Glossary

Compiled by Attila Novák, Historian

· 1871 unification : Unification of the integrated German Empire following the Prussian victories over France.

· Constitutional Democrats (or Kadets) : a party in early 20th century Russia advocating western civic values.

· anarchists : people following an ideology of rebellion against established social order, often by violent means, though non-violent varieties are also known.

· Anglo-French agreement (1904) : the so-called „entente cordiale” between England and France, and in 1907 with Russia formed a bloc against Germany and the triple alliance.

· annexion : incorporation of an autonomous territory into a state, thereby suspending its sovereignty.

· Anschluss : the "unification" or annectation of Austria by the Naztis into the Reich in March 1938.

· Aryans : the Indo-European peoples, the Nazis used this term to mean "non-Jewish". This racial theory arose in Germany in the 18th century, in search of the most ancient civilizations, was developed to perfection by the Pan-German Movement and made a central, pseudoscientific element of Nazi ideology. According to the theory, there are Aryan and non-Aryan "races", of which the Aryan are superior, whereas Jews are the epitome of the inferior non-Aryan races.

· Atlantic Charter : written on the 12th of August 1941 at the meeting of President F.D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, coordinating the two nations' policies.

· István Bethlen (1874-1946) : Hungarian Prime Minister between 1921 - 1931, strove to consolidate of the economy and political life. He left the United Party in 1935 because of his disagreements. After the war, he was taken to the USSR, which is where he died.

· Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) : father of German unification, head of the Prussian government from 1862, then becoming Chancellor of the North German Confederation and finally the first Chancellor of Germany. He resigned in 1890.

· bolshevik : a wing of the Russian social democrats separated in 1903, led at the time by Lenin. Their social ideals were more radical.

· Dreyfus affair (1894) : the arrest and ordeal of innocent Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish officer accused of espionage was a breaking point in French political life. He was sentenced but later acquitted.

· Duce : nickname of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini used mostly by his followers, it means "Leader".

· First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) : first rebellion in Russia after its defeat in the Russian-Japanese War, whereas the Tsarist system was forced to make serious concessions.

· essers : movement aiming to influence the peasantry and rural intelligentsia in early 20th century Russia.

· GULAG (Glavnoye Upravlenyiye Lagerey, or „Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps”) : huge labour camp system in the Soviet Union for political and common criminals, where a great many inmates died due to the dire circumstances. The Gulag was gradually downsized after Stalin's death, formally discontinued in 1960.

· collectivisation movement : serial nationalization of privately owned units in states within the Soviet sphere of interest.

· commune : system of the Soviet Republic, the term is also applied to all 19th century collectivist experiments.

· corporational systems : formations that attempt to incorporate various interest groups and organizations into the state.

· latifundium : feudal land property, usually of substantial size.

· menshevik : another separated faction of Russian social democrats

· League of Nations : international organization founded after the First World War, a predecessor of the United Nations. Its functioning failed under the Second World War.

· numerus clausus law : Hungarian discriminative law passed in 1920 to suppress Jewish participation in higher education; this law was later annulled.

· Russian-British treaty (1907) : insured the powers against the Germans and their Alliance.

· Franco-Russian alliance (1891-3) : consulative pact, military treaty formally ratified in 1893. The two powers formed an alliance against the threat of a German attack.

· Russian-Japanese war (1904-5) : ending in Japanese victory, this war significantly undermined the stability of Tsarist Russia.

· Oswieczim-Auschwitz : German concentracion camp in Polish territory (Poland was annected to the German Empire after its conquest), where a great number of people, among them Jews and POW's, were gassed to death and cremated. The camp was liberated on January 27th,1945.

· Armenian genocide : in 1915, Armenians were deported from Eastern Anatolia of the Ottoman Empire, and several hundred thousand of them were murdered by Turkish military forces; Armenian sources cite 1.5 million victims. Turkey continues to deny the genocide.

· five-year plan : industrial and economic plans issued in Stalinist Soviet Union and the East European Bloc in the four of five- and three-year plans, with unrealistic objectives. In Hungary, the"three-year plan" was followed by the first"five-year plan" in late 1949.

· racism : racial ideology differentiating "races" of humans, and valuating some for the better, others for worse .

· Reichstag : German imperial parliament.

· Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) : civil war between the fascists led by Franco and the leftwing and liberal forces, its outcome defined by foreign fascist powers aiding Franco.

· Pál Teleki (1879-1941) : Geographer and politician. Served recurrently as Prime Minister of Hungary (1920-21, 1939-41). Controversial politician, the Numerus Clausus Act was passed by his government, he wrote the substantiation for the second Anti-Jewish Law and drafted the third one, among the countless other antisemitic regulations under his prime ministership.

· Wannsee Conference : held in January 1942 and organized by Reinchard Heydrich, this was the conference where a resolution was passed for the final annihilation of European Jews. Eichmann wrote minutes of the conference, which are still documents of primary importance for the Holocaust.

· Weimar Republic : German R epublic of the Weimar Constitution instituted in the summer of 1919 after the First World War, providing a republican state and parliamentary democracy until Hitler's rise to power.

· Anti-Jewish laws : regulations passed against the Jews in Hungary and elsewhere.