Evil Empire
A phrase used by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1983 to describe the Soviet Union. The term reflected the ideological confrontation of the Cold War and Reagan’s criticism of the Soviet political system.

Forest Brothers
Anti-Soviet guerrilla fighters in the Baltic states—especially Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia—who resisted Soviet occupation after World War II. Their armed resistance continued into the early 1950s.

General Secretary of the Communist Party
The top leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In practice, this position became the most powerful office in the Soviet state, held by figures such as Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

GKChP (Gosudartvenniy komitet chrzvychaynogo poloheniya)
State Committee for the State of Emergency (1991 August Coup leaders)

• Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov – USSR Chairman of the KGB
• Valentin S. Pavlov – USSR Prime Minister
• Boris Pugo – USSR Minister of Defense
• Vasily A. Starodubstev – leader of the Soviet Peasant’s Union
• Alexander I. Tizyakov – President of the Association for State-Owned Enterprises
• Gennady I. Yanayev – USSR Vice President
• Marshal Dmitri T. Yazov – USSR Defense Minister
• Oleg Dmitriyevich Baklanov – Head of the Military-Industrial Complex – Defense Council vice chairman

Glasnost
Glasnost (“openness”) was a reform policy introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s that expanded freedom of speech, public discussion, and transparency in the Soviet Union. It allowed criticism of government policies and exposed previously hidden historical events such as Stalinist repression.

Gulag
The Gulag was the Soviet system of forced labor camps used primarily during the rule of Joseph Stalin. Millions of prisoners—including political dissidents, criminals, and ordinary citizens accused of crimes—were sent to these camps across the Soviet Union.

Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was a political and ideological boundary that divided Western Europe and the communist-controlled countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The term was popularized by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe the growing separation between the Soviet sphere and the Western democratic world.

KGB
The KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, or Committee for State Security) was the Soviet Union’s main intelligence and security agency from 1954 to 1991. It conducted foreign espionage, domestic surveillance, and suppression of political opposition.

Kremlin
The Kremlin is a historic fortified complex in Moscow that serves as the seat of Russian government power. During the Soviet era, “the Kremlin” was often used as a shorthand term for the Soviet leadership or central government.

Lithuanian Communist Party (LCP)
Led by Algirdas Brazaukas, members of the Lithuanian Soviet Communist Party split from Moscow on December 19, 1989, and formed the independent LCP. They were pro-independence, but believed negotiation with Moscow was necessary to officially break away from the USSR.

Lithuanian Freedom League (Lietuvos Laisvės Lyga)
A more radical Lithuanian anti-Soviet group operated from the 1970s by dissidents and was key in organizing early demonstrations. Their August 23, 1987 organized protest …

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (MRP)
The 1939 Hitler-Stalin Pact which included secret protocols dividing up the Baltic States into “spheres of influence” between the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Secret Protocals …

National Salvation Committee (NSC)
Established by the CPSU to counter Lithuanian separatists.
The group which ‘asked’ Soviet troops to come to the aid of Russian minorities in Lithuania– which resulted in the events of January 13, 1991.

Nomenklatura
The system used by the Communist Party to control appointments to key government, economic, and social positions in the Soviet Union. It also referred to the elite group of officials whose careers depended on party approval and loyalty.

OMON
OMON (Otryad Mobilny Osobogo Naznacheniya, “Special Purpose Mobile Unit”) is a special riot police force created in the Soviet Union in 1988. It was used to control protests, suppress unrest, and enforce state authority, including in several Soviet republics during the final years of the USSR. Also referred to as the “black berets.”

Perestroika
Perestroika (“restructuring”) was a series of economic and political reforms introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s to modernize the Soviet system. The reforms aimed to decentralize economic management and introduce limited market mechanisms, but they also contributed to political instability that accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Politburo
The Politburo was the highest decision-making body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It consisted of a small group of senior leaders who determined major state policies and effectively governed the Soviet Union.

RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic)
The RSFSR was the largest and most powerful republic within the Soviet Union from 1917 until 1991. It served as the core of the USSR, and after the Soviet Union dissolved, it became the modern Russian Federation.

Russian White House
The Russian White House is the government building in Moscow that housed the parliament of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and later the Russian Federation. It became famous during the 1991 August Coup, when Boris Yeltsin and supporters of democratic reforms defended it against coup plotters.

Russification
Russification refers to policies that promoted Russian language, culture, and political control over non-Russian peoples within the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. These policies often sought to weaken local languages, traditions, and national identities in regions such as the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Central Asia.

Sąjūdis (Lithuanian Reform Movement)
Founded June 8, 1988, this was the central political organization that spearheaded the drive for independence from the Soviet Union.

Singing Revolution
The Singing Revolution refers to a series of peaceful mass demonstrations in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania between 1987 and 1991, in which large crowds gathered to sing national songs and demand independence from the Soviet Union. The movement helped mobilize public support for the restoration of Baltic independence.

Solidarnosc (Solidarity)
Solidarity was an independent trade union founded in Poland in 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It became a mass social movement opposing communist rule and played a key role in the eventual collapse of communist government in Poland.

Soviet
A soviet was a council of workers’, soldiers’, or peasants’ representatives that first appeared during the Russian Revolution of 1905 and later during the 1917 revolution. In the Soviet Union, the term came to refer broadly to the official system of councils that formed the structure of government.

Sovietization
The process by which the Soviet Union imposed its political, economic, and social system on territories under its control. This typically involved establishing communist governments, nationalizing industries, suppressing political opposition, and integrating the region into the Soviet system.

SpetzNaz
Ministry of the Interior Troops of the Soviet Union. Often referred to as ‘red berets’

Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania (Atkuriamasis Seimas)
The Supreme Council–Reconstituent Seimas was the parliament of Lithuania elected in 1990 during the final years of Soviet rule. It declared the restoration of Lithuania’s independence on March 11, 1990, and functioned as the country’s legislative authority until a new constitution and parliament were established in 1992.

Talonai (Vagnorkai)
Talonai, commonly called Vagnorkai after Prime Minister Gediminas Vagnorius, were temporary coupons used as a parallel currency in Lithuania from 1991 to 1993. They were introduced to control inflation and reduce reliance on the Soviet ruble during the transition to an independent monetary system before the reintroduction of the Lithuanian litas.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
The USSR was a socialist federal state that existed from 1922 to 1991, composed of multiple Soviet republics under the leadership of the Communist Party. It emerged after the Russian Revolution and became one of the world’s two superpowers during the Cold War before dissolving in December 1991.

Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance formed in 1955 between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European communist states as a counterbalance to NATO. It coordinated military policy among member states until it dissolved in 1991 as communist governments in Eastern Europe collapsed.

Welles Declaration
The Welles Declaration was a statement issued by the United States on July 23, 1940, by Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles condemning the Soviet Union’s annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. It established the U.S. policy of non-recognition of the Baltic states’ incorporation into the USSR, which remained in effect until their independence was restored in 1991.