Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Topics Covered: Russia -Rise of Stalin (Opponents underestimated him, master of manipulation, positioned himself as Lenin's successor, strong power base and luck) -Collectivization -Five Year Plans -How Stalin controlled Russia Germany -Rise of the Nazi Party -Rise of Adolf Hitler -How Hitler controlled the people of Germany Road to War, Europe -Causes of World War II -Policy of Appeasement -Nazi Soviet Pact Rise of Japan -Reasons for rise of Militarism -Why did Japan go to war? -Consequences of the war Cold War -Reasons for Cold War -Berlin Blockade -Korean War -Cuban Missile Crisis -Impact of Cold War -Significance of Cold War -Consequence of Cold War Extra Topics: Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations (the successes or failures), Aid to Germany (the Young Plan by USA)
Russia
RISE OF STALIN -Positioned himself as Lenin's successor Towards Lenin's death, Stalin made sure he was with him all the time. At Lenin's funeral, he served as the chief mourner, and also tricked Trotsky into missing the funeral. This gave the impression that Lenin was very close to Stalin when he was alive. This meant that the public would generally assume that Lenin would have wanted Stalin to be his successor. Also, by tricking Trotsky not to turn up for the funeral, it made Trotsky look bad, making Stalin seem even better. -Rivals underestimated Stalin The contestants for power consisted of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky and Bukharin. They all ignored Stalin as a threat, and were busy fighting each other, trying to eliminate the competition. They all also wanted Stalin on their side as his job as General Secretary meant that he could easily get supporters. This meant that Stalin had very little opposition in his campaign for power. He positioned himself as a neutral, and allowed himself to be wooed, putting him at an advantage. Ultimately, his walk to power was easy as his opponents were busy fighting each other, leaving him alone. -Luck Before he died, Lenin wrote a testament which consisted of his thoughts on various people. Amongst these people were Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev. This testament was supposed to be published, however, as Kamenev and Zinoviev were afraid that Lenin's testament would criticize them, they agreed to prevent the testament from being published. The testament contained vital information that criticized Stalin as being an unsuitable person to take over his place. If published, it would totally crush Stalin's aspirations to consolidate power and take over. -He manipulated his opponents Stalin teamed up with Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky. However, he soon turned on them, and allied himself with Bukharin. After successfully defeating and expelling the 3, he turned against Bukharin, and successfully defeated him. By allying himself with different people, he was able to manipulate and use his opponents. As he was the only one conscious of what was going on, this put him to an advantage, and by the time his opponents found out they were being used, it was too late for them. -Strong power base Stalin was appointed the role of Party Secretary. This meant that he could control the information that his opponents would receive. His position in Orgburo also meant that he could appoint his supporters to key positions. He also had control of party membership, which meant that he could grant membership to people who were likely to support him. This meant that Stalin was in key control of not only the information his opponents were receiving, putting him one step ahead, it also meant that Stalin could have trustable allies that supported his cause. This made his rise to power much easier.
COLLECTIVIZATION
-Combined small farms into one. These combined farms were called Collectives. -Collectives taken over by Government. All produce went directly to government, and they decided what to do with the produce. Was it a success or failure? SUCCESS: Cities were kept well fed, and this drove industrialization into full drive. Stalin gained control of country side. FAILURE: Massive amount of human deaths (10 million starved, 10 million deported), Caused massive starvation, resulting in cannibalism in countryside. QUESTION: HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS COLLECTIVIZATION IN RUSSIA? Collectivization was only successful to a certain extent. Collectivization was successful as state procurement increased. This meant that the developed cities were kept well fed. The increase in the state of living ensured the satisfaction of the people of Russian cities, which in turn, pushed industrialization into overdrive as the more well of the people were, the harder they could work, which in turn, resulted in a boost in economy. Therefore, collectivization was a success. However, Collectivization was a failure as it focussed to much on the people living in the cities, neglecting those in the country side. As the peasant's produce had to be surrendered to the government, they were left with nothing. This meant that they not only could not afford to buy food, they could not produce food for themselves. This ultimately led to the starvation of some 10 million Russians. On top of that, approximately another 10 million were sent to concentration camps to be executed as they opposed Collectivization. Therefore, Collectivization was a failure as it totally ignored the needs of the lower class people, resulting in massive human loss of life. Therefore, collectivization was a failure. In spite of having positives, Collectivization resulted in the deaths of millions of innocent, hard working people. It was successful in achieving it's goal of increasing state produce, however, it created a new problem for the government as it made peasants and farmers angry at Stalin for imposing Collectivization on them. Therefore, Collectivization was only successful to a certain extent. FIVE YEAR PLANS -Meant to kick start industrialization. -Focussed on heavy industries such as coal, iron, oil, electricity and timber. Was "Five Year Plans" a... Success? -Output increased tremendously. -Larger factories built -Helped transform Russia into a world class economy. Failure?
-Consumer goods were neglected (clothes & food) -Workers not sufficiently trained to handle demands of industrialization -Goods not always of good quality -Expected amount of goods a not always met -Overcrowding due to people moving to cities to enjoy reaps of industrialization Overall, the FIVE YEAR PLANS were a success. SUCCESS: Before the implementation of the Five Year Plans, Russia's population mainly consisted of farmers and peasants, and the country was extremely poor after being ravaged by war. However, after the FIVE YEAR PLANS, Russia almost became entirely self sufficient, started to be able to export goods, and her economy shot up to become nearly as great as the USA. Hence, it was successful. FAILURE: The FIVE YEAR PLANS costed Stalin a huge number of human lives, supposedly his fellow "comrades" on which he stepped on to achieve power. A staggering amount of people died due to the excessive negligence towards production of food and clothing for the peasants, causing famine and starvation.
This meant that the USA was unable to continue loans to Germany under things such as "the Young Plan", which aimed at revitalizing Germany's economy by lending her money to rebuild and reestablish herself. As the Nazis promised to create jobs and pull Germany out of her economic disaster, they therefore won the support of the people.
-Unfair Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was signed after Germany lost World War I. The Treaty of Versailles aimed to disarm and weaken Germany to the point where she would never be able to unleash the amount of damage that she did during the first World War ever again. The Treaty made Germany disarm her army by destroying a huge proportion of her weapons, eliminating her air force, reducing her navy to a pathetic count, and made her pay huge reparation costs (6,600 million pounds-an unrealistic sum meant to make Germany pay forever). The Nazis, along with the Germans, hated the Treaty of Versailles. Hence, they found another reason to ally with the Nazis, as they sought to abolish the Treaty. Therefore, this gave the Nazis some more reason to be supported. WHICH WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR THAT HELPED THE NAZIS RISE TO POWER? The most important factor was probably the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty was the one that made Germany fall deep into an economic turmoil. This led to the fact that she was excessively affected by the Great Depression, that the Weimar Republic was hated by the people, and the Communist being able to step in (as they thrive in countries which are very poor). This meant that the root for Germany's problems was the TOV, in which the people hated very much. As the Nazis sought to abolish the TOV, hence they were heavily supported through this ambition of theirs.
This meant that the Nazi party had won majority of the seats in parliament, thereby allowing Hitler to make decisions by himself without much opposition as he not only had majority of the people in parliament supporting him, he had banned the communists from taking whatever posts they had won using the EMERGENCY DECREE.
-Enabling Act Hitler schemed to get the Reichstag to give up it's power, and transfer it all to him. To make this happen, Hitler had to convince the Reichstag, and he had to have 2/3 of the votes in his favor. He did this by banning the Communists deputies from voting, gave vague promises to the Centre Party, and used to votes of the Nationalist Party. This meant that with his new found power in parliament, Hitler could rule as a dictator, allowing him to make decisions without consulting the Reichstag. He then banned political parties to prevent any further opposition, controlled the media and set up concentration camps, thereby helping Hitler consolidate even more power.
-Night of Long Knives Hitler wanted complete and absolute power within his own party, the Nazis. Ernst Rohm, the leader of the SA was unhappy that he was not given a significant role in the new government and created trouble for Hitler. Hitler then sought to clear anyone from ever causing trouble towards him, or whatever he believed in, hence he dragged them out of bed in the night and had them all shot dead, and at the end of it all, there was no public protest towards the unjustified massacre. This meant that Hitler had the assurance that no one opposed him, and that he could do whatever he wanted as no one protested towards the killings, and that he had managed to clear his key rivals by killing them, hence helping him strengthen his post in Germany. -Establishing Post of Fhrer After President Hindenburg died, the only man that could stand up to Hitler, Hitler then combined the job of Chancellor and President to form the new post, Fhrer. This meant that he was the commander in chief for the armed forces, and the new supreme dictator for Germany. This meant that Hitler never again had to consult the president on any other issue, and that he was solely in power. Now, Hitler was in the pinnacle of his career, and he has achieved absolute and the highest power anyone could have in the whole of Germany. QUESTION: WHICH WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR THAT HELPED HITLER CONSOLIDATE POWER? The Reichstag Fire was the most important element that helped Hitler gain power. The Reichstag Fire gave two important things. It helped weaken the only party capable of beating the Nazis, the Communists, by arresting 4000 of it's leaders. Also, he managed to issue the EMERGENCY LAW, which allowed him to further eliminate his opponents by imprisoning them, and the EMERGENCY DECREE. which made sure the communists stayed out of his way by banning them from taking over whatever posts they won in parliament. This all together gave Hitler some form of solid ground to stand on during the early stages of his consolidation of power as it gave him some sort of ability to make decisions such as imprisoning people, confiscation of property etc.
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
Terms: German colonies to be given to other countries to govern. Army allowed up to 100,00 men No tanks Six battleships No submarines No air force allowed Pay reparations (6,600 million pounds)
QUESTION: WHY DID THE GERMANS HATE THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES? -Reduction of arms an insult to Germany, a once powerful country Germany was once, one of the most powerful countries in the entire world, having a world class army capable of making allied powers scared. However, now their army has been miniaturized, to the point where it is plain pathetic. Their army is barely enough to protect the huge land mass of Germany. -Payment for reparations The TOV made Germany pay for the damages she had done during World War 1. The amount stated was 6,600 million pounds, an amount unheard of at that point of time. It was meant to ensure that a rogue country such as Germany could never threaten world peace again. However, Germans did not feel it was fair as they thought they were fighting a war of defense (due to heavy propaganda). Therefore, they called it a DIKTAT. Also, it caused massive inflation and unemployment to the point whereby people were taking their own lives.
Hitler was an ambitious man, and he wanted a lot. He was never satisfied with whatever Britain and France gave him. Another European leader, Chamberlain, was one with hope for peace. He consistently gave in to Hitler in hope that Hitler would be satisfied, which he obviously was not. In short, Chamberlain was feeding Hitler whatever he wanted. This made Hitler feel as though he could request as much as he wanted from "soft" people such as Chamberlain, and could get whatever he wanted. He thus went on an EXPANSIONIST POLICY in Europe, ultimately leading to World War 2. -Unfair Treaty of Versailles The TOV was extremely focussed on weakening Germany. It stripped her army bare, it ravaged her economy, it robbed her of her resource rich lands, it stole her colonies, and it made her pay reparation costs of staggering amounts. It was no wonder that the TOV made the Germans extremely angry. It wanted to make those involved in making Germany submit to the terms, pay with their lives. Hence, it fueled the war, leading to World War 2.
POLICY OF APPEASEMENT
QUESTION: WAS THE POLICY OF APPEASEMENT A MISTAKE?
YES:
-Allowed Germany to grow stronger It allowed Germany to grow stronger. As Germany was harbouring hatred towards the allies (it was not clearly seen by the allies though), by lifting up the anchor on Germany's vengeance which was the TOV, it allowed Germany to build up her resources, making her even more difficult to defeat when World War 2 came. If the Policy was not implemented, Germany would not have the resources and the capability to start a war. -Scared the USSR It scared the USSR. The USSR knew that the allies did not like communism, hence they expected the allies to one day, try to eliminate them. Therefore, the USSR became extremely fearful that the allies might have joined forces with Germany against them. This made the USSR become more supportive of Germany, which led to the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. If the policy was not practiced, the USSR would not have signed the Nazi-Soviet pact, and Hitler would have hesitated to expand, for fear of a war on two fronts against the allies and the USSR. -Encouraged Hitler The Policy of Appeasement gave Hitler the confidence to do whatever he wanted. It even made him bold enough to storm troops into the Rhineland, which was supposed to be demilitarized. If the policy was not practiced, Hitler would not have the confidence to not only remilitarize the Rhineland, it would have also made him hesitate to go on his expansionist policy, resulting in World War 2.
NO:
-Germany needed a fair deal
Germany was treated extremely badly through the TOV. It stripped her army bare, stole her lands, took her colonies, and made her pay heavy debts. It left her in quite a bad shape. With the policy, it allowed time for Germany to get out of her miserable state. A win-win situation would have been achieved if Hitler was not in power, as he was the one that drove all the newly attained resources to fuel a war he could not win. -People in Britain and France wanted to avoid a war The people in Britain and France were shocked by the devastating consequences of World War 1, and did not want a repeat. Hence, as the people were against the idea of a war, it would be inappropriate to go against the wishes of the people. The policy was implemented to ensure that a war with Germany was not to happen. By giving in to Germany's requests, it hope to smoothen the relationship between the countries. -Britain and France needed time to build up resources The first World War had crippled Britain and France's economy. Factories were destroyed, manpower was drastically reduced as men were sent to war, and other resources were lost due to the heavy production of weapons during the war. With the Policy, Britain and France would be able to build themselves up to ensure that SHOULD Germany try anything aggressive, they would be able to implement counter measures to curb Germany. -Communism and USSR needed to be checked Though Germany was a conern, communism was a greater threat for the allies. Communism had always been a major concern for the allies, as if Communism spread, the governments in Britain and France would collapse. With the Policy, Germany would be naturally "conferred" to the side of the allies. This would strengthen Britain and France against any possible communist threat.