Totalitarianism and Rejections of Liberalism: USSR and Nazi Germany Case Studies

Vocabulary practice flashcards defining key terms, events, policies, and concepts related to totalitarianism and the rejection of liberalism in the USSR and Nazi Germany.

Totalitarianism

A centralized political system characterized by complete control over public and private life through fear, terror, indoctrination, propaganda, and the suppression of opposition, exemplified by the USSR and Nazi Germany.

Bloody Sunday

A historical massacre in Russia that served as a major precursor to unrest and the eventual October Revolution and establishment of Communism.

October Revolution

The 1917 Bolshevik revolution led by Vladimir Lenin that overthrew the provisional government and established Communism in the USSR.

Russian Civil War

The military conflict fought between the Bolshevik Red forces and the opposing White Army following the Bolshevik seizure of power.

War Communism

The strict economic and political policy introduced by Lenin during the Russian Civil War, characterized by the nationalization of industry and forced grain requisitioning.

New Economic Policy

An economic policy instituted by Lenin following the Russian Civil War that temporarily reintroduced limited private trade and market mechanisms to revive the Soviet economy.

Trotsky’s Expulsion

The removal and eventual exile of Leon Trotsky orchestrated by Joseph Stalin to eliminate his primary rival and consolidate power in the USSR.

Red Terror

A state-sanctioned campaign of political repression, arrests, and executions carried out by the Bolshevik regime to eliminate internal dissent.

Great Purge

Stalin's widespread campaign of political terror aimed at eliminating all political opponents, dissenters, and perceived enemies of the state.

Show Trials

Publicly staged legal trials used during the Great Purge to convict political opponents and fabricate state guilt for propaganda purposes.

Five-Year Plans

Centralized economic blueprints introduced under Stalin to rapidly accelerate Soviet industrialization, expand heavy industry, and promote militarism.

Collectivization

The Soviet policy of nationalizing agriculture and ending private property by forcibly merging individual peasant farms into state-controlled collective farms.

Kulaks

Relatively affluent Russian peasants who actively resisted Soviet collectivization and the abolition of private agricultural property.

Holodomor

A catastrophic man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine caused by the forced collectivization policies and agricultural requisitions under Stalin.

Gulags

A network of Soviet forced-labor camps operated by the secret police to punish, isolate, and eliminate dissenters and political opponents through fear and terror.

Reichstag Fire

An arson attack on the German parliament building that the Nazi Party exploited by blaming a Communist threat to suspend civil liberties and consolidate power.

Munich Putsch

A failed 1923 coup attempt by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Munich that led to Hitler’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment.

Mein Kampf

An autobiographical manifesto written by Adolf Hitler during his imprisonment outlining his political ideology, anti-Semitism, and goals for Germany.

SA

The paramilitary wing (Stormtroopers) of the Nazi Party that used street violence, intimidation, and terror during Hitler's rise to power.

Enabling Act

A 1933 constitutional amendment passed by the Reichstag that granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial power to enact laws without parliamentary consent.

Anschluss

The Nazi annexation of Austria into Greater Germany, carried out as a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

Lebensraum

The Nazi ideological concept of acquiring 'living space' through territorial expansion into Eastern Europe for the German people.

Night of the Long Knives

Hitler’s 1934 purge that resulted in the execution of SA leaders and other political rivals to secure absolute control over the Nazi regime and the German military.

Hitler Youth

The compulsory youth organization of the Nazi Party used for ideological indoctrination and the militarization of German youth.

Nuremberg Laws

A series of anti-Semitic laws enacted in Nazi Germany that institutionalized racial theories and stripped German Jews of their citizenship and rights.

Kristallnacht

A coordinated state-sponsored wave of violent pogroms against Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues across Nazi Germany.

Final Solution

The Nazi regime’s plan for the systematic mass murder and genocide of European Jewish people through the use of death camps.

Rejection of Liberalism

The systematic dismantling of liberal values such as individual rights, democracy, the rule of law, and private property by totalitarian regimes in both the USSR and Nazi Germany.