Interwar Years

Early Life of Benito Mussolini

Early Life of Benito Mussolini

• Problematic child.

• Worked as a teacher, but felt it didn’t suit him.

• Gained reputation as public speaker and produced
  propaganda for various labor unions that called for
  aggressive socialist tactics.

• Arrested multiple times for participation in extreme political movement.

• Expelled from socialist part for his pro-war leanings
  (after he changed his mind about said war).

Rise and Consolidation of Power (Benito Mussolini)

• 1919: formation of Fascist party after promoting idea of the need for a dictator to stabilize Italy.

• Proceeded to raid and take over local governments around Italy.

• October 1922: Called for March on Rome to prevent socialist uprising. Approved by king and effectively toppled government.

  • Propaganda would portray it far more
    organized than it actually was.

• 31 October 1922: Appointment as prime
  minister.

  • Allowed him to pass laws that would
    secure his power and Fascist control of
    the government.

• 1924 – Various sham elections sure up dominance of Fascist party in Parliament.

  • Giacomo Matteotti murdered for speaking against.

  • Mussolini later claims responsibility and abandons Parliament.

• 1925: All parties besides National Fascist party made illegal.

Maintenance and Spread of Power (Benito Mussolini)

• 1925-1927: Abolishes elections, free speech and press.

  • Felt it necessary after assassination attempts and opposition from the left.

  • Censorship heavy and consequences severe.

• 1929: Lateran Treaty establishes concordat with Catholic Church.

  • Establishes Vatican City as independent state and establishes heavy influence of church in education and other areas.

  • To satisfy leaders and keep church on his side.

Turn Towards War (Benito Mussolini)

• 1935: Invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

  • Revenge move for humiliating Italy in battle previously.

  • Focused on belief that strong nations were meant to subdue others (military glorification).

• 1938: establishment of Anti-Semitic laws.

• Showed close ties to Nazi Germany, shocked
  followers.

• Six parts:
  • Definition of Jews.
  • Removal of Jews from government jobs, including teachers in the public schools.
  • Ban on marriage between Jews and non-Jews.
  • Dismissal of Jews from the armed forces.
  • Incarceration of Jews of foreign nationality; and
  • Removal of Jews from positions in the mass media.

Propaganda and the Maintenance of Power (Benito Mussolini)

• Tactics:

  • Newspapers, songs, slogans, exhibition, radio, film, schools, youth groups.

• Themes:

  • Military might, civilization, fertility, expansion and empire, anti-democracy and ant-foreign culture.

• Mussolini placed censorship at forefront.

• Ministry of Popular Culture:

  • Tell the truth about fascism and refute lies

• Mussolini’s Cult of Personality:

  • Il Duce ha sempre ragione.

  • Equated himself with everyone from Julius Caesar to Charles Lindbergh to Jesus.

  • Fascist newspapers implied even that Mussolini had performed miracles, such as stopping the lava flow of Mount Etna and invoking rain in the drought-suffering Libya during his visit to the region in March 1937. A story of a deaf-mute boy being cured after listening in a crowd to a speech of Mussolini was told in an elementary school manual.

  • His overtly-belligerent image did not prevent newspapers from declaring he had done more for peace than anyone else on the principle that Mussolini always did better than everyone else.

  • His image proclaimed that he had improved the Italian people morally, materially
    and spiritually.

  • He was the Duce and had been proclaimed in song even before the seizure of
    power.

  • The war in Ethiopia was presented as a revival of the Roman Empire, with Mussolini
    as Augustus.

  • To improve Fascism's image in North Africa and the Levant and to gain Arab support, Mussolini had himself declared the "Protector of Islam" during an official visit to Italian Libya in 1937.

Marx VS Lenin

• Both agreed that history was all about class struggle.

• Marx saw the struggle as between capitalists and workers.

• Lenin added emphasis on peasants.

• Marx thought workers would be so numerous that they could take over on their own.

• Lenin thought workers weren’t capable of this, and needed strong leadership to do it.

Recovery (Russian Revolution)

• Despite the radical change in government, Russia recovers slowly in the 1920s.

• By 1928, Russia was producing as much as it was before WWI.

• Nationalism is a problem (not enough of it).

USSR (Soviet Union)

• Lenin organizes Russia and the other self-governing republics into the USSR.

  • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

• Bolsheviks rename themselves the Communist Party.

• 1924 – they create a constitution based on democratic ideals.

  • Reality: Communist Party controlled everything.

• Lenin has a stroke and dies in 1924.

• Stalin succeeds him.

Leon Trotsky

• Favored the idea of World Revolution.

  • Felt that the USSR could not survive as the sole communist state.

• Opposed the New Economic policy (NEP).

Joseph Stalin (Man of Steel)

• Favored “Socialism in One Country”.

• The USSR should strengthen itself and lead the communist world by example.

• Supported the NEP.

New Economic Policy (NEP) (Russian Revolution)

• The New Economic Policy (NEP) was the economic policy of the government of the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1928. This represents a temporary retreat from its previous policy of extreme centralization and doctrinaire socialism.

• In comparative terms, the NEP was a success. It allowed Russia's agricultural production to quickly recover, reaching similar levels to before World War I by 1925. The end of War Communism and requisitioning brought new incentives for both industrial workers as well as peasants, leading to not only a 40% increase in agricultural production, but also a 14% increase in overall economic production, according to Soviet estimates.

• The New Economic Policy (NEP) was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921. Lenin introduced this policy as a response to the economic devastation that plagued Russia since the Russian Civil War.

• 1922: Stalin becomes Secretary of Communist Party (very powerful position.)

• Before he dies, Lenin is worried:

  • “Comrade Stalin has concentrated enormous amounts of wealth in his hands....”

• 1928: Stalin in total control.

• 1929: Trotsky goes into exile (later murdered by Stalin, since he is a perceived threat).

• Stalin Builds a Totalitarian State.

The Five Year Plans

• Stalin made a significant shift in economic policy.

• The 5 Yr. Plans were Stalin’s own vision.

  • They were intended to re-organize Soviet industry/agriculture and to overhaul the economy and catch up with the West.

  • Emphasis on max. production of capital goods and armaments instead of consumer goods.

Reality (Russian Revolution)

• Unrealistic production quotas were set, and tremendous sacrifices and ruthless methods were used to reach them.
  

• In agriculture, collectivization was implemented – with the state taking the proceeds from the collective farms.
  

• Collectivization: large government owned farms, where families worked to produce food for the state. Loss of private property.

Victims (Russian Revolution)

• Peasant opposition was crushed/starved.

• After some protest, the kulaks (wealthy peasants) were liquidated, starved in order to feed urban workers (the “terror famine”)

• By WWII, the peasants were largely regimented.

Ukraine Famine: Holodomor

• Stalin feared opposition in previously independent Ukraine (during Civil War).

• Politburo established targeted measures (blacklists, requisitions, etc) to deepen famine in Ukraine.

• Raids increased and anti-Ukrainian propaganda was spread by the Kremlin.

• Culture, language, and religion were attacked.

• Of the 5 million that died in the famine, an estimated 3.9 million were Ukrainian.

• Reports were suppressed and covered up.

Social and Political Costs of 5 Year Plans

• Little provision for expanded labor force in cities.

• Poor living conditions, wages decreased, laws limiting workers’ freedom of movement.

• Propaganda stressed the need for sacrifice to create the new socialist state.

Stalin Strengthens his Control

• 1934: Stalin ordered the NKVD to crack down on potential opposition – this soon penetrated all levels of Soviet society.

• The Great Purge:

  • Anyone perceived as a threat was forced to confess in public trials and then executed/shipped to forced labor camps in Siberia (gulags).

  • Between 1936 and 1938 Stalin purged the Old Bolsheviks—they were put on trial and condemned to death.

  • Also undertook a purge of army officers, diplomats, unions officials, party members, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens.

• Estimated 8 million were arrested—millions died in labor camps and millions disappeared.

• Stalin combined communism and dictatorship, setting the tone for future communist leaders.
  • By 1941, the USSR was among the top 3 economic powers.