Glossary

The following terms will be used in this pamphlet:

Anarchist Black Cross
An anarchist organisation set up to support anarchist political prisoners.

Circular
A letter or written document that is sent out to inform or notify the recipient in some way.

Cheka
Russian secret police under the Soviet Union. This later became the KGB.

Department
French regions are also known as departments.

Dreyfus Affair
A political scandal that split French politics of the time roughly into two camps; one camp being mainly Catholic and pro-military, the other being against the military and the church.

February Revolution
A revolution that led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire.

First International
The International Workingmen’s Association (IWA), often called the First International, was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade union organisations across the world.

IWW
The Industrial Workers of the World. A union formed by anarchists, communists, and socialists in 1905 with the aim to end capitalism and the wage system.

Kronstadt Rebellion
An uprising of sailors in the Russian port-town of Kronstadt in response to the betrayal of the aims and ideals of the Russian revolution by Lenin and the Bolshevik Party. Trotsky himself oversaw a propaganda campaign to discredit the rebellion before leading the brutal suppression of the sailors.

Machajski, Jan Wacław
A Polish anarchist whose ideas would predict the brutal outcome of any attempt to put in place a state socialist government or install a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, or workers’ government.

Makhnovists
Anarchists following the ideas of Nestor Makhno. During the Russian revolution the Makhnovists were known as the Black Army and helped establish the Free Territories of the Ukraine.

Maximalist Socialist
A member of the Union of Socialists Revolutionaries Maximalists, a radical wing expelled from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1906. Most later joined with Bolsheviks.

Mimeograph
A low-cost printing press that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper.

Misogyny
The structural oppression of women though giving of preference to people and traits seen as masculine over those that are seen as feminine. This is related to transmisogyny (the specific ways misogyny effects trans gendered individuals) and misogynoir (the specific ways misogyny effects black individuals).

Partisan
A committed member of a political group.

Right SR and Left SRS
In 1917, the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Provisional Government (right), established after the February Revolution, and those who supported the Bolsheviks who favoured a communist insurrection (left).

Vis a vis
Meaning ‘in relation to’ or ‘with regard to’.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15