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