Soviet Union, Italy, and Germany
Totalitarian Dictatorships
Soviet Union a Communist State – After a period
of time the Bolsheviks, who won the civil war in
Russia, will take the name Communists and change
the name of Russia to the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR). Lenin, the leader of the
Bolsheviks remained the dictator of the Soviet
Union. When he died in 1924, Joseph Stalin
emerged as the leader. Stalin set out to implement
his own policies and eliminated anyone who got in
his way by using the Secret Police. He was
determined to make the Soviet Union a major
modern world power. By 1928, he launched the
first of several Five Year Plans which called for a
command economy, one in which the government
managed the whole economy and organized it to
achieve the goals of the state. By increasing
industry through the output of coal, steel, and
electricity, and by limiting the production of
consumer products, the Soviet Union became an
industrial power by 1938, a year before the
outbreak of WWII.
Stalin also started a successful and brutal
agricultural revolution. He abolished small farms
and replaced them with collective farms, owned by
the government. The unhappy peasants who
resisted were brutally dealt with, leaving 5 to 10
million dead, while millions were sent to Siberia. To
end resistance, the government twice seized
harvests and left the peasants to die in terrible
famines. By 1938, 90% of the peasants now lived on
collective farms. The price of Stalin’s economic
progress was enormous in human terms.
In foreign affairs, the Soviet Union joined the
League of Nations in 1934 and began a policy of
collaboration with the Western Democracies as
Nazi Germany became a threat to the peace of the
world. For almost 25 years, Joseph Stalin kept a
firm grip on the destiny of the USSR. Under
Stalin, the Soviet Union became a totalitarian
state – a state where an absolute dictator and oneparty government controls almost all aspects of
life. People who protested were imprisoned or
executed. Religion was suppressed in the Soviet
Union and thousands of former Bolsheviks who
Stalin saw as enemies were arrested and executed.
Fascism Glorified the State – Some countries
accepted a new political movement called fascism.
Fascism differed from communism in that it had no
clearly defined theory or program. Fascists acted
first and devised theories later. Nevertheless,
fascists shared several ideas. They believed in an
extreme form of nationalism that included war as
an instrument of policy. Fascists also looked to an
authoritarian leader to guide and rally the people
while glorifying the state. Loyalty to the leader
was also loyalty to the state. Fascists wore
uniforms or shirts of certain colors, used special
salutes, war caries, and held mass rallies. In some
ways fascism was similar to its archenemy,
communism. Both systems advocated dictatorial
one party rule. Both denied individual rights and
insisted on the supremacy of the state. Both
scored democracy.
However, there were also differences between
fascism and communism. Fascists, unlike
communists, did not seek a classless society.
Rather, they believed that each class had its
distinct place and function. Communism claimed to
be a dictatorship of the workers. Fascist parties
allied themselves, in most cases, with aristocrats
and industrialists. Many communists were
internationalists hoping to unite workers of all
countries. Fascism was openly nationalistic.
Fascism began in Italy during the early 1920s –
After WWI Italy also suffered a severe economic
crisis as unemployment and pries rose causing
widespread social unrest. Fearing a communist
workers revolution, many Italians saw their
democratic government as helpless and demanded
action that only a strong leader could provide.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1944), a newspaper editor,
boldly promised to rescue Italy. Through
propaganda, Mussolini and his followers pledged to
revive the economy and rebuild Italy’s armed
forces. They were the first to use the word
Fascism to describe their party. The Blackshirts,
Mussolini’s thugs, roamed the streets beating up
communists and socialists. Their campaign of
terror weakened Mussolini’s opponents and killed
thousands. By 1922, the fascists surrounded Rome;
King Victor Emmanuel III gave in and named
Mussolini prime minister. He soon gained
emergency powers to restore order and make new
laws. The new government proved to be
authoritarian, requiring absolute loyalty and
obedience to the state. Since the state’s interest
was more important than individual rights,
Mussolini quickly abolished democracy and outlawed
all political parties except the Fascists. Secret
police filled the jails with Mussolini’s opponents and
government officials strictly censored all radio
stations and publications forcing them to accept
Fascist ideology. Believing that all capitalists and
workers must be forced to cooperate for the good
of the state, he set up 22 state corporations to
run all parts of Italy’s economy. These
corporations dealt with wages, prices, and working
conditions. Strikes were against the law.
Mussolini was now known as il Duce, the leader
of Italy. He was a dazzling orator, as he addressed
the Italian people from the balcony of his office in
Rome. Mussolini would stand with his massive jaw
thrust forward and his hands on his hips. His
emotional delivery thrilled the crowd as he
promised a great future for Italy. Government
propaganda encouraged Italians to accept
Mussolini’s leadership without question. Teachers
were ordered to stress Mussolini’s achievements
by comparing him to Napoleon and slogans such as
“Mussolini Is Always Right” covered billboards
across the country. Mussolini and Italy became
the model for the rise of fascism in other
countries such as Spain and Germany.
Fascism Develops in Germany – No country was hit
harder by the Depression than Germany. Runaway
inflation returned and factories ground to a halt.
By 1932, nearly one out of every two Germans was
out of work. With millions unemployed, Germany
proved to be a fertile breeding ground for the
ideas of Adolf Hitler. Born in Austria in 1889,
Hitler as a young boy showed little ambition. After
dropping out of high school, he moved to Vienna to
study art or architecture. Later Hitler will claim
that his hatred of Jews and Slaves started during
the time he lived in Vienna. His dream of becoming
a great artist was shattered when he was refused
admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
During the next few years he lived at hostels, ate
in charity kitchens and made few friends. Disliking
regular work, he earned money painting postcard
views of Vienna. When WWI broke out, Hitler
suddenly found meaning for his life by volunteering
for the German army. He would fight to defend
Germany and crush its opponents. He fought well
enough to be awarded the Iron Cross twice. After
the war Hitler settled in Munich and soon found a
new cause, overturning the humiliating Treaty of
Versailles and combating communism. Early in 1920
he joined a tiny right-wing political group that
shared his goals. The group later renamed itself
the National Socialist German Workers’ Party,
called Nazi for short. Their policies, supported by
people in the upper and middle classes, formed the
German brand of fascism known as Nazism. The
party adopted the swastika, or bent cross, as its
symbol. They also set up a private army called the
Storm Troopers, or Brownshirts. Hitler, like
Mussolini, was also a spellbinding speaker who could
whip the audience into a frenzy. He organized and
built up the Nazi party, gaining the title der
führer, or leader.
In 1923, Hitler was jailed when he led the Nazis
in an unsuccessful coup d’état (seizure of power) in
Munich. Although the coup had failed, Hitler used
his trial to gain widespread attention. During his
nine months in jail, he wrote Mein Kampf (My
Struggle), a work setting forth his ideas and goals.
He began by asserting that the Germans were a
master race and that other “races” such as Jews,
Slavs, and Gypsies were inferior and should be
destroyed. Hitler claimed that since the Germans
were a master race, the Treaty of Versailles was
an intolerable outrage against Germany, especially
the war guilt clause making Germany responsible
for starting WWI and the military restrictions. He
also vowed to regain the lands taken from Germany
after WWI and declared that Germany was
overcrowded and needed more Lebensraum, or
living space, promising to obtain new space by
conquering eastern Europe and Russia.
At first most Germans ignored Hitler and his
message of hate, but as the Depression set in and
unemployment rose, many began to listen to
Hitler’s angry speeches and simple solutions. By
1932, the Nazis became Germany’s largest party.
On January 30, 1933, Germany’s president, Paul von
Hindenburg, named Hitler the nation’s new
Chancellor. That evening, thousands of Nazi
supporters marched through Berlin. Many thought
that Hitler would become a responsible leader.
Conservative leaders thought they could control
Hitler and use him for their purposes but Hitler
knew what he wanted – absolute power. Hitler’s
minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, later
wrote that democratic authorities “could have
suppressed us. But it was no done….we were allowed
to cross the danger zone.”
Shortly after becoming Chancellor, Hitler called
for new parliamentary elections hoping that the
election would give the Nazis a parliamentary
majority. Six days before the election a
spectacular fire destroyed the Reichstag, the
German parliamentary building. The Nazis blamed
the Communists, although strong evidence
suggested that the Nazis started the fire
themselves. By stirring up the fear of communism,
the Nazis and their allies won a slim majority of
seats in the election. Now that Hitler controlled a
majority in the Reichstag, he demanded the
passage of an Enabling Act which gave him
absolute power for four years. This act was passed
after the Nazis successfully expelled the
Communists from the Reichstag. The Weimar
Republic, as the government had been known,
ceased to exist.
Hitler used his absolute power ruthlessly to
turn Germany into a totalitarian state. New laws
banned all political parties except the Nazis. A
special secret police called the Gestapo used
sweeping powers to arrest anyone who opposed
Nazi rule. Meanwhile an elite black-coated unit
known as the SS (Shutzstaffel) arrested, then
murdered, several hundred of Hitler’s opponents.
This violent action shocked German people into
total obedience.
Like the fascists in Italy, the Nazis quickly
gained control over the economy. The government
supervised both labor and business. New laws
banned strikes and dissolved independent labor
unions. Workers had to join a National Labor Front,
which included employers. The Führer ended
unemployment by putting millions of people to work
constructing factories, highways, and by
manufacturing weapons which was in violation of
the Treaty of Versailles. As a result, unemployment
dropped from 6 million in 1932 to 1.5 million in
1936. Another contributing factor to reducing
unemployment was the elimination of German
undesirables from the work force. Hitler also
wanted to mold German society in accordance with
Nazi ideology. To achieve this goal, Hitler created
a ministry of culture to supervise the press,
broadcasting, literature, drama, music, painting,
and film. The Nazis skillfully used their control
over the news to shape public opinion (propaganda).
People who did not listen to Hitler’s speeches and
announcements were reported. Books that did not
conform to Nazi ideology were destroyed in huge
public bonfires.
All art and music reflected Hitler’s tastes,
especially the operas of Richard Wagner, which
were based on German myths. He also forbade
Christian clergy from criticizing the Nazi party of
the government. Parents were discouraged from
sending children to religious schools. The Nazis
used public schools to spread their own ideas.
School children were required to join Hitler’s youth
movement. Boys learned to be ready to fight and
die for the Führer. Girls were prepared for
motherhood so that Germany would have plenty of
young soldiers.
The Nazis Began to Persecute the Jews – Hitler
cleverly realized that people would believe a big lie
if it was repeated often enough. Nazi propaganda
loudly proclaimed that Germans were a superior
race destined to rule the world. At the same time,
they preached that Jews, Poles, Americans, and
other groups were inferior races. Although Jews
comprised less than 1 percent of Germany’s total
population, they included many distinguished people
who had contributed to Germany’s international
renown. Among them were such leading scientists
as Albert Einstein. Yet Hitler and the Nazis
blamed the Jews for most of Germany’s problems
since WWI. Hitler used the Jews as convenient
scapegoats for Germany’s problems.
The result was that an ugly wave of antiSemitism, or hostility toward Jews, soon swept
across Germany. In 1933, the Nazis passed laws
forbidding Jews to hold public office. Two years
later, they passed Nuremberg Laws, which
deprived Jews of German citizenship. Jews were
not allowed to fly the German flag, to write or
publish, to act on stage or in films, to teach, to
work in hospitals or in banks, or to sell books. All
Jews were required to wear a yellow Star of David
as identification. Nazi violence against Jews
steadily mounted. On November 7, 1938, a
seventeen-year-old Jewish youth tried to revenge
his family by assassinating a member of the
German embassy in Paris. Nazi leaders used this
tragedy as an excuse to launch a violent attack on
the Jewish community.
On November 9th and 10th, 1938, Nazi mobs
carried out a “spontaneous” demonstration of anger
against Jews. In 15 terrifying hours, the Nazis
destroyed 7,500 Jewish owned shops and
businesses, burned 275 synagogues, and beat Jews
on the streets and in their homes. The smashing of
storefronts left streets littered with broken glass.
Kristallnacht, or the “night of broken glass”, left
more than 1,000 murdered, 26,000 thrown into
concentration camps, and the suicide of several
hundred Jews. In addition, a fine of one billion
marks – about 20 percent of what the Jews owned
– was levied on the entire German Jewish
population.
Kristallnacht represented more than broken
windows and shattered glass. It signaled a
significant escalation in the Nazi search for a final
solution to the Jewish question. While the rest of
the world ignored this catastrophe, many Jews
attempted to leave Germany but immigration was
difficult due to the worldwide Great Depression
and the advent of war.