Communism, fascism, democracy, 1917 1939

Communism,
Fascism, Democracy,
1917-1939

Russian Revolution
❖1917.
❖Since reign of Peter the
Great (1689-1725), some
Russians were determined
to become more “Western,”
while others favoured Slavic
culture.

❖Strong pressures for change.
❖After defeat in 1856 in Crimean
War, Czar Alexander II
(1855-1881) undertook series of
reforms, including
emancipating serfs in 1861.
❖He was assassinated in 1881.
Russian Revolution

❖Russia still moved towards
industrialization.
❖Military defeat by Japan in 1905,
led to revolution that forced
Nicholas II (1894-1917) to introduce
Russia’s first constitution.
❖Duma (parliament) was ineffective
and failed to limit the czar’s power.
Russian Revolution

❖Russia entered WWI poorly
prepared.
❖Troop mobilization was very
slow, food shortages were
constant, soldiers were poorly
supplied.
❖By the end of 1915, over 2 million
Russian troops had been killed!!!
Russian Revolution

❖People who supported the regime
begam to question its handling of the
war.
❖Early 1917, many troops abandoned
the front and went home.
❖March 1917, rioting broke out in
Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and spread
to factories and military.
❖Troops would not fire on rioters.
Russian Revolution

❖Duma, supported by public
opinion, asked the czar to
abdicate.
❖Power was placed in the hands
of a Provisional Government.
❖Soviets (workers’ councils),
involved in 1905 revolution,
reappeared.
Russian Revolution

❖Petrograd Soviet attracted soldiers
and called itself the Soviet Workers’
and Soldiers’ Deputies.
❖Provisional Government attempted
to rule until Constituent Assembly
could draw new constitution.
❖Also set out to win the war and
reorganize Russia as a democratic
state.
Russian Revolution

❖Lenin read about March Revolution and
abdication of czar in Swiss newspaper
and returned to Russia.
❖When he arrived in Petrograd, he laid
down a program (the April Theses),
stating that the war should be stopped
immediately and the Bolsheviks should
support the Soviet as the true form of
revolutionary government, not the
Duma.
Russian Revolution

❖He demanded “nationalization of all
lands in the country” and control of the
land by the local Soviets.
❖Many were shocked at Lenin’s plans to
do away with the “bourgeois revolution”
or (the Provisional Government).
❖Marx had previously deemed this a
necessary stage in the communist
revolution, but Lenin revised this
ideology to deal with Russia’s problems.
Russian Revolution

❖Thus, the new ideology imposed
on Russia should be called
“Bolshevism,” or “Leninism,”
rather than “Marxism.”
❖The Bolsheviks began gaining
seats in elections with the Soviets.
❖By November, they had a majority
in Petrograd and Moscow Soviets.
Russian Revolution

❖By 1917, situation was deteriorating
at the front and at home.
❖Lenin and the Bolsheviks were the
only significant group that had
consistently opposed the war.
❖Leon Trotsky (1879-1940),
independent Marxist, joined Lenin.
❖Leading intellectual, trusted by poor.
Russian Revolution

❖November 6, Bolsheviks overthrew
Provisional Government, with help
of military and Petrograd Soviet.
❖Bolsheviks carried out successful
coup d’état!!!
❖Freedom of press was restricted,
Constituent Assembly was closed,
secret police, CHEKA, established.
Russian Revolution

❖Lenin was determined to end Russia’s
participation in the war and sent
Trotsky to negotiate with Germans.
❖March 15, 1918, Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk was signed between Russia and
Germany.
❖Disastrous for Russia (surrendered
26% of territories, 75% coal mines, and
richest grain area, Ukraine).
Russian Revolution

❖Lenin moved government to old
capital of Moscow.
❖Bolsheviks, known as the “Reds,”
because of the colour of their flag,
had to fight civil was against the
“Whites,” who wanted an assembly
elected by universal voting.
❖Trotsky organized the “Red Army.”
Russian Revolution

❖Bolsheviks also had to fight troops
from foreign countries, including
Britain, Japan, Canada, and United
States, who had been sent to crush
new regime.
❖Main opponents of Bolsheviks
were defeated by 1920.
Russian Revolution

Communist International
(Comintern)
❖Marx had always seen revolution as an
international process which Lenin and
Trotsky agreed with.
❖Lenin and Trotsky created the Comintern in
1919.
❖Communism advocated state ownership of
land and property and sought the destruction
of non-communist governments on behalf of
the working people of the world.

Communist International
(Comintern)
❖Lenin and Trotsky invited
socialist parties to join them.
❖But, these parties had to change
their name to communist and
accept “21 Conditions” set out by
Lenin.
❖Most European socialists refused.

Stalin and Soviet Union
❖Lenin’s death (stroke or
neurosyphilis) left Trotsky and Josef
Stalin (1879-1953) as chief contenders
for power.
❖Trotsky favoured open elections to
the party leadership, loosening
bureaucracy, and “permanent
revolution,” with Russia as heart of
world communist revolutions.

❖Stalin insisted on the development
of industrialization in Russia and
establishment of powerful
communist state, before pursuing
an aggressive foreign policy.
❖Stalin won because of his cunning
and ability to organize coalitions
against Trotsky.

❖Trotsky was thrown
out of Communist
Party in 1927 and
exiled from Russia 2
years later.
❖1940, Stalin sent an
agent to assassinate
Trotsky at his home in
Mexico.

❖1924, Russia officially became the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
❖Stalin inaugurated the USSR’s First
Five-Year Plan in 1928, in an attempt to
rapidly develop heavy industry.
❖High human cost – few consumer goods
were produces and people were forced
into labour.
❖Second Five-Year Plan from 1932 to
1937.

❖Iron and steel production expanded
fourfold, while coal production rose
by 3 ½.
❖No country had ever industrialized
so quickly.
❖Stalin ordered farms be
collectivized, beginning in 1929.
❖Ownership in the hands of the state.

❖Stalin also wished to control farm
production and millions of people
who were engaged in it.
❖Policy was directed mainly against
peasants known as kulaks.
❖They had land of their own, were
well off, and produced enough
surplus food to sell on open market.

❖Stalin wanted to take land from people
who had acquired it when serfdom ended
in 1861, and force all peasants to work for
the state as part of collective communes.
❖Many peasants resisted collectivization.
❖When agents of the state came to
expropriate lands, peasants fought them
and slaughtered own cattle rather than
turn them over to state authorities.

❖People were relocated, many sent to
forced labour camps in Siberia.
❖Millions of people were killed or
died (5 to 10 million!) in guerilla war
between peasants and government.
❖By 1934, over 70 percent of the farms
in Russia were collectivized.
❖Kulaks had been eliminated as a
class.

❖Soviet Union was run by a single
party led by Stalin.
❖New elite emerged in Soviet Union –
the managers; people who controlled
and organized the party and the state.
❖Communist Party made policy
parallel to the government.
❖1932, Stalin began a purge of the
Communist Party.

❖Eliminate all possible rivals and
secure power.
❖1934, “Reign of Terror,” when
Stalin intensified his purge.
❖By 1938, large number of “old
Bolsheviks,” had been executed.
❖Purge also created fear in
people.

❖“Trials” were conducted in which
loyal men “confessed” to betraying
the revolution.
❖Affected millions!!!
❖Many were executed, large
numbers were sent to prison or
forced labour camps.
❖Soviet Union became police state.

❖Russia was Stalin’s main
interest, not world revolution.
❖Asked Russian peasants and
workers to produce for the
homeland, not to prove the
value of the communist
system.

❖Propaganda machine of the state
turned out material that supported
Stalin’s policies and portrayed him as a
figure larger than life, a hero on a par
with Marx, Lenin, and the great czars.
❖This had little to do with Marxism.
❖Forcing people to work for the state
was opposite of what early
revolutionaries hoped to achieve.

❖Perpetual terror was not a Marxist ideal.
❖Elitism was not equality.
❖Totalitarian society was not the decline
of the state.
❖Stalin’s communism, like Lenin’s
Bolshevism, must be understood in its
own terms.
❖His brand of communism is often called
“Stalinism.”

❖While Russia was embroiled in
revolution, World War I ended.
❖Social conflict affected Germany,
Hungary, Spain, and Italy - new
political movement called Fascism
emerged as a response in Italy.
❖Italy’s participation in World War
I produced severe social and
economic strains.
Fascism: A New Phenomenon

Fascism
❖1919, country seemed on the
verge of revolution, but divided
Italian parliament was unable to
respond.
❖Middle and upper class Italians
looked for ways to defend their
interests – found in Fascism.

❖Fascist movement was
started by Benito Mussolini
(1883-1945), former journalist.
❖Mussolini was a socialist
until he was expelled from the
party for supporting Italian
intervention in World War I.
Fascism

❖Served in the army until 1917.
❖Mussolini sought to create a new
political force that combined
social radicalism with extreme
nationalism.
❖Initial Fascist program was
anticlerical, antimonarchist, and
called for redistribution of land.
Fascism

❖Elections of November 1919,
the Fasci Italiani di
Combattimento (Italian Combat
Groups) received only 5 000
votes.
❖Growth and success of socialist
agricultural unions in northern
Italy terrified landowners.
Fascism

❖Uniform squads, fascio, composed
primarily of veterans and students,
undertook campaigns of violence
against local socialists.
❖Authorities did nothing.
❖First 6 months of 1921, 102 deaths.
❖By 1921, the fascio, had 250,000
members!!
Fascism

❖Prime minister, Giovanni
Giolitti, put together a National
Bloc, including Fascists.
❖Bloc did not win number of
votes Giolitti had expected.
❖Did permit 35 Fascists,
including Mussolini, to enter
parliament.
Fascism

❖By 1922, the king offered
Mussolini the position of prime
minister after he threatened to
march on Rome if his party was
not given 5 cabinet positions.
❖Mussolini and Fascists had
come to power legally.
Fascism

❖Fascists used open intimidation
and violence.
❖Hundreds of people were killed
and many opposition candidates
withdrew.
❖63% of voters supported Fascists.
❖November 1925, laws were enacted
that put Fascists in control.
Fascism

❖December 1925, Mussolini
became head of government
and was given authority to take
executive actions without being
responsible to government.
❖December 1928, Fascist Party
took full control of the state.
Fascism

❖Fascism cultivated the growing
cult of Il Duce, the leader.
❖Mussolini’s name was stencilled
on walls and his picture appeared
in all public buildings.
❖School textbooks compared him
with the greatest figures in Italian
history.
Fascism

❖Some traditional institutions
remained in place and outside
Fascist control:
❖King Victor Emmanuel III
continued on his throne in Italy.
❖Mussolini made peace with the
Roman Catholic Church, enemy of
the Italian state since unification.
Fascism

❖Lateran Agreements, signed by
Mussolini and Pope Pius XI in
1929, recognized “the full
ownership and exclusive and
absolute dominion…of the Holy
See over the Vatican,” an
independent territory in the heart
of Rome.
Fascism

❖All differences between Italy and the
Vatican were settled.
❖Church recognized the existence of
the Italian state.
❖Mussolini set out to reorganize the
state.
❖Established “corporate state,”
created a series of corporations to
regulate the economy.
Fascism

❖Each labour group had its
corporation and each individual
took part in the economic life of
Italy by being a member of a
corporation.
❖These corporations would bargain
collectively with the government
the final say in any settlement.
Fascism

❖“Lockouts and strikes are abolished.”
❖Mussolini’s economic goal was self-
sufficiency, but it was impossible in a
country with limited natural resources.
❖The state sponsored works of art that
praised power, war, and heroism.
❖Architecture was grand and
monumental – attempt to recall ancient
Rome.
Fascism

❖Fascism sought to mobilize women as
wives and mothers on behalf of the
state.
❖Regime attacked birth control and
abortion and encouraged large families.
❖Mussolini did not think in racial and
anti-Semitic terms initially.
❖Changed in 1938 when a “Manifesto of
Fascist Racism” was published.
Fascism

❖Followed by laws banning
intermarriage, barring Jewish
students and teachers from
schools and universities,
removing books authored by
Jews from curriculum, and
revoking citizenship of foreign-
born Jews.
Fascism

Germany: Weimar Republic
❖February 1919, leaders of newly
elected constituent assembly
met and signed the Treaty of
Versailles.
❖Drew up a new constitution
that established liberal and
democratic republic.
❖Chancellor = prime minister.

❖President was elected as
head of state.
❖Church and state were
separated and freedom of
speech, assembly,
association, and property
rights were guaranteed.

❖During 1920s, governments in
Weimar Republic were formed by
coalitions of various parties that
were committed to the constitution.
❖Most important were the Social
Democratic Party, the heir of
revisionist socialists, Catholic
Centre Party, and Democratic Party.

❖Weimar Republic was always in
danger because powerful groups
never accepted Germany’s defeat,
claiming leaders of the Republic
were responsible for a “stab in the
back.”
❖1923, because of economic
problems, Germany claimed it could
not meet its reparation payments.

❖Inflation was
destroying the value
of German currency
and middle class
saw its savings
disappear.
❖People became
disillusioned with
Weimar Republic.

❖Reparation payments were
reduced in 1924, foreign capital
entered the country, border
problems with France were settled
by 1925 and Germany was admitted
into the League of Nations in 1926.
❖Stock market crash in October
1929 triggered devastating
depression.

❖As unemployment
soared, radical
parties enjoyed new
opportunities.
❖Group called the
National Socialists,
Nazis, took full
advantage of the
opportunity.

Rise of Nazism
❖Hitler, son of a customs officer.
❖Born and reared in Austria.
❖Childhood marked by failure
and deep frustration.
❖Went to Vienna to study art but
was refused admission to the
Academy of Fine Arts.

❖Unable to hold a regular job, he
was a vagabond, hating Vienna and
its intellectuals for rejecting him.
❖Became an ultra-German
nationalist and looked upon Slavs
and other nationalities in the
Austro-Hungarians Empire as
inferior.
Rise of Nazism

❖Became leader of right-wing
press and acquired contempt for
liberal and leftist views.
❖Became a virulent anti-Semite.
❖Jews of Vienna had long been
citizens of the empire and were
important in intellectual and
economic life.
Rise of Nazism

❖In Hitler’s view, Jews were not
Germans but a race apart to be
hated and feared.
❖First World War gave Hitler
something to do.
❖He enlisted in the army, rose in
rank to corporal, fought on western
front, and was decorated for valour.
Rise of Nazism

❖After the war, he went to Munich,
harbouring deep resentment over
Germany’s defeat and hatred for
Weimar Republic.
❖1919, joined a tiny group called
German Workers’ Party, that
changed to the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party.
Rise of Nazism

❖Hitler discovered that he had
extraordinary powers to arouse an
audience and became the leader of the
Nazis.
❖Nazis adopted a semi-military
organization.
❖Wore uniforms, saluted, paraded, and
physically attacked their opponents,
particularly communists.
Rise of Nazism

❖The SA (storm troopers) was
organized in 1921.
❖Nazis hated those who signed
Treaty of Versailles and
proclaimed that Germany had not
been defeated but betrayed at
home, particularly by Jews and
communists.
Rise of Nazism

❖1923, Hitler and Ludendorff,
hero of First World War, sought
to overthrow the government.
❖November 8, meeting in a
Munich beer hall, Hitler stood
up, fired a shot in the air and
proclaimed his coup d'état.
Rise of Nazism

❖Beer Hall Putsch ended quickly
when the army dispersed a
march of the SA led by
Ludendorff and Hitler.
❖Hitler’s arrest and trial
provided him with vast publicity
and he became a prominent
figure.
Rise of Nazism

❖He claimed to be acting to protect
Germany from the communists
and defended national interests.
❖Given a 5-year sentence and
released in less than a year.
❖Hitler used his time in jail to
dictate Mein Kampf, that became
Nazi bible.
Rise of Nazism

❖“No more than Nature desires the
mating of the weaker with stronger
individuals, even less does she desire the
blending of a higher with a lower race,
since, if she did, her whole work of
higher breeding, over perhaps hundreds
of thousands of years, might be ruined
with one blow…The result of all racial
crossing is…[the] lowering of the level
of the higher race.
Mein Kampf

❖“The mightuest counterpart to the
Aryan [race] is represented by the Jews…
The Jew today is the great agitator for
the complete destruction of Germany…
The purpose of propaganda is…to
convince the masses. But the masses are
slow moving…and only after the simplest
ideas are repeated thousands of times
will the masses finally remember them…
Mein Kampf

❖“We National Socialists must hold
unflinchingly to our aim in foreign
policy, namely, to secure for the
German people the land and soil to
which they are entitled on this earth.
And this action is the only one
which, before God and our German
posterity, would make any sacrifice
of blood seem justified.”
Mein Kampf

❖Hitler reorganized party once
released from prison in 1925.
❖Hitler established SS, personal
elite bodyguard.
❖Determined to destroy Weimar
Republic.
❖Depression of 1929 gave Hitler his
opportunity.
Rise of Nazism

❖Army believed Hitler was its best
chance to establish firm
conservative rule.
❖Nationalist Party and Reichstag
(German parliament), joined
coalition with Nazis.
❖January 30, 1933, Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany.
Rise of Nazism

❖February, Reichstag building was set on
fire.
❖Nazis blamed communists and
persuaded President Hindenburg to
suspend civil liberties.
❖It permitted “restrictions on personal
freedom, on the right of free expression
of opinion, including freedom of the
press, and on the rights of association.”
Rise of Nazism

❖March, Hitler unleashed SA to suppress
opponents and intimidate electorate.
❖Reichstag passed Enabling Act which
suspended constitution and gave Hitler
dictatorial powers.
❖Weimar Republic was dead.
❖Hitler called new regime the Third
Reich.
❖May, right to strike was abolished.
Rise of Nazism

❖July, law proclaimed “the only political
party existing in Germany is the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party.”
❖Hitler purged his own party, known as
“The Night of the Long Knives” – members
were arrested and murdered by the SS and
the Gestapo (secret police).
❖Hindenburg died a few weeks later and
Hitler combined offices of chancellor and
president, calling himself der Fuhrer.
Rise of Nazism

❖Members of armed forces took an
oath of personal allegiance to
Hitler, not to the state.
❖Persecution of Jews began
immediately.
❖Intimidation and violence were
officially encouraged with
Nuremberg Laws of 1935.
Rise of Nazism

❖Deprived Jews of German citizenship
and forbade Jews to intermarry.
❖Nazis expelled Jews from civil
service, professions and jobs, and all
cultural life.
❖End of 1938, all Jewish businesses
had been forced to close.
❖Gypsies were also persecuted.
Rise of Nazism

❖Opponents of Nazi state were
terrorized or went into exile, including
Freud and Einstein.
❖To most Germans, Hitler was revered.
❖People now had security and strong
collective identity.
❖Hitler instituted public works
program and German rearmament.
Rise of Nazism

❖Expanded the economy and nearly
every German had a job by 1938.
❖Nazi Germany was a welfare state.
❖Loans, child benefits, free day care,
vacations were available to “pure”
couples.
❖Regime introduced compulsory
sterilization of mentally ill, criminals,
and juvenile offenders.
Rise of Nazism

❖More than 200 000 had been sterilized
by 1937.
❖By 1939, government had killed over 70
000 patients with mental disabilities.
❖Hitler and Nazis despised Christianity.
❖Religion was seen as meek, preaching
universal love.
❖And Jewish origins of Christianity
disturbed Nazis.
Rise of Nazism

❖Nazis desired complete control of
education, attacked Church schools.
❖Pope Pius XI did not break with Nazis
or speak out against racist methods –
very controversial.
❖Nazism took the swastika as its
emblem.
❖Books contrary to those of the regime
were burned.
Rise of Nazism

❖Nazi took control of the press, radio, and
cinema in order to spread their
propaganda.
❖Millions of youths joined the
Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth).
❖By 1939, Germany became a totalitarian
state – self-sacrificing, devoted to the
collective good, united in a single will.
❖Aryan nation was on the move.
Rise of Nazism

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