| After World War I, European democracy was under threat.
France and Britain remained democratic, but in Italy and Russia, a new
kind of dictatorship emerged with Mussolini’s fascist state in Italy and
Stalin’s totalitarian rule in Russia. Other Western states like Spain tried
to keep old elites in power with authoritarian regimes.
The Rise of Dictators
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The totalitarian states did away with individual freedoms.
The apparent triumph of democracy in Europe in 1919 was very
short-lived. By 1939, only two major European states—France and Great Britain—remained
democratic. Italy, the Soviet Union, Germany, and many other European states
adopted dictatorial regimes. These regimes took both old and new forms.
A new form of dictatorship was the modern totalitarian
state. In a totalitarian state, the government aims to control
the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives of its
citizens. New totalitarian regimes pushed the central state’s power far
beyond what it had been in the past. These regimes wanted more than passive
obedience. They wanted to conquer the minds and hearts of their subjects.
They achieved this goal through mass propaganda techniques and high-speed
modern communication. Modern technology also gave totalitarian states an
unprecedented ability to impose their wishes on their subjects.
The totalitarian states were led by a single leader and
a single party. They rejected the ideal of limited government power and
the guarantee of individual freedoms. Instead, individual freedom was subordinated
to the collective will of the masses. The leader determined that collective
will, however. The masses were expected to be actively involved in achieving
the state’s goals. Those goals might include war, a socialist state, or
a thousandyear empire like the one Adolf Hitler wanted to establish.
Fascism in Italy
Like other European countries, Italy experienced severe
economic problems after World War I. Inflation grew, and both industrial
and agricultural workers staged strikes. Socialists spoke of revolution.
The middle class began to fear a Communist takeover like the one that had
recently occurred in Russia. Industrial and agricultural
strikes created more division. From this background of widespread unrest
emerged Mussolini.
In the early 1920s, Benito Mussolini (MOO•suh•LEE•nee)
set up the first European fascist movement in Italy. Mussolini began his
political career as a Socialist. In 1919 he created a new political group,
the Fascio di Combattimento, or League of Combat. Fascism
comes from that name.
As a political philosophy, fascism (FA•SHIH•zuhm)
glorifies the state above the individual by emphasizing the need for a
strong central government led by a dictatorial ruler. In a fascist state,
the government controls the people and stifles any opposition.
By 1922, Mussolini’s movement was growing quickly. The
middle-class fear of socialism, communism, and disorder made the Fascists
increasingly attractive to many people. Mussolini knew that many Italians
were still angry over the peace settlement.
The failure to receive more land under the treaty was
a deep source of resentment. He knew nationalism was a powerful force and
demanded more land for Italy. Mussolini converted thousands to the Fascist
Party with his nationalistic appeals. In 1922 Mussolini and the Fascists
threatened to march on Rome if they were not given power. Victor Emmanuel
III, the king of Italy, gave in and made Mussolini prime minister.
Mussolini used his position as prime minister to create
a Fascist dictatorship. New laws gave the government the right to stop
any publications that criticized the Catholic Church, the monarchy, or
the state. The prime minister was made head of the government with the
power to make laws by decree. The police were given unrestricted authority
to arrest and jail anyone for either political or nonpolitical crimes.
In 1926 the Fascists outlawed all other political parties in Italy and
established a secret police, known as the OVRA. By the end of the year,
Mussolini ruled Italy as Il Duce (eel DOO•chay), “The Leader.”
The Fascist State
Believing that the Fascist state should be totalitarian,
Mussolini used various means to establish complete control over the Italian
people. The OVRA watched citizens’ political activities and enforced government
policies. Police actions in Italy, however, were never as repressive or
savage as those in Nazi Germany (discussed later in this chapter).
The Italian Fascists also tried to exercise control over
all forms of mass media, including newspapers, radio, and film. The media
was used to spread propaganda. Propaganda was intended to mold Italians
into a single-minded Fascist community. Most Italian Fascist propaganda,
however, was fairly basic and mainly consisted of simple slogans like “Mussolini
Is Always Right.”
“Anti-individualistic,
the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and
accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those
of the State. . . . War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum
tension and sets the seal of nobility on those people who have the courage
to face it.”
— Benito Mussolini,
“The Doctrine of Fascism,”
in Italian Fascisms, Adrian
Lyttleton, ed., 1973
The Fascists also used organizations to promote the ideals
of fascism and to control the population. For example, by 1939, Fascist
youth groups included about 66 percent of the population between the ages
of 8 and 18. These youth groups particularly focused on military activities
and values.
With these organizations, the Fascists hoped to create
a nation of new Italians who were fit, disciplined, and war-loving. In
practice, however, the Fascists largely maintained traditional social attitudes.
This is especially evident in their policies regarding women. The Fascists
portrayed the family as the pillar of the state. Seen as the foundation
of the family, women were to be homemakers and mothers. According to Mussolini,
these roles were “their natural and fundamental mission in life.”
In spite of his attempts, Mussolini never achieved the
degree of totalitarian control seen in Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Soviet
Union (discussed later in this chapter). The Italian Fascist Party did
not completely destroy the country’s old power structure. Some institutions,
including the armed forces, managed to keep most of their independence.
Victor Emmanuel III was also retained as king.
Mussolini’s compromise with the traditional institutions
of Italy was especially evident in his dealings with the Catholic Church.
Mussolini’s regime recognized the sovereign independence of a small area
within Rome known as Vatican City. The Church had claimed this area since
1870. In return, the pope recognized the Italian state. Mussolini’s regime
also gave the Church a large grant of money and recognized Catholicism
as the “sole religion of the state.” In return, the Catholic Church urged
Italians to support the Fascist regime.
In all areas of Italian life under Mussolini and the Fascists,
a large gap existed between Fascist ideals and practices. The Italian Fascists
promised much but delivered considerably less. They would soon be overshadowed
by a much more powerful fascist movement to the north—that of Adolf Hitler,
a student and admirer of Mussolini.
How did Mussolini gain power
in Italy?
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A New Era in the USSR
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In the Soviet Union, Stalin maintained total power by murdering
his political opponents.
As discussed earlier, Lenin followed a policy of war communism
during the civil war in Russia. The government controlled most industries
and seized grain from peasants to ensure supplies for the army. Once the
war was over, peasants began to sabotage the Communist program by hoarding
food. The situation became even worse when drought caused a terrible famine
between 1920 and 1922. As many as 5 million lives were lost. With agricultural
disaster came industrial collapse. By 1921, industrial output was only
20 percent of its 1913 level.
Russia was exhausted. A peasant banner proclaimed, “Down
with Lenin and horseflesh. Bring back the czar and pork.” As Leon Trotsky
said, “The country, and the government with it, were at the very edge of
the abyss.”
Lenin’s New Economic Policy
In March 1921, Lenin pulled Russia back from the abyss.
He abandoned war communism in favor of his New Economic Policy
(NEP). The NEP was a modified version of the old capitalist system. Peasants
were allowed to sell their produce openly. Retail stores, as well as small
industries that employed fewer than 20 workers, could be privately owned
and operated. Heavy industry, banking, and mines, however, remained in
the hands of the government.
The Soviet Union
In 1922 Lenin and the Communists formally created a new
state called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The state is also
known as the USSR (by its initials) or as the Soviet Union (by its shortened
form). By that time, a revived market and a good harvest had brought an
end to famine. Soviet agricultural production climbed to 75 percent of
its prewar level.
Overall, the NEP saved the Soviet Union from complete
economic disaster. Lenin and other leading Communists, however, intended
the NEP to be only a temporary retreat from the goals of communism.
Industrialization
Lenin died in 1924. A struggle for power began at once
among the seven members of the Politburo (PAH•luht•byur•oh)—the
Communist Party’s main policymaking body. The Politburo was severely divided
over the future direction of the Soviet Union.
One group, led by Leon Trotsky, wanted to end the NEP
and launch Russia on a path of rapid industrialization, chiefly at the
expense of the peasants. This group also wanted to spread communism abroad.
It believed that the revolution in Russia would not survive without other
communist states.
Another group in the Politburo rejected the idea of worldwide
communist revolution. Instead, it wanted to focus on building a socialist
state in Russia and to continue Lenin’s NEP. This group believed that rapid
industrialization would harm the living standards of the Soviet peasants.
The Rise of Stalin
These divisions were further strained by an intense personal
rivalry between Leon Trotsky and another Politburo member, Joseph
Stalin. In 1924 Trotsky held the post of commissar of war. Stalin
held the bureaucratic job of party general secretary. The general secretary
appointed regional, district, city, and town party officials. Thus this
bureaucratic job actually became the most important position in the party.
Stalin used his post as general secretary to gain complete
control of the Communist Party. The thousands of officials Stalin appointed
provided him with support in his bid for power. By 1929, Stalin had removed
the Bolsheviks of the revolutionary era from the Politburo and had established
a powerful dictatorship. Trotsky, pushed out of the party in 1927, eventually
made his way to Mexico. There he was murdered in 1940, probably on Stalin’s
orders.
Five-Year Plans
The Stalin Era marked the beginning of an economic, social,
and political revolution that was more sweeping in its results than were
the revolutions of 1917. Stalin made a significant shift in economic policy
in 1928 when he ended the NEP. That year he launched his First Five-Year
Plan. The Five-Year Plans set economic goals for five-year
periods. Their purpose was to transform Russia virtually overnight from
an agricultural into an industrial country.
The First Five-Year Plan emphasized maximum production
of military equipment and capital goods (goods devoted to the production
of other goods, such as heavy machines). The plan quadrupled the production
of heavy machinery and doubled oil production. Between 1928 and 1937, during
the first two Five-Year Plans, steel production in Russia increased from
4 million to 18 million tons (3.6 to 16.3 million t) per year.
Costs of Industrialization
The social and political costs of industrialization were
enormous. Little thought was given to caring for the expanded labor force
in the cities. The number of workers increased by millions between 1932
and 1940. However, total investment in housing actually declined after
1929. The result was that millions of workers and their families lived
in miserable conditions. Real wages in industry also declined by 43 percent
between 1928 and 1940. Strict laws even limited where workers could move.
To keep workers content, government propaganda stressed the need for sacrifice
to create the new socialist state.
With rapid industrialization came an equally rapid collectivization
of agriculture. Collectivization was a system in which private
farms were eliminated. Instead, the government owned all of the land, and
the peasants worked it. The peasants resisted by hoarding crops and killing
livestock. In response, Stalin stepped up the program. By 1930, 10 million
peasant households had been collectivized. By 1934, 26 million family farms
had been collectivized into 250,000 units.
Costs of Stalin’s Programs
Collectivization was done at tremendous cost. The hoarding
of food and the slaughter of livestock led to widespread famine. Stalin
himself is supposed to have said that 10 million peasants died in the famines
of 1932 and 1933. Stalin gave the peasants only one concession. Each collective
farm worker could have one tiny, privately owned garden plot. Stalin’s
programs had other costs as well.
To achieve his goals, Stalin strengthened his control
over the party. Those who resisted were sent into forced labor camps in
Siberia. Stalin’s desire to make all decisions led to purges, or removal,
of the Old Bolsheviks. These people had been involved in the early days
of the movement. Between 1936 and 1938, the most prominent Old Bolsheviks
were put on trial and condemned to death. During this time, Stalin purged
army officers, diplomats, union officials, intellectuals, and ordinary
citizens. An estimated 8 million Russians were arrested. Millions were
sent to labor camps in Siberia; they never returned. Others were executed.
The Stalin era also overturned permissive social legislation
enacted in the early 1920s. To promote equal rights for women, the Communists
had made the divorce process easier. They had also encouraged women to
work outside the home. After Stalin came to power, the family was praised
as a small collective. Parents were responsible for teaching the values
of hard work, duty, and discipline to their children.
What was Lenin’s New Economic
Policy?
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Authoritarian States in the West
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Authoritarian governments in the West worked to preserve
the existing social order.
A number of governments in the Western world were not totalitarian
but were authoritarian. These states adopted some of the features of totalitarian
states, in particular, their use of police powers. However, these authoritarian
governments did not want to create a new kind of mass society. Instead,
they wanted to preserve the existing social order.
Eastern Europe
At first, it seemed that political democracy would become
well established in eastern Europe after World War I. Austria, Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia (known as the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats,
and Slovenes until 1929), Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary all adopted parliamentary
systems. However, authoritarian regimes soon replaced most of these systems.
Parliamentary systems failed in most eastern European states for several
reasons. These states had little tradition of political democracy. In addition,
they were mostly rural and agrarian. Many of the peasants were illiterate
(could not read or write).
Large landowners still dominated most of the land, and
they feared the peasants. Ethnic conflicts also threatened these countries.
Powerful landowners, the churches, and even some members of the small middle
class feared land reform. They also feared communist upheaval and ethnic
conflict. These groups looked to authoritarian governments to maintain
the old system. Only Czechoslovakia, which had a large middle class, a
liberal tradition, and a strong industrial base, maintained its political
democracy.
Spain
In Spain, too, political democracy failed to survive.
Although the middle class and intellectuals supported the Second Republic,
the new government began falling apart shortly after it was created in
1931. Rivalries between political parties and personal rivalries between
their leaders tore Spain apart. Spain’s Second Republic lasted only five
years, three months, and three days.
Francisco Franco rose rapidly within the
military ranks. He became Europe’s youngest general. When chaos swept Spain,
the Spanish military forces under Franco’s leadership revolted against
the democratic government in 1936. A brutal and bloody civil war began.
Foreign intervention complicated the Spanish Civil War.
The fascist regimes of Italy and Germany aided Franco’s forces. They sent
him arms, money, and soldiers. Hitler used the Spanish Civil War as an
opportunity to test the new weapons of his revived air force. German bombers
destroyed the city of Guernica in April 1937. Spanish artist Pablo Picasso
immortalized the horrible destruction in his mural Guernica.
The Spanish republican government was aided by 40,000
foreign volunteers. The Soviet Union sent in trucks, planes, tanks, and
military advisers.
The Spanish Civil War came to an end when Franco’s forces
captured Madrid in 1939. In April of that year, Franco issued
a statement:
“Today, the Red Army
having been disarmed and captured, the National troops have reached their
final military objectives. The war is over.—Burgos, April 1, 1939, the
Year of Victory—Generalissimo Franco.”
—Portrait of Spain,
Francisco Franco, as quoted in Tad Szulc, 1972
Franco established a dictatorship that favored large landowners,
businesspeople, and the Catholic clergy. Because Franco’s dictatorship
favored traditional groups and did not try to control every aspect of people’s
lives, it is an example of an authoritarian rather than a totalitarian
regime.
How did Czechoslovakia maintain
its political democracy?
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NOW
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