Rejection of Political Liberalism

Fascism

A political system headed by a dictator that calls for extreme nationalism and racism and no tolerance of opposition.

Totalitarianism/Authoritarianism

A political system in which the government has total control over the lives of individual citizens.

Autocracy

a system of government by one person with absolute power.

Oligarchy

a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.

Majority Tyranny

A situation in which a majority uses the principle of majority rule but fails to respect the rights and interests of the minority.

Absolute Monarchy

A government in which the king or queen has absolute power.

Communism

a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

Theocracy

A government controlled by religious leaders, following religious laws.

Military Dictatorship

Government in which military generals have supreme power and gain power by means of military and force

Coup d'etat

a sudden overthrow of the government

Indoctrination

Teaching someone to accept an idea or principle without question

Secret Police

a force that operates in secrecy (usually against persons suspected of treason) (KGB in Soviet Union, Gestapo in Germany)

Propaganda

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

scapegoat

a person or group that bears the blame for another

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Adolf Hitler

Austrian born Dictator of Germany, implement Fascism and caused WWII and Holocaust

Joseph Stalin

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communists after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush opposition

Vlademir Lenin

The architect of Russia's 1917 Bolshevik revolution and the first leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A constant proponent of Marxist beliefs.

Bento Mussolini

Italian dictator (1883-1945) who rose to power in the wake of World War I as a leading proponent of Fascism. Originally a revolutionary Socialist, he forged the paramilitary Fascist movement in 1919 and became prime minister in 1922.

Holdomor

The name given to the mass starvation in the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33. Occurring between the Russian Revolution and the Second World War, it was denied by the Soviet Government until only a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Great Purge

This event marks a period of extreme persecution and oppression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s.It instituted a new type of terror in which the boundaries of those oppressed were practically nonexistent - any stain on the record, including mere association with a perceived enemy, brought one under suspicion of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. So-called enemies of the people were charged with treason, wrecking, espionage and more.

Gulag

A system of labor camps maintained in the former Soviet Union from 1930 to 1955 in which many people died.

Enabling Act

Was a 1933 Weimar Constitution amendment that gave the German Cabinet - in effect, Chancellor Adolf Hitler - the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag.

Gestapo/SS

The German state secret police during the Nazi regime, organized in 1933 and notorious for its brutal methods and operations.

Night of the Long Knives

In Germany, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler orders a bloody purge of his own political party, assassinating hundreds of Nazis whom he believed had the potential to become political enemies in the future.

Eugenics

The science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.

The Bolsheviks

A member of the majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party, which was renamed the Communist Party after seizing power in the October Revolution of 1917.

The October Revolution

Bolsheviks led by Lenin claimed power in name of the soviets and proclaimed a full-scale revolution with support of workers and troops

Kulak

Wealthy peasant in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Many then resisted Stalin's forced collectivization, but millions were arrested, exiled, or killed.

New Economic Policy

After the civil war, Lenin revised his economic policy and introduced this plan. Through this, peasants were allowed to sell some of their produce for profit and small traders were allowed to run businesses.

censorship

restriction on access to ideas and information

Kristallnacht

(Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938, when mobs throughout Germany destroyed Jewish property and terrorized Jews.

one-party state

Form of government where only one party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for elections

Classical Conservatism

A view that arose in opposition to classical liberalism; it claimed that tradition was very valuable, human reason limited, and stability essential. (Edmund Burke during the French Revolution)

Joseph Goebbels

German propaganda minister in Nazi Germany who persecuted the Jews

"Great man theory"

Explained leadership by examining the traits and characteristics of individuals considered to be historically great leaders