1. Rise of Totalitarian Dictators

2. 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 unrest
might lead to Communism

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Five-Year Plan Propaganda

9. 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

10. 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

11. Stalin turns against his own Party
, 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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 louder
and 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.

17. 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

18. Nazis won a majority of the seats
Due to “Communist sabotage”
Nazi storm troopers at voting centers

19. 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”