AG

Turmoil Between the Wars – Key Vocabulary

The Soviet Union Under Lenin and Stalin

  • Bolshevik Revolution ( 1917 ) establishes the world’s first one-party communist state; formally withdraws from WWI via the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ( 1918 ).
  • Lenin’s ideological goal: translate Marxism to the Russian context ( "Marxism-Leninism" ) ➜ centralized party vanguard, dictatorship of the proletariat.
  • New Economic Policy ( NEP, 1921! - ! 1928 )
    • Replaces "War Communism"; allows limited private trade & small-scale capitalism to revive a shattered economy.
    • Peasants may sell surplus grain; state still controls "commanding heights" ( heavy industry, banking, foreign trade ).
    • Significance: Tactical retreat to stabilize regime; shows flexibility within communist dogma.
  • Power struggle after Lenin’s death ( 1924 )
    • Key rivals: Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin.
    • Stalin leverages post of General Secretary to pack party with supporters ➜ by late 1920\text{s} he is unchallenged.
  • Stalinist Totalitarianism
    • Tools: ubiquitous censorship, propaganda, personality cult ( posters, films, hymns ); secret police ( Cheka ➜ GPU ➜ NKVD ).
    • The Great Purge ( 1936! - ! 1938 ): public "show trials," forced confessions, ~ 1 million executions, millions more sent to Gulag.
    • Rapid industrialization through Five-Year Plans ( 1st plan begins 1928 )
      • Gargantuan quotas for steel, coal, electricity; new cities ( Magnitogorsk ) & dams ( Dneprostroi ).
      • Achieves impressive output growth but at immense human cost & chronic consumer-goods shortages.
    • Ethical / philosophical issue: Can economic modernization justify systematic terror?

Collectivization of Agriculture

  • Officially replaces NEP in countryside ( start 1929 ).
    • Goal: feed urban workers, obtain exportable grain to finance industry, destroy independent peasantry as a class.
  • Process
    • Millions of small plots merged into state-directed kolkhozes & sovkhozes; mechanization via state-owned tractors.
    • Kulaks ( so-called "rich" peasants ) labeled class enemies; deported, imprisoned, or executed.
  • Consequences
    • Widespread armed & passive resistance: slaughter of livestock, crop burning.
    • Holodomor in Ukraine ( 1932! - ! 1933 )
      • Man-made famine; estimates of 3 – 7 million deaths.
      • Controversy: genocide vs policy failure; still shapes Russo-Ukrainian memory politics.
    • Long-term inefficiencies, yet Stalin secures absolute rural control.

Emergence of Fascism in Italy

  • Post-WWI discontent: "mutilated victory," high unemployment, socialist strikes.
  • Benito Mussolini founds the Fasci di Combattimento ( 1919 ); black-shirt squads attack leftists.
  • March on Rome ( October 1922 )
    • King Victor Emmanuel III, fearing civil war, invites Mussolini to form government ➜ Mussolini becomes Prime Minister.
  • Consolidation of power ( 1922! - ! 1925 )
    • Acerbo Law ( 1923 ) guarantees fascist electoral majority; press censorship, secret police ( OVRA ).
    • By 1925 Italy is a one-party state.
  • Fascist Ideology
    • Ultrantionalism, imperial nostalgia ( "New Rome" ), militarism, corporate state ( economy organized by syndicates ).
    • Slogans: "Believe, Obey, Fight." Cult of Il Duce.
  • Lateran Accords ( 1929 ) normalize relations with the Catholic Church ➜ bolsters regime legitimacy.

Weimar Germany

  • Founded after Kaiser’s abdication ( November 1918 ); constitution signed at Weimar ( 1919 ).
  • Burdens of the Treaty of Versailles
    • Reparations of 132 billion Goldmarks; Article 231 "war guilt" clause; loss of Alsace-Lorraine & overseas colonies.
  • Early instability
    • Spartacist Uprising ( Jan. 1919 ), Kapp Putsch ( 1920 ), assassinations of politicians ( e.g., Rathenau 1922 ).
  • Hyperinflation Crisis ( 1923 )
    • Mark collapses: price of a loaf of bread rises from 250 ( Jan. ) to 2 \times 10^{11} ( Nov. ).
    • Middle-class savings wiped out ➜ enduring bitterness toward republic & democracy.
  • Stresemann Era & Dawes Plan ( 1924 )
    • U.S. loans stabilize currency ( Rentenmark ); cultural "Goldene Zwanziger" ( Bauhaus, cabaret ).
  • Great Depression ( 1929 )
    • U.S. capital withdrawals; German unemployment reaches 6 million by 1932 ➜ fertile ground for extremists.

Hitler and the National Socialists

  • Adolf Hitler joins German Workers’ Party ( DAP ) in 1919 ➜ renames it NSDAP ( Nazi Party ).
  • Beer Hall Putsch ( Nov. 1923 ) fails; Hitler sentenced to 5 years ( serves <1 ); writes "Mein Kampf" outlining Lebensraum & anti-Semitism.
  • Electoral Breakthrough
    • Uses charismatic oratory, mass rallies, and SA intimidation; Nazi vote rises to 37\% ( July 1932 Reichstag ).
  • Hitler appointed Chancellor ( 30 Jan. 1933 ).
  • Reichstag Fire ( 27 Feb. 1933 ) gives pretext for Emergency Decree suspending civil liberties.
  • Enabling Act ( 23 Mar. 1933 ) passes with intimidation ➜ allows Hitler to legislate without parliament for 4 years.
  • Gleichschaltung ( "coordination" )
    • Independent parties, unions, state governments absorbed or banned; opponents sent to Dachau.
    • Night of the Long Knives ( June 1934 ) eliminates SA leadership & rivals ➜ secures army loyalty.

Nazi Racism & Anti-Semitism

  • Core doctrine: pseudo-scientific racial hierarchy, Aryans at apex; Social Darwinism.
  • Nuremberg Laws ( 1935 )
    • Strip Jews of citizenship; forbid marriage/sexual relations with "Aryans."
  • Kristallnacht ( 9! - ! 10 Nov. 1938 )
    • State-orchestrated pogrom: 100+ murdered, 7,500 businesses & 200 synagogues destroyed.
  • Eugenics & "racial hygiene" programs
    • Compulsory sterilization law ( 1933 ); T4 euthanasia ( 1939 ) targets disabled Germans.
  • Ideological function: unify populace through a common enemy, justify expansion ( Lebensraum ) & eventual Holocaust ( 1941! - ! 1945 ).

Interwar Years in Major Democracies

  • Britain
    • Postwar debt, outdated industry, high unemployment; General Strike ( 1926 ).
    • Maintains parliamentary democracy; later pursues appeasement under Chamberlain.
  • France
    • Fragmented parties ➜ short-lived cabinets; invests heavily in Maginot Line.
    • Popular Front ( Leon Blum, 1936 ) enacts labor reforms but collapses by 1938.
  • United States
    • "Roaring Twenties" boom; Stock-Market Crash ( 24 Oct. 1929, "Black Thursday" ).
    • Unemployment peaks near 25\% ( 1933 ).
    • Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal ( 1933! - ! 1939 )
      • Keynesian-inspired public works ( TVA, WPA ), Social Security Act ( 1935 ), bank reforms ( FDIC ).
    • Retreat into isolationism: Neutrality Acts ( 1935! - ! 1937 ).
  • Overall Pattern: Democratic states grapple with mass unemployment & ideological polarization, yet retain core civil liberties.

Interwar Culture: Artists & Intellectuals

  • Mood: Disillusion, "Lost Generation," questioning of progress after mechanized slaughter of WWI.
  • Literature
    • Erich Maria Remarque, "All Quiet on the Western Front" ( 1929 ); T. S. Eliot, "The Waste Land" ( 1922 ); Hemingway, Fitzgerald.
  • Visual Arts
    • Dada ( Duchamp’s "Fountain," 1917 ) rejects reason; Surrealism ( Dalí’s "Persistence of Memory," 1931 ) mines subconscious.
    • Bauhaus ( founded 1919 ) fuses art, craft, industry.
  • Music & Popular Culture
    • Jazz spreads from U.S.; dance crazes ( Charleston ); radio & "talkies" ( first feature-length sound film "The Jazz Singer," 1927 ).
  • Intellectual Currents
    • Psychoanalysis ( Freud ): role of unconscious drives.
    • Existential seeds ( Kierkegaard revival, Heidegger’s "Being and Time," 1927 ).
    • Scientific revolutions: Einstein’s relativity ( 1905, 1915 ), Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle ( 1927 ) undermine deterministic worldview.
  • Significance: Cultural experimentation mirrors political volatility; artists grapple with identity, alienation, and threats to humanistic ideals.

Conclusion: From Crisis to Catastrophe

  • Shared Drivers of Authoritarianism
    • Economic collapse ( hyperinflation, Depression ), national humiliation, fear of communism, and propaganda technology.
  • Totalitarian Consolidation
    • USSR, Italy, Germany demonstrate state control over press, education, arts, economy, and even thought.
  • Democratic Resilience & Limitations
    • Britain, France, U.S. preserve elections yet struggle to provide quick relief ➜ credibility gap vs dictators’ promises of decisive action.
  • International Tensions Escalate
    • Italian invasion of Ethiopia ( 1935 ), German remilitarization of the Rhineland ( 1936 ), Spanish Civil War ( 1936! - ! 1939 ) serve as dress rehearsals for global conflict.
    • League of Nations proves impotent; policy of appeasement fails to deter aggression.
  • Road to WWII
    • Ideological polarization, rearmament, and unresolved WWI grievances culminate in German invasion of Poland ( Sept. 1, 1939 ), igniting the Second World War.
  • Ethical / Philosophical Takeaways
    • Fragility of democratic institutions under stress.
    • Danger of scapegoating & dehumanization ➜ Holocaust as ultimate warning.
    • Need for vigilance against propaganda and surrender of civil liberties in exchange for security or national glory.