The group of countries allied against Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I. These were France, Britain, the United States, Italy, Japan and 16 other states.
Anthrax:
A fatal disease found mainly in sheep and cattle that can be transmitted to humans.
Arquebus (also Harquebus):
The first shoulder-fired weapon invented in the mid-15th century. Resembling a rifle, it was normally fired from a support and had an effective range of under 650 feet (see musket).
Bolsheviks:
A radical group within the Russian Social Democratic Party led by Lenin. They broke away from the Social Democrats in 1912 and seized power in Russia from the provisional government in October 1917.
Boxer Rebellion:
An outbreak of anti-foreign violence in Northern China in 1900 by a group of young Chinese known as the Society of Harmonious Fists or `Boxers.' This resulted in the siege of the foreign legations in Peking and the destruction of much of the East Chinese Railway.
Cossacks:
From the Turkic `kazak' meaning adventurer or free man. People living in the northern hinterlands of the Black and Caspian seas. The term originally referred to semi-autonomous Tartar groups living in the Dnepr region in the 15th century. It was also applied to peasants who fled serfdom from Lithuania, Muscovy and Poland to the Don and Dnepr districts where they established independent military communities.
Czech Legion:
A military force formed from disaffected Czech and Slovak soldiers of the Austrian Army during World War I who gave themselves up to the tsarist army. They were originally intended for use on the Eastern Front against the Germans, but the October Revolution in Russia cut these plans short. An agreement was made with the Bolsheviks for safe passage to France via the Trans-Siberian and then from Vladivostok by ship.
Five Year Plan:
Stalinist method of socialist planning begun in 1928 to organize the Soviet Union's economy for the expansion of industry and collectivization of agriculture.
Ginseng:
Medicinal plant found in North America and East Asia, the root of which is highly prized for its curative properties.
Julian Calendar:
The calendar introduced by Julius Caesar and used in Russia at the time of the Russian Revolution while the rest of the world was 13 days ahead on the Gregorian calendar. This is why the 1917 revolutions are known as the February and October in Russia, and the March and November in the rest of the world. The Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 as a correction to the Julian and is used throughout the world today.
Khan:
A title given to a leader that originally referred to the supreme ruler of the Mongol, Tartar and Turkish tribes e.g. Khubilai Khan. The territory he ruled was known as a khanate.
Manchus:
People from what today is north east China. They formed the last imperial dynasty in China that ruled from 1644 to 1912.
Musket:
Developed in 16th-century Spain as the successor to the arquebus. Larger than its predecessor, the musket was accurate to 80 yards and was often handled by two men firing from a portable rest. Like the arquebus, early muskets were loaded from the gun's muzzle.
Panzers:
Short for `Panzerkampfwagen' - a German tank.
Permafrost:
Permanently frozen ground.
Red Guards:
A group of armed workers that Lenin used to seize political power in Russia in 1917.
Serfdom:
A system of virtual enslavement that kept peasants tied to farms through indebtedness to the landed nobility.
Steppe:
The unforested, grassy plain of south east Europe and Siberia - the prairie of Russia.
Tael:
A Chinese measure of weight equal to one and one-third ounces. Also used as a unit of currency denominated in silver, e.g. one tael equals one and one-third ounces of silver.
Taiga:
The belt of evergreen forest lying between the tundra and steppe of Russia.
Tributary:
A vassal state that pays tribute to a dominant, usually neighboring, political power.
White:
The counter-revolutionary armies of the Don Cossacks, the German puppet General Skoropadsky, General Yudenich and Admiral Kolchak. These armies consisted of former tsarist military officers and civil servants, landlords dispossessed of their estates, moderate socialists, peasants and factory workers. In the Russian Civil War, resistance was organized by these groups and the Allied powers of World War I in five principal regions against the Red Army which had been hastily formed by the Bolshevik, Leon Trotsky.
