I. Fascist and Communist Leadership

Fascism = anti-democratic

German-American Bunds (BOOnds): pro-Nazi camps in US

A. Conservative Authoritarianism

  • Antidemocratic, obedient bureaucracies, societal control

    • Occurring in Germany, Italy, Soviet Union (to an extent)

    • Want to control everything (e.g. intellectualism)

    • Supporting party agenda

  • Personal independence granted IF obedient to system/gov

    • Use of collective punishment to dissidents

  • Totalitarianism: strong new dictatorships

    • Beliefs/behavior control

    • Violent repression

    • Intense propaganda: spread through technology (radios)

    • Dissent/questioning/free speech crushed

    • Style of fascism

  • Com/Fasc: individualism seen as threat to equality and unity

    • Giving up civil liberties for the “greater good”

    • Community over individual

  • Censored, propagandized media + state-controlled social engineering = collective will

    • Forcefully make people believe something

    • Or become “enemies of the state”

  • Fascists intervened in economy, but did not level out classes

    • Helping out obedient citizens get better lives

    • Never truly egalitarian

  • Fascists persecuted based on racial homogeneity via eugenics

  • Communist persecuted via ideology/religion, not as much race

B. Lenin’s Soviet Union

  • 1921: Lenin’s Bolsheviks won the Russian civil war

    • Bolsheviks = Communists

  • Replaced War Communism with New Economic Policy (NEP) to rebuild

    • War Communism = closely following Marx

    • Little free market

    • Violating Marx to save Soviet Union from demise (capitalism)

  • Peasants (mainly farmers) could sell products on the free market

  • Lenin’s death (1924) leads to a power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky

    • Stalin = communize Soviet Union (realist)

    • Trotsky = communize globe (more Marxist)

  • Rapid economic recovery 1926

  • 1922-27: Stalin crushed all opponents

    • Trotsky’s global campaign would threaten SU stability

    • Stalin = secretary; gave out jobs → loyal support

    • Purges become effective tool for Stalin

      • Killing own supports → massive anxiety = more loyalty

C. Stalin’s Soviet Union

  • Centralized control over non-Russian republics in USSR

    • There are minorities in SU under communist rule

  • 1927: After consolidating power, ended NEP, replaced with Five Year Plans

    • Tries to communize industry and agriculture

    • Goal: increase industrial/agricultural output

      • Collectivization = agricultural part of 5YP; one big state farm

  • Forced collectivization = “kulaks” sabotage Stalin’s plans (Ukraine)

  • 1932-33 Holodomor in Ukraine = 3.5M forcefully starved to death

    • Shutdown of grain supply

    • State apparatus taking control…

    • Retribution for rebel kulaks

  • 1938: 93% of peasants were collectivized, ending political threats

  • 1928-37: Rapid industrialization quadrupled production

    • While the west was flailing…

D. Mussolini’s Italy

  • Fascists’ Goal: extreme nationalism and militarism

  • 1920s socialism plagued Italy = rise of Fascists

    • Fascism = rejection of (democratic) socialism

  • Black Shirts (Fascism subcategory) destroyed socialist papers, meetings, etc.

  • By Oct 1922, V.E. III appointed Mussolini Prime Minister

    • Mussolini = case model of Hitler

    • Picking most popular leader to save failing kingdom

  • Freedom of press abolished, elections fixed, rule by decree

    • Critique of election is crushed

  • Lateran Agreement (1929): recognized Vatican independence

    • Got Catholic Italians on his side

  • Compromised with conservative elites = less control

  • Opposed feminism, supported traditional gender roles

E. Emergence of Nazism

  • Extreme nationalism & racism (anti-Semitism)

  • 1923 Failed Beer Hall Putsch → legal takeover

  • Mein Kampf: “racial purification” & Lebensraum, Fuhrer

  • 1924-29: denounced capitalism & communism, building support

    • Capitalism is failing, communism is feared → join his inclusive party

  • 1928 = 2.6% in Reichstag; 1932 largest party

  • Bruning’s conservative policies worsened economy = more appeal to Hitler

  • Jan 1933: appointed Chancellor with coalition government

  • Hindenburg, old president, died in office, leaving Hitler in charge…