The Gulag Archipelago (97 page)

Promparty.
Mixed Russian-English acronym for Industrial Party (in Russian, Promyshlennaya Partiya). Nonexistent underground to which the organization of industrial managers tried in 1930 allegedly belonged.

Provisional Government.
Coalition government of Russia after over- throw of Tsarism, March to November, 1917; first under Prince Georgi Lvov, later under Kerensky; overthrown by Bolsheviks.

Revolutionary Tribunal (Revtribunal).
Special Soviet courts (1917- 1922), which tried counterrevolutionary cases.

Russkaya Pravda.
Political program of the Decembrists; drafted by Pestel; the Russian words mean "Russian truth."

Sapropelite Committee.
A scientific study group that sought to use bituminous lake-bottom ooze, or sapropel, as a fuel around 1920.

Schlüsselburg.
Fortress on Lake Ladoga, at outlet of Neva River; used as political prison under Tsars; now called Petrokrepost.

Schutzbund.
Armed contingents of Austrian Social Democrats; members sought refuge in Soviet Union in 1934 after defeat in civil war.

Sharashka.
Russian prison slang for a special research center in which the research scientists, specialists, and technicians are all prisoners under prison discipline.

Short Course.
Familiar title of the standard Stalinist version of the history of the Soviet Communist Party; used as the official text from 1938 until after Stalin's death in 1953.

SMERSH.
Acronym for Soviet counterintelligence during World War II; stands for "death to spies."

Smolny.
Former girls' school; Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad.

Socialist Revolutionary Party.
Created in 1890's out of several populist groups; split at first congress held in Finland in December, 1905, into right wing, opposed to terrorism, and left wing, favoring terrorism; SR's played key role in Provisional Government; left wing cooperated briefly with Bolsheviks after Revolution.

Solovetsky Islands (colloquially known as Solovki).
Island group in White Sea, with monasteries; used as place of exile for rebellious priests in Middle Ages; early forced-labor camp (SLON) after 1917 Revolution.

Sovinformburo.
Soviet information agency in World War II.

Sovnarkom.
See Council of People's Commissars.

Special Board (Russian acronym: OSO).
Three-man boards of People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, with powers to sentence "socially dangerous" persons without trial; abolished in 1953.

SR.
See Socialist Revolutionary Party.

Stolypin car.
A railroad car used to transport prisoners, named for P. A. Stolypin; also known in prison slang as vagonzak, for vagon zaklyuchennykh (prisoner car).

Supreme Council of the Economy.
Highest industrial management agency in early years of Soviet regime; established in 1917; abolished 1932, when it was divided into industrial ministries.

Supreme Soviet.
The national legislature of the Soviet Union, with counterparts in its constituent republics; meets usually twice a year to approve decisions taken by the Soviet leadership. Its lawmaking function is performed between sessions by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet; nominally the highest state body in the Soviet Union.

Time of Troubles.
A period of hardship and confusion during the Polish and Swedish invasions of Russia in the early seventeenth century.

Union Bureau.
See Mensheviks.

UPK.
Code of Criminal Procedure. See
Codes
.

Verkhtrib.
Russian acronym for Supreme Tribunal (1918-1922), which tried the most important cases in the early Soviet period.

Vikzhel.
Railroad workers union, opposed Bolsheviks after 1917 Revolution; acronym stands for All-Russian Executive Committee of Railroad Workers Union.

VSNKh.
See Supreme Council of the Economy.

VTsIK.
Acronym for All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the highest state body of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the largest Soviet state, from 1917 to 1937, when it was succeeded by the Presidium of the Republic's Supreme Soviet. The national equivalent of VTsIK was TsIK, the Central Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R. (1922-1938), which became the Presidium of the national Supreme Soviet.

Workers Opposition.
Bolshevik faction that sought greater trade-union control of industry and greater democracy within Party; its activities were condemned at Tenth Party Congress in 1921, and some leaders were later expelled from Party and arrested.

Zek.
Prison slang for prisoner, derived from zaklyuchenny, Russian word for "prisoner."

Zemstvo.
Local government unit in prerevolutionary Russia.