1. Responses to the Great Depression

2. Capitalism Thought of as a self-correcting system Keynes Economics
Lack of government action made things worse
Keynes Economics
Urged governments to stimulate economies
Provide public works programs
Lower interest rates and encourage investment
Change tax policies to redistribute income

3. Capitalism President Roosevelt proposed “The New Deal”
Government provided jobs (CCC, WPA, CWA, etc.)
Farm subsidies
Banking reforms
Worker’s right to organize in unions
Minimum wage
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”

4. Communism in the Soviet Union

5. Communism in the Soviet Union
Lenin and Bolsheviks were communists
Met with quite a bit of opposition
Civil war 1918 – 1920
Red Terror campaign against anticommunists
Secret police killed about 200,000 in including Nicholas II and family
Estimated 10,000,000 died in the war

6. Communism in the Soviet Union
War Communism was developed during the civil war
Bolsheviks assumed control of banks, industry and most private property
Very unpopular: by 1920 agricultural production was ½ prewar production

7. Communism in the Soviet Union
Lenin faced several problems
Workers on strike
Depopulated cities
Destroyed factories
Soldiers discharged faster than workforce could absorb

8. Communism in the Soviet Union
Lenin reversed war communism in 1921 and established the New Economic Policy (NEP)
Temporarily restored some private enterprise and market economy
Large industries, banks, transportation and communications still under government control
Lenin dies in 1924 of a series of strokes

9. Communism in the Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin

10. Communism in the Soviet Union
Power struggle after Lenin’s death w/Trotsky
Stalin had been Secretary-General of politburo
Became Soviet dictator in 1928
Favored a socialism approach (Government owns everything but gives workers wages)
Replaced the NEP with Five-Year Plan
Set targets for production, emphasizing heavy industry at expense of consumer goods
Instituted large collective farming

12. Socialism in the Soviet Union
State took control of farm lands
Idea was that this created more efficiency and greater production
In some places, outraged peasants slaughtered their livestock and burned crops
Production quotas failed, people starved

14. Socialism in the Soviet Union
Stalin halted collectivization in proclaiming success
By then ½ of farms in Soviet Union had been collectivized
Estimates of over 3,000,000 peasants died

15. Socialism in the Soviet Union
First five-year plan had unrealistically high production targets
Bolshevik leaders within the Politburo were going to challenge Stalin in 1934 congress
Stalin implemented The Great Purge
Bolshevik leaders tried for treason (2/3 removed)
More than ½ of army’s high-ranking leaders removed
8 million citizens to labor camps, 3 million
dead from the “cleansing”

16. Socialism in the Soviet Union
Soviet leadership proclaimed success of the First Five-Year plan after four years (increased production 25%)
Successful in industrializing Soviet Union: steelworks, hydroelectric plants, railroads
Consumer goods scarce, yet cheap
Full employment
Centrally planned economy appeared to be an attractive alternative to capitalism

17. The Fascist Alternative

18. Different Kinds of Totalitarianism
Communism: a classless government based on socialism principles, in which a single authoritarian party controls the state-owned means of production.
Fascism: any centralized, authoritarian government that is not communist, whose
policies glorify the state over
individuals, and is destructive to
basic human rights.

19. The Fascist Alternative
A reaction against democracy, socialism, and communism.
Attractive to nationalists who shared devotion to a strong leader, primacy of the state, ethnocentrism, and militarism.
Viewed national boundaries as artificial restraints, limiting their union with ethnic comrades.

20. The Fascist Alternative in Italy
Benito Mussolini in Italy
Post WWI Italian government weak
Mussolini established the Italian Combat Veteran’s League
Squads known as “Blackshirts” used violence against socialists and won 35 seats in parliament
October 1922 March on Rome, King Emmanuel III offers him office of Prime Minister.
Seized power as Il Duce “the leader” in 1926

21. The Fascist Alternative in Germany
Hitler becomes chairman of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis)
Unsuccessfully attempts overthrow of government in 1923, writes Mein Kampf in jail
Massively popular
Capitalizes on public discontent with postwar era
Released in 1924, gained power at ballot box
Nazis became largest party in parliament in 1930

22. The Fascist Alternative in Germany
Hitler becomes Chancellor in 1933
Makes Nazis the sole legal party
Eliminates autonomy of state and local governments
Purged the judiciary and civil service
Took control of police forces
Launched theory of racial superiority, racial purity
Began program of eugenics
Precursor to massacres of Jews, gypsies
Kristallnacht: country-wide pogrom on Jews
November 9-10, 1938