Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

Borotbists: Borotbisty: the popular name for the Ukrainian Party of Socialists-Revolutionary Borotbists (Communist). Literally, “fighters. ”

budenovka: A peaked cloth helmet worn by the Red Army, named for S. M. Budennyi (although it was first termed a frunzevka, for M. V. Frunze).

cadet: Russian term for a pupil at an officer training school (sometimes also rendered “junker”).

Chekist: A member of the Cheka.

commissar: An official of either the Provisional Government or the Soviet government charged with a particular task. The term was derived from the commissaries of the era of the French Revolution.

composite: A term (in Russian, svodnii) chiefly used by White forces during the civil wars to denote units formed from the core of larger units of the Imperial Russian Army. (Thus, the Composite Regiment of the 19th Infantry Division was a regiment containing former members of the 19th Infantry Division.)

Cossack: Originally a population group of eastern Slavs who settled Russia’s steppe frontier, from the 14th to the 17th centuries, and prospered largely by raiding and looting. By the 19th century, the term denoted a member of a military caste living in the borderlands of the Russian Empire in a separate Host (voisko) that received certain privileges in return for military service.

defensists: Those European socialists who, in 1914, opted to support their countries’ war efforts (typified in Russia by G. V. Plekhanov). Their enemies dubbed them ‘social patriots.’ Cf. internationalists.

desiatina: A Russian unit of area: 1 desiatina = 2. 7 acres or 1. 09 hectares (pl. destiatiny).

druzhina: A militia or small military unit; a squadron.

duma: See State Duma and municipal council.

fedayeen: “Freedom fighters”: Armenian guerrilla groups formed in the late 19th century to oppose Ottoman rule of western Armenia.

front: In Imperial Russian and Soviet usage, a group of armies (or what might be called an army corps).

genshtabisty: Graduates of the imperial Russian Academy of the General Staff.

guberniia: A province (pl. gubernii).

hetman: A Ukrainian Cossack leader.

Host: A Cossack group, based on a geographical nomenclature (e.g., the Don Cossack Host, the Kuban Cossack Host). The Russian term is voisko.

hromada: A union, or brotherhood, associated with Lithuanian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian nationalist organizations.

Inter-District Group: Mezhraionka: a faction of the RSDLP, led by L. D. Trotsky, which occupied a position independent from and intermediate to the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The group joined the Bolsheviks in July 1917.

internationalists: Those European socialists who, in 1914, opted to oppose their countries’ war efforts (typified in Russia by V. I. Lenin, Iu. O. Martov, and V. M. Chernov). Their enemies dubbed them “defeatists.” Cf. defensists.

junker: See cadet.

Kadets: Members of the Constitutional Democratic Party (also known as the Party of the People’s Freedom), Russia’s main liberal party after 1905.

khutor: An individual, consolidated farmstead (pl. khutora) that had separated from the village commune; in Cossack regions, a small village.

komandarm: Army commander of the Red Army.

kombrig: Brigade commander of the Red Army.

komdiv: Divisional commander of the Red Army

kosh: A term originally used by the Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine in the 16th–18th centuries to describe a variety of military units. It was resurrected by Ukrainian nationalist forces during the civil wars.

krai: A district.

krug: A Cossack assembly or council (literally, “a circle”).

kursant: An officer cadet in the Red Army.

left-bank Ukraine: Levoberezhnaia Ukraina: that part of Ukraine on the left (eastern) bank of the River Dnepr, absorbed into the Russian state after 1654. It was sometimes referred to as “Little Russia. ”

Left-SR: A member of the Party of Left Socialists-Revolutionaries.

meshochniki: Petty traders, literally “bagmen. ”

Mezhraionka: See Inter-District Group.

military district: A region, usually made up of several provinces, responsible for mobilizing, training, and supplying troops in Imperial Russia and Soviet Russia, also used in areas controlled by the Whites during the civil wars.

mir: See village commune.

municipal council: Gorodskaiaduma: a city council, established from 16 June 1870, elected by property holders.

muzhik: A peasant (literally, “a little man”).

narkom: See People’s Commissar.