Europe in 1919

Rise of Russian SocialismRise 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

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

Mass strike in Petrograd, February 1917

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

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.

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

The October RevolutionThe 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

• 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

Bolsheviks charge the Winter Palace, October 1917

Lenin’s ReformsLenin’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

Russian Civil War (1918-1920)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

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!

The “Stabbed-in-the-Back” Theory

Disgruntled German WWI veterans

Maimed German WW I Veteran

German “Revolutions” [1918]

German Freikorps

Sparticist Poster

The Spartacist League

Rosa Luxemburg[1870-1919]

murdered by the Freikorps

Friedrich Ebert:First President of the Weimar

Republic

The German Government: 1919-1920

The GermanMark

The German Mark

The French in the

Ruhr: 1923

The French Occupation of the Ruhr

The Beer Hall Putsch: 1923

The Beer Hall Putsch Idealized

Hitler in Landesberg Prison

Mein Kampf [My Struggle]

European Debts to the United States

The Dawes Plan (1924)

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.

Weimar Germany: Political Representation

[1920-1933]Political Parties in the Reichstag

May 1924

Dec. 1924

May1928

Sep.1930

July1932

Nov.1932

Mar.1933

Communist Party (KPD) 62 45 54 77 89 100 81

Social Democratic Party (SDP)

100 131 153 143 133 121 120

Catholic Centre Party (BVP)

81 88 78 87 97 90 93

Nationalist Party (DNVP)

95 103 73 41 37 52 52

Nazi Party (NSDAP) 32 14 12 107 230 196 288

Other Parties 102 112 121 122 22 35 23

Benito Mussolini [1883-1945]

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

Italian Fasces

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

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.

Fascist Youth

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

Lateran Treaty [1929]

-Recognized the Papacy and created Vatican City-Heavy financial support to the Church-Pope urges Catholics to support Mussolini

Ramsay MacDonald: 1924, 1929

Labour Party

Stanley Baldwin

Conservative Party

1926 General Strike

Trades Disputes Act (1927): All general or sympathy strikes were illegal. It forbade unions from raising money for

political purposes.

Raymond Poincaré & the Conservative Right He sent French troops into the

Ruhr in 1923. Pushed for large-scale

infrastructure reconstruction programs [counting on German reparations to pay for them].

After 1926-29: • New taxes & tightened tax

collections.• Drastic decline in govt. spending

that stabilized the franc [the threat of runaway inflation was avoided!]

Edouard Herriot & the French

Socialists 1924-1926. Progressive social

reform. Spoke for the lower

classes, small businessmen, and farmers.

Committed to private enterprise and private property.

Fervently anti-clerical.

League of Nations Members

Washington Naval Conference[1921-1922]

U. S. Britain Japan France Italy 5 5 3 1.67 1.67

The Maginot Line

Locarno Pact: 1925

Locarno Pact: 1925

GustaveStresemann(Ger.)Aristide

Briand(Fr.)

Austin Chamberlain (Br.)

Guaranteed the common boundaries of Belgium, France, and Germany as specified in the Treaty of Versailles of 1919.

Germany signed treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia, agreeing to change the eastern borders of Germany by arbitration only.

Kellogg-Briand Pact: 1928

15 nations committed to outlawing aggression and war for settling disputes.

Problem no way of enforcement.

George Grosz

Grey Day

(1921)

DaDa

George Grosz

The Pillars of Society

(1926)

DaDa

Picasso Studio with Plaster Head [1925]

Cubism

Georges Braque Still Life LeJeur [1929]

Cubism

Walter Gropius Bauhaus Bldg. [1928]

Bauhaus

The Great Depression [1929-1941]

Paris in 1930

London in 1930

German Unemployment: 1929-1938

The Great Depression [1929-1941]

Decrease in World Trade: 1929-1932

The “New Napoleons?”

Hitler