Vocabulary

• Altruist: a person who cares for others, usually without thinking about him/herself
• Ascetic: describes a simple lifestyle that emphasizes spiritual over material happiness 
• Concoct: make by mixing things together
• Dacha: a second home in the countryside
• Dissident: a person or ideology that opposes the mainstream. In the case of the USSR, dissidents were public intellectuals who called for greater freedom from the state.
• Banal: ordinary, dull, expected
• Bliny: thin buckwheat pancake
• Intelligensia: group of intelligent, well-educated people who want to guide their society towards a better future
• Oral history: technique of interviewing witnesses to an event and recording their words directly
• Perestroika: Russian for "restructuring," specifically used to describe Gorbachev's economic reforms (1985-91)
• Philologist: one who studies linguistics and historical writing
• Polyphonic: having many voices; including multiple perspectives
• Profiteer: one who seeks to make money in illegal or unjust ways
• Putsch: planned attempt to overthrow a government
• Reminisce: to look back on and remember, usually with nostalgia
• Tsarevna: daughter of a tsar, a Russian princess