| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Slavs | The tribe of people who lived in Russia as early as 1000 BC |
| Rus | What the Viking invaders were called |
| Kiev | The capital of the Ukraine once the capital of the Rus people |
| Mongols | Invaders from Asia who took control of Russia in 1200 AD |
| Muscovy | The capital of the Mongol Empire in Russia; today Moscow |
| Ivan IV | Known as the Terrible because of his secret police force |
| Orthodox | Officially accepted church of Russia |
| Catholic | First Christian church; means all embracing |
| The Golden Horde | The Mongols were called this because there were so many of them |
| Czar | Russian Caesar or ruler |
| Ivan I | The prince of Moscow who took the title of grand prince after overthrowing the Mongols |
| Ivan III | Known as the great for establishing a strong government |
| The Father of Modern Russia | Ivan III |
| Divine Right | The belief that the right to rule comes from God |
| Boyars | Powerful nobles of Russia |
| dynasty | A ruling family that passes the throne down fwithin the failimy usually from father to son |
| Romanov | The dynasty that expanded Russia's territory East and West |
| Michael Romanov | Ruler who gave the boyars the power to buy and sell their peasants and serfs |
| Peter I | Known as the great for his westernization of Russia |
| St. Petersburg | The capital built by Peter the Great on the shores of the Baltic Sea |
| Catherine I | The czarina known as the great for her 34 year reign |
| Cossacks | Rebel peasants who refused to give into reforms |
| Autocracy | A government in which the ruler has unlimited power and relies on a bureaurcarcy of officials to run the day to day operations |
| Bureaucracy | A way of organizing the government into departments or bureaus |
| Treason | A crime against the government |
| Alexander II | Czar who freed the peasants and serfs; he was murdered |
| Karl Marx | The author of the Communist Manifesto who's ideas introduced the communist party to Russia |
| Russification | Plan for all Russians to speak the same language and be Russian Orthodox |
| Alexander III | His plan for Russification forced Jews to leave Russia |
| Nicholas II | Last czar of Russia; he and his entire family were murdered |
| Bloody Sunday | The day Nicholas II ordered his troops to open fire on 1000 protestors |
| Abdicate | To give up the throne |
| Bolsheviks | Violent supporters of the communist party |
| Vladimir Lenin | The first leader of the Communist Party (the only legal politcal group in Russia) |
| USSR | Union of Soviet Socialist Republic; a combination of 15 different republics under communism |
| Joseph Stalin | The leader of the Soviet Union who wanted to make the USSR a world power |
| Command Economy | System where all industry is controlled by the government |
| The Great Purge | Time period when all opposition to the communist government under Stalin were sent to labor camps |
| Iron Curtain | An invisible barrier that divided the Soviet Union in the East from the democracies of the West |
| Cold War | A bitter rivalry of words, tension, & military buildup between the U.S. & USSR |
| Superpowers | Russia and America evolved as the major world powers after WWII |
| Russian Revolution | The revolt by Lenin and his supporters that overthrew the Autocratic government of the czars |
| Consumer goods | Products used at home and in everyday life |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | The last Soviet leader who tried to bring about change but the union collapsed in 1991 while he was in power |
| Patriarch | Official religious head of the Orthodox Christian Church |
| Mt. Elbrus | The highest peak in former Russia, now located in Georgia. |
| Volga | The longest river in Russia |
| Taiga | Forests of mostly evergreen trees that grow south of the tundra |
| Steppe | Wide grasslands of Russia used for growing crops and grazing livestock |
| Russian Federation | The modern Russian government led by a president with a Federal Assembly |
| Peter Tchaikovsky | Composer of the famous ballet, The Nutcracker |
| Schism | A split or division within the church |
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well, im off to study for math now.