Review Flashcards on Authoritarianism and Mass Mobilization

Authoritarianism and Mass Mobilization

• Authoritarian regimes challenged liberal systems. These regimes arose in Italy, Germany, and Japan on the right, and in the Soviet Union on the left.

• Post-World War I dictatorships mobilized the masses, creating dynamic yet orderly societies with charismatic leaders.

• Dictators rejected liberal democracy but claimed popular support, promising robust economies, restored order, and renewed pride.

• They gained support through public welfare programs and promises of modernity without its costs (class divisions, unemployment, etc.).

The Soviet Union and Socialism

• The Bolshevik Party seized power in Russia, arousing opposition and leading to intervention by Britain, France, Japan, and the United States.

• The Bolsheviks defended the homeland, mobilized people, and won a civil war (1918-1921).

• They rebuilt state institutions, requisitioned grain, and conducted extensive military operations, leading to a severe famine from 1921 to 1923, resulting in approximately 7 to 10 million deaths.

• To revive the economy, the Bolsheviks legalized private trade and private property.

• After Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin became the leader and the country became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.).

The Soviets Build Socialism

• Stalin defined Soviet socialism in opposition to capitalism.

• Socialism would have soviets (councils) of worker and peasant deputies, economic planning, full employment, and would outlaw private trade and private property.

• Efforts to build a noncapitalist society required class war in the countryside.

• Stalin combined farms into larger, collectively-owned units run by regime loyalists.

• Peasants protested by destroying crops and livestock, leading to deportations.

• "Class warfare" reflected personal animosities.

• Harvests declined, and another famine claimed millions of lives.

• Household plots were grudgingly conceded to collectivized peasants.

German Nazism

• The collapse of the American stock market in 1929 led Germans to consider radical alternatives.

• Hitler was appointed chancellor (prime minister) in 1933.

• Hitler heightened fear of a communist conspiracy, suspending civil liberties and forcing the left-wing press out of business.

• He proposed legislation to promulgate laws on his authority without parliament's approval.

• The government seized offices, banks, and newspapers of trade unions and arrested their leaders.

• Socialist and communist parties were outlawed; others were dissolved.

• By July 1933, the Nazis were the only legal party and Hitler was dictator of Germany.

• He curbed dissent, banned strikes, and built concentration camps for political prisoners.

• He unleashed a campaign of persecution against the Jews, excluding them from the civil service and professions, forcing them to sell their property, depriving them of citizenship, and forbidding them to marry or have sex with Aryans.

• Hitler encouraged terror against Jews, destroying their businesses, homes, and marriages.

• The Nazis won popular support for restoring order and reviving the economy.

• In 1935, Hitler began a vast rearmament program that absorbed the unemployed.

• The state financed public works, organized leisure, and built highways and public housing.

• Anti-Semitism mixed with full employment and social welfare programs that privileged racially approved groups.

Dictatorships In Spain And Portugal

• The military took over and instituted dictatorships in Spain and Portugal.

• The Spanish civil war (1936-1939) was an international war.

• Generalissimo Francisco Franco gained the upper hand with the help of German and Italian weapons and established a dictatorship.

Militaristic Japan

• Japan expanded production and exported goods during World War I, growing its gross national product (GNP) by 40 percent.

• Tokyo was rebuilt with steel and reinforced concrete after an earthquake and fire in 1923.

Soviet Modernization

• The Soviet Union used its exports to purchase technology from capitalist countries.

• More than 10 million people built factories, hospitals, and schools.

• Hydroelectric dams, automobile and tractor factories, and heavy machine-building plants symbolized Soviet-style modernity.

• The U.S.S.R. was formed in 1922, joining independent states into a single federal state.

Mass Terror and Stalin's Dictatorship

• The Soviet political system became more despotic as the state expanded.

• From 1936 to 1938, trials of treasonous "enemies of the people" resulted in executions and deportations to forced labor camps (Gulag).

• Purges decimated the Soviet elite.

• Mass terror was driven by fear, conspiracies, and Stalin's personal dictatorship.

• Ordinary people participated in the terror, driven by petty motives and a desire to participate in building socialism.

Italian Fascism

• Disillusionment with World War I and fear of communism led to changes in capitalist societies.

• Mass strikes and land seizures swept Italy in 1919 and 1920.

• Benito Mussolini organized disaffected veterans into a mass political movement called fascism in 1919.

• Early fascist programs mixed nationalism with social radicalism.

• Fascists attracted followers and used violence-prone shock troops.

• In 1922, Mussolini announced a march on Rome and became prime minister.

• The 1924 elections took place in an atmosphere of intimidation and fraud, with fascists winning 65 percent of the vote.

• Italy was transformed from a constitutional monarchy into a dictatorship.

• Mussolini's dictatorship made deals with big business and the church.

• Italian fascism served as a model for other countries.