Glossary of Course Terms

apparatchik: Russian colloquial expression for a person of the party apparatus, i.e., an individual who has been engaged full time in the work of the CPSU (q.v.). Sometimes used in a derogatory sense.
autonomous oblast: A territorial and administrative subdivision of a union republic (q.v.) or of a krai (q.v.) in the Russian Republic, created to grant a degree of autonomy to a national minority within that krai or union republic. In 1989 the Soviet Union had eight autonomous oblasts, five of which were in the Russian Republic.
autonomous okrug: A territorial and administrative subdivision of a krai (q.v.) or oblast (q.v.) in the Russian Republic that granted a degree of administrative autonomy to a nationality; usually found in large, remote areas of sparse population. In 1989 the Soviet Union had ten autonomous okruga, all of which were in the Russian Republic.
autonomous republic (autonomous soviet socialist republic--ASSR): A territorial and administrative subdivision of some union republics (q.v.), created to grant a degree of administrative autonomy to some major minority groups. Directly subordinate to its union republic. In 1989 the Soviet Union had twenty autonomous republics, sixteen of which were in the Russian Republic.
babushka: Literally, grandmother. Generally, any old woman.
blat: Profitable connections, influence, pull, or illegal dealings, usually for personal gain.
Bolshevik: A member of the radical group within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (q.v.), which, under Vladimir I. Lenin's leadership, staged the Bolshevik Revolution (q.v.). The term bol'shevik means a member of the majority (bol'shenstvo) and was applied to the radical members of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party after they won a majority of votes cast at a party congress (q.v.) in 1903. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks formed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) and began calling themselves Communists. That party was the precursor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU--q.v.).
Bolshevik Revolution: The coup organized by Lenin and carried out by the Bolsheviks (q.v.) that overthrew the Provisional Government in November 1917 (October 1917, according to the Julian calendar-- q.v.). Also known as the October Revolution.
Brezhnev Doctrine: The Soviet Union's declared right to intervene militarily to prevent other states from eliminating the leading role of the communist party and returning to capitalism once they have achieved socialism. First expressed after Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring in 1968 and used as justification for the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. In the late 1980s, Mikhail S. Gorbachev made statements interpreted by some in the West as repudiating the Brezhnev Doctrine.
cadre: Organized group of party activists. A party member who holds a responsible position (usually administrative) in either the party or the government apparatus. In a more restricted sense, a person who has been fully indoctrinated in party ideology and methods and uses this training in his or her work.
Cheka: All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage. The political police created by the Bolsheviks (q.v.) in 1917; supposed to be dissolved when the new regime, under Lenin, had defeated its enemies and secured its power. But the Cheka continued until 1922, becoming the leading instrument of terror and oppression as well as the predecessor of other secret police organizations. After 1922, see GPU, NKVD, and KGB.
Chernobyl': A town in the Ukrainian Republic, site of the world's most catastropic nuclear accident. On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl' nuclear power plant exploded and irradiated areas as far away as Sweden. Most radioactivity contaminated large sections of rich farmland in the Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian republics and affected millions of their inhabitants. Soviet and Western experts believe that damage to the people's health, to the economy, and to the environment will be felt for decades. As of 1989, the accident had cost hundreds of lives and billions of rubles, caused a major slowdown in what had been an ambitious nuclear energy program, and provided an impetus to the fledgling environmental movement in the Soviet Union. Although the accident was caused by a combination of human error and faulty reactor design, the remaining three reactors at the Chernobyl' power plant and reactors of this type remained operational elsewhere in the Soviet Union in 1989.
class struggle: In Marxist terms, every nonsocialist society has been characterized by conflict between the classes of which it has been composed. The struggle has pitted the workers against the privileged, oppressive, and property-owning ruling class.
collective farm (kollektivnoe khoziaistvo--kolkhoz): An agricultural "cooperative" where peasants, under the direction of party-approved plans and leaders, are paid wages based, in part, on the success of their harvest.
collectivization: Stalin's policy of confiscating privately owned agricultural lands and facilities and consolidating them, the farmers, and their families into large collective farms (q.v.) and state farms (q.v.). Forced collectivization took place from 1929 to 1937.
Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance): A multilateral economic alliance headquartered in Moscow. Members in 1989 were Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam. Comecon was created in January 1949, ostensibly to promote economic development of member states through cooperation and specialization, but actually to enforce Soviet economic domination of Eastern Europe and to provide a counterweight to the Marshall Plan (q.v.). Also referred to as CEMA or CMEA.
Cominform (Communist Information Bureau): An international organization of communist parties, founded and controlled by the Soviet Union in 1947 and dissolved in 1956. The Cominform published propaganda touting international communist solidarity but was primarily a tool of Soviet foreign policy.
Comintern (Communist International): An international organization of communist parties founded by Lenin in 1919. Initially, it attempted to control the international socialist (q.v.) movement and to foment world revolution; later, it also became an instrument of Soviet foreign policy. Dissolved by Stalin in 1943 as a conciliatory measure toward his Western allies.
communism/communist: A doctrine, based on revolutionary Marxian socialism (q.v.) and Marxism-Leninism (q.v.), and the official ideology of the Soviet Union. The doctrine provided for a system of authoritarian government in which the CPSU (q.v.) alone controlled state-owned means of production. It sought to establish a society in which the state withers away and goods and services are distributed equitably. A communist is an adherent or advocate of communism.
Congress of People's Deputies: The highest organ of legislative and executive authority, according to the Soviet Constitution. Existed in the early Soviet period as the Congress of Soviets (q.v.) and was resurrected in 1988 by constitutional amendment.
Congress of Soviets: First met in June 1917 and elected the All-Russian Central Committee of over 250 members dominated by the leaders of the Petrograd Soviet. The Second Congress of Soviets met on October 25, 1917, one day offer the start of the Bolshevik Revolution (q.v.). Dominated by Bolshevik delegates the Second Congress of Soviets approved the Bolshevik coup d'état and the decrees on peace and loud issued by Lenin. It also confirmed the Council of People's Commissars, drawn exclusively from Bolshevik Ranks, as the new government and elected the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It adjourned on October 27 and was not reconvened.
cossacks: Originally peasants, primarily Ukrainian and Russian, who fled from bondage to the lower Dnepr and Don river regions to settle in the frontier areas separating fifteenth-century Muscovy (q.v.), Poland, and the lands occupied by Tatars. The cossacks, engaged in hunting, fishing, and cattle raising, established permanent settlements and later organized themselves into military formations to resist Tatar raids. Renowned as horsemen, they were absorbed into the Russian army as light cavalry or irregular troops by the late eighteenth century.
Council of Ministers: The highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union, according to the Constitution. In practice, its members directed most day-to-day state activities.
CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union): The official name of the communist party in the Soviet Union since 1952. Originally the Bolshevik (q.v.) faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (q.v.), the party was named the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) from March 1918 to December 1925, the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) from December 1925 to October 1952, and the CPSU thereafter.
cult of personality: A term coined by Nikita S. Khrushchev at the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU in 1956 to describe the rule of Stalin, in which the Soviet people were compelled to deify the dictator. Leonid I. Brezhnev also established a cult of personality around himself, although to a lesser extent than Stalin. Similar cults of saints, heroes, and the just tsar formed a historical basis for the cult of personality.
Cyrillic: An alphabet based on Greek characters that was created in the ninth century to serve as a medium for translating Eastern Orthodox texts into Old Church Slavonic (q.v.). Named for Cyril, the leader of the first religious mission from Byzantium to the Slavic people, Cyrillic is used in modern Russian and several other Slavic languages.
Defense Council: The chief decision-making organ of the Soviet national security apparatus, composed of selected members of the Politburo (q.v.) and headed by the general secretary (q.v.) of the CPSU (q.v.) and the chairman of the Presidium (q.v.) of the CPSU Central Committee.
dictatorship of the proletariat: According to Marxism-Leninism (q.v.), the early stage of societal organization under socialism (q.v.) after the overthrow of capitalism. It involves workers' dominance in suppressing the counterrevolutionary resistance of the bourgeois "exploiting classes."
Duma: Lower chamber of the legislature, established by Nicholas II after the Revolution of 1905. Also name of current democratic Russian legislature.
February Revolution: The popular uprising that overthrew the government of the Russian Empire (q.v.) under Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917 (according to the Julian calendar--q.v.), thus ending 300 years of rule by the Romanov Dynasty.
First Secretary: The title of the head of the CPSU (q.v.) Secretariat that was adopted after Stalin's death in 1953; used by V. Krushchev, and by Brezhnev until 1966 before the title was changed back to general secretary (q.v.).
Five-Year Plan: A comprehensive plan that sets the economic goals for a five- year period. Once the Soviet regime stipulated the plan figures, all levels of the economy, from individual enterprises to the national level, were obligated to meet those goals.
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade): An integrated set of bilateral trade agreements among more than 100 contracting nations. Originally drawn up in 1947, GATT aimed at abolishing quotas and reducing tariffs among members. The Soviet Union eschewed joining GATT until 1987, when it applied for membership. As of May 1989, its application had not been approved.
General Secretary: The title of the head of the CPSU (q.v.) Secretariat, who presides over the Politburo (q.v.) and has been the Soviet Union's de facto supreme leader. Stalin became general secretary of the Russian Communist Party (Bolskevik) in 1922 and employed the positions to amass personal powers. After Statin's death in 1953, the title was changed to first secretary (q.v.), which was used by Khrushalea and by Brezhnev until 1966, when the title of general secretary was reinstituted. Brezhnev's successors--Iurii Androkov, Konstantin Chernenko, and Mikhail S. Gorbachev--were all general secretaries.
glasnost': Public discussion of issues; accessibility of information so that the public can become familiar with it and discuss it. Gorbachev's policy of using the media to make information available on some controversial issues, in order to provoke public discussion, challenge government and party bureaucrats, and mobilize greater support for his policy of perestroika (q.v.).
Gosbank (Gosudarstvennyi bank): State Bank. The main bank in the Soviet Union, which acted as a combination central bank, commercial bank, and settlement bank. It issued and regulated currency and credit and handled payments between enterprises (q.v.) and organizations. It received all taxes and payments to the state and paid out budgetary appropriations.
Gosplan (Gosudarstvennyi planovyi komitet): State Planning Committee. Under party guidance, it was primarily responsible for creating and monitoring five-year plans (q.v.) and annual plans. The name was changed from State Planning Commission in 1948, but the acronym was retained.
GPU (Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie): State Political Directorate. The security police successor to the Cheka (q.v.) from 1922 to 1923.
Great Patriotic War: The Soviet name for the part of World War II in which the Soviet people fought against fascism from June 1941 to May 1945. Considered one of the just wars (q.v.) by the CPSU (q.v.).
Great Terror: A period, from about 1936 to 1940, of intense fear among Soviet citizens, millions of whom were arrested, interrogated, tortured, imprisoned, deported from their native lands, and executed by Stalin's secret police for political or economic crimes that were spurious. The Great Terror encompassed the general population and peaked in 1937 and 1938 when it included extensive purges of party members, many of whom held high positions in the government, economy, armed forces, party, and secret police itself.
Gulag (Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no- trudovykh lagerei): Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps. The penal system of the Soviet Union, consisting of a network of harsh labor camps where criminals and political prisoners were forced to serve sentences.
hard currency: Currency that was freely convertible and traded on international currency markets (i.e. the dollar, the yen, the mark).
IMF (International Monetary Fund): Established along with the World Bank (q.v.) in 1945, the IMF is a specialized agency affiliated with the United Nations and responsible for stabilizing international exchange rates and payments. Its main function is to provide loans to its members (including industrialized and developing countries) when they experience balance of payments (q.v.) difficulties. These loans frequently have conditions that require substantial internal economic adjustments by the recipients, most of which are developing countries.
intelligentsia: Intellectuals constituting the cultural, academic, social, and political elite.
internal passport: Government-issued document, presented to officials on demand, identifying citizens and their authorized residence. Used in both the Russian Empire (q.v.) and the Soviet Union to restrict the movement of people.
Izvestiia (News): Daily, nationwide newspaper published by the Presidium (q.v.) of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
KGB (Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti): Committee for State Security. The predominant security police organization since its establishment in 1954.
kolkhoz (pl., kolkhozy): See collective farm.
Komsomol (Vsesoiuznyi Leninskii kommunisticheskii soiuz molodezhi): All-Union Lenin Communist Youth League. An organization administered by the CPSU (q.v.) for youth between ages fourteen and twenty-eight. Since its establishment in 1918, the Komsonol has helped the party prepare new generations for an elite role in Soviet society. It has instilled in young people the principles of Marxism-Leninism (q.v.) and involved them in large-scale industrial projects, such as factory construction and the virgin land campaign (q.v.). Members were expected to be politically conscious, vigilant, and loyal to the communist cause. Membership privileges included better opportunities for higher education and preferential consideration for career advancement. In 1982 the Komsomol had 41.7 million members.
krai (pl., kraia): A large territorial and administrative subdivision found only in the Russian Republic, where there are six, all of which are thinly populated. The boundaries of a krai are laid out primarily for ease of administration but may also contain lesser political subdivisions based on nationality groups--autonomous oblast (q.v.), or autonomous okrug (q.v.), or both. Directly subordinate to its union republic (q.v.).
kremlin (kreml'): Central citadel in many medieval Russian towns, usually located at a strategic spot along a river. Moscow's Kremlin is now the seat of the CPSU (q.v.) and the government of the Soviet Union.
kulak: A successful, independent farmer of the period of Soviet history before collectivization (q.v.). According to the Bolsheviks (q.v.), any peasant who hired labor. The term eventually was applied to any peasant who opposed collectivization.
Marshall Plan: A plan announced in June 1947 by United States secretary of state George C. Marshall for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. The plan involved a considerable amount of United States aid to Western Europe, but the Soviet Union refused the offer of aid and forbade the East European countries it dominated from taking part in the Marshall Plan. As a counterweight, the Soviet Union created the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon--q.v.).
Marxism/Marxist: The economic, political, and social theories of Karl Marx, a nineteenth-century German philosopher and socialist, especially his concept of socialism (q.v.), which includes the labor theory of value, dialectical materialism (q.v.), class struggle (q.v.), and the dictatorship of the proletariat (q.v.) until a classless society can be established. Another German socialist, Friederich Engels, collaborated with Marx and was a major contributor to the development of Marxism.
Marxism-Leninism/Marxist-Leninist: The ideology of communism (q.v.), developed by Karl Marx and refined and adapted to social and economic conditions in Russia by Lenin, that has guided the party and the Soviet Union. Marx talked of the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat (q.v.), after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, as a transitional socialist (q.v.) phase before the achievement of communism. Lenin added the idea of a communist party as the vanguard or leading force in promoting the proletarian revolution and building communism. Stalin and subsequent leaders contributed their own interpretations of the ideology.
Menshevik: A member of a wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (q.v.) before and during the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Unlike the Bolsheviks (q.v.), the Mensheviks believed in the gradual achievement of socialism (q.v.) by parliamentary methods. The term Menshevik is derived from the word menshenstvo (minority).
mir: A peasant commune established at the village level in tsarist Russia. It controlled the redistribution of farmland and was held responsible for collecting taxes and levying recruits for military service. In Russian, mir also means 'world' and 'peace.'
nationality: A people linked by a common language, culture, history, and territory who may have developed a common economic and political life; an individual's ethnic background. Not to be confused with an individual's country of citizenship.
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact: Agreement signed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939, immediately preceding the German invasion of Poland, which began World War II. A secret protocol divided Poland between the two powers and gave Bessarabia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the eastern part of Poland to the Soviet Union. The pact also delayed the Soviet Union's entry into World War II. Also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
NEP (Novaia ekonomicheskaia politika): New Economic Policy. Instituted in 1921, it let peasants sell produce on an open market and permitted small enterprises (q.v.) to be privately owned and operated. Cultural restrictions were also relaxed during this period. NEP declined with the forced collectivization (q.v.) of farms and was officially ended by Stalin in December 1929.
"new Soviet man": A theoretical goal of several Soviet regimes to transform the culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse peoples of the Soviet Union into a single Soviet people, behaving according to the ideology of Marxism-Leninism (q.v.).
NKVD (Narodnyi komissariat vnutrennykh del): People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. The commissariat that administered regular police organizations from 1917 to 1946. When the OGPU (q.v.) was abolished in 1934, the NKVD incorporated the security police organization until 1946.
nomenklatura: The CPSU's (q.v.) system of appointing key personnel in the government and other important organizations, based on lists of critical positions and people in political favor. Also refers to the individuals included on these lists.
Novosti (Agentstvo pechati novosti): News Press Agency. The news agency responsible for disseminating Soviet information abroad. (The word novost' means news or something new.)
oblast (pl., oblasts): A territorial and administrative subdivision in ten of the fifteen union republics (q.v.). Directly subordinate to its union republic. See also autonomous oblast.
Party Congress: In theory, the ruling body of the communist party. Party congresses, which usually met every five years, were largely ceremonial and legitimizing events at which several thousand "elected" delegates convened to approve new party programs (q.v.) and Party Rules (q.v.).
party program: A comprehensive statement adopted by a party congress (q.v.) that states the goals and principles of the party. The 1986 party program, the fourth since 1918, was adopted by the Twenty-Seventh Party Congress. It was notable in that it did not set definite dates for the attainment of goals, unlike its predecessor, the 1961 party program.
perestroika (restructuring): Gorbachev's campaign to revitalize the party, economy, and society by adjusting economic, political, and social mechanisms. Announced at Twenty-Seventh Party Congress in August 1986.
Pioneer (Pioner): A member of the All-Union Pioneer Organization named for Lenin. Founded in 1922, and open to children ages ten to fifteen, the main purpose of the organization has been the rudimentary political indoctrination of Soviet youth. At age fourteen, a Pioneer can enter the Komsomol (q.v.). In 1980 about 20 million children were members of the Pioneer organization.
Politburo: Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (q.v.); the foremost policy-making body of the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the Politburo had twelve members and eight candidate members. From 1952 to 1966, the Politburo was called the Presidium.
Pravda (Truth): Daily, nationwide newspaper published by the Central Committee of the CPSU (q.v.).
Presidium (of the Central Committee of the CPSU): The CPSU Politburo (q.v.) was called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966.
Presidium (of the Supreme Soviet): The executive committee of the national legislative branch of the government.
raion (pl., raiony): A low-level territorial and administrative subdivision for rural and municipal administration. A rural raion was a county-sized district in a krai (q.v.), oblast (q.v.), autonomous republic (q.v.), autonomous okrug (q.v.), or union republic (q.v.). A city raion was similar to a borough in some large cities in the United States.
Red Army: The name for the Soviet army from 1918 until 1945.
Red Terror: Initiated by the Bolsheviks (q.v.) after an August 1918 attempt on Lenin's life. The bloody reign of the Vecheka (q.v.), during which the nation was ruthlessly subjugated to the Bolshevik will. The Red Terror continued until 1920.
rehabilitation/rehabititated: Official restoration of a person or group of people sentenced and imprisoned or exiled for political crimes.
RSFSR (Rossiiskaia Sovetskaia Federativnaia Sotsialisticheskaia Respublika): Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic; the Russian Republic. The largest of the fifteen union republics (q.v.), inhabited predominantly by Russians. It comprised approximately 75 percent of the area of the Soviet Union, about 62 percent of its population, and over 60 percent of its economic output.
ruble: The monetary unit of the Soviet Union; divided into 100 kopeks. The official Soviet exchange rate was 0.61 ruble per US$1 (1988 average). The black market rate varied from 4 to 6 rubles per US$1 in 1988. The ruble has historically not been considered hard currency (q.v.).
Russianization: The policy of several Soviet regimes promoting Russian as the national language of the Soviet Union. Russian was given equal and official status with local languages in all non-Russian republics; it was made the official language of state and diplomatic affairs, in the armed forces, and on postage stamps, currency, and military and civilian decorations. A prerequisite for Russification (q.v.).
Russification: A process of changing the national identity of non-Russians to an identity culturally similar to that of the Russians. Although not the official policy of any Soviet regime, such assimilation often resulted from the policy of Russianization (q.v.), particularly in the case of Ukrainians, Belorussians, and non-Russian educated elites.
samizdat: Literally, self-publication. Russian word for the printing and circulating of literary, political, and other written manuscripts without passing them through the official censor, thus making them unauthorized and illegal. If published abroad, such publications are called tamizdat (q.v.).
sliianie: Literally, blending, merging. A theory that all Soviet nationalities could be merged into one by eliminating ethnic identity and national consciousness. Adopted by Stalin and included in the 1930 party program (q.v.), its intent was to achieve a single Russian-speaking, Soviet nationality.
socialism/socialist: According to Marxism-Leninism (q.v.), the first phase of communism (q.v.). A transition from capitalism in which the means of production are state owned and whose guiding principle was "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his work." Soviet socialism bore scant resemblance to the democratic socialism of, for example, some West European countries.
socialist realism: An aesthetic doctrine that measured artistic and literary merit by the degree to which a work contributed to the building of socialism (q.v.) among the masses.
soviet (sovet): Literally, advice, counsel, or council. The basic governmental organ at all levels of the Soviet Union.
sovkhoz (pl., sovkhozy): See state farm.
state farm (sovetskoe khoziaistvo--sovkhoz): A government-owned and government-managed enterprise (q.v.) where workers are paid salaries.
TASS (Telegrafnoe agentstvo Sovetskogo Soiuza): Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union. The news agency that had a monopoly on collecting and distributing news within the Soviet Union.
Trans-Siberian Railway: The 7,000-kilometer railroad line, stretching from its western terminus at Chelyabinsk on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains to Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, was built between 1891 and 1916 to link the European part of Russia with Siberia and the Far East. In the late 1980s, the Trans-Siberian Railway informally consisted of several Soviet railroads that remained the only rail link between the western part of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Far East until the BAM (q.v.) was opened in 1989.
union republic: One of the fifteen primary administrative subdivisions of the Soviet Union. Except for some of the smaller ones, the union republics were divided into oblasts (q.v.), autonomous oblasts (q.v.), kraia (q.v.), and autonomous republics (q.v.) as major subdivisions. Also known as Soviet socialist republic (SSR--q.v.).
USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Soviet Union.
War Communism: Policy of the Bolshevik (q.v.) regime during the Civil War (1918-21), in which the country's economy was almost totally directed toward equipping and maintaining the Red Army (q.v.).
Warsaw Pact: Political-military alliance founded by the Soviet Union in 1955 as a counterweight to NATO. Members in 1989 included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Served as the Soviet Union's primary mechanism for keeping political and military control over Eastern Europe.
White armies: Various military forces that attempted to overthrow the Bolshevik (q.v.) regime during the Civil War (1918-21). The principal leaders of the White armies were former tsarist officers, including generals Anton Denikin, Nikolai Yudenich, Petr Wrangel, and Evgenii Miller and former tsarist admiral Aleksandr Kolchak. They operated with no unified command, no clear political goal, and no supplies from the Russian heartland and thus were defeated piecemeal by the Red Army (q.v.).
Young Octobrists (Oktiabriata): Literally, "Children of October." An organization that has prepared Soviet schoolchildren ages six to nine for membership in the Pioneer (q.v.) organization. Established in 1923, the first Young Octobrists were contemporaries of the October Revolution of 1917 (Bolshevik Revolution--q.v.), hence the name "Children of October."

Definitions from Russian Intelligence Research Program