A presentation about the rise of dictators in Europe after World War I.

1. Europe After World War I and
the Rise of Dictators

2. Europe after World War I
● Europe after World
War I, was marked by
political instability and
economic difficulties

3. Europe after World War I
● Germany the key to a lasting peace in Europe, but problems arise:
○ Germany hates the Treaty of Versailles
○ France (most devastated by the war) still demands
reparations/Britain begins to back down a bit
○ it was decided (using the threat of force) that Germany would
pay $33 billion
● Germany was racked by inflation; an unstable democracy
(Weimar Republic)

4. Europe after World War I
● A brief period of hope did occur
- The Dawes Plan (1924):
- German reparations put on a
scale based on Germany’s ability
to pay

5. Europe after World War I
● There are some signsof hope:
- The Kellog-Briand Pact:
- signed by 15 countries
- “condemned and renounc-
ed war as an instrument
of national policy”

12. Europe after World War I
● Yet the onset of the Great Depression
(1929-39) created further instability:
- high unployment (not just in US)

13. Europe after World War I
● It is in this unstable atmosphere that totalitarianism
emerges as a form of government.
- totalitarianism: - government in which there is total
control

14. Europe after World War I
● Some characteristics of totalitarianism include:
○ individuals have no privacy/use of secret police
○ all forms of expression (media) controlled by gov’t
○ use of propaganda to control people’s thoughts

17. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● Born as Jospeh Dzhugashvili-
nicknamed Stalin (“Man of Steel”)
during the Russian Revolution.
• Worked with Lenin – eventually
became the General Secretary of
the Communist Party (the highest
position in Russia). Stalin as a young revolutionary.

18. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● Won out in a power struggle with
Leon Trotsky:
○ Trotsky wanted revolution
everywhere.
○ Stalin wanted to focus on Russia.
Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky

22. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● Stalin was committed to the ideas of Karl Marx, but felt
that he could bring about “revolution from above” (i.e.
the gov’t could bring about a communist state)
● Stalin engaged in a number of reforms to try to bring
about the revolution, which he called the “Five Year
Plans.”

23. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● Sought the collectivization of
farms:
○ collectivization: - taking farms
away from individual peasants
and combining them into
large farms owned by the state

24. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● “kulaks” - wealthier peasants
● Stalin orders them “liquidated” as
a class
● Many starved or were sent to labor
camps for “re-education”
●
D
A Poster Denouncing Kulaks

25. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● Yet collectivization did not increase
agricultural output
● Some also estimate that approx-
imately 14.5 million people died
because of it
Russian Children Suffering From
Malnutrition

26. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● Attempts to industrialize under
Stalin, however, were much more
successful
○ Steel production increased by 500
percent in Russia between 1928-
1939
○ The gov’t strictly controlled work;
no unions were allowed
●

27. Totalitarianism: Joseph Stalin
● Stalin was a committed socialist, and did believe a socialist society
would emerge from his reforms- but this is not what happened:
○ Stalin made use of brutal police terror to control dissent
○ arrests during Stalin times were at least 8 million; with millions
never returning from prison or work camps
○ the government made constant use of propaganda- speaking
of the evils of capitalism
●