Glossary 249Pioneers (Komsomoltsy). Young communist pioneers, ages ten to fourteen.
Primordialism. The belief that every group of people has par tic u lar racial and cultural
traits that are inherent from birth. These traits are passed on through descent. See
Ascriptive or essentialized race.
Reverse piedmonts. Foreign countries projecting their influence and conducting antistate
maneuvers through Soviet diaspora nationalities who have cross- border ethnic ties.
“Reverse piedmonts.” Fifth columns planted inside Soviet territory by foreign powers
inimical to the Soviet Union.
RFE. Acronym for the Rus sian Far East.
RSFSR. Rus sian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.
SCCI. Second Congress of the Communist International.
Sovkhoz. A state collective farm, larger and typically more mechanized than a kolkhoz.
Spekulianty. The Soviet pejorative for merchants who bought or sold goods, products,
merchandise, and food products with the intent to resell them at a profit.
Technicum. A trade or professional school; some were also institutes.
Tr o i k a. A troika is a NKVD police committee of three members used in mass operations
such as the vari ous ethnic deportations.
Ts K. Central Committee Communist Party.
Vydvizhentsy. The new professional or white- collar- class Soviet citizens who took
advantage of educational and professional opportunities, institutions, and korenizatsiia
programs beginning from 1923 to the mid-1930s.
“ Yellow labor” (zhyolty trud). Refers to the influx of Chinese, Korean, and (less fre-
quently) Japa nese labor in Rus sia. It implied that their labor brought down wages and
the standard of living for Rus sian workers.
“ Yellow peril” (zhyoltaia opasnost). Refers to the Chinese and Koreans believed to be in
Siberia/RFE as proxies for Japa nese expansion. This term gained popularity after the
Russo- Japanese War (1905).