Totalitarian Regimes

Flashcards for key terms, dates, and people related to totalitarian regimes.

1789

End of old regime, due to industrial revolution.

1848

Publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx.

1917

Lenin in power.

1917-1922

Creation of Tcheka Police.

1919

Traité de Versailles is signed.

1919-1933

Duration of Weimar Republic.

1921

Hitler is chief of SA.

1922

Creation of USSR.

1923

Failed coup d’etat by Hitler, leads to his imprisonment during which he wrote Mein Kampf.

1924

Death of Lenin.

1924 - 1927

Stalin rises to power.

1928

Publication of ‘Mein Kampf’.

1929

Collectivisation of Land in USSR.

1933

Hitler is prime minister.

Feb. 1933

Hitler has full power.

1933

First Camp called Dachau in Germany.

1933

Boycotting of Jewish entreprises.

1934

Hindenburg dies.

1934

Creation of Gestapo.

1934 - 1946

Duration of USSR police, NKVD.

1934

Creation of SS, disbanding of SA.

30 June 1934

Night ‘des longs couteaux’ is the night during which many nazi orchestrated assassinations took place.

1935

Nuremberg Laws signed into order.

1937 - 1938

Great terror in USSR.

9 - 10 November 1938

Kristelnach, destruction of jewish entreprises and homes.

1938

Annexation of Poland.

1941

Obligation to wear Star of David.

1942

First Extermination Camp: Chelmno.

Nazi Ideologies

Inequality between ‘races’, anti-semitism, nationalisme, anti - women (Kinder Kuche, Kirche).

Nazi Origins

Shame due to defeat in 1st World War, Treaty of Versailles considered to be a ‘diktat’, Weimar Republic ‘ruined’ Germany.

Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to his suicide in 1945.

Joseph Stalin (1878 - 1953)

The secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53) and premier of the Soviet state (1941–53), who for a quarter of a century dictatorially ruled the Soviet Union and transformed it into a major world power.

Vladimir Lenin (1970 - 1924)

The founder of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), inspirer and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and the architect, builder, and first head (1917–24) of the Soviet state.

Nazi Objectives

Create 'lebensraum’, extermination of Jews, and domination of ‘inferior races’.

Communist Ideologies

Fight against classes, equality between ‘races’, internationalism, pro-women.

Communist Origins

Karl Marx, and Frederik Engels, inequalities stemmed from industrial revolution, proletariat.

Communist Objectives

Equality between social classes, and revolution against world-wide proletariat.

Great Terror

600,000 deported by Stalin, 1.3 million imprisoned.

Kristelnach

267 synagogues burned, 91 dead, 36 injured, 30,000 deported, 171 apartment buildings burned, 7500 stores burned.

1939

77 000 jewish immigrants.

French Fatalities

Around 550,000 french fatalities.

American Fatalities

418,500 Americans

German Fatalities

6,600,000-8,800,000 Germans killed.

Austrian Fatalities

384,700 Austrians.

Soviet Fatalities

24,000,000 Soviets.

Battle Deaths

15,000 000 Battle Deaths.

Battle Wounded

25 000 000 Battle wounded.

Civilian Deaths

45 000 000 Civilians dead.

Gulag Fatalities

14 million dead from Gulags under Stalin.

Stalin Deportations

7- 8 million deported by Stalin.

Karl Marx (1818 - 1883)

Co-Founder Of Marxism, philosopher, and writer.

Hindenburg (1847 - 1934)

Predecessor of Hitler, former president of germany and leader of the German Army during World War 1.

Leni Riefenstahl (1902 - 2003)

Hitler’s propaganda director.

Aleksei Stakhanov

Soviet celebrity.

Sergueil Eisenstein

Stalin’s propaganda director.

Sophie Scholl

Anti-Nazi high school student who created La Rose Blanche.

Pravda

Stalin’s propaganda newspaper.

Der Sturmer

Hitler’s propaganda newspaper.

Kolkhozes

Agricultural exploitation through means of collectivisation.

Sovkhozes

State farms.

Koulak

Big land proprietors.

Gulag

Forced Labour Camps.

Pogrom

Violent uprising against Jews.

Tziganes/Nomads

Member of a people who have no fixed residence but move from place to place usually seasonally and within a well-defined territory.

Autodafe

Book burnings that opposed Hitler’s regime.

Propaganda

Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

Collectivisation

Erasure of private property.

Aryan Race

‘Superior’ race of individuals; typically blue eyed, blonde and tall germans.

Internationalisme

Unison of countries, equality between them.

Anti semitism

Hate towards jewish people.

Nationalisme

Preference and biased ‘superiority’ regarding your country.

Communism

Moneyless, classless, stateless society that entails the absence of private property and higher social classes.

Censure/Censorship

Changing or the suppression or prohibition of speech or writing that is deemed subversive of the common good.

Einsatzgruppen

Paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany.

Boycott

Withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.

Komsomol

An organization for communist youth in the former Soviet Union.

Holodomor

Man-made famine.

Five year plan

A government plan for economic development over five years. The first such plan in the Soviet Union was inaugurated in 1928.

Chancellor

Senior state or legal official.

Dictatorship of the proletariat

The dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat, or working class, holds control over state power.

Cult of personality

A situation in which a public figure (such as a political leader) is deliberately presented to the people of a country as a great person who should be admired and loved.