Hitler’s Germany & Stalin’s Russia (1929-1941) – Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering major people, laws, organisations, events and concepts from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia between 1929 and 1941.

Wall Street Crash (1929)

Collapse of the New York Stock Exchange that triggered a global depression and crippled Germany’s loan-dependent economy.

Dawes Plan (1924)

U.S.-backed scheme that lent Germany money and re-scheduled reparations, tying Weimar finances to American banks.

Young Plan (1929)

Proposed revision of German reparations payments intended to ease Weimar’s burden just as the Depression hit.

Liquidity Crisis

Sudden shortage of cash in Germany when U.S. banks recalled loans after 1929.

Reparations

Treaty of Versailles payments Germany was legally obliged to make to the victors of WWI.

Weimar Coalition

Fragile multi-party governments of the Weimar Republic, hampered by proportional representation.

Henrich Bruning

Weimar chancellor (1930-32) whose austerity policies deepened unemployment and discredited democracy.

Bruning’s Austerity Measures

Program of higher taxes, wage cuts and spending reductions imposed by emergency decree.

Article 48

Clause in the Weimar Constitution allowing the president to rule by emergency decree without Reichstag consent.

Paul von Hindenburg

Aging Weimar president who repeatedly used Article 48 and finally appointed Hitler chancellor in 1933.

Emergency Decree

Law issued under Article 48 bypassing the Reichstag; used 115 times by Bruning (1930-32).

Collapse of Weimar Democracy

Period 1930-33 when coalition governments failed, emergency rule grew and extremist parties surged.

NSDAP (Nazi Party)

National Socialist German Workers’ Party led by Adolf Hitler.

KPD

Communist Party of Germany, main left-wing rival to the Nazis.

July 1932 Election

Vote in which the Nazis won 230 Reichstag seats, becoming the largest party.

Franz von Papen

Conservative politician who persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler, believing he could be controlled.

Kurt von Schleicher

General briefly made chancellor (Dec 1932) in last attempt to block Hitler.

Chancellor

Head of government in Weimar Germany; position Hitler obtained on 30 January 1933.

Reichstag Fire (27 Feb 1933)

Arson attack on parliament used by Hitler to justify emergency powers against communists.

Marinus van der Lubbe

Dutch communist arrested at the scene and executed for the Reichstag Fire.

Enabling Act (23 Mar 1933)

Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich; gave Hitler power to legislate without Reichstag or president.

Two-Thirds Majority Aim

Hitler’s strategy to secure 67 % of Reichstag seats (with Centre Party help) to amend the constitution.

Centre Party

Catholic party courted by Hitler with promises on Church property and schools to pass the Enabling Act.

Gleichschaltung

“Coordination” process of bringing all German institutions under Nazi control, 1933-34.

SA (Sturmabteilung)

Nazi paramilitary brown-shirts led by Ernst Röhm, rivaled the army.

SS (Schutzstaffel)

Elite black-uniformed Nazi corps loyal to Hitler, key force in repression and the Night of the Long Knives.

Night of the Long Knives (30 Jun 1934)

Purge in which Hitler’s SS killed Röhm, SA leaders and other opponents to appease the army.

Ernst Röhm

Head of the SA, executed during the Night of the Long Knives.

Reichswehr / Wehrmacht

German army whose support Hitler secured after purging the SA leadership.

Führer

Title combining president and chancellor; assumed by Hitler after Hindenburg’s death, 19 Aug 1934.

Plebiscite of 19 Aug 1934

Nationwide vote in which 90 % approved Hitler becoming Führer.

Führerprinzip

Doctrine that Hitler’s will was absolute law; “Hitler is Germany and Germany is Hitler.”

Hjalmar Schacht

Economist appointed Minister of the Economy; devised Mefo Bills and early Four-Year Plan.

Mefo Bills

Government promissory notes used 1934-36 to finance rearmament secretly and avoid inflation.

Public Works Program (Arbeitdienst)

State-funded projects (autobahns, bridges) providing jobs for conscripted labourers.

German Labour Front (DAF)

Nazi replacement for trade unions; mobilised labour for regime projects.

Conscription (1935)

Reintroduction of compulsory military service, absorbing unemployment and defying Versailles.

Autarky

Policy of economic self-sufficiency pursued by Nazi Germany via import controls and synthetic substitutes.

Hermann Göring

Second-in-command who took over economic planning in 1936 with a new Four-Year Plan focused on rearmament.

Volksgemeinschaft

Nazi ideal of a racially unified “people’s community” placing national interest above individual.

Kinder, Küche, Kirche

“Children, Kitchen, Church” slogan encapsulating Nazi expectations of women’s roles.

Nuremberg Laws (1935)

Legislation stripping Jews of citizenship and banning marriage with “Aryans.”

Reich Citizenship Law

Part of Nuremberg Laws: only those of “German blood” were citizens; Jews became subjects.

Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour

Nuremberg statute banning mixed marriages and sexual relations between Jews and Germans.

Joseph Goebbels

Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, mastermind of Nazi media control.

People’s Receiver

Cheap radio set mass-produced so Nazi broadcasts could reach most German homes.

Nuremberg Rallies

Annual mass propaganda events showcasing Nazi unity and power.

Triumph of the Will

Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 film glorifying the 1934 Nuremberg Rally and Hitler’s leadership.

Editor’s Law (Oct 1933)

Regulation placing all German newspapers under strict Nazi censorship.

Gestapo

Secret State Police tasked with rooting out opposition inside Germany.

Terror State

Nazi governance method combining propaganda with police repression to enforce conformity.

Gulag

Soviet network of forced-labour camps used under Stalin for political prisoners and slave labour.

Vladimir Lenin

Leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution; his death in 1924 sparked a succession struggle.

Lenin’s Testament

Document dictating Lenin’s doubts about Stalin and other leaders, suppressed by the party.

Politburo

Highest decision-making body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

General Secretary

Party post Stalin used to control appointments and build a power base after 1922.

13th Party Congress (May 1924)

Meeting where Stalin allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev to marginalise Trotsky.

Left Opposition

Faction led by Trotsky advocating rapid industrialisation and world revolution.

Right Opposition

Bukharin-led faction supporting NEP and gradual industrial growth.

Troika

Temporary alliance of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed to defeat Trotsky.

Permanent Revolution

Trotsky’s theory that socialism required continuous worldwide revolutions.

Socialism in One Country

Stalin’s doctrine focusing on building socialism within the USSR first.

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Lenin’s 1921 policy allowing limited private trade and small-scale capitalism to revive the economy.

Kulak

Wealthier peasant class targeted by Stalin during collectivisation.

NEPman

Entrepreneur who prospered under the New Economic Policy; viewed as bourgeois by Stalinists.

Five Year Plan (1928-32)

Stalin’s first set of ambitious quotas for heavy industry and agriculture.

Gosplan

State Planning Committee responsible for setting and monitoring Five-Year Plan targets.

Collectivisation

Forced merging of peasant farms into state-controlled collectives (kolkhozy / sovkhozy).

Dekulakisation

Campaign to eliminate kulaks through confiscation, deportation or execution.

Holodomor (1932-33)

Man-made famine, especially in Ukraine, resulting from grain requisition and collectivisation.

“25000ers”

Urban communist activists sent to enforce collectivisation in the countryside.

Great Purge (1934-38)

Stalin’s campaign of arrests, show trials and executions against perceived enemies of the state.

NKVD

Soviet secret police (predecessor to KGB) executing the Purge and running the Gulag system.

Sergei Kirov

Popular Leningrad party boss whose 1934 assassination became pretext for the Purge.

Show Trial

Public court proceeding staged to secure predetermined guilty verdicts against opposition.

Nikolai Yezhov

NKVD chief during the height of the Great Purge; later executed and erased from photos.

Lavrentiy Beria

Succeeded Yezhov as NKVD head in 1938 and curtailed mass operations.

Quota System (1929)

Policy reserving 70 % of university places for working-class students to speed social mobility.

Vocational Schools

Technical institutions expanded under Stalin to create skilled workers for industry.

New Soviet Man

Ideal citizen: disciplined, selfless, atheistic, and loyal to socialist values.

Cultural Revolution (USSR)

1928-32 campaign to reshape education, arts and values along socialist lines.

Socialist Realism

State-mandated artistic style portraying optimistic, heroic images of socialist construction.

Quota Dropout Problem

High failure rate among promoted working-class students, leading to merit-based admissions by mid-1930s.

Women’s Emancipation (Lenin era)

Legal reforms of the 1920s granting divorce, abortion and workplace rights to Soviet women.

Stalin’s Family Policy

1930s reversal promoting strong families; divorce restricted and abortion banned (1936).

Equal Pay Law

Stalin-era measure guaranteeing women the same wages as men for equal work.

Autarkic Trade Agreements

Bilateral deals (e.g., with Argentina, Yugoslavia) exchanging German goods for raw materials.

MEFO Bills Interest

Four-percent annual return that made the bills attractive to German investors.

Arbeitdienst

Compulsory labour service drafting young German men for public-works employment.

Gestapo Informants

Ordinary Germans encouraged to spy and report anti-Nazi behaviour, feeding the terror apparatus.

People’s Radio Ownership

Over 20 million cheap sets distributed by 1936, ensuring Nazi messages reached households.

Editors’ Law Censorship

Requirement that all press content receive Propaganda Ministry approval; Jewish and leftist journalists banned.

Triumph of the Will Director

Leni Riefenstahl, filmmaker who produced iconic Nazi propaganda movies.

Nuremberg Rally Purpose

Demonstrate Nazi unity, excite participants and provide dramatic imagery for propaganda films.

Gleichschaltung of States

Abolition of Germany’s federal autonomy; Länder governments replaced by Nazi Gauleiters.

Gestapo vs. Kripo

Secret political police (Gestapo) contrasted with regular criminal police (Kripo) under Himmler.

Hitler Myth

Propagated image of Hitler as infallible saviour of Germany, crafted by Goebbels.

Swing Youth

German teenagers who rejected Nazi cultural norms through jazz and fashion; monitored but initially tolerated.

Lebensraum

Hitler’s expansionist goal to secure “living space” in Eastern Europe for the Aryan race.

Autobahn Network

High-speed motorways begun under Hitler, symbolising modernity and job creation.