. When the serfs were emancipated, they weren't given land individually. Instead, the land was owned by the village collectively. This meant that peasants couldn't sell their land or make decisions freely. | 21 | |
| 806279372 | Zemstvo | An elected local government in the countryside. These were introduced after the emancipation of the serfs. Their mandate was to run local affairs like schools, hospitals, etc. They were dominated by the nobility, but peasants also had a voice. These were quite successful, but led to demands for the people to have a voice in national government as well. This caused trouble, because the Tsar was not willing to grant these demands. | 22 | |
| 806279373 | Duma | An elected local government in the cities. (The local government in the countryside had a different name.) Its mandate was to run schools, hospitals, etc. These were quite successful, but led to demands for the people to have a voice in national government as well. This caused trouble, because the Tsar was not willing to grant these demands. | 23 | |
| 806279374 | Serf | A peasant who is owned by his/her landlord. Before 1861, there were 22.5 million people in this class in Russia. They were only slightly better off than slaves, and their poverty and lack of freedom was holding the economy back. In 1861, Tsar Alexander II freed these peasants. | 24 | |
| 806279375 | Constitutional Monarchy | A form of government in which a king or queen shares power with a democratically elected parliament. Nowadays, most kings and queens have very little power. In the nineteenth century, the king or queen in a constitutional monarchy often had similar powers to those held by the President of the United States today. | 25 | |
| 806279376 | Weak Army | This was a problem in Russia at the time of Alexander II. Russia was badly beaten in the Crimean war because the soldiers were poorly led, poorly trained and had inadequate supplies. | 26 | |
| 806279377 | Social Divisions | This was a problem in Tsarist Russia. All power was held by a tiny ruling class. Only about 1.5% of the population could be called "Middle Class" and the vast majority of Russians lived in poverty (4% workers and 82% peasants) | 27 | |
| 806279378 | Lack of Education | This was a problem in Tsarist Russia. As of 1881 only 11% of Russian adults could read. This made it very difficult to develop a modern economy. | 28 | |
| 806279379 | Economic Problems | This was a problem in Tsarist Russia. Although it was the largest country in the world in terms of land area, it had hardly any railways, and it was still an agrarian country, with a tiny industrial sector. | 29 | |
| 806279380 | Ethnic Minorities | This was a problem in Tsarist Russia. Over 55% of the population were not ethnic Russians. This made the country difficult to govern. | 30 | |
| 806279382 | Marx | A Jewish German scholar who lived from 1818-1893. With Friedrich Engels, he wrote the Communist Manifesto. He predicted that the working class would rise up, overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a new kind of society. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia was an attempt to make his ideas a reality. | 31 | |
| 806279383 | Marxism | A political philosophy based on the writings of Karl Marx. The Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in Russia followed this philosophy. | 32 | |
| 806279384 | Social Democrats | A Marxist group founded in Russia in 1898. They wanted to push for a proletarian revolution in Russia. In 1903 they split into two groups, the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. | 33 | |
| 806279385 | Social Revolutionaries | A political party formed in 1901 with broadly the same policies as the populist movement. They wanted to establish a form of socialism in Russia based on the peasants. Unlike the Social democrats, they did not think it was necessary to base the revolution on the proletariat. They carried out a number of assassinations of unpopular officials. From March to November 1917 they were part of the Petrograd Soviet, but they mostly supported the provisional government and some members joined the provisional government. They won the elections to the Constituent Assembly. | 34 | |
| 806279386 | Bolsheviks | A branch of the Russian Social Democratic Party, after it split into two parts in 1903. This branch believed that the party should push for a socialist revolution in Russia as soon as possible. They believed that only dedicated revolutionaries should be allowed to join the party and that, once chosen, the orders of the leaders should be obeyed by all. | 35 | |
| 806279387 | Mensheviks | A branch of the Russian Social Democratic Party, after it split into two parts in 1903. This branch believed that a Socialist revolution in Russia was a long way off. Russia needed to industrialize first. They believed that membership in the party should be open to all and that decisions should be made democratically. | 36 | |
| 806279388 | Proletariat | A social class made up of non-farm workers. It includes factory workers, miners, and other "blue collar" workers. This was a small but fast growing class in turn of the century Russia. Mark predicted that this class would initiate the communist revolution. | 37 | |
| 806279389 | Bourgeoisie | A social class made up of businessmen, professionals and "white collar" workers. According to Karl Marx, this class controls the governments of capitalist countries. | 38 | |
| 806279390 | Socialism | A socioeconomic system that Karl Marx predicted would be a phase between Capitalism and Communism. In this phase, only the proletariat would have any say in the government. The government would take over all the means of production. Everyone would work as much as he/she was able and everyone would have an equal standard of living. According to Marx, the government would eventually melt away and society would slip into Communism. | 39 | |
| 806279391 | Communism | A political philosophy aimed at bringing about the ideal society Karl Marx theorized would eventually evolve after the proletariat overthrew the bourgeoisie. In this ideal society, there would be no government, everyone would be equal and all property would be shared. Many countries in the twentieth century attempted to achieve this. None has yet succeeded. | 40 | |
| 806279392 | Liberalism | A political philosophy that is based on the idea that the rights of the individual (usually including property rights) are paramount, and the government's only role should be to safeguard those rights. | 41 | |
| 806279393 | Fascism | A political philosophy that subordinates the rights of the individual to the good of the country. This was the political philosophy underpinning Hitler's Germany. | 42 | |
| 806279394 | Means of Production | A term used by Karl Marx to describe the sources of wealth in a society. It refers to factories, farms, mines, etc. According to Karl Marx, whoever owns these controls the government of a society. | 43 | |
| 806279395 | censorship | A policy in which books, newspapers, etc have to be approved by the government before they can be published. | 44 | |
| 806279396 | Okhrana | The secret police in Tsarist Russia. They spied on the people and arrested, tortured and imprisoned those who criticized the government. The courts had little control over them. | 45 | |
| 806279397 | dissidents | People who oppose the government. | 46 | |
| 806279398 | autocrat | A ruler who has absolute power over his/her country. | 47 | |
| 806279399 | Cossacks | An ethnic group in the Russian empire that formed an elite cavalry army that was used to crush opposition to the Tsar. | 48 | |
| 806279400 | Russo-Japanese War | A war between Japan and Russia in 1904-5. The strain of the war caused shortages and hardships in Russia. Also, Russia lost the war, which was very humiliating. | 49 | |
| 806279401 | Bloody Sunday | An incident on January 22 1905 when the Tsar's soldiers shot peaceful demonstrators in St. Petersburg. It was the immediate cause of the 1905 Revolution. | 50 | |
| 806279403 | Haemophilia | This is a genetic condition that prevents blood clots from forming to seal wounds internal bleeding. Tsar Nicholas II's only son, Alexei, born in 1904, suffered from this condition. This was the reason Rasputin was so close to the Tsarina. It also meant the future of the dynasty was in doubt long before the revolution, as Alexei was not expected to live long. | 51 | |
| 806279405 | Rasputin | A starets from Siberia who appeared to be able to control the Tsar's son's haemophilia. As a result, he became very close to the Royal family from 1907 onwards. He had a terrible reputation as a drunkard and a sex maniac, so his perceived influence was very damaging to the royal family's reputation. He was assassinated in 1916. | 52 | |
| 806279407 | October Manifesto | A declaration issued by the Tsar on October 30 1905 promising a national Parliament (called a Duma), civil rights, and other liberal reforms. This helped to settle the 1905 revolution. Later, Liberals would accuse the Tsar of going back on these promises. | 53 |
