Between the Wars – Chapters 30 & 31
* indicates that the word will be found in the reading, not the glossary
autocracy - A government in which the ruler has unlimited power and uses it in an arbitrary
manner
pogroms - Organized campaigns of violence against Jewish communities in late 19th century
Russia
Bolsheviks - A group of revolutionary Russian Marxists who took control of Russia’s
government in November 1917
*Lenin - Bolshevik revolutionary and the first leader of Communist Russia. He is
commonly referred to as the “Father of the Revolution” and instituted the New
Economic Policy
*Stalin - Russian leader who transformed the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state. He
launched a series of Five Year Plans to modernize the Soviet Union
totalitarianism - Government control over every aspect of public and private life
Collective farms - Large government-controlled farms formed by combining many small
farms
Great Purge - A campaign of terror in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, in which Joseph
Stalin sought to eliminate all Communist Party members and other
citizens who threatened his power.
Great Depression - The severe economic slump that followed the collapse of the U.S. stock
market in 1929
Fascism - A political movement that promotes an extreme form of nationalism, a denial of
individual rights, and a dictatorial one-party rule
*Adolf Hitler - Leader of the Nazi party who becomes chancellor and then dictator of
Germany. He turns Germany into a totalitarian state and begins the
process of eliminating the Jews from German life.
lebensraum - “living space” – the additional territory that, according to Hitler, Germany
needed because it was overcrowded.
appeasement - The making of concessions to an aggressor in order to avoid war
Axis Powers - In WWII, the nations of Germany, Italy and Japan, which had formed an
alliance in 1936
Munich Conference - A 1938 meeting of representatives from Britain, France, Italy and
Germany, at which Britain and France agreed to allow Nazi
Germany to Annex part of Czechoslovakia in return for Adolf
Hitler’s pledge to respect Czechoslovakia’s new border.
Isolationism - A policy of avoiding political or military involvement with other countries