In Soviet Russia….(insert backward statement here)

• Yes the Soviets, we all know some things about them and of course they were totalitarian.
• The end of the civil war clearly was a decisive victory of the communists and the Red Army.
• Lenin pursued a policy of war communism which in this process, he nationalized transportation, communication, banks, factories, etc.
• The government could also take produce from peasants if they wished to. However after the war, the peasants began to hoard food screwing up the system.
• Drought also lead to famine and industrial collapse also occurred. Russia was exhausted.

THE NEW ECON POLICY

• New Economic Policy – modified version of the old capitalist system
• Peasants were allowed to sell produce openly and retail stories and smaller industry under 20 employees could run as a private enterprise. Other industries still were government operated.
• The new state created was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) .
• The market was back up and the harvest climbed to pre war levels. However, industry did not improve much. The NEP was only a temporary means of saving the economy.
• 1922-24- Lenin suffered a series of strokes leading to his death on Jan. 21, 1924. This created a power struggle among the members of the Politburo, the leading institution of the party.
• The Politburo was divided into the Left and the Right. The Leftists were under Leon Trotsky who wanted to end the NEP and send USSR on a path of industrialization at the expense of the peasants. They also wanted to continue the revolution and spread communism abroad. The Right wanted to focus on domestic socialism, rejecting world revolution for communism. They thought industrialization would hurt the peasants and favored continuation of the NEP.
• Trotsky and Joseph Stalin also had a rivalry going on. Trotsky was an important contributor to the victory of the Red Army. Joseph Stalin tried to stage a daring bank robbery to get money for the Bolsheviks. Stalin didn’t like speaking and was content with his bureaucratic job of party general secretary.
• Stalin was a rather great organizer and his position became quite valuable later as it was his job to appoint all the regional secretaries.
• Stalin first was neutral on Left or Right but soon leaned into the Right side. He used his secretary position to control the entire communist party and Trotsky was expelled from the party. He made his way to Mexico only to be murdered in 1940 under Stalin’s orders. The old Bolsheviks were out and Stalin established a full dictatorship.

STALINIST ERA

• Major revolution in all areas.
• First Five Year Plan– transformation into an industrial state. Emphasis on maximum production of capital goods and armaments. Steel and oil production increase.
• However, there was no plan for the increasing labor force to move into cities. Real wages also declined and strict laws limited the movement of workers. The government told the workers that sacrifice was needed to create the new socialist state. Soviet labor policy favored high achievement.
•  Alexei Stakhanov was a coal miner who minded 102 tons in one shift. This was the cult of high achievement.
• The NEP gave rise to peasant proprietors that had small businesses called Kulaks. Why was there a large group of capitalists in a communist regime. Stalin had a policy of collectivization of agriculture before he had his Five Year plan. He eliminated private farms and pushed for collective farms.
• Stalin first wanted to only collect from the wealthy peasants but soon uprisings and hoarding food led him to extend this to all peasants.
• Stalin allowed peasants to have a private garden plot.
• To achieve goals Stalin strengthened the bureaucracy. Resistance were either killed or sent to labor camps. Old Bolsheviks were killed. Millions of Russians died in Siberian forced labor camps. He was one of the greatest mass murderers of history.
• Stalin reversed many of the social rights. The family was a miniature collective and reversed the legalization of abortion and divorced fathers that did not care for their children were fined. Fines for repeated divorces and homosexuality was outlawed. Motherhood was praised. However, too many women were already working in factories.

Authoritarianism in East Europe

• Some states were not totally totalitarian but partially
• Police powers and limited participation of masses but were happy with just passive obedience.
• The Eastern European region was the most modified area of the map after WWI.
• Reasons that created the authoritarian governments in the east
  • No middle class to support parliamentary systems and little liberal traditions
  • Largely rural states
  • Much land still dominated by landowners
  • Ethnic conflicts almost tore countries apart.
  • Fear of land reform, communists, and ethnic conflict
• Countries that est. authoritarian regimes
  • Poland –Marshal Joseph Pilsudski (military dictatorship)
  • Yugoslavia – King Alexander I (royal dictatorship)
  • Bulgaria – King Boris III (authoritarian regime)
• Czechoslovakia did not fall into authoritarianism.
• East European states looked up to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
• Admiral Miklos Horthy ruled Hungary as a regent, but PM Julius Gombos brought Hungary even closer to Italy and Germany.
• Austria, Christian Socialist Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss used armed forces to created an authoritarian state, a Christian corporate state.
• Romania had a strong fascist movment under Coneliu Codreanu. The movement had things like the Legion of the Archangel Michael and the parlimentary squad Iron Guard.
• King Carol II ended parliamentary rule crushng the legion’s leadership imposing authoritarianism.
• Czech had a large middle class and was able to keep political democracy.

Dictatorship in the Iberian Peninsula

• Spain and Portugal also lost their parlimentary regime with a largely farming, illiterate, dominated by landlord society.
• Industrial boom and inflation occurred after WWI
• King Alfonso XIII supported General Miguel Primo de Rivera leading a military coup that created a personal dictatorship. The bad economy led to the collapse of the regime.
• New Spanish republic instituted. Political turmoil had government control passing from the Left to the right until the Popular Front arose. This was an anti-fascist organization composed of democrats, socialists, and left wings. The senior army officers disliked the Popular Front and led by General Francisco Franco, the military forces revolted against the government creating a bloody civil war.
• Foreign intervention made the situation complicated. Popular Front was assisted by trucks, planes, tanks, and advisers from the Soviet Union and other volunteers from other countries. Franco was supported by arms, money, and men from Germany and Italy. Hitler used the Spanish Civil War as a way to test the new weaponry of his air force. Franco’s forces eventually captured Madrid after wearing down the pop. front.
• A dictatorship was established until 1975, his death. He was not fascist. The actual fascist movement was called Falange led by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the former dictator did not contribute much to the success of Franco and played a minor role in the regime. Franco favored the large landowners, business, and the clergy.
• Portuguese overthrew monarchy and established republic during 1910 but sever inflation after WWI undermined support for the republic and army officers got power. The military junta’s finance minister, Antonio Salazar became the strongman and controlled the government for the next 40 years.