Fascism and Totalitarianism. To be a totalitarian dictator you will need to… have complete control of the society. To accomplish this goal you will need.

Fascism and Totalitarianism

To be a totalitarian dictator you will need to…

have complete control of the society. To accomplish this goal you will need to remove any rivals that you have, be it a religion or a person. Secret police can be very helpful when trying to accomplish this goal.

Lenin and Trotsky celebrate the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution in Red

Square.

Lenin Celebrates, but Trotsky has been airbrushed out.

Stalin with Nikolai Yezhov.

Stalin with Yezhov removed.   Stalin's bloody reign is not without certain irony. Nikolai Yezhov, the young man strolling with Stalin, is shot in 1940. It seems only fitting that when Yezhov is removed from the photograph he is replaced by the waters of the Moscow-Volga Canal. Yezhov was commissar of water transport.

To: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

On March 13 [of this year] The Military Tribunal of the Supreme Court condemned me to death by shooting. I ask for clemency. My guilt before the party and the country is great, but I have a passionate desire and, I think, enough strength to expiate it. I ask you to believe that I am not a completely corrupt person. In my life there were many years of noble, honest work for the revolution. I can still prove that even after having committed so many crimes, it is possible to become an honest person and to die with honor. I ask that you spare my life.

March 13, 1938

A.I. Rykov

Alexei Rykov worked as a Bolshevik agent in Moscow and St. Petersburg and played an active role in the 1905 Revolution. Rykov was executed on 15th March, 1938 for an alleged plot against Stalin.

Joseph Stalin was able to…

control the economy: collectivization and the Five Year Plans. As a communist inspired dictator, Stalin ended the concept of private property.

control religion: Russian Orthodox Church disappears and priests are murdered.

ensure that political adversaries were no longer a threat.

Once in a plea for greater industrial, and hence military power, Joseph Stalin said: "Old Russia was continually beaten because of backwardness. It was beaten by the Mongol khans. It was beaten by Turkish beys. It was beaten by Swedish feudal landlords. ... It was beaten because of military backwardness, cultural backwardness, industrial backwardness, agricultural backwardness. . . . That is why we cannot be backward any more."

To be a totalitarian dictator you will need to…

use the media and propaganda to control your image. As you have seen, you can literally control history when you control the media.

Under communism, the government controls what images go to press.

This "official image" has a dark story behind it. In this 1936 photograph on the front page of Izvestia, Stalin is shown as a… "Friend of the Little Children."

The child is Gelya Markizova, whose father, Ardan, is shot for allegedly plotting against Stalin and whose mother, Dominica, is murdered mysteriously.

How To Be a Good Dictator

"... and he is even thankful for the human warmthcoming out of my palm."

When Joseph Stalin was on his deathbed he called in two likely successors, to test which one of the two had a better knack for ruling the country. He ordered two birds to be brought in and presented one bird to each of the two candidates.

The first one grabbed the bird, but was so afraid that the bird could free himself from his grip and fly away that he squeezed his hand very hard, and when he opened his palm, the bird was dead. Seeing the disapproving look on Stalin's face and being afraid to repeat his rival's mistake, the second candidate loosened his grip so much that the bird freed himself and flew away.

Stalin looked at both of them scornfully. "Bring me a bird!" he ordered. They did. Stalin took the bird by its legs and slowly, one by one; he plucked all the feathers from the bird's little body. Then he opened his palm. The bird was lying there shivering and helpless.

Stalin looked at him, smiled gently and said, "You see... and he is even thankful for the human warmth coming out of my palm."

After your last response activity, please copy down and answer the following question.

Why are Stalin’s rule in the USSR and the economic

depressions of the 1930’s contributing factors to the outbreak of World War II?

Stalin believed that the Soviet Union was a century behind the West. To correct the situation quickly, he implemented his first five-year plan, which was designed to create a "command economy.“

Peasants were forced to join collective farms. They had to pool their machinery and livestock and work on large farms that were controlled by the state.

They had to hand their produce to the government and were either paid a pittance as wages or had to feed their families on what was left over.

Those people who resisted—some 5 million—were murdered or starved to death. As a result, agricultural production fell by 15% between 1932 and 1934.

Stalin's five-year plan also addressed industry. The state took over all firms and businesses.

Each business or factory was given a target that it had to meet annually.

Punishment for failing to meet targets was severe. Managers of factories could be executed if they failed to deliver.

Workers were forced to work longer hours and were not allowed to change their jobs.

Being absent from work became a crime.

Those who objected to Stalin's methods ended up in gulags—slave labor camps in Siberia—where many died from exposure, exhaustion, or starvation.

As a result of Stalin's plan, industrial production increased 400%; however, some believe that the production figures were faked by many factories and that inferior products were produced just to make the numbers right and avoid punishment.

Stalin also had a plan for eliminating all political opposition: the Great Purge.

From 1934 to 1938, at least 7 million people disappeared, including Bolshevik leaders, poets, scientists, and senior officers in the Russian Red Army and the Red Navy, along with millions of ordinary Soviet citizens who often did not know what they had done to anger Stalin.

Stalin used propaganda to pass along news of his "successes." On posters created and distributed by the government, he was identified as the "wisest man alive" and the "genius of the age."

The posters showed Stalin rather taller and fitter than he actually was.

In the late 1930s, Stalin was pleased to sign the nonaggression pact with Germany.

Stalin's negotiations at the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam conferences allowed the countries of Eastern Europe that had been liberated by the Red Army to remain in the Soviet sphere of influence.

The territory of the Soviet Union was enlarged by more than 180,000 square miles. Coupled with the satellite states, the Soviet sphere had increased by more than 760,000 square miles.

To protect his consolidated gains, Stalin dropped the "iron curtain" to cut off Soviet Russia and its satellites from the outside world. Stalin did change the Soviet Union from a backward country into a world superpower—but at an unimaginable human cost.

He had consistently manipulated communist imperialism for the greater glory of Russia and the strengthening of his own personal position.

During his reign of great terror, his secret police purged Soviet society of any and all people not loyal to Stalin and his policies—perhaps as many as 1.2 million people.

He remained a hero to his people until Nikita Khrushchev exposed him (three years after Stalin's death) in a speech to the 20th Party Congress in 1956 that detailed Stalin's excesses and denounced his power-grabbing policies.

In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

They agreed to solve conflict between their countries in a peaceful manner.

A secret protocol to the pact clarified the borders between Germany, the Soviet Union, and Poland and placed the Baltic provinces in the Soviet sphere of influence.

Although Stalin hoped that the pact would satisfy Hitler's desire to control lands east of Germany, Nazi forces soon invaded Poland.

After less than two years, the agreement ended when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.

The Great Depression [occurring in the United States] was a global economic crisis that started in 1929.

The crisis devastated the economies of many nations and led to a period of financial hardship for millions of people.

In the history of the United States, no other depression had had such a devastating impact on U.S. society.

During the 12 years of the depression, one-quarter of the work force was unemployed, 5,500 banks closed, and 32,000 businesses went bankrupt.

Although the crash of the New York Stock Exchange on October 29, 1929 was a symptom rather than a cause of the depression, it has been blamed as the catalyst.

The depression in fact resulted from an overextension of credit and spending in the 1920s.

Nonetheless, the stock market crash dramatically shook public confidence in the U.S. economy.

The crash also brought an end to the loans that the United States had extended to European countries, which were still recovering from World War I.

Europe slipped further into decline and lost any economic gains made in the 10 years since the end of the war.

The economies of many Latin American and Asian countries, organized around the export of primary products to the industrial markets of the North Atlantic world, quickly collapsed in response to the loss of their markets.

The global crisis was exacerbated by the tendency of most nations to erect tariff barriers in an attempt to protect domestic economies.

As international trade ground to a halt, there was no way to alleviate the situation.

The Great Depression produced political crises in many of the nations that were hardest hit.

In Latin America, for example, several governments fell between 1929 and 1931; democracies were replaced by authoritarian regimes, and dictatorships were overthrown by democratic forces.

In Europe, the hardships of the depression inspired a variety of extremist political groups.

The desperate economic situation of the German Weimar Republic was an important condition for the rise of fascism in the later 1930s.

After your last response activity, please copy down and answer the following question.Which of the following 4

terms best applies to Stalin; ego, intelligent, effective or control?

Support your response with evidence.

Did you use the same word consistently when describing Stalin?

Are you a communist inspired totalitarian dictator?

Is there a single party in charge of the nation with you as the head of the party?

Have you enacted a command economy? Have you dealt with religious institutions? Have you ensured that there are no political rivals around to

challenge your decisions or your right to rule? Have individual rights been exterminated and replaced with an

understanding that the people serve the state? Have you made use of mass media to exert total control over every

facet of the people’s lives? Have you established a permanent revolution in which goals are

consistently set and revised so as to give the illusion that the society is moving towards a “new” society? This keeps the society mobilized.

Have you effectively dealt with those who deviate from the party line?

Mussolini Introduction

How To Be a Good Dictator

"... and he is even thankful for the human warmthcoming out of my palm."

When Joseph Stalin was on his deathbed he called in two likely successors, to test which one of the two had a better knack for ruling the country. He ordered two birds to be brought in and presented one bird to each of the two candidates.

The first one grabbed the bird, but was so afraid that the bird could free himself from his grip and fly away that he squeezed his hand very hard, and when he opened his palm, the bird was dead. Seeing the disapproving look on Stalin's face and being afraid to repeat his rival's mistake, the second candidate loosened his grip so much that the bird freed himself and flew away.

Stalin looked at both of them scornfully. "Bring me a bird!" he ordered. They did. Stalin took the bird by its legs and slowly, one by one; he plucked all the feathers from the bird's little body. Then he opened his palm. The bird was lying there shivering and helpless.

Stalin looked at him, smiled gently and said, "You see... and he is even thankful for the human warmth coming out of my palm."

Economic Depression and World War II

1.The Gatsby: Living Life to the Fullest and Pursuit of Material Goods

2.World War I: Reparations and Loans

3.Inflation: When prices go up, so do tempers! Jingoism takes hold in places like Italy and Germany.

After your last response activity, please copy down and answer the following question.

How did the causes of World War One differ from the

causes of the Second World War?

The causes of World War I: nationalism decay of the Ottoman Empire control of the Balkans [Austria-Hungary

and Russia had interest and influence in the Balkans]

the unification of Germany [Leslie] and Italy upset the balance of power that existed in Europe since the Napoleonic Wars

the system of alliances that emerged the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and

the mobilization of troops

The causes of World War II: economic depression [for many in eastern

and central Europe this indicated a weakness in democracy and capitalism]

fascism [racist, expansionist and militaristic] the Nonagression Pact Appeasement [the fear of having another

World War] American isolationism Joseph Stalin and anticommunist feelings, Japan’s aggressive expansionist efforts in

Manchuria and other portions of east and southeast Asia

The failure of the League of Nations, collective security, and the Pact of Paris also known as the Kellogg-Briand Pact [a multinational treaty that prohibited the use of war as "an instrument of national policy" except in matters of self-defense. It was the result of a determined American effort to avoid involvement in the European alliance system.] which was signed in Paris on August 27, 1928.

It represented the most ambitious attempt to outlaw war that the modern world had yet seen, as at its heart lay the simple notion that war ought to be illegal.

To be a fascist totalitarian dictator you will need to…

get yourself a uniform!

To be a fascist totalitarian dictator you will need to…

get a symbol to represent the movement!

Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party He sought to incorporate both the swastika and "those

revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation." (Red, white, and black were the colors of the flag of the old German Empire.)

He also stated: "As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea;…”

“…in the swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work."

The swastika was also understood as "the symbol of the creating, acting life" (das Symbol des schaffenden, wirkenden Lebens) and as "race emblem of Germanism" (Rasseabzeichen des Germanentums).

Brazilian Integralism was a form of fascism founded in Brazil in October 1932.

It is considered by many historians as the best, and maybe one of the only adaptations of fascist ideals in Latin America.

Their principles included Corporativism, Catholicism, and like other fascist movements exhibited forms of an anti-capitalist, and anti-communist agenda. They also took up and formed armed squads, nicknamed Greenshirts.

The original symbol of fascism in Italy was the fasces, the ancient Roman symbol of power.

The symbol for the British Union of Fascists was the Flash and Circle, which represented the "flash of action" within the "circle of unity" that symbolized the all-important British State

To be a fascist totalitarian dictator you will need to…

get some motivated followers!

Brazilian Greenshirts and German Brownshirts on the march.

To be a fascist totalitarian dictator you will need to…think like a fascist!

The original movement which self-identified as Fascist was that of Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party.

Mussolini over the course of his lifetime went from Socialism - he was editor of Avanti, a socialist newspaper - to the leadership of the fascist political movement.

To Believe, To Obey, To Fight!

Fascism (according to Mussolini): ...The Fascist…conceives of life as duty and struggle and

conquest… ...Fascism [is] the complete opposite of…Marxian Socialism,

the materialist conception of history of human civilization can be explained simply through the conflict of interests among the various social groups and by the change and development in the means and instruments of production....

Fascism, now and always, in heroism; that is to say, in actions influenced by no economic motive, direct or indirect.

Fascism (according to Mussolini): And above all Fascism denies that class-war can

be the preponderant force in the transformation of society....

After Socialism, Fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology, and repudiates it, whether in its theoretical premises or in its practical application. Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society;

A central tenet of Fascism is the theory of economic corporatism. This theory involves turning society into a collective body, seeing all of the elements of society, the military, labor, business and in a few cases religion, as part of a living organism.

Italian Fascism involved a corporatist political system in which economy was collectively managed by employers, workers and state officials by formal mechanisms at national level

Corporatism [mixed economy]

The individual becomes part of something bigger. The 1932 Doctrine of Fascism described it in this way; “the Fascist State multiplies his [the individual’s] energies, just as in a regiment a soldier is not diminished but multiplied by the number of his fellow soldiers.”

Oswald Mosley of the British Union of Fascists described society structured under corporatism as "a nation organized as the human body, with each organ performing its individual function but working in harmony with the whole". Mosley also saw corporatism as an attack on laissez-faire economics and "international finance".

Winston Churchill claimed that the Fascism of Benito Mussolini had "rendered a service to the whole world," showing, as it had, "a way to combat subversive forces“. Churchill considered the regime to be a defense against the Communist revolution. At one point, Churchill went as far as to call Mussolini the "Roman genius ... the greatest lawgiver among men.“

Mussolini praised the New Deal as following his own corporate state, as quoted in a July 1933 article in the New York Times, "Your plan for coordination of industry follows precisely our lines of cooperation.“ One of the central differences between Roosevelt’s actions and Mussolini revolves around the US Constitution. A key part of the New Deal was declared unconstitutional in 1935. The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision stated that the federal government had gone beyond the powers granted in the US Constitution. Congress can only control interstate commerce, not all commerce.

Winston Churchill claimed that the Fascism of Benito Mussolini had "rendered a service to the whole world," showing, as it had, "a way to combat subversive forces“.

Churchill considered the regime to be a defense against the Communist revolution. At one point, Churchill went as far as to call Mussolini the "Roman genius ... the greatest lawgiver among men.“

Mussolini praised the New Deal as following his own corporate state, as quoted in a July 1933 article in the New York Times, "Your plan for coordination of industry follows precisely our lines of cooperation.“

One of the central differences between Roosevelt’s actions and Mussolini revolves around the US Constitution. A key part of the New Deal was declared unconstitutional in 1935.

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision stated that the federal government had gone beyond the powers granted in the US Constitution. Congress can only control interstate commerce, not all commerce.

Mussolini came to power after the "March on Rome" in 1922, and was appointed Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel.

Fascism spread to Germany, Spain, and Romania. To lesser degree, fascism spread to Greece, Portugal, and Japan.

By 1938 only Czechoslovakia remained true to liberal political ideals.

Why?

1. Eastern European nations lacked a tradition of self-government. 2. Eastern European nations did have a tradition of ethnic conflict and

a steady growth of nationalism.3. Eastern European nations were primarily agrarian and large

landowners as well as the Church opposed any efforts at land reform.

4. These nations had a small and relatively weak middle class.5. The Great Depression seemed to dash the hopes of these nations

for a liberal government based on the western model.

Why does fascism emerge?1. In the case of Germany, there was a great deal of

resentment over World War I. The German people never saw themselves as defeated, the war was concluded by armistice and not a clear defeat of Germany. The Treat of Versailles was quite punitive. War reparations and the actions of the French embarrassed the German people and hindered their economy.

2. Italy was also frustrated by the outcome of World War I. Nationalist Italians were upset over the distribution of the defunct Austrian-Hungarian empire.

3. The Great Depression caused many Germans to become disillusioned and the democratic government did not seem to be working.

4. In Italy labor unrest destabilized the Italian monarchy.5. Fascism was a more preferable alternative than

communism in Germany.

What can brown do for you? While in power the Nazi government… created social welfare programs to deal with the large

numbers of unemployed. However, those programs were neither egalitarian nor universal, multiple minority groups and certain other people whom they felt were incapable of helping themselves, and who would pose a threat to the future health of the German people were excluded.

the Kraft durch Freude (KdF) or "Strength through Joy" program provided government-subsidized holidays for German workers. The KdF was also responsible for the creation of the original Volkswagen ("People's Car"), a state-manufactured automobile that was meant to be cheap enough to allow all German citizens to be able to own one.

What can brown do for you? While in power the Nazi government… the strict state intervention into the economy, and the

massive rearmament policy, almost led to full employment during the 1930s (statistics didn't include non-citizens or women), real wages in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938.

abolished Trade unions as well the right to strike. The right to quit also disappeared.

This 1936 poster urges people to vote for Hitler

The caption: “The Führer promised to motorize Germany.

In 1932, 104,000 motor vehicles were manufactured, 33,000 people were employed, and goods with a total value of 295,000,000 marks were produced.

In 1935, 353,000 vehicles were manufactured, Over 100,000 people were employed, and the value of goods produced was 1,150,000,000 marks.

The Führer gave 250,000 people’s comrades jobs in the auto industry and its suppliers. German people: Thank the Führer on 29 March! Give him your vote!”

How to indentify a fascist!

Do they reject and resist the autonomy of cultural or ethnic groups who are not considered part of the “their” nation and who refuse to assimilate or are unable to be assimilated?

Do they consider attempts to create such autonomy as an affront and threat to the nation?

Do they strongly oppose the core aspects of the Enlightenment and are they an opponent of liberalism, and Marxism?

Do they view egalitarianism and materialism as failed elements of the Enlightenment?

Social Darwinism played an essential role n the political and social agendas of the Nazi Party.

The Nazi government also implemented a policy of eugenics to strengthen the German population.

People with “hereditary” illnesses had to be sterilized, even if they objected.

The list of persons classified as hereditarily ill included…

those suffering from "congenital feeble-mindedness,

schizophrenia,

manic depression,

hereditary epilepsy,

Huntington's chorea,

hereditary blindness,

hereditary deafness,

and serious physical deformities.

People with chronic alcoholism could also be sterilized.

Throughout Germany, doctors were being trained in "race hygiene."

They were identifying and zealously reporting those in their communities who had any of the so-called genetic diseases and would be candidates for sterilization.

The Nazis and Nazi doctors also were promoting the eugenics strategy of "selective breeding" as a way to rebuild the nation's population, specifically its Aryan population.

By August of 1941, almost 70,000 people had been killed

Hitler's race hygiene program relied on and succeeded because of the enthusiastic collaboration of people in the medical community.

Finally, they also performed outrageously cruel and criminal experiments under the guise of scientific inquiry.

The aim of generating pure Aryans had taken precedence over the most fundamental ethical issues in medicine.

This poster asserts that someone with a genetic illness costs the state on average 50,000 Marks by the time he reaches 60 years of age, which must be paid for by healthy citizens.

This poster is from the 1930’s, and promotes the Nazi monthly Neues Volk (New People}, the organ of the party’s racial office. The text reads: “This genetically ill person will cost our people’s community 60,000 marks over his lifetime. Citizens, that is your money.”

The title: “Sterilization is liberation, not a punishment.” It show three handicapped children, with the caption: “Who would want to be responsible for this?”

1. Aryans: primarily Northern and Western Europeans consisting of Germans, Swedes, Icelanders, Norwegians, Danish, Irish, French, British and Dutch

2. Olive-skinned Southern Europeans: Spanish, Italians, Greeks and Portuguese, i.e. those of what was then called the Mediterranean race

democide is a government's murder of people for whatever reason; genocide is the murder of people because of their race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or language.

Racial Hierarchy According to the Nazis

3. Slavs as the untermensch ["subhumans"].) and those of the olive-skinned Semitic race (another subrace of the Caucasian race) in the middle ranks [it was because the Jews, being Semites, were clever that they were so dangerous--they had their own plan for Jewish world domination, a conspiracy that had to be opposed by all thoughtful Aryans, declared the Nazis ]

4. The yellow Mongoloid race [including its offshoots the brown Malayan race and the red American Indian race], the Dravidian race, and mixed-race people such as Eurasians, the bronze Mestizos, Mulattos, Afro-Asians, and Zambos in the lower middle ranks.

August 18, 1935 - This chart was created by the Nazi’s to show Germans how to work out their race.

Civil marriages between Aryans and non-Aryans forbidden.

How to indentify a fascist! Do they believe that economic classes are not capable

of properly governing a nation, and that a merit-based aristocracy of experienced military persons must rule through regimenting a nation's forces of production and securing the nation's independence?

Do they support a "Third Position" in economic policy, which they believe superior to both the individualism of laissez-faire capitalism and the control of state socialism? [mixed economy]

Hitler said that "I absolutely insist on protecting private property... we must encourage private initiative". However he qualified that statement by saying that the government should have the power to regulate the use of private property for the good of the nation.