Home / Totalitarianism and the Great Depression 1861 – 1938 (page 3)

Totalitarianism and the Great Depression 1861 – 1938

IMPORTANT EVENTS – TOTALITARIANISM AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION 1861 – 1924

1861 Tsar Alexander II signs a decree abolishing serfdom in Russia.

1881 Terrorists assassinate Alexander; his successor, Alexander III, is more autocratic.

1903 Russian Marxists split into two groups, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks led by Lenin and his totalitarianism.

1904 Russia and Japan go to war.

1905 Russia is defeated by Japan; widespread discontent flares into open revolt against the tsar after petitioners are cut down on “Bloody Sunday”; the revolt is suppressed with difficulty.

1914 World War I begins.

1917 Heavy war losses and famine lead to a new revolt in Russia; the tsar abdicates and a provisional government takes over which is later led by Kerensky; Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks gain the support of the soviets and lead them to take over from the provisional government; Soviet Russia begins peace talks with Germany.

1918-1920 Civil war rages in Soviet Russia; the anti-Bolshevik forces are finally defeated by the Red Army under Trotsky.

1918 Russia signs the treaty of Brest-Litovsk making peace with Germany; the western powers sign an armistice; end of World War I.

1919 The Communist International, or Comintern, is founded at Moscow; the Versailles treaty heavily penalizes Germany and causes great bitterness among Germans; formation of the League of Nations, which excludes Soviet Russia.

1920 Italian socialist workers occupy many factories, leading industrialists to fear an immediate revolution and look for ways to prevent it.

1922 Mussolini’s fascists, financed by the industrialists, march on Rome, take over the government and begin a reign of terror against rebellious workers.

1923 Wild inflation ruins the German economy; Hitler and the Nazi party attempt to seize power in the Munich “Beer Hall Putsch” but are easily put down.

1924 Lenin dies; Stalin uses his position as general secretary of the Communist Party to become dictator of Russia; the first Labour government is formed in England.

IMPORTANT EVENTS – TOTALITARIANISM AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION 1926 – 1938

1926  English trade unions call a general strike but are forced to return to work after nine days.

1928 Stalin exiles Trotsky and consolidates his power, beginning the first Five Year Plan to industrialize Russia; Mussolini’s new constitution makes Italy a fascist dictatorship.

1929 The stock market crash marks beginning of the Great Depression in U. S.

1931 Spain becomes a republic when King Alfonso flees; Japanese troops invade Manchuria, causing war with China.

1932 The “Bonus Army” marches on Washington and is dispersed by troops under General MacArthur.

1933 Roosevelt becomes president and takes steps to solve the financial crisis of the great depression in America; Hitler is made chancellor of Germany and uses the Reichstag fire as an excuse to suppress communists and others; the Reichstag grants him dictatorial powers.

1934 Fascist riots in Paris follow the Stavisky scandal; Hitler wipes out opponents in the Nazi party in the “Blood Purge.”

1935 The U. S. Supreme Court declares the NRA unconstitutional; Italy invades Ethiopia.

1936 Spanish fascists led by General Franco revolt against the republic, starting the Civil War; Stalin wipes out the Old Bolsheviks in the Moscow purge trials; Roosevelt is reelected by a huge margin ; a Popular Front government is elected in France and begins sweeping reforms ; fascist Italy completes its conquest of Ethiopia and joins Germany in supporting Franco in Spain.

1937 Roosevelt’s attempt to enlarge the Supreme Court fails; Nazi Germany tests new methods of warfare in Spain, bombing the town of Guernica from the air; the French government frustrates plans for a fascist coup.

1938 Jews are arrested and murdered and their homes burned during the “Week of Broken Glass” in Germany; the French Popular Front collapses and the new government reverses many of the reforms it had enacted; the world moves rapidly toward a new world war.

The 1905 Revolution

revolution

SOME DAY there would be no tsars, but there was little sign of that during the last years of the nineteenth century. Alexander III still held Russia in a firm grip. When he died in 1894, his son Nicholas II came to the throne. Nicholas was twenty-six years old. He was a handsome young man and a few months after his father’s death he was married to a German princess. They were in love and it looked as though Nicholas would be a popular ruler. His reign began badly. In 1896, a great crowd gathered on a field in Moscow to celebrate his coronation as tsar. It was the custom to hand out little presents, such as handkerchiefs and cups, at these celebrations. Afraid that there might not be enough for everyone, the crowd surged forward. When mounted police tried to hold back the crowd, men, women and children were pushed into ditches and two thousand persons were killed. To make it even worse, that same night the tsar and the tsarina, his wife, danced at a ball held at the French embassy. People grumbled that the tsarina was a foreigner who had no feeling for Russians and the tsar was not much better. Nor did the people like the tsar’s reply to a message of congratulation from the officials of a town near Moscow. The officials said that they hoped “the rights of individuals and public institutions will be firmly safeguarded.” Nicholas answered that he would support the principle of absolute rule just as firmly “as it was preserved by my unforgettable great father.” It was plain that under Nicholas the Russians could expect no greater freedom than they had had under Alexander III. There would be no civil liberties, no better treatment of the peasants and of minority …

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Workingmen of All Countries, Unite! 1848 – 1900

marx

The ideas that attracted these Russians came mostly from a man named Karl Marx. Marx was born in Germany in 1818, the son of Jewish parents who had become converted to Christianity. He began the study of law, but soon dropped it to study philosophy. After receiving his degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Jena, he became the editor of a newspaper. When the German government ordered the paper to stop publication, Marx moved to Brussels. He returned to Germany to take part in the unsuccessful revolution of 1848, but by 1850 he had settled in London, where he would live until his death in 1883. Meanwhile, in 1844, Marx had met Friedrich Engels. The two men thought very much alike and from that time on they worked closely together, studying, discussing, writing, each helping the other. Engels, too, was a German. He came from a wealthy family and he carried on his father’s business, even though he hated business and had no use for businessmen. For many years he supported Marx, who had little money and few opportunities to earn any. Both men believed in socialism. They were not the first socialists, nor were they the only ones in Europe at that time. Other men were also looking to socialism as a way to solve the problems of the world. For a great change had taken place in Europe in the nineteenth century. Before, Europe had been agricultural; now, industry was growing at a furious rate. Before, work had been done by hand; now, many kinds of work were being done by machine. Before, Europe’s system of society had been feudalism; now, it was capitalism. People were flocking to the cities; machines were roaring; smoke was pouring out over the once green countryside. Kings and aristocrats …

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Blood on the Snow 1855 – 1905

tsar

IT WAS a Sunday in January of 1905 and snow lay on the ground and rooftops of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia. Although winters were cold in this northern city and it seemed like a day to sit indoors before a warm fire, many people were hurrying through the streets. About 200,000 men, women and children gathered in huge crowds, their breath making puffs of vapour in the frosty air. Soon they formed processions and began marching across the hard-packed snow. As they tramped along in ragged lines, they sang the national anthem, “God Save the Tsar.” Many of them carried icons-religious paintings — or pictures of their ruler, Tsar Nicholas II, whom they called “the Little Father.” The processions started from various points of the city, but they all moved toward the same place — the tsar’s Winter Palace. Yet, this was no celebration, no festival, no holiday. The marchers were not parading for pleasure. The city’s metal workers had staged a four-day strike for better working conditions, such as the eight-hour day. To teach them a hard lesson, their employers had then shut down the shops, completely cutting off their pay. Now the workers were going to the palace to ask the help of the tsar. At the head of one of their processions walked Father Gapon, the priest who was their leader. He would present petitions to the Little Father. So the people marched under the heavy winter sky, singing their country’s song, holding up the icons of their saints and the pictures of their ruler, but the Little Father was suspicious of his children. Afraid that they might rise up against him, he had called out his soldiers and left St. Petersburg. As the processions drew closer to the centre of the city where the …

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