1. Rise of Totalitarianism

2. Standard 10.7.2 Trace Stalin's rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection between economic policies, political policies, the absence of a free press, and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the Terror Famine in Ukraine).

3. Totalitarian states have governments that have complete control over every aspect of people’s lives. Why did people turn over their control to a totalitarian government? How did totalitarian governments come to power? How did totalitarian governments keep control over the people? Could a totalitarian government take over the United States of America? Hitler did not get elected by promising the German people that he would lead them into another World War… kill millions of Germans… start the Holocaust… create Death Camps… destroy German cities… Hitler was elected because he promised to improve German education… provide child care for working mothers… improve the economy and get more jobs… and restore German pride Secret Police Laws to “Protect” citizens Scapegoating evil enemies of the people encouraging informants Convinced the German people to trade their freedoms for protection from evil enemies fear of terrorists

4. Totalitarian states are ones where the governments have complete control over all aspects of people’s private and public lives. In this unit we will be studying the rise of totalitarian states after World War I in Russia, Italy, Germany, and Japan.

5. In Russia, hundreds of years of rule by the Czars was replaced by revolutionaries. Vladimir Lenin tried to modernize Russia before Joseph Stalin created a totalitarian state. In Japan, Emperor Hirohito lost power to the military who came to dominate Japanese society. Japanese militarism would lead to war with Europe and the USA. After a series of weak governments in Italy, Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Party come to power. They create a totalitarian society. Germany struggled to repay the debts from the Treaty of Versailles. Hatred of the treaty (and War Guilt Clause) and enormous economic troubles leads to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Rise of Totalitarian States (1919-1941) These leaders used secret police, fear of foreign attack, and propaganda to take total control over every aspect of their people’s public and private lives.