Rise of Totalitarian Dictators

Benito Mussolini

• Italy after WWI– Disappointed w/ Versailles settlement– Severe Economic crisis• War drove up expenses• Cost of living shot up 500%• Unemployment was rising• Widespread social unrest

– Upper and middle classes feared unrestmight lead to Communism

Mussolini Seizes Power

• Mussolini organized war veterans– Known as Black Shirts– Roamed the streets beating up

Communists• Fascists won support from the middle

class, aristocracy and the industrialists• By 1922, Mussolini was named Prime

Minister– Effectively taking power from King Victor

Emmanuel III– By 1924, he is known as Il Duce

Italy under Il Duce• Democracy was removed

– All political parties were abolished– Press was censored– Secret police clamped down on all

opposition• Mussolini believed business owners

and workers must be forced to cooperate– Set up 22 state corp. to run all parts of

Italy’s economy• Strikes were against the law

• Both Franco in Spain and Hitler in Germany would borrow ideas from Mussolini

Stalin’s Rise to Power

• Born in Georgia– Southern border of the

Russian empire• Changed his name to Stalin,

means “man of steel”– Cold, hard, and impersonal– Beaten by his father– Low self-esteem because of

his looks

Became leader of Russia in 1928

• He believed that foreign enemies would attack the Soviet Union (since 1922)– Felt Russia needed to

modernize or be taken over

Industrial Revolution

• Five-Year Plan for development of USSR– Desired growth in all parts of the country– Set specific goals for each industry

• Goals were high • Economists thought them to be impossible

– Government took control of production• Decided who worked, where they worked, how long

– Secret police imprisoned or executed those who didn’t contribute

– 1st and 2nd Five-Year Plans produced great results• USSR was becoming an industrial power

Five-Year Plan Propaganda

Agricultural Revolution

• 1928, privately owned farms were abolished– There were 25 million small

farms in 1928• Replaced with collective farms– Worked by hundreds of families– Equipped w/ modern machinery– Eventually produce more food

w/ fewer people

Agricultural Revolution

• Peasants resisted change– 5-10 million peasants died– Millions were shipped to

Siberia– Farmers horded and

destroyed their crops and livestock• 1931 and 1932, one of the greatest famines in the countries history

– 1938, 90% of all peasants lived on collective farms• Produced about as much wheat as it had in 1928

– Before collectivization

Stalin turns against his own Party

• 1936-1938, tried and executed millions of people– Old Bolsheviks from Lenin’s Era– Others were tried as well

• People who had friends in foreign counties• Factory and farm managers• Second in command and most loyal advisor

Germany and Adolf Hitler

• No country suffered more after WWI than Germany– Factories stopped production– Banks closed– 1932, 40% unemployment– Upper & middle classes

turned to Fascism known as Nazism

Nazism• Blamed the Treaty of Versailles for

Germany’s troubles• Condemned democracy as a foreign

system– Forced on them by Allied Powers

• Declared economic problems stem from– Losing it’s European territories and

colonies– The burden of reparations to France

and GB• Believed that Germany must regain

its military power

Hitler’s Rise to Power

• Born in a small town in Austria in 1889

• Dropped out of High School• Moved to Vienna to study

art & architecture– Lived an aimless life– Lived in hotels and did odd jobs

Hitler’s Rise to Power

• WWI broke out– Volunteered for the German army– Fought well and twice won the

Iron Cross• WWI ended and Hitler went to

Munich– Joined National Socialist German

Workers’ Party• called Nazis for short• Adopted the swastika in 1920• Set up private army called the Storm

Troopers or SA

Hitler becomes Fuhrer of the Nazi’s

• Public speaking– less polished than Mussolini– filled with hatred– He would began his speech

in a normal voice, get louderand louder as anger swelled up. Finally, he would seem to lose all self-control. His face would puff with rage, his voice would rise to a screech, and his hands would flail around in the air. Then he would suddenly stop, smooth his hair, and calm again.

Hitler takes control of Germany

• Nazis became the largest party in Germany during the Depression of the 1930’s

• 1933 Germany’s president named Hitler chancellor– Hitler’s first act as chancellor

was to call for new Reichstag (parliament) elections• someone set fire to the

Reichstag building just days before the elections– the Nazis blamed the Communists

• Nazis won a majority of the seats– Due to “Communist

sabotage”– Nazi storm troopers at

voting centers

The Revolution begins

• Nazis excluded Communists from Reichstag• Passed the Enabling Act

– gave Hitler the right to make laws for the next 4 years without the approval of the Reichstag

– gave Hitler his dictatorship• Banned competing political parties• Ruled through his secret police, the

Gestapo• By mid 1930’s, concentration camps had

been set up to jail anyone who had opposing political ideas– Later “Final Solution”