Totalitarian Regimes Between the Wars: USSR, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany (1917-1939)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the rise, ideologies, mechanisms of terror, and foreign policies of the totalitarian regimes in the USSR, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany between 1917 and 1939.

February 1917 Russian Revolution

The revolution caused by military defeats and national hardships that brought about the fall of Tsar Nicolas II and the installation of a provisional government.

October 1917 Russian Revolution

The second revolution where Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power with the objective of establishing communism.

Five-Year Plans (Plans quinquennaux)

State-mandated economic plans under Stalin that established centralized production targets scheduled over five-year intervals.

NEP (New Economic Policy)

An economic policy introduced by Lenin in 1921 permitting certain private activities to revive the economy, which Stalin progressively abandoned starting in 1928.

Totalitarian regime

A regime in which state power seeks total control over all aspects of society: politics, the economy, information, and the beliefs of the population.

Cult of personality

A propaganda mechanism presenting the leader as an exceptional, infallible, and indispensable guide for the country.

Komsomols

A Soviet communist organization for young people designed to mold and educate citizens loyal to the regime.

NKVD

The Soviet political police force tasked with surveilling the population and repressing political opponents.

Kulaks (Koulaks)

Peasants categorized as wealthy who were targeted, deported, and persecuted during the Soviet forced collectivization of agriculture.

Famine of 1932-1933

A catastrophic famine in Ukraine and other Soviet regions caused largely by the regime's forced agricultural and collectivization policies.

The Great Terror (1936-1938)

A campaign of mass arrests and executions directed by Stalin against real or suspected opponents, Communist Party members, and military officers.

Gulag (Goulag)

The Soviet penal system consisting of forced labor camps where political and common prisoners were deported and detained.

Comintern (Komintern)

An international communist organization founded in 1919 to assist foreign communist parties and promote communist revolution worldwide.

German-Soviet Pact

A non-aggression pact signed in August 1939 between Hitler and Stalin, containing secret protocols arranging the partition of territories in Eastern Europe.

National Fascist Party (PNF)

The Italian political party created by Benito Mussolini in 1921, founded on nationalist and authoritarian ideology.

Blackshirts (Chemises noires)

Paramilitary squads supporting Mussolini who utilized physical violence and intimidation against socialists and communists.

March on Rome

A fascist demonstration on October 28, 1922, that pressured King Victor-Emmanuel III to appoint Mussolini President of the Council (head of government).

Giacomo Matteotti

A socialist deputy assassinated by fascists in 1924, triggering Mussolini's formal transition to full authoritarian dictatorship between 1925 and 1926.

Il Duce

The title used for Benito Mussolini, promoted by state propaganda as an exceptional leader capable of restoring the grandeur of the ancient Roman Empire.

Fascist Saturday (Samedi fasciste)

A weekly regime program encouraging Italians to participate in physical and paramilitary exercises to build discipline and prepare for warfare.

OVRA

The Italian fascist political police dedicated to monitoring, arresting, and repressing opponents of the regime.

Confinement (Confinamento)

A fascist penal practice in Italy of forcibly sending political dissidents to remote islands or isolated villages under constant state surveillance.

Invasion of Ethiopia (1935-1936)

The military conquest of an independent African country by fascist Italy, defying League of Nations sanctions and culminating in Mussolini proclaiming an empire.

Pact of Steel

A military alliance signed in 1939 between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany that cemented their mutual cooperation.

Führer

The title meaning 'guide' or 'leader' assumed by Adolf Hitler in 1934 after combining the executive offices of president and chancellor following Hindenburg's death.

Lebensraum (Espace vital)

The Nazi foreign policy doctrine advocating the conquest and annexation of eastern European lands to secure expansion space for the German nation.

Hitler Youth (Jeunesses hitlériennes)

Nazi youth organizations that prepared boys militarily and indoctrinated girls for motherhood, with membership made mandatory in 1939.

Gestapo

The official secret political police of Nazi Germany dedicated to investigating and arresting political opponents.

SS

A major Nazi paramilitary organization that served as the primary instrument of state terror and oversaw the concentration camp system.

SA

Nazi paramilitary stormtrooper formations that actively took part in street violence and physical intimidation of political opponents.

Dachau

The first Nazi concentration camp, established in March 1933 primarily to incarcerate political opponents of the regime.

Nuremberg Laws (1935)

Antisemitic legislation enacted in 1935 that stripped Jewish people of their civil rights and German citizenship.

Kristallnacht (Nuit de cristal)

State-directed antisemitic pogroms on November 9 and 10, 1938, destroying Jewish businesses and synagogues and deporting thousands to concentration camps.

Anschluss

The military annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938 as part of Hitler's goal to unite all German-speaking populations.

Munich Agreement (September 1938)

A diplomatic settlement wherein France and the United Kingdom permitted Germany to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

Policy of Appeasement

A foreign policy stance adopted by Western European democracies that yielded to select territorial demands of Hitler to maintain peace.