| A | B |
| tundra | broad, dry, treeless plain in the high latitudes |
| Taiga | huge subarctic evergreen forests in northern Europe, Asia, and North America |
| permafrost | permanently frozen lower layers of soil in Arctic regions |
| communism | authoritarian political system in which the central government controlls the economy and society |
| command economy | economic system in which the government owns land resources and means of production and makes all economic decisions |
| heavy industry | production of industrial goods such as machinery and military equipment |
| light industry | production of consumer goods, such as food products and household goods |
| free enterprise system | economic system based on free enterprise |
| consumer goods | products for personal use, such as clothing and household goods |
| czar | title of the former emperors of Russia |
| serfs | farm laborers bound to the land they worked |
| cold war | era from late 1940s to early 1990s in which the United States and the Soviet Union competed for world influence |
| Goliasnost | Russian term for "openess", used for President Gorbachev's policy in late 1980s |
| ethnic group | people who share a comman cultural background, inculuding ancestry and language |