an ideology, based largely on the writings of the German revolutionary Karl Marx, that calls on workers to unite to overthrow capitalism and establish an egalitarian society in which workers share what they produce; as practiced, communism was actually a socialized system of public services and a centralized government and economy in which citizens participated only indirectly through Communist Party representatives

diffuse sources of environmental contamination, such as untreated automobile exhaust, raw sewage, and agricultural chemicals that drain from fields into water supplies

in Russia, the state-owned energy company; it is the largest gas entity in the world

usually a wealthy minority that owns the majority of factories, farms, businesses, and other means of production

a loose confederation of nomadic pastoral people centered in East and Central Asia, who by the thirteenth century had established by conquest an empire that stretched from Europe to the Pacific

the political organization that ruled the USSR from 1917 to 1991; other communist countries, such as China, Mongolia, North Korea, and Cuba, also have ruling Communist parties

an organization of eight countries with large economies: France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and Russia

an economic system in which the state owns all land and means of production, while government officials direct all economic activity, including the locating of factories, residences, and transportation infrastructure

people whose way of life and economy are centered on tending grazing animals who are moved seasonally to gain access to the best pasture

the contest that pitted the United States and western Europe, who were espousing free market capitalism and democracy, against the USSR and its allies, who were promoting a centrally planned economy and a socialist state

the title of the ruler of the Russian empire

a faction of Communists who came to power during the Russian Revolution

the mountainous region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea

literally, “openness”; the policies instituted in the late 1980s under Mikhail Gorbachev that encouraged more transparency and openness in the workings of all levels of the Soviet government

in Russia, those who acquired great wealth during the privatization of Russia’s resources and who use that wealth to exercise power

semiarid, grass-covered plains

a region of Russia that is located east of the Ural Mountains

the czarist and Soviet policy of encouraging ethnic Russians to settle in non-Russian areas as a way to assert political control

literally, “restructuring”; the restructuring of the Soviet economic system that was done in the late 1980s in an attempt to revitalize the economy

permanently frozen soil that lies just a few feet beneath the surface

the recruiting, transporting, and harboring of people through coercion for the purpose of exploiting them

subarctic coniferous forests

the selling of formerly government-owned industries and firms to private companies or individuals

the multinational union formed from the Russian empire in 1922 and dissolved in 1991; commonly known as the Soviet Union

the condition in which people are working too few hours to make a decent living or are highly trained but working at menial jobs

a treeless area, between the ice cap and the tree line of arctic regions, where the subsoil is permanently frozen

a group of people who originated between the Dnieper and Vistula Rivers in modern-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus

see Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Russia and its political subunits, which include 21 internal republics