9-2 Rise of Dictatorial Regimes

RISE OF DICTATORIAL REGIMES

TOTALITARIAN STATE

• A government that tries to control the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives of the people.

• Basically, they try to control everything

• Modern communism and dictatorships produce totalitarian states.

• Goal: to conquer the minds & hearts of the citizens

CHARACTERISTICS OF A TOTALITARIAN STATE

• Led by a single leader and a single party

• Your individual freedoms were less important than the collective will of the group (which was decided on by the leader)

• The people had to be actively involved in working towards the state’s goals.

• Government has all the power

FASCISM

• A form of dictatorship

• Created by Benito Mussolini

• The state is more important than the individual

• A strong central gov’t led by a dictator

• No opposition is allowed.

BENITO MUSSOLINI

• Dreamed of recreating the Roman empire and returning Italy to its former power.

• Joined the socialist party, but was later kicked out and became anti-socialist.

• Created his own political movement, fascism

• Once expelled from school for stabbing a kid.

THE RISE OF FASCISM

• Inflation and a bad economy made socialism appealing to the people

• Middle classes feared a Russia-style takeover

• Blackshirts=Mussolini’s band of fascists, who attacked socialist offices and papers and broke up strikes

– This got him the support of the middle classes.

MUSSOLINI TAKES OVER

• 1922 – Mussolini threatens to march on Rome if he’s not given power

• Used his power to create a fascist dictatorship

– Gov’t could stop any newspaper or mag that criticized the church or gov’t

– Made himself head of the gov’t, with total power to make laws

• Made deals with the Catholic Church

– M makes Vatican City independent, Church supports him.

THE FASCIST STATE

• OVRA – Italian secret police

– in charge of monitoring activities of the people

– Regular police could arrest people for any reason

• Government used papers, radio, and film to spread fascist propaganda

• Youth groups created to train kids to be good fascists

– Boys – trained as soldiers

– Girls – taught to be good housewives.

– School books taught fascist propaganda.

PROBLEMS WITH THE USSR

• Remember, during the civil war, Lenin’s government took over the factories and seized almost all the food from peasant farmers to feed their army

• After the war, peasants hid their food, instead of giving it to the government

• Drought and famine left 5 million dead

• The country was on the verge of collapse

LENIN’s SOLUTION

• The New Economic Policy (NEP) was Lenin’s solution to fix Russia

– Peasants could sell their goods

– Small stores (under 20 workers) could be privately owned

• Supposed to be temporary

• Saved the Soviet Union

• Lenin died in 1924, and the other 7 members of the Politburo (head committee) fought for control

• Trotsky vs. Stalin

– Trotsky was the head of the army; wanted to end NEW, industrialize, and spread communism

– Stalin was the General Secretary; wanted to work on improving Russia

THE RISE OF STALIN

• Stalin used his job to take over the Communist Party

• Got rid of old Bolsheviks from Lenin’s time, and anyone that didn’t support him

• Trotsky was kicked out, and went to live in Mexico

• By 1929, Stalin had created a dictatorship.

FIVE YEAR PLANS

• Economic goals in 5 year periods whose purpose was to industrialize the Soviet Union.

• Focused on producing armaments (weapons) and heavy machinery

– Steel and oil production doubled and tripled

• More people moved to cities, but where they moved was controlled by the government

– Housing was cramped, conditions were bad

– Wages went down

• Collectivization – private farms are gone, and the government controls the land while the people work on it.

– All farms were squished into big farms

– The peasants didn’t like it –they often hid their crops and killed their livestock so the gov’t couldn’t take it

– Caused food shortages and famine

– In the Ukraine, the people resisted Stalin, and he took action. Crops were taken to feed the people in Russia, and famine was widespread.

• 7 million died in the “Terror Famine”

PURGES

• To purge is to remove

• Stalin was determined to purge all opponents from the Soviet Union

• People were put on trial, convicted, and executed

– First to go were any old Bolsheviks

– Then army officers, diplomats, party members, and others

– 8 million were arrested and sent to the gulag in Siberia

– Others were executed

AUTHORITARIAN STATES

• Countries that took some parts of totalitarian states but not all

• The goal was to preserve (keep) the existing social order...not a lot of change

• Police power was relied upon

• Many Eastern European

SPAIN

• Francisco Franco led a rebellion against the government

• Italy and Germany supported Franco, while Russia supported the Spanish gov’t

• Franco let Hitler test his new air force on the opposition

• Civil war ended in 1939

• Franco was not a totalitarian because gave power to the Church, large landowners, and business people.