Europe in the 1920s

1. Europe in the 1920s

2. Europe in 1919

3. Russia

4. Rise of Russian Socialism • 1898 – Social Democratic Workers’ party formed – Vladamir Lenin leader • Three basic alterations to Marxism: • Capitalism could only be destroyed by violent revolution • Socialist revolutions were possible in even relatively backward nations like Russia • High disciplined workers’ party controlled by intellectuals and full-time revolutionaries • 1903 – Social Democrats split into two groups • Mensheviks – evolutionary change vs. • Bolsheviks – followers of Lenin • 1905 – Lenin and Trotsky (in exile) plan next revolt

5. The February Revolt (1917) • Causes: • Poor showing in Russo-Japanese War reduced credibility • Failure to carryout promised reforms of October Manifesto • Terrible economic and human costs of World War I • Massive food shortages in urban areas, especially Petrograd

6. Mass strike in Petrograd, February 1917

7. Abdication and Provisional Government • Nicholas II abdicated throne on March 15 • Duma declared provisional government on March 12, 1917 • Consisted of constitutional democrats and liberals (favored continuation of war) • Petrograd controlled by Soviet which consisted of workers and soldiers • Controlled by Mensheviks; initially favored cooperation with Provisional Government

8. Alexander Kerensky (in white) led provisional government in 1917 gave Provisional Government temporary legitimacy yet rejected idea of outright revolution. Anarchy erupted under his watch.

9. Petrograd protest after provisional government troops fire on crowd, July 1917

10. The October Revolution • Lenin returned to Russia in April 1917 with assistance of Germans • April Theses – Lenin rejected any cooperation with bourgeois provisional government • Called for a socialist revolution with nationalization of banks and landed estates • “All power to the Soviets”, “ All land to the peasants” • Lenin forced to flee to Finland but maintained leadership; Bolsheviks gain majority in Petrograd Soviet by summer of 1917

11. October 25 – Trotsky led the Soviet overthrow and arrest of Provisional government • Secret police, Cheka, created in December to eliminated opponents • Elections for Constituent Assembly in January • Bolsheviks received 28% of votes • Red Army used to take control • Bolsheviks renamed Communist Party

12. Bolsheviks charge the Winter Palace, October 1917

13. Lenin’s Reforms • Lenin gave land to peasants • Individual factories controlled by committees of workers • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk – immediate end to war • Capital moved from Petrograd to Moscow • Trotsky reorganized army • These actions resulted in great resistance and caused Civil War

14. Russian Civil War (1918-1920) • Reds (Bolsheviks) vs. Whites (old army and 18 groups claiming legitimacy) • Allies sent troops to help Whites; hoped Russia would rejoin the war • Russian communists would never forget they were invaded by the U.S. and their Allies • War Communism – earliest form of socialism in Soviet Union • Declared all land nationalized • State took control of heavy industry and ended private trade • Secret police used to suppress opponents • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) formed 1922

15. Germany

16. From the German Point of View  Lost—but not forgotten country. • Into the heart You are to dig yourself these words as into stone: Which we have lost may not be truly lost!

17. The “Stabbed-in-the-Back” Theory Disgruntled German WWI veterans

18. Maimed German WW I Veteran

19. German “Revolutions” [1918]

20. German Freikorps

21. Sparticist Poster

22. The Spartacist League Rosa Luxemburg[1870-1919]murdered by the Freikorps

23. Friedrich Ebert:First President of the Weimar Republic

24. The German Government: 1919-1920

25. The GermanMark

26. The German Mark

27. The French in the Ruhr: 1923

28. The French Occupation of the Ruhr

29. The Beer Hall Putsch: 1923

30. The Beer Hall Putsch Idealized

31. Hitler in Landesberg Prison

32. Mein Kampf [My Struggle]

33. European Debts to the United States

34. The Dawes Plan (1924)

35. The Young Plan (1930) For three generations, you’ll have to slave away! $26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years.

36. Weimar Germany: Political Representation[1920-1933]

37. Italy

38. Benito Mussolini [1883-1945]

39. Background • Began as a socialist revolutionary but turns against liberalism and tries to win over conservatives • Fails to create a true totalitarian state • Italy was liberal: male sufferage/parlia. • Social divide…many poor • Catholics and conservatives oppose liberal policies

40. Italian Fasces

41. More Mussolini • Violently anti-democratic (expelled from the Socialist Party…supported allies) • Organized bitter war vets (fascists) • Blends nationalist/socialist • Expansion, worker benefits • Turns against socialism to gain major support • BS attacked/bullied socialists and destroyed opposition property

42. March on Rome [1922] -Demanded the resignation of the current government & to be appointed king. -Fascists/Black Shirts march to scare the king…VE3 agrees to his anti-liberalism and allows him a cabinet and dictatorial powers for one year.

43. Fascist Youth

44. Other programs/actions • Revokes freedom of the press and fixes elections • Arrested political opponents, disbanded unions, controlled schools • Taxed bachelors and limited women • Created fascist unions, schools… • “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state” • NOT: overtly racist or anti-semitic, a police state, a murdering madman, a successful totalitarian leader

45. Lateran Treaty [1929] -Recognized the Papacy and created Vatican City -Heavy financial support to the Church -Pope urges Catholics to support Mussolini

46. England

47. Ramsay MacDonald: 1924, 1929 Labour Party

48. Stanley Baldwin Conservative Party

49. 1926 General Strike Trades Disputes Act (1927): • All general or sympathy strikes were illegal. • It forbade unions from raising money for political purposes.

50. France