Glossary — R

Glossary terms beginning with R.

raion (pl., raioane in Romanian; rayon/rayony in Belarusian and Russian): A low-level territorial and administrative subdivision, roughly equivalent to a county in the United States. Originally used by the Soviet Union.
Ramadan: Muslim month of fasting.
Rana: Term, used as an honorific personal name, signified strength in battle in late medieval north India. It was adopted as a title by Jang Bahadur Kunwar in the 1850s, and by his heirs after him, and became the standard name used for this Nepalese dynasty of prime ministers and their families.; Source: Library of Congress
Rand: Local contraction of Witwatersrand (q.v.).
rand (R): Unit of currency. A decimal currency of 100 cents, the rand replaced the South African pound in 1961. The official exchange rate of the rand against the United States dollar was R1=US$1.40 until December 1971, and from September 1975 to January 1979, R1=US$1.15. From 1972 to 1975, and after 1979, the government allowed market forces to determine the value of the rand. The exchange rate averaged R3.55=US$1 in 1994 and R3.64=US$1 in 1995. On April 30, 1996, R4.34=US$1; conversely, R1= US$.23. Financial rands were issued only to foreign buyers for capital investment inside South Africa. They were available periodically until 1983 and again in September 1985, but were abolished in March 1995.
Rastafarian(ism): An Afro-Christian revivalist cult formed in Jamaica in the early 1920s. The so-called Rastafarian Brethren emphasized rejection of both Jamaican and European culture in favor of eventual repatriation to Africa. Identifying Africa with Ethiopia, Rastafarians viewed then Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia as God incarnate. As hope of returning to Africa dwindled, Rastafarianism became more of a religious than a political movement. Rastafarians developed a system of beliefs compatible with their poverty and aloofness from society and similar to mystical experiences found in other protest religions. Rastas (as they are known in common parlance) have come to symbolize the movement away from white domination and toward a heightened black identity and pride. Rasta thought, reggae music, dance, and literature have been popularized throughout West Indian culture.; Source: Library of Congress
rayon: See raion.; Source: Library of Congress
RCC: Revolutionary Command Council. Supreme organ of the revolutionary regime from September 1969 to 1977.
real (pl., reais; R$): On July 1, 1994, Brazil’s sixth currency in nine years, the dollar-linked real (pronounced hay-OW), equal to 2,750 cruzeiro reais, replaced the cruzeiro real (CR$--q.v.). During the transition from the cruzeiro real to the real, Real Value Units (Unidades Reais de Valor--URVs) acted as a temporary currency, beginning on March 1, 1994, with one URV equal to one real or CR$2,750. URVs began gradually replacing indexes used to adjust wages, prices, taxes, contracts, and interest and utility rates. The URV was also part of an economic stabilization plan, the Real Plan (Plano Real), under which prices were gradually converted from cruzeiro reais to URVs. The URV is, by definition, the inflation rate itself. The URV rate is calculated as the average of a basket (cesta) of price indexes. The fluctuation band mechanism set by the Central Bank (q.v.) in March 1995 provided for bank intervention in the interbank exchange markets whenever the buying floor rate of R$0.88 per dollar and the ceiling selling rate of R$0.93 per dollar were affected by the market rates. The Central Bank restructured the real’s trading ban on January 15, 1997, to a range of 1.0430 to 1.0480 per dollar, after the currency fell through its previous band. The dollar/real rate on April 13, 1998, was R$1.140.; Source: Library of Congress
real exchange rate: The value of foreign exchange corrected for differences between external and domestic inflation.; Source: Library of Congress
red: A term referring to political and ideological attitudes prescribed by Maoist doctrine. Usually juxtaposed with ""expert"" (q.v.), the term was seldom used in the 1980s.
Red Guards: Generally used to refer to young people--primarily students--in their teens and twenties who began in May 1966 to support the leftist intraparty struggle then emerging against Liu Shaoqi and others. They made world famous the ""little red book,"" Quotations from Chairman Mao, and were known for their use of big-character posters (q.v.) during the Cultural Revolution (q.v.). Acting under the leadership of Mao and his radical adherents, Red Guards were the ""soldiers"" and the vanguard of the Cultural Revolution. The term Red Guard was derived from the early days of the Chinese Communist Party’s armed struggle.
Red Terror: The campaign of terror unleashed by the Derg (q.v.) in response to the urban guerrilla warfare--the so-called White Terror--of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party and later of other leftist civilian opponents of the Derg, such as the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement. Beginning in February 1977, untold thousands of mostly young people were jailed, tortured, and killed before the Red Terror had run its course by early 1978.
reducciones: Viceroy Francisco de Toledo’s orders created hundreds of these colonial settlements for only native Americans. Although conveniently located in the flat valley bottoms, these settlements were established in areas subject to floods and avalanches. Their governing personnel consisted only of native Americans.
Reform Jews (sometimes called Progressive or Liberal Jews): emphasize rationalism and ethical behavior, reject the absolute authority of halakah, and assert the private religious nature of Judaism.
Reformation: Sixteenth-century movement against dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, in favor of grace through faith, the authority of the Scriptures, and the direct relationship of believers with God. Met with resounding force by the established church, the Reformation influenced Christian practice to varying degrees in all European countries, resulting in a schism between the Roman Catholic church and Protestant reformers.
reformed sector: Under an unprecedented strong agrarian reform law proposed by administration of Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-70) in late 1965 and adopted in July 1967, reformed sector was to be made up initially of cooperatives for a transitional period of three to five years. Then cooperative members would decide whether to divide the land into individual plots.
rehabilitation: A practice dating from the early years of the Chinese Communist Party. Denotes the reinstatement in positions of responsibility of former government and party officials and military personnel who had been accused of wrongdoing. Rehabilitations sometimes take place posthumously to clear a former leader’s name and reputation.
repartimiento: Derived from Spanish verb repartir (to divide up); a loosely regulated system under which Spanish colonial authorities were empowered to impose and regulate the labor of Indians.
Repelita (Rencana Pembangunan Lima Tahun): A five-year economic development plan: Repelita I (FY 1969- 73), Repelita II (FY 1974-78), Repelita III (FY 1979-83), Repelita IV (FY 1984-88), and Repelita V (FY 1989-93).
republic: A territorial and administrative subdivision of the Russian Federation created to grant a degree of administrative autonomy to some large minority groups. In 1996 the Russian Federation had twenty-one republics (before 1992 called autonomous republics), including the war-torn Republic of Chechnya.
residencia: A formal inquiry conducted at the end of a colonial official’s term of office.
responsibility system: A practice, first adopted in agriculture in 1981 and later extended to other sectors of the economy, by which local managers are held responsible for the profits and losses of the enterprise. This system partially supplanted the egalitarian distribution method, whereby the state assumed all profits and losses.
revisionism: As used by communists, term refers to political, economic, and social tendencies that stray to the right of orthodox Marxism- Leninism. The Chinese communists long insisted that these tendencies were counterrevolutionary and that internal and external enemies (such as the Soviet Union) were infected by this negative phenomenon.
Revolutionary Committees: Unofficial watchdog organizations whose members tended to be zealots devoted to Qadhafi and his teachings. First instituted in November 1977 to supervise the Basic People’s Congresses and to fight bureaucracy, they have steadily grown more powerful. For example, their members play a large role in selecting delegates to the General People’s Congress.
rial: Iranian currency. Average official rate in 1987 was 71.46 rials to US$1. Official exchange rate, as of December 19, 1984, is determined daily based on Special Drawing Right (q.v.) rial rate and applies to all foreign exchange transactions. In practice, the unofficial black market rate is as much as ten times the official exchange rate.
Richter scale: A logarithmic scale, invented in 1935 by United States geophysicist Charles Richter, for representing the energy released by earthquakes. A figure of 2 or less in barely perceptible, whereas an earthquake measuring over 5 may be destructive, and 8 or more is a major earthquake.
riel: The Khmer Republic’s currency unit, divided into 100 sen. Since October 29, 1971, its exchange rate has been adjusted by the National Bank of Cambodia according to market fluctuations; the initial rate, set on October 29, 1971, was 140 riels to US$1. Past exchange rates have been 35 riels to US$1 (January 1955 to August 1969) and 55.4 riels to US$1 (August 1969 to October 1971, following devaluation).
Rio Group: A permanent mechanism for consultation and political coordination that succeeded the Contadora Support Group in December 1986. It consisted of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Its second meeting, attended by the presidents of seven member-countries (Panama’s membership was temporarily suspended in February 1988), was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in October 1988. Like the Contadora Support Group, the Group of Eight advocated democracy and a negotiated solution to the Central American insurgencies. Its name was changed in 1990 to the Group of Rio, which had eleven members in 1993. In addition to Chile, other members include Bolivia, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Its seventh summit was held in Santiago on October 15-16, 1993.
Rio Treaty (Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance): A regional alliance, signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, that established a mutual security system to safeguard the Western Hemisphere from aggression from within or outside the zone. Signatories include the United States and twenty Latin American republics. In 1975 a special conference approved, over United States objections, a Protocol of Amendment to the Rio Treaty that, once ratified, would establish the principle of ""ideological pluralism"" and would simplify the rescinding of sanctions imposed on an aggressor party.; Source: Library of Congress
rist: A principle of land tenure among the Amhara and, with some variations, among the Tigray. Rist rights are land-use rights that any Amhara or Tigray, peasant or noble, can claim by virtue of descent through males and females from the original holder of such rights. Claims must be recognized by the cognatic descent group (q.v.). Once held, such rights cannot be withdrawn except in favor of one who presumably holds a better claim or, in extreme cases, by the emperor.
riyal (SR): Saudi Arabia’s currency unit. Riyal is pegged to the International Monetary Fund (q.v.) special drawing rights (SDR--a unit consisting of a basket of international currencies) as SR4.28 = SDR1. In May 1993 the exchange rate was SR3.75 = US$1, a rate that had not changed since June 1, 1986.
Roman Catholic: In historical use, the Latin Church refers to the western wing of Christianity using Latin as its liturgical language, jurisdictionally related to the bishop of Rome (the pope) rather than one of the other patriarchs, and generally corresponding to the area of the Western Roman Empire rather than the Eastern Roman or Byzantine section. After the great schism of 1054 those churches accepting papal authority became known as Catholic in contrast to the Orthodox; the vast majority of these were Latin rite or Roman Catholic. Since the religious conflict in Lusignan and Venetian Cyprus was as much cultural as one of hierarchical structure, Roman Catholics have continued to be known in Cyprus as Latins; the term also is used to distinguish the descendants of the former Lusignan and Venetian elites from Greek Cypriots.
ronin: Originally, a ""wave person,"" or a masterless samurai who has left the service of his lord, either by choice or forced circumstances, and serves others with his bold and sometimes desperate deeds. In contemporary Japan, a student who has failed the entrance examination to the institution of choice and has chosen to spend an additional year or more in study to take the examination again.
Roosevelt Corollary: Policy enunciated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 specifying that if a country in the Western Hemisphere failed to maintain internal order or to pay its international debts, the United States could intervene with military force to rectify the situation. Policy was bitterly resented by Latin American nations.
rosca: A derogatory term for the national oligarchy whose basis of power was strongly shaken by the 1952 Revolution. Designated in particular the supportive group of lawyers and politicians who acted as administrators for the ruling elite.; Source: Library of Congress
Royal Lao Government (RLG): The ruling authority in Laos from 1947 until the communist seizure of power in December 1975 and the proclamation of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
ruble: The Soviet Union’s currency unit.
ruble zone: Name given the group of newly independent states that continued to use the Soviet, then Russian, ruble as the primary currency for financial transactions after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The ruble zone existed from December 1991 until July 1993, when the Russian Central Bank withdrew all ruble notes issued before January 1993.
rufiyaa (Rf): Maldives currency; 1 rufiyaa = 100 laari; in June 1995 US$1.00 = Rf11.77.
rupee: (Rs) or Nepalese rupee (NRs), the unit of currency, universal since the late 1960s. The Nepalese rupee is linked to the Indian rupee and is fully convertible although restrictions were imposed during the 1989-90 trade and transit dispute. The equivalency rate used in Chapter 1 is Rs2.1=US$1 in 1919. By 1973 the official exchange rate was Rs6.55=US$1; in 1991, Rs30.80=US$1. One Nepalese rupee = 100 paisa.; Source: Library of Congress
rupee (R or Re; pl., Rs): The national currency, consisting of 100 paisa. From 1947 to 1972, Pakistan was a member of the sterling area, but in 1971, when the United States dollar was devalued, the rupee was unpegged from sterling and pegged to the dollar at the rate of Rs4.76 per US$1. On May 12, 1972, the rupee was devalued from Rs4.76 to Rs11 per US$1. In February 1973, when the dollar was again devalued, the rupee maintained its value in terms of gold, and its value in relation to the dollar rose to Rs9.90 per US$1, where it remained until January 1982. After January 1982, the rupee was pegged to a market basket of currencies important to Pakistan’s trade. The rupee subsequently depreciated steadily against the dollar, reaching Rs30.30 to US$1 at the end of February 1994. Notes are printed in denominations of Rs 1000, 500, 100, 50, 10, 5, 2, and 1. Coins are minted in denominations of Rs1, as well as 50, 10, 5, 2, and 1 paisa.
rupiah (Rp): Basic unit of currency. The exchange rate was fixed at Rp415 to US$1 from 1971 to 1978, when the rupiah was devalued to Rp625. Thereafter, the rate has floated slightly, although two major devaluations occurred in 1983 and 1986, bringing the exchange rate to Rp1,641 at the end of 1986. A policy of more gradual depreciation at about 5 percent per year has been followed through 1992. In November 1992, the exchange rate was valued at Rp1,881 per US$1, or Rp1 = US$.00018. The rupiah is made up of 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 coins and 100, 500, 1,000, 5, 000, and 10,000 notes. UPDATE.
Russian Empire: Successor state to Muscovy. Formally proclaimed by Tsar Peter the Great in 1721 and significantly expanded during the reign of Catherine II, becoming a major multinational state. The empire’s political structure collapsed with the revolution of February 1917, but most of its territory was included in the Soviet Union, which was established in 1922.
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic: (Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika--RSFSR). Official name of the largest of the fifteen union republics of the Soviet Union. Inhabited predominantly by Russians, the RSFSR comprised approximately 75 percent of the area of the Soviet Union, about 62 percent of its population, and more than 60 percent of its economic output.
Russianization: The policy of several Soviet regimes promoting Russian as the national language of the Soviet Union. Russian was given equal and official status with local languages in most non-Russian republics; it was made the official language of the Soviet Union in state and diplomatic affairs, in the armed forces, and on postage stamps, currency, and military and civilian decorations.; Source: Library of Congress
Russify, Russification: A process of changing the national identity of non-Russians to one culturally similar to that of the Russians. An official policy of the Russian Empire (q.v.) although not of any Soviet regime. However, such assimilation often resulted from the policy of Russianization (q.v.), particularly in the case of ethnic Ukrainians, Belarusians, and non-Russian educated elites.; Source: Library of Congress