Abbreviations and Explanatory Notes
Abbreviations
| AFL-CIO | American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations |
| CC | Central Committee |
| CCP | Chinese Communist Party |
| CI | Communist International |
| CIS | Commonwealth of Independent States |
| CWM | Communist Women’s Movement |
| ECCI | Executive Committee of the Communist International |
| FYP | Five-Year Plan |
| IWD | International Women’s Day |
| IWMA | International Working Men’s Association |
| IWS | International Women’s Secretariat of the CI |
| KPD(S) | German Communist Party |
| KUTB | Committee to Improve the Labour and Life of Women, a branch of the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) |
| LGBT | An inclusive term for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and others |
| NGO | Non-governmental Organisation |
| OECD | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
| RDDPP | Revolutionary Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Peasantry |
| SD | Social Democracy or Social Democrat, determined by the context |
| SDs | Social Democrats |
| SDP | German Social Democratic Party |
| Sovnarkom | Council of People’s Commissars |
| SR | Socialist Revolutionary |
| ToPR | Theory of Permanent Revolution |
| ToSOC | Theory of Socialism in One Country |
| UO | United Opposition |
| USPD | Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| VKPD | Unified Communist Party of Germany |
| VSNKh | Supreme Council of the National Economy |
| VTsIK | All-Russian Central Executive Committee |
| VTsSPS | All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions |
| WHO | World Health Organisation |
| ZAGS | The government office for the registration of births, deaths, and marriages. |
Party Name, Congresses and Conferences
| 1898 - 1903 | RSDLP: Russian Social Democratic Labour Party |
| 1903 - 1906 | The political differences at the Second Congress led to the de facto division of the RSDLP into the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, with parallel publications and committees |
| 1906 - 1912 | The 1905 Revolution forced a re-unification in 1906 which lasted until the Prague Conference, January 1912, called by the Bolsheviks |
| 1912 - 1918 | RSDLP(B), Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) |
| 1918 - 1925 | RCP(B), All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) |
| 1925 - 1952 | AUCP(B), All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) |
| 1952 - 1992 | CPSU, Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
| 1992 - Present | CPRF, Communist Party of the Russian Federation |
The Congress was the decision-making body of the Bolshevik Party and comprised elected delegates. Conferences were held between Congresses when an important issue required an immediate decision. Conferences would be comprised of both delegates and officials, the relative numbers depending on the specific circumstances.
Dates: All dates before 1 February 1918 are given according to the old Russian, Julian calendar which was thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar used in the West. To change to a modern calendar, add thirteen days.
USSR: In July 1918, the Russian Constitution renamed Russia as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR). In December 1922, the Congress of the Soviets approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, which united the RSFSR with the Ukrainian and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republics and the Transcaucasian SFSR into a single federal state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, more commonly known as the Soviet Union. On 12 December 1991, the RSFSR renounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and declared Russia’s independence from the USSR.
Security and political police of the Soviet Union: Cheka, December 1918, political police, the NKVD – People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. GPU, The Cheka was reorganised in 1922, first as the GPU (State Political Directorate) and then as the OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate). OGPU was incorporated into the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) in 1934.