Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout CountryReports.

This glossary contains 1,144 terms used throughout CountryReports — political, economic, cultural, historical, and geographic terminology referenced in country profiles and articles. Terms are drawn from authoritative sources including the Library of Congress.

""Moldavian"" (moldavskiy in Russian): Term used by the Soviet government to describe the language and nationality of the ethnic Romanians (q.v.) in Bessarabia (q.v.). Joseph V. Stalin claimed that their language and nationality were different and distinct from the language and nationality of the ethnic Romanians in Romania as a justification for creating the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1940. In actuality, the ""Moldavian"" language is a dialect of Romanian. Under the Soviet regime, ""Moldavia"" was used as the short form for the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.; Source: Library of Congress
collectivization: Joseph V. Stalin’s policy of confiscating privately owned agricultural lands and facilities and consolidating them, along with farmers and their families, into large collective farms (q.v.) and state farms (q.v.).; Source: Library of Congress
Communist International (Comintern): An international organization of communist parties founded by Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) leader Vladimir I. Lenin in 1919. Initially, it attempted to control the international socialist movement and to foment world revolution; later, it also became an instrument of Soviet foreign policy. The Comintern was dissolved by Soviet leader Joseph V. Stalin in 1943 as a conciliatory measure toward his Western allies.
cult of personality: A term coined by Nikita Khrushchev at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956 to describe the rule of Joseph Stalin, during which the Soviet people were compelled to deify the dictator. Other communist leaders, particularly Albania’s Enver Hoxha, followed Stalin’s example and established a cult of personality around themselves.; Source: Library of Congress
Great Terror: A period from about 1936 to 1938 of intense repression in the Soviet Union when millions were imprisoned, deported, and executed by Stalin’s secret police for spurious political or economic crimes. The Great Terror affected all of Soviet society, including the highest levels of the party, government, and military.
Marxism-Leninism/Marxist-Leninist: The ideology of communism, developed by Karl Marx and refined and adapted to social and economic conditions in Russia by Lenin, which guided the communist parties of many countries including Albania and the Soviet Union. Marx talked of the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie as a transitional socialist 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 East European leaders, including Enver Hoxha, contributed their own interpretations of the ideology.; Source: Library of Congress
New Economic Policy (NEP; Novaya ekonomicheskaya politika in Russian): Instituted in 1921, it let peasants sell produce on an open market and permitted small enterprises (q.v.) to be privately owned and operated. The NEP declined with forced collectivization (q.v.) of farms and was officially ended by Stalin in December 1929.; Source: Library of Congress
Stalinism/Stalinist: The authoritarian practices, including mass terror, and bureaucratic applications of the principles of Marxism-Leninism (q.v.) in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and in East European communist countries.; Source: Library of Congress
Yalta Conference: Meeting of Josph V. Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1945 that redrew post-World War II national borders and established spheres of influence in Europe.