Interwar Period: Russian Revolution, Fascism, Japanese Imperialism, and the Rise of Hitler

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards reviewing key historical figures, terminology, concepts, and events across the Russian Revolution, the Weimar Republic, Italian Fascism, Japanese Imperialism, and the rise of the Nazi regime.

Grigori Rasputin

A self-described holy man who held immense influence over Czarina Alexandra during World War I and was assassinated by conspirators who stabbed, shot, and threw him into a river.

Leon Trotsky

A communist leader who transformed the Russian Army into the Red Army, utilizing coerced former czarist generals to lead the troops.

Red Army

The communist fighting force in the Russian Civil War, geographically positioned in central Russia, which defeated the Czarist "Whites."

War Communism

An economic policy enforced by the Communist Party involving state takeover of private ownership, banks, industrial centers, and small businesses, along with the requisitioning of farmers' crops to feed the Red Army.

USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

The reformed Russian state established to appear democratic by granting voting rights to citizens over 18 and equal say to members, though Russian leaders maintained total dominance.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

A series of economic reforms introduced by Vladimir Lenin that temporarily permitted elements of capitalism to revitalize the Soviet economy before a planned return to pure communism.

Weimar Republic

The democratic government that replaced the German monarchy after World War I, featuring a president with a 7-year term, an appointed chancellor, and a representative parliament.

Reichstag

The German house of representatives under the Weimar Republic, which allowed an unlimited number of political parties and elected representatives to 4-year terms.

NSDAP

The National Socialist German Workers Party; a political party that promised relief from the German Great Depression under the tagline "Work and Bread."

Black Shirts

Paramilitary squads organized by Benito Mussolini that used violence to overthrow political opponents and seize power in Italy.

Il Duce

A title meaning "The Leader," adopted by Benito Mussolini in 1925 after being appointed Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel III.

Emperor Hirohito

The theoretically absolute, "divine" ruler of Japan from 1901 to 1989 who permitted military elites to dominate foreign policy under the guise of border "incidents."

Hideki Tojo

A Japanese military officer turned Prime Minister who adhered to the samurai tradition of Bushido and led Japan's single-party state.

Bushido

The ancient samurai warrior tradition strongly adhered to by Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

The Manchuria Incident

A covert 1931 operation where Japanese colonels bombed their own railway lines to frame China, using the event as a pretext to open fire and conquer Manchuria.

Nanking Massacre

The 1937 atrocity following the fall of the Chinese capital in which Japanese troops tortured and murdered an estimated 40,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians.

Beer Hall Putsch

A failed 1923 coup attempt in which Adolf Hitler and armed members of the SA seized a Munich beer hall to declare a national revolution, leading to Hitler's imprisonment.

Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler's autobiographical manifesto (German for "My Struggle"), authored while imprisoned, detailing his anti-Semitic ideology and plans for German expansion.

Enabling Act

A constitutional amendment enacted following the Reichstag fire that granted dictatorial governing powers directly to Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

Night of the Long Knives

A 1934 political purge carried out by Adolf Hitler to execute conservative members and leaders of the SA suspected of plotting against his regime.