THE DEPRESSION & TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS STUDY GUIDE
Vocabulary Terms (please define ALL vocabulary terms below on a separate sheet of paper):
Depression- a period of rising unemployment and low economic activity
Inflation- a rapid increase in the price of goods
Dictator- a single person that has complete control of the government
Fascism- a totalitarian government that is not communist
Totalitarian- a system of government in which a leader has complete control over his
country
Five-Year Plans- policy introduced by Stalin to increase industrial and agricultural
production
Collectives- to make huge farms by combining the small farms
Quotas- a set amount, for Soviet Union production
Purges- an attempt to get rid of political opponents
Genocide- the murder of all members of an ethnic group
Anti-Semite- discrimination against Jews
Concentration camp- a type of prison camp
Nazi Party- a political party that was once known as the National Socialist German
Workers party
Gestapo- Hitler’s (Germany’s) secret police
Blackshirts- a member of Mussolini’s Fascist Party
1. Identify the following 3 people, the type of government that had, AND their self-appointed
nickname, if applicable:
Joseph Stalin: Soviet Union dictator, communist,
Benito Mussolini: Italian dictator, fascist, Il Duce
Adolf Hitler: German dictator, fascist (leader of the Nazi party), Der Fuhrer
2. What was Stalin’s main objective for the Soviet Union? He wanted the Soviet Union to
become a major industrial nation.
3. How did dictators such as Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler use the Great Depression to gain power
within their country? Both Hitler and Mussolini blamed the Treaty of Versailles for their
country’s economic problems and gained support from their people by vowing and
creating policies that brought them out of a depression.
4. What did Hitler promise Germans? What main goal do Hitler have for Germany, according to his
book Mein Kampf? A) He promised to stop making reparations for WWI; he also promised
security from a Communist takeover and an end to the depression. B) have land returned
to Germany, that was lost per the Treaty of Versailles
5. Why were Italian nationalists angry following WWI? They did not get the land that was used
to develop Yugoslavia.
6. What caused the depression to be so devastating throughout the world? Who was affected by the
Depression? A)The economies of the major world powers were all linked together, their
economies affected one another: if one succeeded, they both did… if one failed, they
both did. B) the entire world
7. List 6 common traits of totalitarian governments:
1) Extreme nationalism
2) Propaganda
3) Secret police
4) Censorship
5) Dictatorship
6) Lack of individual freedoms
8. Explain Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union. After Vladimir Lenin’s death, Stalin took
over the Bolsheviks, who then became known as the Communist party.
9. How did Stalin deal with his political opponents? Purges-he sent many of them to
concentration camps in Siberia.
10. The US recovered quickly from the Depression compared to other nations. Why is this? FDR
developed programs like the New Deal, that focused on relief and reform.
11. Germany, Japan, and Italy all invaded other nations, yet the League of Nations did nothing to
stop them. What do you think this will ultimately lead to? WWII will begin as nations like
Britain will declare war on Germany to stop their actions.