Russia

NATO - (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). This alliance of sixteen sovereign EuroAtlantic countries is dedicated to the proposition of maintaining democratic freedom by means of collective defense. The Atlantic Alliance, as it is also known, has been the dominant feature of European security and defence for half a century and remains at bottom a device designed to guarantee continuing US military commitment to western European defense. Latterly it has begun to find a new role in peacekeeping. Like the UN, it has been an expression of a US foreign policy based on ideals believed to be intrinsically favorable to US interests and will continue to exist as long as it serves that purpose. Duma - in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the last Tzar, Nicholas II Soviets - was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the Soviet of Ministers; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Cheka - was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations Nomenklatura - were a small elite group within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the communist party of each country or region. Politburo - is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties. Joseph Stalin - was a Soviet politician and head of state who served as the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union, which he ruled as a dictator. Nikita Khrushchev - led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of

domestic policy. Perestroika - was a political movement within the Communist Party of Soviet Union widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Its literal meaning is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. Perestroika is often argued to be one reason for the fall of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and for the end of the Cold War. Glasnost - was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev - was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991. Boris Yeltsin - was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. Big disappointment, dismantled and destroyed Russian constitution and imposed new one giving more central presidential power. Federal Security Board - is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet-era Cheka, NKVD and KGB. shock therapy - refers to the sudden release of price and currency controls, withdrawal of state subsidies, and immediate trade liberalization within a country, usually also including large scale privatization of previously public owned assets. Vladimir Putin - served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when president Boris Yeltsin resigned in a surprising move. Putin won the 2000 presidential election and in 2004 he was re-elected for a second term lasting until 7 May 2008. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and reestablishing the rule of law. During his eight years in office, due to strong macroeconomic management, important fiscal policy reforms, and a confluence of high oil prices, surging capital inflows, and access to low-cost external financing, Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase by 72% in PPP (six fold in nominal), poverty cut more than half, and average monthly salaries increase from $80 to $640, or by 150% in real rates. Analysts have described Putin's economic reforms as impressive.

insider privatization - was the reform consisting in privatization of state-owned industrial assets that took place in Russia in the 1990s, during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, where private ownership of enterprises had been illegal for a long time. The privatization enabled Russia to shift from the deteriorating Soviet planned economy towards market economy, but as a result a good deal of the national wealth fell into the hands of a relatively small group of socalled business oligarchs (tycoons), and the wealth gap increased dramatically. Oligarchs - is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, or military control. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words "a few" and the verb to rule, to govern, to command". Such states are often controlled by a few prominent families who pass their influence from one generation to the next.

China
Kuomintang - is a centre-right conservative political party of the Republic of China Chinese Communist Party - is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China Long March - was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. People's Liberation Army - is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 Hundred Flowers Campaign - refers to a brief interlude in the People's Republic of China from 1956 to 1957 during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) encouraged a variety of views and solutions to national policy issues, launched under the slogan: "Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist

culture in our land." Great Leap Forward - was an economic and social campaign of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of agriculturalization, industrialization, and collectivization. Red Guards - were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in China, who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution. Deng Xiaoping - As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (historically the highest position in Communist China), he nonetheless served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to the early 1990s.

Danwei - is the name given to a place of employment in the People's Republic of China. While the term danwei remains in use today it is more properly used to refer to a place of employment during the period when the Chinese economy was still more heavily socialist or when used in the context of one of state-owned enterprises. Hukou - refers to the system of residency permits which dates back to ancient China, where household registration is required by law in People's Republic of China and Republic of China (Taiwan). Floating population - a large number of people moving from the countryside to the city, from underdeveloped economic areas to developed areas, and from the central and western regions to the eastern coastal region, as a result of fast-paced reform-era economic development and modern agricultural practices that have reduced the need for a large agricultural labor force.

National People's Congress - is the highest state body and the only legislative house in the People's Republic of China.

Iron rice bowl - term used to refer to an occupation with guaranteed job security, as well as steady income and benefits. Traditionally, people considered to have iron rice bowls include military personnel, members of the civil service, as well as employees of various state run enterprises (through the mechanism of the work unit). Household-responsibility system - was a practice in the People's Republic of China, first adopted in agriculture in 1981 and later extended to other sectors of the economy, by which local managers are held responsible for the profits and losses of the enterprise. This system partially supplanted the egalitarian distribution method, whereby the state assumed all profits and losses. Special Economic Zone - geographical region that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country's typical or national laws. "Nationwide" laws may be suspended inside a special economic zone. One country, two systems - is an idea originally proposed by Deng Xiaoping, then Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC), for the reunification of China during the early 1980s. He suggested that there would be only one China, but areas such as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan could have their own capitalist economic and political systems, while the rest of China uses the socialist system. Under the suggestion, Taiwan could continue to have its own political system, legal, military, economic and financial affairs, including commercial and cultural agreements with foreign countries, and would enjoy "certain rights" in foreign affairs