The document provides background information on several dictators and totalitarian regimes during the 1930s and 1940s. It discusses fascist regimes in Italy under Mussolini and Germany under Hitler, which emphasized extreme nationalism and the subordination of individuals to the state. It also discusses communist regimes, including Stalin's consolidation of power in the Soviet Union through purges and collectivization of agriculture, which led to famine and millions of deaths. Finally, it discusses other brutal dictators like Mao Zedong in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, who were responsible for mass killings in their countries.