rise of dictatorial regimes

  • by 1939, only britain and france were still democratic- italy, soviet union, germany, and many others were dictatorial, but in different ways
  • totalitarian state
    • government controls everything about the lives of the citizens (economic, social, intellectual, cultural)
    • didn’t just want obedience, wanted complete control
    • used lots of propaganda
    • led by single leader and single party
  • fascism in italy
    • 1920s- mussolini started as a socialist, then created a new political group that gives fascism its name
    • fascism: glorifies the state above the individual, government controls the people and stifles opposition
    • many italians were still angry that they didn’t have new land from the treaty of versailles, mussolini used that nationalism to get people to join him
    • threatened to march on rome if not given power: king made mussolini prime minister
    • used his position to make italy fascist (could pass whatever laws he wanted, police could arrest anyone for anything, outlawed all other political parties, lots of propaganda/media control)
    • by 1927 he ruled over all of italy as “the leader”
    • women had no rights
    • didn’t totally work- the vatican was still independent, still respected catholic authority
  • russia becomes the ussr
    • during civil war, russia had war communism. after the war, peasants hoarded food, everyone starved, it was not a fun time
    • lenin created the new economic policy (nep): peasants could sell their food, small retail stores and industries were allowed, but most big industries were still controlled by the state
    • 1922: formally created the ussr (union of soviet socialist republics, aka the soviet union)
    • after lenin’s death, there was a power struggle between the members of the politburo
    • group led by trotsky wanted to industrialize russia and spread communism
    • other group wanted to build a socialist state and continue the nep
    • stalin vs trotsky: stalin won, made the ussr into a dictatorship, and sent trotsky to mexico where he was murdered
    • 1928- stalin’s first five year plan, to industrialize russia
    • led to terrible conditions for workers
    • farms were collectivized (government took over family farms, peasants could only have tiny garden plots)
    • lots of famine
    • sent a ton of people to siberia
  • authoritarian states
    • big police presence, but created to preserve existing social order instead of change it
    • at the beginning, austria, poland, czechoslovakia, yugoslavia, romania, bulgaria, and hungary were all parliamentary, but due to little tradition of democracy and a mostly rural population, only czechoslovakia survived as democratic
  • spain
    • 1936- forces led by franco revolted against the democratic government and started the spanish civil war
    • fascist italy, germany, and the ussr helped franco
    • civil war ended when franco took madrid, established a dictatorship that ended in 1975 when he died
    • authoritarian, not totalitarian