inter-war world: the great depression ideological alternatives: soviet union and germany

Inter-War World:The Great Depression

IdeologicalAlternatives:Soviet Union

andGermany

Ideological Alternatives

Has Capitalism Failed?

- This was not an academic question in the early 1930s

- America, Western Europe (especially Britain): feared that if people accepted the argument that many were making – namely ‘Yes it does not work’, they would make other choices

- There were two proffered c.1930-35: Fascism and Communism


Has Capitalism Failed? Soviet Union, Germany had already said ‘yes’

- Following upon Lenin’s Revolution: a struggle for his successor had not only kept “Communist” ideals in place -- it had led to an ‘evolution’ of that ideology [under Stalin, below] in the 1920s, 1930s global situation

[similar to the way Mao had taken Soviet Communism and made it ‘Chinese’]


Has Capitalism Failed? Soviet Union, Germany had already said ‘yes’

- The repercussions of Germany’s debt to Versailles (WWI), France’s occupation of the Ruhr (1922-3) resulting in the Dawes Plan – exacerbated by the Depression -- led to the rise of German Fascism

- [similar to Japan’s use of Ultra-Nationalism to create authoritarian, militarized, racist state]

- Italy also ‘shared’ in this European Fascism, although it could not/did not claim the same ‘roots’ for its ultra-nationalism as Hitler’s Germany did

Alternatives: the Soviet Union


Video

Stalin and the Modernization of the

Soviet Union

[Add’l. Rdgs., shown in Class]


“Stalinism”:

- Joseph Stalin emerged from post-Leninist political foray as ‘winner’: but not with complete support

- position as Party Secretary allowed him to manipulate people of like-minded ideas into positions of power

- ultimately exercised full power himself

Alternate Paths: Soviet Union

Pillars of Modernization:

- Five Year Plans: ‘staged’ development

- Industry (first): required infrastructure

- Agriculture (second): required machinery in turn, dependent on Industry


Main Issues of Modernization:

- ‘catch-up’ : industry

- lag in terms of infrastructure: power (electricity – water, coal); transport (roads, railroads)

- built on forced labour: prisoners and others

All forms of coerced labour were ‘legitimate’ in terms of Stalinist goals


Agriculture:

-5-Year Plan 1929: called for ‘collectivization’

- attempt to apply industrial achievements (machinery) to traditional peasant cultivation: ‘shared use’ of expensive equipment = more efficiency

- ‘in principle’ made good sense


Peasants being ‘taught’ collectivization by government agents


In reality:

- base of agricultural economy was not the peasant but the Kulak: farmer with land, income able to employ others

- collectivization destroyed Kulaks (‘enemy of state goals’) but the local economy depended on them as employers

- generated resistance not only along class lines but at the community level


Kulaks Being Evicted, Ukraine


The Road to Famine:

- even as industry, urban growth looked successful and was portrayed as such…

- peasants starving to meet ‘5-year plan’ goals

- intentional genocide? - cruelty for the sake of power?- delusion, denial?

Ongoing debate among historians


The Road to Famine: presented as total success

“Typical VillageCelebration ofCollectivization”


The Road to Famine:

Idealized Harvest Scene underCollectivization


“Cult of the Personality”

- Stalin successfully associated all that was ‘good and progressive’ with his plans

- effectively created , then exploited image as: ‘father of nation , children, women, workers’

Stalin as ‘Papa’:

Family Man –Embracing women, military, culture …


Show Trials: [see video]

- were exactly that: ‘trials’ of those accused of subverting Stalin’s ‘vision’

- staged for international audience: impact significant

Impression of Stalin and Soviet Union on eve WWII: strong, healthy economy – authoritarian but effective government

Soviet Communism Works!!

”Long live the worker's and peasant's Red Army, the true guard of Soviet frontiers !” (1935)

« Stalin‘s spirit inspire and defend our Army and Motherland» (1939)

Alternate Paths - Germany

Germany’s Situation Was Completely Different: - Germany and Russia ‘Allies’ in WWI

- Russia’s Revolution took them out of the war, and therefore out of its ‘spoils’

- But in 1920s, new Soviet Union appeared to be doing so much better than Germany. . .

- Why? Germans put much of that down to ‘Versailles Punishment’ – government had not ‘negotiated’ well


Weimar Government attempted to address crisis by:

- increasing ‘social’ spending: more than doubled by 1929

- printing more money: 1921-24 era of hyperinflation

- Just like other nations responded to Great Depression: Germany already responding to its own national depression following loss of economic viability of Ruhr Valley (French invasion 1922-3)


Piles of New Bank Notes: ready for distribution


- wiped out savings, effectively undermined cash economy

- millions ofGerman marks worthless

50 million markbanknote, 1923


Impact of Great Depression:

- in addition to struggling export sector: German economy of 1920s based on loans

- US major ‘banker’: extensive capital loans kept economy alive [last lecture, role of US international loans]

- with impact Great Depression: all markets closed, foreign trade (import and export) collapsed

US demanded repayment: economy collapsed completely

Alternate Paths - Germany- industry quickly ground to halt

- production levels fell: workers laid off

- banks failed throughout country: savings accounts recently built up, instantly wiped out

- Inflation soon followed making it hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with devalued money


Berliners Demandtheir Money:‘Bank Run’

Roads to War - Germany

Said to be worth the price of a loaf of bread, 1930s


‘Communists Fill the Streets, May-Day 1930’


Exactly the same disastrous economic dynamic as happened in the United States: Differences were. . .

- in part: post-WWI experience in general

- in larger part: extent to which the middle class was ‘new’ in Germany and reacted in different ways to protecting their status

- In part: easy association of ‘military’ strength (remember Germany was not allowed to grow its military”) with economic capability


Exactly the same disastrous economic dynamic as happened in the United States: Differences were. . .

- In very large part: history of anti-Semitism

- Jews had immigrated into the United States following on anti-Semitism in Europe (generally)

- Germany (under Bismark) had been a nation very influenced by anti-Jewish politics: they were well entrenched by the post-war era


The recent history of anti-Semitism:- Hugely important to remember ‘history’ here

- Late 19th century anti-Semitism was particularly virulent in Eastern Europe/Russia but had become entrenched in German politics as well

- Just as Russian ‘nationalists’ initiated pogroms against the Jews (supported by the Tsar), German ‘nationalists’ were able to ‘tap into’ that racist ideology to create Nazism


Rise of Adolf Hitler:

- led National Socialist German Workers’ Party – Nazis in 1920s

- wrote Mein Kampf 1925: radical plan to build master Aryan race, retake lands with German peoples (direct reaction to French occupation of Ruhr 1922-3), restore “German dignity”

- this was ‘ultra nationalism’ as experienced by Japan: difference - ‘Aryan Whites’ (not ‘Asians’) at its base


Crisis of Great Depression: government fell apart- political parties in Reichstag broke into squabbling, uncompromising groups

- government dissolved July 1930: election planned for September

- Hitler’s party: few followers (approx. 100,000 in population 60 million) -- until then

- 1930: German People finally ready to listen to Hitler’s ideas


Hitler’s Platform:- found scapegoats to blame for failing economy: Jews

- four-year plan of militarization (previously restricted under Treaty of Versailles):

- would restore power while addressing unemployment

- would address problem of growing ‘German’ population: acquire “living space”, retake areas with German populations rendered ‘independent’ after WWI

Hitler: from electoral victory to Chancellor 1930- 1933


Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor, 1934

Alternate Paths - GermanyHitler’s Germany: resurrection of late-19th Century

Anti-Semitism

- Nazis took over all government agencies, educational institutes, professions

- restrictions on Jews: removed from public offices; property confiscated; loss civil rights

Alternate Paths - GermanyHitler’s Imperialism: carried with it destruction of Jews

- invasion, occupation of Poland (1939, below): 1000s Polish Jews shot or confined to ghettoes

- began sending others to concentration camps (slave labour, death)

- invasion Soviet Union (1941, below): 10,000s Jews killed by death squads

Death and ConcentrationCamps

Numbers Murdered in each Country

Alternate Paths - GermanyHitler’s Germany:

- 1934: Hitler declared himself Fuhrer (‘leader’)

- constitution suspended, Germany renamed ‘Third Reich’: meant to last ‘one thousand years’

- Nazi Fascism combination of ‘socialism’ (public works), militarism (arms manufacture), anti-Semitism (allowing for over-taking of financial assets of wealthy Jewish businessmen, bankers): worked – it was effective


“By 1936 business was booming; unemployment was at its lowest level since the 1910s; and living standards were rising. Most Germans believed that their economic well-being outweighed the loss of liberty”

Germany was the only country to appear to have successfully survived and triumphed over, the Great Depression! Fascism worked…


‘Re’ Unification of German Peoples: aggressive, step-by-step foreign policy of imperialism

- 1933:withdrew from League of Nations - 1936 reoccupied German Rhineland (Ruhr)

- 1936/7 entered ‘pact’ with Japan [lecture on ‘Inter-War Asia’]

- 1938: annexed Austria - 1939: invaded Czechoslovakia - September 1, 1939: invaded Poland

Great Britain, France declared war on Germany.


Alternatives: - By early-mid 1930s: it appeared to many people in the

Western World (on both sides of the Atlantic) that successful ‘choices’ had been developed elsewhere

- many Americans attracted by Soviet Model (as they knew it from excellent propaganda)

- Other Europeans (e.g. Italy) attracted to Germany’s meteoric rise: also a model elsewhere (e.g. South Africa)[see lecture ‘WWI impact – world wide]

Alternatives: Roads to War

Eve of WWII:

- Not at all clear that ‘Western Democracies’ would or even should succeed

- Many questions about how much personal/social ‘freedom’ was worth when the cost could be as devastating as the Great Depression

- Japan, Soviet Union, Germany (by extension Italy who had replicated Germany’s road to fascism with similar results) had seemingly ‘proven’ there were viable alternatives!

inter-war world: the great depression ideological alternatives: soviet union and germany

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