c hapter twenty-five turmoil between wars. introduction the legacy of the great war near collapse of...

CHAPTERTwenty-five

Turmoil Between Wars

Introduction

• The legacy of the Great War

• Near collapse of democracy

• The rise of authoritarian dictatorships

The Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin

• The Russian Civil War• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk polarized Russian

society• The Whites

• Loose group united by the desire to remove the Reds from power

• Supporters of the old regime

• Reds (Bolsheviks) faced strong nationalist movements

• Ukraine, Georgia, and north Caucasus


• The Russian Civil War• United States, Britain, and Japan intervene on the

periphery of the old empire• Solidified Bolshevik mistrust of capitalist world powers

• Bolshevik victory• Gained greater support from the majority of the population• Better organization• Leon Trotsky as new commissar of war

• Consequences• One million combat casualties• Several million dead from hunger and disease• Total of 100,000 to 300,000 executed (on both sides)• Created permanent hatreds


• War communism• Government control of industry• Government requisitioned grain from the

peasantry• Outlawed private trade in consumer goods• Militarized production facilities and abolished

money• Consequences

• Devastated Russian industry and emptied major cities

• Industrial output in 1920 fell to only 20 percent of prewar levels

• Large-scale famine (1921)


• The NEP period (New Economic Policy)• Reversion to state capitalism

• State owned all major industry• Individuals could own private property• Free trade within limits• Peasants farmed the land for their own benefit

• Peasants should “enrich” themselves• Taxes would support urban industrialization and working

classes• Divided up noble lands to level wealth disparities

• Reintroduced traditional social structure (peasant communes)

• Produced enough grain to feed the country• Failure

• Cities experienced grain shortages


• Stalin and the “revolution from above”• Stalin the man

• Born in Georgia as Iosip Jughashvili (1879–1953)• Lenin’s death (1924—Stalin or Trotsky)

• Stalin the strategist• Isolated all opposition• Used the left to isolate the right, used the right to

isolate the left• Abandoned NEP• Increased tempo of industrialization

• Forced industrialization and the total collectivization of agriculture


• Collectivization • Local party and police officials forced

peasants to join collective farms• Peasant resistance—1,600 large-scale

rebellions between 1929 and 1933• The liquidation of the kulaks as a class• The famine (1932–1933)

• The human cost was 3 to 5 million lives• The Bolsheviks retained grain reserves in other

parts of the country• Grain reserves sold overseas for currency and

stockpiled in the event of war


• The Five-Year Plans• Campaign of forced industrialization• First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932)

• Most stunning period of economic growth• Industrial output increased 50 percent in five

years• Built new industries in new cities

• The human cost• Large-scale projects carried out with prison labor• The gulag system

• By 1940, 3.6 million people were incarcerated by the regime


• The Five-Year Plans• Structural problems

• The command economy—production levels planned from Moscow in advance

• Heavy industry favored over light industry• Emphasis on quantity over quality

• Cultural and economic changes• The conservative shift

• Divorce was difficult to obtain• Abortion made illegal except in emergency situations• Homosexuality declared a criminal offense


• The Great Terror (1937–1938)• One million dead—1.5 million to the Gulag• The elimination of Stalin’s enemies, real or

imagined• Mass repression of internal enemies from the top to

the very bottom• Purged the old Bolsheviks• Targeted ethnic groups (Poles, Ukrainians,

Lithuanians, Latvians, and Koreans)• Stalin and total control• Social advances

• Illiteracy reduced• Higher education made available to more people• Government assistance for working mothers• Free hospitalization

The Emergence of Fascism in Italy

• In the aftermath of war• Problems

• Split between the industrial north and agrarian south

• Conflict over land, wages, and local power• Government corruption and indecision• Inflation, unemployment, and strikes• Demands for radical reform


• The rise of Mussolini (1883–1945)• Editor of Avantia (leading socialist daily)• The fasci

• Organized to drum up support for the war• Attracted young, idealist, fanatical nationalists

• Fascist support• Gained respect of middle classes and landowners• Repressed radical movements of workers and

peasants• Attacked socialists• Fifty thousand fascist militia marched on Rome on

October 28, 1922• The black shirts• Victor Emmanuel III invited Mussolini to form a cabinet


• Italy under Mussolini• One-party dictatorship

• Statism—“nothing above, outside, or against the state”• Nationalism—the “highest form of society”• Militarism—the “ennoblement” of man in war

• Changed the electoral laws• Abolished cabinet system• Mussolini assumed role of prime minister and party

leader (Il Duce)• Repression and censorship• Ended class conflict

• A managed economy• A corporate state

• Maintained the status quo and “made the trains run on time”

Weimar Germany

• November 9, 1918: Revolution• Bloodless overthrow of the imperial

government• Social Democratic Party (SPD) announced

a new German republic• The kaiser abdicated• Socialists wanted democratic reforms within

existing imperial bureaucracy

Weimar Germany

• Problems• Elections not held until January 1919• Communists and independent socialists

staged armed uprisings in Berlin• Social Democrats tried to crush the

uprisings

Weimar Germany

• The Freikorps• Former army officers fighting Bolsheviks,

Poles, and communists• Fiercely right-wing anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic,

and antiliberal

Weimar Germany

• The Weimar coalition• Socialists, Catholic centrists, and liberal

democrats• Parliamentary liberalism

• Pluralistic framework• Universal suffrage for men and women• Bill of rights

Weimar Germany

• The failure of Weimar• Social, political, and economic crisis• The humiliation of World War I

• Germany “stabbed in the back” by socialists and Jews

• What was needed was authoritarian leadership

• Versailles and reparations• $33 billion debt

Weimar Germany

• The failure of Weimar• The government continued to print money

• Middle-class employees, farmers, and workers hit hardest by inflation

• Further problems• Unemployment• Production dropped by 44 percent• Peasants staged mass demonstrations• Left the door open for the opponents of Weimar

Hitler and the National Socialists

• Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)• Born in Austria, aspired to be an artist• Spent his youth as a tramp in Vienna

• Embraced anti-Semitism, anti-Marxism, and pan-Germanism

• The outbreak of World War I was his liberation

• After the war, he joined the German Workers’ Party

• Became the National Socialist Workers’ Party (Nazi) in 1920


• Hitler and the Nazis• November 1923—Munich putsch

• Hitler imprisoned• Dictated Mein Kampf

• Portrayed himself as the savior of the German people

• Nazi elections• 1928—politics polarized between left and right

• The impossibility of a coalition• People abandoned traditional political parties


• Hitler and the Nazis• Nazi supporters

• Small-property holders and rural middle classes• Elitist civil servants

• 1930 election• Nazis won 107 of 577 seats in the Reichstag• No party gained a majority• Nazis claimed no coalition government not

headed by Hitler


• Hitler as chancellor• January 1933—Hindenberg appointed Hitler

chancellor• February 27, 1933—Reichstag set on fire by

Dutch anarchist• Hitler suspended civil rights

• March 5, 1933—New elections• Hitler granted unlimited power for four years• Hitler proclaimed the Third Reich


• Nazi Germany• A one-party state• Opposition

• Storm troopers (SA) used to maintain party discipline

• June 30, 1934—Night of the Long Knives

• Schutzstaffel (SS)• Most-dreaded arm of Nazi terror• Organized by Heinrich Himmler• Fighting political and racial enemies


• Nazi Germany• Support

• Played off fears of communism• Spoke a language of national pride• Hitler as the symbol of a strong, revitalized

Germany• The recovery of German national glory


• Nazi Germany• National recovery

• Sealed Germany off from the rest of the world• Unemployment dropped from 6 million to

200,000• Organized workers into the National Labor Front• Popular organizations cut across class lines

• The Hitler Youth• The National Labor Service


• Nazi racism• Nazi racism grew out of nineteenth-century opinions• Anti-Semitism

• Joined by nationalist anti-Jewish theory

• April 1933—new racial laws excluded Jews from public office

• 1935 Nuremberg Decrees• Deprived Jews of citizenship (determined by bloodline)

• November 1938—Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)


• National socialism and fascism• Both arose in the interwar period as

responses to war and revolution• Intensely nationalistic• Opposed parliamentary government and

democracy• Favored mass-based authoritarian regimes

The Great Depression in the Democracies

• Western democracies—France, Britain, and the United States


• The origins of the Great Depression• Causes

• Instability of national currencies• Interdependence of national economies• Widespread drop in industrial productivity• Restrictions of free trade


• The origins of the Great Depression• October 1929—collapse of the New York

Stock Exchange• United States as world’s creditor• Immediate and disastrous consequences for

European economy• Banking houses closed, manufacturers laid off

entire workforces


• The origins of the Great Depression• Government response

• Britain• Abandoned gold standard and free trade• Cautious relief efforts

• France• The Popular Front• Nationalized munitions industry• Forty-hour week• Fixed the price and regulated the distribution of grain

• United States• The New Deal and FDR• Recovery without destroying capitalism• Managing the economy and public-works projects• John Maynard Keynes

Interwar Culture: Artists and Intellectuals

• The rejection of tradition and the experiment with new forms of expression


• Interwar intellectuals• Disillusionment with war and the failure of

victory• Frustration, cynicism, and disenchantment• Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)• T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)• Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)• James Joyce (1882–1941): Ulysses (1922),

“stream of consciousness”• The politicization of literature


• Interwar artists• Developments paralleled those in literature• The dadaists

• Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), Max Ernst (1891–1976), and Hans Arp (1886–1966)

• Rejected all forms of artistic conventions• Haphazard “fabrications”


• Interwar artists• Art for a mass audience

• Diego Rivera (1886–l957) and José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949)

• Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) and Reginald Marsh (1898–1954)

• Depicting social conditions of the modern world• The hopes and struggles of ordinary people


• Interwar artists• Architecture

• Functionalism• “Form ever follows function”• Ornamentation to reflect an age of science and

machines

• Walter Gropius (1883–1969) and Bauhaus• An international style


• Interwar scientific developments• Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

• Revolutionized modern physics• Challenged our beliefs about the universe• New ways of thinking about space, matter, time,

and gravity• The theory of relativity• Time, the fourth dimension

• James Chadwick (1891–1974)• Discovery of the neutron (1932)


• Interwar scientific developments• Otto Hahn (1879–1968) and Fritz

Strassman (1902–1980)• Split atoms of uranium (1939)• Chain reaction

• Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) and the uncertainty principle (1927)

• Relativity and uncertainty as metaphors for the ambiguity of modern life


• Mass culture and its possibilities• Explosive rise of mass media—media for

the masses• Mass politics as a fact of life• Cut across class lines, ethnicity, and nationality


• Mass culture and its possibilities• The radio

• Europe—broadcasting rights owned by the government

• United States—broadcasting managed by corporations

• National soapbox for politicians• FDR’s fireside chats• Nazi propaganda

• The new ritual of political life—communication and persuasion


• Mass culture and its possibilities• Film

• France and Italy had strong film industries• 1927—Sound added to films• United States gained a competitive edge over

Europe• The Hollywood “star system”

• Stalin and socialist realism• Mussolini and classical kitsch• Hitler despised modern art as decadent


• Mass culture and its possibilities• The Nazis and propaganda

• Used film as a means of indoctrination and control

• “Spectacular politics”• Glorifying the Reich

• Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003): Triumph of the Will (1934)

Conclusion

• The strains of World War I

• The Great Depression

• International tensions

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint for Chapter 25.

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/wciv_16e/brief

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