| Alger Hiss |
a lawyer and U.S. public official accused in 1948 of having acted as a Communist spy in the 1930s. Convicted in 1950 on counts of perjury related to the investigation, Hiss was sentenced to five years in prison but maintained his innocence until his death (b.1904--d.1996). |
| Bolshevik |
(often l.c.) a member of the majority faction of the party that seized power in 1917 and formed the Communist party in the Soviet Union. [2/3 definitions] |
| cold war |
(cap.) the state of intense political and ideological hostility and competition for power that obtained between the communist Soviet Union and China and their allies, and the United States and its democratic allies, between the end of World War II and about 1990. The Cold War, always stopping short of direct military conflict, manifested in the arms race, the space race, and proxy wars in Vietnam, Korea, and the Middle East. [1/2 definitions] |
| Comecon |
an international trade association of communist nations (acronym for "Council for Mutual Economic Assistance"). |
| Cominform |
a European Communist organization that espoused the policies of the Soviet Union (acronym for "Communist Information Bureau"). |
| commie |
(informal) a communist (used disparagingly). |
| commissar |
a Communist party official responsible for political indoctrination and conformity. [1/2 definitions] |
| communist |
(cap.) one who belongs to the Communist party. [1/4 definitions] |
| communize |
to subject to, convert to, or bring into accord with communist economic or political principles or systems. [1/2 definitions] |
| comrade |
a fellow member of an organization, esp. of the Communist party. [1/2 definitions] |
| domino theory |
a theory that if one event occurs, such as the fall of one country under Communist control, a chain of related events will be triggered thereby, such as the fall of neighboring countries. |
| Erick Honecker |
leader of Communist East Germany from 1971 to 1989 (b.1912--d.1994) |
| Eurocommunism |
a type of communism favored in some Western European nations, claimed to be independent of the Russian Communist party. |
| fellow traveler |
one who does not belong to a group, esp. the Communist party, but supports or espouses its doctrines and aims; sympathizer (used as a derogatory label). |
| hammer and sickle |
a representation of these implements, crossed, used as a symbol of the Communist party, the hammer representing workers and the sickle representing peasants. |
| Joseph Stalin |
a Soviet Communist leader and premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1953 (b.1879--d.1953). |
| Mao Tse-Tung |
a Chinese Communist leader and chairman of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1959 (b.1893--d.1976). |
| Mikhail Gorbachev |
a statesman and leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, during which time his foreign policy and domestic reforms contributed to the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Communist U.S.S.R. (b.1931). |
| noncommunist |
combined form of communist. |
| pink1 |
(derogatory slang) leaning toward leftist or communist ideology. [1/5 definitions] |
| politburo |
a Communist party's most powerful committee. [2 definitions] |