The Authoritarian & Totalitarian States: Russia & Spain

Unit 14: Anxiety & Interwar YearsAP European History

Ms. Tully - UHS

A. The Soviet Union

1. “War Communism” – nationalization of business & industry

2. Early 1920s industrial and agricultural collapse

B. New Economic Policy (NEP)

1. Modified capitalism2. 1922 Creation of

USSR3. Agriculture revived;

industry remained stagnant

4. NEP saved SU from collapse

5. Increased # of bureaucrats new elite

C. Struggle for Power

1. Lenin died Jan. 21, 19242. Struggle for power among

Politburo3. The Left – Leon Trotsky4. The Right – Joseph Stalin5. Trotsky vs. Stalin! 6. Stalin used power as

secretary to gain control; expel Trotsky in 1927

7. By 1929 – eliminated Old Bolsheviks, est. dictatorship

D. The Stalinist Era (1929-1939)

1. First Five Year Plan 2. Enormous social &

political costs3. Propaganda

emphasized need to sacrifice for state

4. Rapid collectivization of agriculture

5. Threat of starvation encouraged compliance

6. Strengthened party bureaucracy

7. Purge of dissenters8. Marginalization of

women to wife/mother

9. Encouraged education, est. more part-time schools

E. Authoritarianism in Eastern Europe

1. Authoritarian State: limit participation of masses, content with passive obedience

2. Parliamentary gov’ts gave way to authoritarian regimes

3. Traditional conservatives feared ethnic conflict, communism

4. Bulgaria, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Greece

5. Czechoslovakia remained a political democracy

F. Dictatorship in Iberian Peninsula

1. Spain’s parliamentary monarchy weak after WWI

2. General Miguel Primo de Rivera led military coup Sept. 1923 – dictatorship until 1930

3. New republic 1931 ; Popular Front 1936 antifascist coalition

4. General Francisco Franco led military revolt civil war

G. The Spanish Civil War

1. Split country between left & right

2. Left Republicans/supporters of Popular Front, urban areas

3. Right Nationalists & military

4. Foreign intervention GR & ITLY supported Franco

5. Attack on Guernica, April 26, 1937 new level of destruction

6. SU & US assisted Republicans7. Franco captured Madrid March 28, 19398. Franco Dictatorship 1939-1975 – traditional

authoritarian conservatism