| Bolshevik | Majority (Social Democrat faction) |
| boyar | noble (of ancient clan) |
| Duma | Russian Parliament. |
| dvoriane | landed nobility |
| Glasnost' | literally 'voice-ness' commonly translated as 'openness'. Glasnost' was the name of Lenin's policy of converting education and media to propaganda devices, and Gorbechev's policy of loosening media controls. |
| GPU | State Political Administration (under NKVD). |
| Iskra | The Spark - Newspaper of the Menshevik Internationalists' Central Committee. |
| Izvestiya | Information, News - Newspaper of the Soviets |
| kamera | Operational and Technical Directorate of the KGB. |
| KGB | Soviet Secret Police (see also VCheka, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, MVD, MGB, NKGB). |
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| Menshevik | Minority (social democrat faction) |
| narod | nation |
| NKVD | People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (internal secret police) 7 Nov 1917-Dec 1930, 10 July 1934-16 March 1946. |
| Okhrana | tsarist secret police |
| perestroika | restructuring |
| Pravda | The Truth - Newspaper of the Bolshevik Central Committee. |
| Narodnaya Volya | People's Will (a revolutionary party during the Tsarist period). |
| soviet | committee |
| VCheka | All-Russia Extraordinary Commission (Secret Police). Founded by Lenin and Dzerzhinsky (its first Chairman) in 1917. |
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