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Rise of Dictators

Italy: Benito Mussolini


Germany: Adolf Hitler
USSR: Josef Stalin
How did the world feel after WWI?
FASCISM
• What is Fascism?
– Rule of a people by dictatorial government
that is nationalistic and imperialistic.
Rise of Fascism
State control of economy
Strict discipline
Rule by dictator
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Government control of news

Use of violence and terror


Strong military
Post WWI Italy
• Dissatisfaction and Unrest
– Italians not happy with their territories in the
Treaty of Versailles
– Chaos and disorder across the country
– Government (King) cannot solve crisis.
• Mussolini Takes Power
– Creates the Fascist Party in 1919
– Pledges to return Italy to greatness
– Marches on Rome (King finally gives him
power)
– Becomes dictator
– Glorifies the state at the expense of the
citizen (TOTALITARIAN)
– His government becomes to model for
others…Hitler and Stalin!
Germany After WWI
• Under the Weimar Republic
– Blamed for Versailles Treaty
– Economic Crisis
– Hyper Inflation
– Great Depression of 1929 cripples economy
– Demand for change brings about new cultural
movements (Nazis).
Rise of Nazi Party
• While in prison, a WWI Vet and local trouble
maker (Hitler) writes Mein Kampf.
• Hitler’s ideas are rooted in anti-Semitism
and beliefs of a master Aryan race.
• Nazi Party membership grows
• Hitler promises to end reparations, create
jobs, and re-arm Germany (What does this
violate?)
• Hitler elected Chancellor in 1933.
Nazi Rule
• Totalitarian State
• Hitler’s policies bring Germany out
of depression.
• Beloved by the people.
• Nazi ideas are spread to the youth.
(See Clips from Master Race)
• Nuremburg Laws/Kristallnacht
(Violence against Jews)
Cats that look like Hitler…

Kitler?
Post WWI Russia
• Lenin dies in 1924, Stalin gains power.
(Lenin did not want that to happen)
• Russification
– Stalin forced millions of his citizens to move to
isolate national groups who might want
independence from the U.S.S.R.
• Five Year Plans
– Stalin’s crash modernization of Soviet industry. He
planned to upgrade Soviet factories so that they could
compete with the West in five years.

Stalin took all the land away from the peasants and
collected it into large state run farms where the
peasants were forced to work.
(Collectivization)

When peasants refused to give up their land and


possessions, Stalin sent in enforcers to take away the
possessions of the peasants. Over two years over
5,000,000 peasants starved to death.
Use of terror…
• NKVD/KGB (Secret Police)
– Stalin’s secret police, these men terrorized
the population of the Soviet Union.15 Million
Soviet citizens were tortured to death as
traitors while millions more were sent off to
the gulags
– Gulag: Stalin’s prison camps mostly set up in
Siberia and other inhospitable locations.

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