How do Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini (early
fascists and communists) rise to power
after WWI?
STALIN
1879-1953
In office: 1922-1953
JOSEPH STALIN
 Born: Ioseb Besarionis
dze Jughashvili
 Changed name to Stalin
= Man of Steel
 Why did he change his
name?
 1928 in total control of
Communist Party
 Who was Leon
Trotsky?
 Stalin’s competitor
 He was forced into
exile (in Mexico)
 In 1940 Stalin’s
agents killed him
in Mexico with an
ice pick.
Totalitarianism
 A government that
takes total control over
EVERY aspect of public
& private life.
 Command Economy—
the government make
all economic decisions.
Problems
for the
USSR
 Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR)
1921 decreasing industry
Low agricultural output
Ukrainian Famine
• created by the government to crush Ukrainian nationalist
• killed 5 million people!
Russia was 50-100 years behind
industrialized countries (like Britain and
Germany) and if the Soviet Union did not
catch up they would be conquered!
What is the solution to all of these
problems?
Five
Year
Plans
(1928-32,
1933-37)
 5 year plans
 High quotas to increase steel, coal, oil &
electricity


It worked, industrial output skyrocketed
But government limited production of consumer goods to meet quotas
•
= Shortages in housing, food, clothing
Another solution…Collective Farming
USSR seized 25
million farms
Combined them into
collective farms
 100s of families were living in
one large farm
No privacy, easier for
government to control
5-10 million died
•Kulaks (wealthy peasants)
resisted
They were executed
Weapons of Totalitarianism
1. Police Terror
Secret police arrested & executed
MILLIONS of so-called traitors
Gulags-Hard labor camps in Siberia
2. Great Purges
Eliminate anyone who threatened Stalin’s
power
Showed “Court Trials” to trick the public into
thinking things were fair and necessary
Killed 8-13 millions people by 1939
• It is estimated that about 25 million were killed during Stalin’s
rule!
More Weapons
of Totalitarianism
3. Censorship & Propaganda
 Communist Newspaper
 Socialist Realism (art)
 Artistic style that praised Soviet life
& Communist Values
4. Religious Persecution
Religion was labeled the “opium of the masses” and
banned
 Stalin had statues erected of himself, he became like a
god to the people
Churches=Museums of Atheism
 Discuss with your neighbor: Why were the Soviets unsuccessful in
destroying religion all together?
Il Duce
Mussolini’s Rise to Power
What was Italy like during the 1920s & 1930s?
 Democracies had been weakened by WWI and Great
Depression
 Many workers are crippled by WWI or unemployed
 Italy feels cheated by Versailles Treaty
 Many businessmen are worried about the communists
seizing power
 Led by a King-Victor Emmanuel III
Who was Benito Mussolini?
 Son of a Communist
blacksmith and a school
teacher
 Named after Mexican
Revolutionary
Continued…
Communist Newspaper editor
WWI veteran (wounded himself
with a hand grenade)
(against war 1911, then pro-Allies in
WWI)
How does he become Il Duce
(“the Leader”)?
 Politician who
founded the Fascist
Party in 1919
 What is Fascism?
What is Fascism?
Fascism:
Political Party that advocates:
• totalitarianism
• Extreme Nationalism
• The State is more important than the
individual like Communism
-but doesn’t call for state ownership
of property
Fascism emphasizes:
 Action: Human beings find meaning and purpose by acting, not by reasoning
or thinking.
 Community spirit: People need to be part of a community. Individualism is
dangerous because it turns people away from their community.
 Nationalism
 Militarism
 The future: Fascists love the speed and power of technology. They look
optimistically to the future.
 One party: The nation must be unified and speak with one voice. Therefore,
only one political party is allowed, and that party rules with absolute power.
 Violence: The government rules its people through violence or the threat of
violence.
Italian Nationalist Slogans:
“Believe, Obey, Fight”
“The Country Is Nothing Without
Conquest”
What changes did Mussolini promise?:
He promised :
1. To revive the economy and
rebuild the Armed Forces
 Wanted to rebuild Italy into the
Roman Empire
2. Anti-communist
3. Anti-democracy
 Industrialist picked him as the lesser of
two evils
 Monarch or Fascist?
 Created the “Black Shirts” (Fascist Thugs)
 Mussolini’s private army (thousands)
•
beat & sometimes killed communists and political rivals.
How does he seize power?
192230,000 to 40,000 Fascists march
from Milan to Rome and
demanded that Mussolini be
named Prime Minister of Italy.
The King of Italy was worried
that the Fascist would start a
civil war so he agreed
Mussolini therefore took power
“legally.”
What did Mussolini do while in power?
 Outlawed strikes
 Censored the press
 Allied with industrialists and large land owners
 Built a strong military
 Started public works project to help during the Depression
 Secret police jailed opposition leaders
(Summarize 2 or 3 of these facts in your notes)
Adolf Hitler
The road from Vienna to
the Führer of Germany
Adolf Hitler, the youth
Son of an abusive Austrian official.
Dropped out of high school and
moved to Vienna.
Wanted to be an artist.
Was denied entry into the Imperial Art
Academy(twice).
Lived off of his dead fathers
inheritance.
Listened to many Anti-Semitic
(anti-Jewish) speakers
Adolf Hitler, the soldier
WWI, moved to Munich,
Germany and joined the
Army.
Was a runner and achieved
the rank of corporal.
received two Iron Crosses for
bravery.
Feels cheated at
Germany’s loss and
blames the Weimar
Republic
Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party
 Hired as an internal spy by the
Army
 Hitler spies on then joins the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party
(Nazi)
 Nazi’s mimic much of the ideas of
Fascist Italy
 High unemployment rate and sky
rocketing inflation made Hitler’s
Hitler took
the party
ideas very appealing to the middle
from a few
and lower middle classes.
dozen
members  Established the SA or Brown
Shirts, Nazi thugs used to beat up
to 55,000
(15,000 SA) foes
in 1923.
Beer Hall Putsch, 1923
Inspired by Mussolini’s march on Rome
Hitler orders the Nazi to seize control of
Munich, the plan fails
Hitler catches national attention at his trial.
Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in low security
prison
He only serves 9 months
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
 This book set forth Hitler’s beliefs and
goals
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
Hitler’s goals/ideals:
 Racial Purity
 Aryans = “master race” those of Germanic decent, blond
hair and blue eyes
 non-Aryans = “inferior or subhuman races” = Jews, Slavs
and Gypsies
 Denouncement of the Versailles Treaty
 Lebensraum:
 living space, Hitler called for an invasion of Russia to allow
the German race to grow
 The twin evils:
 Communism and Judaism, and he stated that his aim was
to eradicate both from the face of the earth
New Plan
 Released from jail in 1924 but ignored because the
economy was getting better
 New Plan: Legal Revolution, work with the Right
against the Left
Nazi’s became a national party in 1929 and had 800,000
members by 1932
 1932,
•
•
•
•
Great Depression at it worse,
Germany 30% unemployment (6 million)
Hitler’s Nazi Party won greatest # of seats in the government
Hitler is named Chancellor (Prime Minister)
Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor
 1933 Hoping to increase his number
of seats in the Parliament, Hitler calls
a new election.
 Six days before the elections the
Reichstag (House of Parliament) is
set on fire,
the Nazis blame the communists
(many historians think that the Nazis
set the fire) and the Nazis win a slim
majority.
 Enabling Act 1934
With a majority Hitler asks to be given
total control of the country for 4 years
only one deputy spoke out against it.