After 1920 there was the Bienno Rosso or red years of strikes and industrial unrest in the countryside. There was fear of a general communist revolution as in Russia. The Fascist Squadristi were prominent in strike breaking. The liberal coalition governments were unable to deal with violence of the left or the right. Some of the northern
This resulted in risings such as the Spartacist rising where communists fuelled by the success of the Russian revolution almost occupied nearly every major city in Germany. However, the Reichstag led by the SPD had stepped into a power that was left by the Kaiser, and as a result of this it had no real option but to accept the Versailles Treaty. The most irritating part for the German people was the to pay reparations to Britain and France. Germany's failure to pay her debt led to the invasion of the Ruhr, resulted in very little success for France but did succeed in the complete collapse of the German economy. This led to the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 Hitler aided by General Lundendorff and a few hundred supporters marched on the Munich town hall as a pretext to a national revolution, unfortunately for Hitler this attempt failed and he was sent to prison.
1953 saw the death of Soviet Russia’s greatest leader, in a never-ending atmosphere of anxiety, betrayal and paranoia. Stalin had become the state, not through the path of diplomacy, but through tumultuous bloodshed and trickery. He held absolute power and anyone foolish enough to protest against him and his path to the ultimate communist Utopia would find them selves dead or in a forced labor camp. The roots of this ultimate power lie in the years 1929-39, where Stalin employed the ‘Great Terror’, with the purges to secure political and economic control over the Soviet state. This essay will deduce how effective the ‘terror’ was employed to secure these corner stones.
He saw himself as the 20th century Caesar. Mussolini went on to become the most loved and hated man of Italy. During Mussolini’s regime the Italian society was not a politically unified society. The organizations of the regime mobilized great masses of people, and the towns of every region in Italy were frequently packed with crowds glorifying the “Duce”. As Anthony L. Cardoza portrays him in his book, Benito Mussolini: The First Fascist, Mussolini forced his political ideas on the weak Italian society.
Stalin was able to eliminate all effective opposition through a series of purges. The Show Trials, which began in 1936, were designed to create an atmosphere of intimidation and paranoia. As the purges swept through the party, many highly prominent Bolsheviks were put on trial and accused of being part of a Trotsky counter-revolutionary bloc. During the first Show Trial, of 1936, Stalin eliminated Kamenev and Zinoviev, who forcibly confessed to being part of Trotsky’s conspiracy and were consequently executed. In 1937 Stalin began the purge of the military, accusing them of spying for Nazi Germany.
The purges and show trials aimed to terrorise Soviet society into compliance with Stalin’s regime, and ‘remove potential enemies,’ to allow Stalin to found an almost entirely ‘new’ Communist party, which comprised of ‘more dependable’ members. The Terror fundamentally had the impact of manipulating and destroying social norms, and disarranging the political and military structure which had formed in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution. During the purges and show trials which comprised the Terror, the Communist Party were forced into submission, which essentially impacted the party in an adverse manner. 90 per cent of the once established Bolshevik party members were purged, including Bukharin, Yagoda and Rykov at show trials, and the remaining members were exhausted of any power. The removal of these skilled and able members was detrimental for the Communist party, as it weakened them industrially and economically, and resulted in an endemic lack of experience across the party.
General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was a dictator who ran his country quite oppressively during times of political instability and revolutions. . He became rose through his military status into a president by ordering the killing of the people above him and other corrupt political tricks.In the book ‘’In the Time of the Butterflies” it shows his oppressive styles such as killing and jailing revolutionaries. He also keeps an even stronger radar on people he believes are trying to undermine his power and authority. When the revolution was going to its peak Trujillo's regime started to imprison people who were part of the revolution along with jailing revolutionaries were killed and suffered forms of torture.
As the sailors were heroes of the 1917 revolution against the PG, their uprising came as a shock to the Bolsheviks, especially to Lenin. Nevertheless, Trotsky ordered the Red Guard to put down the uprising and Marshal Tukhachevshy rounded up the sailors, who shot them without a trial. Lenin realised that the peasants and some measure of economic liberalisation were essential for the regime to survive. Discontent could no longer be suppressed. Lenin said that the Kronstadt revolt was “the flash that lit up reality more than anything else”.
It was clear that the Tsar had to clear the newly formed alliance between the classes; but even thought they never really worked together they were still deadly as a whole. In October many revolutionaries came out of exile to set up Soviets (workers councils), they directed where to strike so this put pressure on the Tsar, which meant he had to grant concessions. So he instituted the October Manifesto which was promises that were made to cancel all redemption payments (peasants), create a duma, increase living and working conditions. He also encouraged Kulaks to buy up the strips of land from the Mir as he set up land bank, which would encourage them to produce their own grain and increase the grain industry. But even thought many peasants would now have their land many of the youths of the landlords would rise up against the peasants for killing their parents.
HST310 20TH CENTURY EUROPE Assignment 2: Major Essay Question 2: Why did Fascism emerge in Europe after the First World War? The term fascism applies to “the only completely new kind of political movement” that arose in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Originating in Italy in the early 1920’s, Fascism spread to Germany, Spain and other European nations as a consequence of the political, social and economic crisis conditions triggered by the first World War. Though nationalism was widespread in Europe before the war, it was strengthened by the disappointment caused by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the loss of confidence in liberal democracy as a means to effectively and efficiently respond to the ‘post-war crisis'. This provided an opportunity for the revolutionary nationalist movements that offered action-based means to rebuilding nations.