SLTR 3300

main tenets of Nazi ideologies

-Nationalism: superiority of Aryan race and need for strong German state.

-Racism: Promotes anti-Semitism and the idea of a "Master Race," leading to the Holocaust.

-Totalitarian Control: Undermines individual rights and freedoms in favor of state authority.

-aims to eliminate undesirables

- centrally planned economy

Authority of Science:

- Germans: science of biology to justify their "social engineering"

- Russians: science of economics to justify their "social engineering"

main tenets of Communist ideologies

Abolition of private property, centralization of power, Elimination of classes, public ownership of the means of production, socialist revolution: a revolution must take place to overthrow the existing government and establish a communist society.

Why didn't communism work well in Russia? (HP, wasn't put on review sheet)

towards the end of the 20TH century soviet communism was more totalitarianism.

1. Because the ideas themselves were already failing, there was no other way of going about fulfilling these ideas without violence, didn't work in other areas either (China, Korea, Cuba, Ethiopia)

2. The ideas were good, but it was the implementation itself. It was not good, attempted in Russia, which had a deeply rooted authoritarian history, autocracy, a certain order from top down and they had no other experience in which order was introduced; that wasn't what they were used to.

Western church vs. Eastern Church (HP, wasn't put on review sheet)

-Western: tension between to main candidates for power, church and state, whose power is more important and better rooted than the others, the pope and the emperor

- Eastern(Byzantine): continuation of romain empire, does not include all of it but about half

They don't have this problem figuring out who is more important

The Emperor is the most important

Absolute terms

-> RUS before invasion of mongol

13th Century

Invasion of mongol empire, the territories of Rus become territory controlled by mongol empire

- Mongol very different than christian

In czengas kongs empire he was the ruler, the ruler of everything and of everyone

The destiny to take over the whole world

Power is inborn quality

16th Century

IVAN (the terrible) crowns himself new emperor of Orthodox Christianity, He establishes the first political police(unconditional loyal to the ruler) for people other than russia, better to fight foreigners, People who owe everything to the person of the ruler; They better be loyal

19th Century

the upper echelons(higher class, people who know foreign languages, educated) of the russia society start reading about enlightenment and of revolution

They are getting more and more unhappy with the way things are

Talking about the people and poor, but that is not them

Ideas are important among foreign languages

1860s

First development of applying the ideas of how to implement Western notions in Russia. Early actors went to the masses in the countryside and tried to enlighten them. They faced great disappointment; peasants were not responsive. Response was to "inspire" them to be less cautious. Early revolutionaries started to commit acts of terror. Beginning of the Russian Revolution

1880s

Revolutionaries assassinate the Czar himself (Alexander)

Mensheviks vs. Bolsheviks (not put on RS)

Split over how to react to problem of revolution with reluctant masses.- Mensheviks: pro waiting for the masses, less radical- Bolsheviks: more radical, no point to wait for the masses, we should take matters into our own hands and carry out a social revolution

1903

Lenin becomes leader of Bolsheviks

1905

Lost the Russo- Japanese war (1904-05) Revolution leads to the autocratic regime realizing its need to reform and include population in governmental affairs, convinced Tsar Nicholas 2 to attempt the transformation from an autocracy into a constitutional monarchy

1906

Government create a "sort of" parliament (with no real power), but provides some sort of representation of the people. The Bolsheviks are disappointed with the results. DUMA

1914

World War One begins. Begins with high expectations, but these are quickly doused as the Russians start losing to Germany and Austria.- Massive desertion in the Russian army, because peasants do not identify with regime and do not feel like fighting- These deserting peasants are now armed and roaming the country. There is anarchy is Russian society

1917

Bolshevik Revolution: led by vladimir Lenin, revolutionaries overthrow Russian government- Loyal Bolshevik soldiers take over a government building in St. Petersburg and announce that there is now a new government in power. At first no one takes this claim seriously, but somehow the Bolsheviks manage to cling to their power- Cheka (Soviet secret police) are formed

Evolution of the Secret Police in USSR

1917: Checka evolved into the GPU until 1935, 1936: secret police became the NKVD

1918

Bolsheviks assassinate Czar Nicholas II and his family

1918-1921

Red terror

Civil War between the Red Army (Bolsheviks) and the White Russians (anti Communists)- Value of human life drops significantly, people are dying not enough food, people aren't working

1921

Lenin inaugurates "New Economic Policy" which allows limited free-market measures. Peasants are allowed to sell extra crops in the market.Marks the defeat of the Red Army by Germany. Russia faced with the reality they must limit their communist revolution to only Russia.

1923

reformed concentration camps from small ones to transfer them to fewer, larger ones. Began using concentration camp members as slaves

Solovki Dates

-June 6, 1923, Solovki opened- Late 1920s: Russia begins implanted "slave labor"/forced labor camp ideas all of the SU. Slave labor becomes important element of SU's "modernization"- Early 1930s: more important camps that Solovki are built. These are known as GULAGS. Reduced importance of Solovki- 1939: Solovki closes

1924

Lenin dies

1924-1929

Stalin takes over, consolidates his power. Inaugurates first "Five Year Plan", collectivizes agriculture, industrializes in 1929

1925

Bolsheviks only recognized "political prisoners" as sympathizers of the Bolshevik party - any other party members were not considered to be political prisoners. In 1925, a political prisoner smuggled a letter out of Solovki to be published in the West. The Bolsheviks were nervous how other countries world wide would perceive them. Their response was to move the political prisoners to different camps and announce there were no more political prisoners in the Soviet Union anymore.

1929

Stalin officially becomes dictator of the USSR by deporting his main competitor, Trotsky, to Turkey. He claimed that Trotsky was a part of an assassination plan

1931

- HUGE famine breaks out in Kazakistan and the Ukraine. Millions of people are dying and cannibalism starts to break out.- Great Depression starts: people are beginning to doubt capitalism. Where do they turn? To the Soviet Union. Already the SU had propaganda promoting new paradise of communism

- Kulaks liquidated 1929-1932

1933

Hitler is elected to power

1934

-Sergi Kirov is assassinated. This begins a chain of events that ultimately leads to the Great Terror

- Zinovev replaced Kirov as head of the party after his assassination in 1934. Kamenev replaced Zinovev

- Holocaust starts

1935 (Germany)

Nuremberg Laws- Discriminatory but not life threatening, antisemitic and racist laws

1936

Transitional period in which Stalin moves from just arresting class enemies to also arresting top tier government and military officials

1937-1938

height of great purge, people are dying and being sent to concentration camps that do not agree with communist ideologies and stalin

1939

August 23= Germany and Russia sign the Ribbentrop Molotov Pack- Includes details of how they will conduct the war, Germany invades Poland first, and then Russia and partition it, divide Europe into different zones of interest

WWII breaks out - German policy begins to change because they are finding LOTS of Jews in the countries that they take over and these Jews are not as nicely assimilated as German Jews

September 17th-ish, 1939

- Germany invades Poland and so does USSR- Split Poland in half- Triggers the beginning of WWII

Late September 1939

Soviet Union acquires a large number of Polish Prisoners of War. Among these POWs was a large number of officers (military professionals or university educated)

March 1940

Stalin and co. meet and Beria presents with them with a solution: kill all of the Polish POWs. Three major killing placed were: Kharkiv, Tver', and Katyn- Killed about 22,000

June 1941

Hitler invades the Soviet Union- New twist: the farther Germany went into Poland, the more Jews they encountered.- As the war progressed they needed more and more resources to fight the war and had fewer resources to devote to organizing the ghettos- At some point, it just became simpler to kill everyone as you went

Winter 1941

December= US, Soviet Union, and Great Britain ally- There is a slight problem: there WAS a country called Poland. The Polish government is operating in GB. Soviets must give up Poland and ~release all of its Polish prisoners~

Germany begins liquidizing ghettos

1942

Majority of Polish army is in Uzbekistan. They have no food and are dying quickly. They escape to the middle east and ultimately join the Italian campaign.

spring= New policy established: shooting everyone is inefficient, it would be better to create "death camps" and transfer all subject there

April 13, 1943

Announcement is released by the Germans: in Katyn they have found mass graves of Polish officers. The Soviet's respond that this a German slander and that it was actually the Germans that are responsible for the officers' deaths.US and GB believe the SU

1943

Warsaw ghetto uprising: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a 1943 rebellion by Jewish resistance fighters, primarily from the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) and the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW), against Nazi German forces in the Warsaw Ghetto. The uprising began on April 19, 1943, in what is now Poland and ended on May 16, 1943, with the suppression of the Jewish fighters, although resistance continued in smaller pockets. The uprising resulted in the death or capture of 56,065 Jewish people, with many deported to extermination camps. Key figures included Jewish resistance leaders like Mordechai Anielewicz and German commanders such as Jürgen Stroop.

Tehran (1943)

January of 1944

SU is now chasing the Germans back and retake the area where the Katyn graves are located. They stage their own "investigation". This is very similar to "To Tell or Not to Tell" - the staging is not very convincing. Journalists publicly support it, but internally have many doubts

August 1- October 2 1944

a major, 63-day armed revolt by the Polish Home Army (AK) against Nazi German occupation, aiming to liberate Warsaw and establish non-communist rule before Soviet forces arrived, but it ended in a devastating defeat with massive civilian casualties and near-total destruction of the city by German forces, marking a tragic chapter in WWII.

What Happened:

When: August 1 to October 2, 1944.

Who: The Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa - AK) and civilians against Nazi Germany.

Why: Poles sought to free their capital from Nazi rule, establish a sovereign Polish government, and prevent Soviet domination, hoping to control the city before the Red Army took over.

Key Aspects:

Urban Warfare: It was the largest urban guerrilla operation of WWII, involving intense street fighting.

Unequal Forces: The poorly armed AK fighters faced heavily armed German troops with tanks and artillery.

Civilian Suffering: Civilians were heavily involved in supporting the fight, enduring massacres, starvation, and destruction.

German Brutality: The Nazis retaliated with extreme violence, massacring tens of thousands of civilians and systematically destroying Warsaw.

Soviet Non-Intervention: The Red Army halted its advance at the Vistula River, offering little aid, which sealed the uprising's fate and strained Allied relations.

Outcome:

Devastation: The Germans destroyed 85% of Warsaw, turning it into rubble.

High Casualties:

Tragic Defeat: The uprising failed, leading to harsh German reprisals and delaying Soviet "liberation" until January 1945.

1943- 1944

Last stage of Holocaust. Germany pushes for liquidation of Jews in countries they do not control

1945

WWII ends

- Holocaust ENDS

Yalta (1945), Potsdam (1945)

1946

Nuremberg Trials Begin

1956

Kruschev emerges as Stalin's successorConsequence: those upper communists who were arrested were "rehabilitated", all of their charges were declared to be false and they are brought back into good standing with the government

1950-1990

cold war

1948-1949

The Berlin Blockade

1950 - 1953

Korean war

1953

Stalin dies

-Vacuum of power is created- Met with a great deal of relief because everyone was afraid of Stalin (cuz he was nuts). Now people are competing for power and want to reassure people of power that they will NOT be like Stalin- Guarantee personal safety

THE THAW

1955-1975

Vietnam War

1956

The Polish and Hungarian Revolts

1961

The berlin crisis

1964- 1982

Lenoid Brezhnev was the top soviet leader

1968

The soviet intervention in checholsolvakia

1970, 1976

Workers revolution in poland and the emergence of political opposition

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

1980

Polish workers' revolt and the founding of the Solidarity movement

1981-1983

Martial Law in Poland

1985-1990

Gorbachev first used the term during a speech on December 10, 1984, and began implementing his reforms 3 months later when coming to power. Perestroika lasted from 1985 until 1991, and is often argued to be a significant cause of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

- MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

1989

The transition of power in Soviet-satellite countries of East-and-Central Europe

1991

The failed coup in Moscow and the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Vladimir Lenin

Russian founder of the Bolsheviks and leader of the Russian Revolution and first head of the USSR (1870-1924).

Iosif Stalin

(1879-1953) Russian leader who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist Party and created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition

Red Terror (1918)

The period of political repression and mass killings that were carrying out by Bolsheviks. During the this time period, a group of secret police killed thousands labeled as "enemies of the Revolution"

Gulag

in the Soviet Union, a system of forced labor camps in which millions of criminals and political prisoners were held under Stalin

Kolyma

Name of the largest Gulag

collectivization

a system in which private farms are eliminated and peasants work land owned by the government

Great Famine

The Great Famine in Russia, occurring from 1921 to 1922, was a devastating humanitarian crisis that resulted in the deaths of an estimated five million people, primarily due to starvation and disease.

-The aftermath of World War I and the Russian Civil War (1918-1920) led to widespread destruction of infrastructure and displacement of populations, exacerbating food shortages.

- Government Policies: The Bolshevik government's requisitioning of grain from peasants, known as "prodrazvyorstka," severely limited the food available for local consumption. This policy, combined with the forced collectivization of agriculture, led to a drastic reduction in crop production as peasants were disincentivized to grow food

Stalin's Great Terror

1936-1938 Peak

Stalin killed/punished those who went against his ideas/beliefs

The final stage of the Great Terror is to find someone to blame (blame is on political police although they were being controlled by Stalin)

Cheka

Secret police set up by Lenin-arrested "enemies of the revolution". 1917, played a significant role in the Red Terror, conducting mass arrests without trial. Felix Dzerzinsky was the leader. Ended in 1922

NKVD

Stalin's secret police who were authorized to arrest, execute, or relegate political opponents to gulag camps

Nikolay Yezhov

Leader of NKVD following after Yagoda.

Responsible for peak mass execution sweep of Great Terror in 1937

Replaced by Beria

Lavrenty Beria

Head of the NKVD,1938-1953, wanted power after stalins death

Ribbentrop - Molotov Pact

Nonagression pact between Russia And Nazi Germany for the Blitzkrieg; Attacks from east and west striking quick; would split Poland

Katyn

Mass grave in Eastern Poland where Soviets murdered a large number of Polish officers

Adolf Hitler

Austrian-born founder of the German Nazi Party and chancellor of the Third Reich (1933-1945). His fascist philosophy, embodied in Mein Kampf (1925-1927), attracted widespread support, and after 1934 he ruled as an absolute dictator. Hitler's pursuit of aggressive nationalist policies resulted in the invasion of Poland (1939) and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. His regime was infamous for the extermination of millions of people, especially European Jews. He committed suicide when the collapse of the Third Reich was imminent (1945).

Lebensraum

Hitler's expansionist theory based on a drive to acquire "living space" for the German people. It referred to the Nazi policy of territorial expansion into Eastern Europe, with the goal of acquiring land for German settlement by displacing or killing the existing populations, such as Slavs and Jews. This concept fueled Germany's aggressive foreign policy and military conquests during the lead-up to and during World War II.

Concentration camps

prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately.

Nuremberg Trials (1946)

War crimes trials based on "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity"

Resulted in Nuremberg Code which created the first principles of:

- informed consent

- Proper formulated scientific experimentation

- Beneficience towards participants

Jewish Ghettos

Areas where only Jews lived in Germany prior to their movement to concentration camps. They were stepping stones in the Final Solution formula

Einsatzgruppen

Nazi strike forces that killed innocent Jews with their infamous "death squads"

Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution

January 20, 1942, 15 Nazi leaders met at the

Wannsee Conference, held in a Berlin suburb, to

determine the "final solution of the Jewish question."

Auschwitz

Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the Holocaust. Close to a million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and others were killed there. (p. 800)

Treblinka

Death camp in Poland. 850,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers in just one year. In 1943 the camp was blown up by an uprising of the remaining 600 prisoners, all but 40 died.

Judenrat

Head of the Jewish council established by the Nazis in each Jewish ghetto.

Home Army

Polish underground/resistance. Formed 1942. Allegiance to Polish government in exile. Undertakes plan of self liberation (Operation Tempest), Warsaw Uprising 1944. After war, seen by USSR as obstacle to Soviet takeover of Poland.

Anders Army

Polish Armed Forces in the East 1941-2. Commanded by Wladyslaw Anders. After German invasion of USSR 1941, Stalin releases Polish prisoners of war, from whom a military force is formed. Sent to fight in Iran 1942 under British command.

Sofia Petrovna

Lydia Chukovskaya

Kolyma Tales

Written by Shalamov

stories from the gulags

A world apart

Gustaw Herling

Russia movie

The night

Elie Wiesel, 1939-1944

- Teenager, hometown of Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania

-Moishe the Beadle: Elie's teacher of the Torah, gets deported and returns back telling a horrifying tale of the Gestapo (German police force) killing people on the train

-The ghettos are created, takes a while for them to become an oppressive place

- They go on the train to Auschwitz, Mom and sister are separated and they never see them again

-They go through selections o see if they should be killed immediately or put to work

- Elie and his father have each other, at first Elie's father is helping him and overtime Elie has to start taking care of his father

- during the march Rabi Elijo was looking for his son, but his son was running away

The pianist

- starts in 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman polish pianist

Tehran

1943,

- Anti nazi allies: big 3 already predicting outcome of the war and they see that it is just a matter of time before the nazi are broken

- Trying to figure out new future after victory:

Conference of big 3, Tehran meeting: stalin, roosevelt and churchill

- Visual shift of how the big 3 manage the war

- Anglo Saxon culture US and UK you'd expect to be on the same side and stalin on the other side, but it is different

- After the war it will be big 2 US and USSR and they will cooperate together, instead of big 3

- FDR ideas, You would expect STALIN to respond kind, but he doesnt

-

Yalta

1945

-Different atmosphere and the germans already losing

USSR in last big operation in this war starting in January, final push to get all the way to berlin

- They confirm most of preliminary arrangements

- One big question is how do we divide Europe?

Anywhere the USSR invaded remains USSR

Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. It also annexed the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and territories from Finland and Poland

Potsdam

1945

- Last conference, in august

- Finalizes the big 3 meetings

- Truman is president instead of roosevelt, he didn't know many things b/c FDR didn't tell Truman

- During the war the Americans worked on the Mahanattan projects

Henry walis previous vice president

In early 1945, Roosevelt appointed Wallace as Secretary of Commerce. Roosevelt died in April 1945 and Truman succeeded him as president. Wallace continued to serve as Secretary of Commerce until September 1946, when he was fired by Truman for delivering a speech urging conciliatory policies toward the Soviet Union.

The Manhattan Project

-The USSR spies were close to the project, they knew what was going on

-August 6 dropped atomic bomb on hiroshima and nakasaki

-Meant that they had the kind of weapon the USSR didn't have, Truman thought it would be a shocker for Stalin, but this was not like that

-No one could really figure out what stalin was feeling

The Cold War

-Just a matter of time before USSR and US start another war

-US had upper hand because they had atomic bomb

-Berlin crisis

March 1946: Churchill lost election and gave a talk about IRON CURTAIN SPEECH

Europe has been split

Became emblematic for cold war

The Berlin Blockade of

1948-1949

-The Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin to prevent the Western powers from consolidating their occupation zones into a West German state. The immediate trigger was the introduction of a new currency, the Deutsche Mark, by the Western Allies in West Berlin to stimulate economic recovery and implement the Marshall Plan, which the Soviets saw as a threat to their influence and a move to create a separate West Germany. The USSR hoped the blockade would force the Western powers to abandon Berlin.

-Economic and political goals: The Soviets opposed the Western Allies' plans to create a democratic and capitalist West Germany, which they feared would become an economic and political rival. The introduction of a new, stable currency in the Western zones was seen as a move to strengthen them economically and to thwart Soviet plans for Germany.

-Territorial control: Berlin was located deep within the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The Soviets saw the new currency and the integration of the Western zones as an attempt to consolidate Western influence in an area they controlled.

-A strategic move: The blockade was a strategic gamble to force the Western Allies out of the city by cutting off their access to vital supplies like food, fuel, and medicine. The Soviets believed that without the West's support, Berlin would inevitably fall under their control.

-Escalation of the Cold War: It led to increased tensions but also prompted the Western Allies to form NATO in response to the perceived threat of Soviet aggression.

The Korean War

Communist movement in korea

The Korean War was a major Cold War proxy war where communist North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, fought against South Korea, supported by the United States and the United Nations. It was the first major "hot" conflict of the Cold War, stemming from the division of Korea after World War II, and resulted in a stalemate with a heavily fortified border that remains today. The war solidified the division of Korea, hardened the rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union, and led to a massive rearmament of US forces and a global military presence to contain the spread of communism.

Seen by many as a proxy war, may be new war

Prestige involved on both sides

NORTH KOREA, CHINA AND USSR

SOUTH KOREA, US