TASK #32 - Stalin Communism in Practice in the USSR 1.

What conditions were there in Russia that

made socialism appealing? _______________
The seeds of future Russian Communisms were sown with the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Serfdom is a form of slavery _________________________________________
where peasants are tied to a piece of farmland. They are allowed to use the land to provide for themselves and their family, _________________________________________
but are forced to succumb to the will of their master in all things, including military service whenever needed. The abolition _________________________________________
of serfdom resulted in a mass exodus from the agricultural areas to the cities, where the new working class found 2. What happened after Lenin’s death?
employment in factories as part of Russia's industrial revolution. However, they had no leverage as a large collection of _________________________________________
individuals and were easily exploited, working for miniscule wages. The consequential poverty epidemic made the general _________________________________________
public very open to the idea of communism. After the loss to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, and the sorry state _________________________________________
of the Russian Empire, the conditions were ripe for a fundamental change. 3. How was Stalin more practical?
_________________________________________
Upon the death of Lenin in 1925, Stalin outmaneuvered fellow Lenin disciple Trotsky to inherit the reigns of the Soviet
_________________________________________
Union. Trotsky sought to continue Lenin's efforts of aggressively establishing Communism throughout all the world, since
_________________________________________
communism was inherently stateless, and was not intended to exist within the framework of the traditional notion of a
4. Summarize Stalin’s main claim in the text
"nation". Stalin was more practical, learning from the resounding defeat of communism in other parts of Europe. He instead
labeled [1]. ___________________________
espoused the concept of focusing on strengthening the Soviet Union, under Communist ideals, while simply supporting
_________________________________________
communist revolutions whenever and wherever they arose. Stalin's ideology proved more widely accepted, and became
_________________________________________
the "M.O." of the Soviet Union from that point forward.
5. Summarize Stalin’s main claim in the text
The following selection is an excerpt from a speech Stalin gave on February 4th, 1931 on “The Tasks of Economic labeled [2]. ___________________________
Executives” at The First All-Union Conference of Leading Personnel of Socialist Industry. Taking Stalin's directives as their _________________________________________
guide, the conference mapped out practical measures for the fulfillment of the First Five-Year Plan period. Here Stalin _________________________________________
outlines what is necessary for success of the Five-Year Plans. _________________________________________
6. Summarize Stalin’s main claim in the text
“[1] First of all, adequate natural resources in the country: iron ore, coal, oil, grain, cotton. Have we these resources? Yes, labeled [3]. ___________________________
we have. We have them in larger quantities than any other country… _________________________________________
[2] What else is needed? A government desirous and capable of utilizing these immense natural resources for the benefit of _________________________________________
the people. Have we such a government? We have. True, our work in utilizing natural resources does not always proceed _________________________________________
without friction among our leading personnel… _________________________________________
_________________________________________
[3] What else is needed? A system that is free from the incurable diseases of capitalism and has great advantages over 7. Summarize Stalin’s main claim in the text
capitalism. Crises, unemployment, waste, destitution among the masses -- such are the incurable diseases of capitalism. labeled [4]. ___________________________
Our system does not suffer from these diseases because power is in our hands, in the hands of the working class; because _________________________________________
we are conducting a planned economy, systematically accumulating resources and properly distributing them among the _________________________________________
different branches of the national economy. We are free from the incurable diseases of capitalism. That is what _________________________________________
distinguishes us from capitalism; that is what constitutes our decisive superiority over capitalism… _________________________________________
[4] This, of course, is no easy matter; but it can certainly be accomplished. Science, technical experience, knowledge, are all _________________________________________
things that can be acquired. We may not have them today, but tomorrow we shall. The main thing is to have the passionate 8. Summarize Stalin’s main claim in the text
Bolshevik desire to master technique, to master the science of production. Everything can be achieved, everything can be labeled [5]. ___________________________
overcome, if there is a passionate desire for it….” _________________________________________
_________________________________________
[5] We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years. Either we do it, or _________________________________________
we shall go under. That is what our obligations to the workers and peasants of the U.S.S.R. dictate to us.”
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TASK #33 - The Rise of Benito Mussolini 1. What did he create and what was his title?
___________________________________________________
Benito Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited 2. What did the Fasci di combattimento advocate?
with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister ___________________________________________________
of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by 1925. In the troubled postwar period
3. What did Mussolini preach?
Mussolini organized his followers, mostly war veterans, in the Fasci di combattimento, which
advocated aggressive nationalism, violently opposed the Communists and Socialists. Amid ___________________________________________________
strikes, social unrest, and parliamentary breakdown, Mussolini preached forcible restoration ___________________________________________________
of order and practiced terrorism with armed groups. 4. What happened in 1921?
___________________________________________________
In 1921 he was elected to parliament and the National Fascist party was officially organized. Mussolini was
among the founders of Italian fascism, which included elements of nationalism, corporativism, imperialism, and 5. Italian fascism included what elements?
anti-communism in combination with totalitarian methods of control, including censorship and state propaganda. ___________________________________________________
In October 1922, Mussolini sent the Fascists to march on Rome to intimidate King Victor Emmanuel III. The ___________________________________________________
intimidation worked and they were permitted them to enter the city and called on Mussolini, who had remained 6. What totalitarian methods did he use?
in Milan, to form a cabinet. ___________________________________________________
As the new premier, he gradually transformed the government into a dictatorship. In 1924 the Socialist deputy ___________________________________________________
Matteotti was murdered. Opposition was put down by an efficient secret police and the Fascist party militia, and ___________________________________________________
the press was censored. Parliamentary government ended in 1928, and the state economy was reorganized along 7. What happened in October 1922?
the lines of the Fascist corporative state. Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924– ___________________________________________________
1939 were: his public works programs such as the taming of the Pontine Marshes, the improvement of job ___________________________________________________
opportunities, and public transport. He is also credited with securing economic success in Italy's colonies and 8. How was opposition treated in Mussolini’s dictatorship?
commercial dependencies. ___________________________________________________
His ambition to restore ancient greatness found expression in grandiloquent slogans and speeches and in ___________________________________________________
the erection of monumental buildings. The encouragement he gave to the already high Italian birth rate, his 9. What were Mussolini’s ambitions?
imperialistic designs, and his incitement of extreme nationalist groups created an explosive situation. ___________________________________________________
Although he initially favored siding with France against Germany in the early 1930s, Mussolini became one 10. Mussolini became a main figure of what before WW2?
of the main figures of the Axis powers and, on June 10, 1940, Mussolini led Italy into World War II on the ___________________________________________________
side of Axis. 11. Please summarize Mussolini’s main point in his article
The following selection is an excerpt from an article on Fascism which Mussolini wrote (with the help of about Fascism for the Enciclopedia Italiana.
Giovanni Gentile) for the Enciclopedia Italiana in 1932. ___________________________________________________
“Against individualism, the Fascist conception is for the State; and it is for the individual in so far as he ___________________________________________________
coincides with the State, which is the conscience and universal will of man in his historical existence. It is ___________________________________________________
opposed to classical Liberalism, which arose from the necessity of reacting against absolutism, and which ___________________________________________________
brought its historical purpose to an end when the State was transformed into the conscience and will of the ___________________________________________________
people. Liberalism denied the State in the interests of the particular individual; Fascism reaffirms the State ___________________________________________________
as the true reality of the individual. And if liberty is to be the attribute of the real man, and not of that ___________________________________________________
abstract puppet envisaged by individualistic Liberalism, Fascism is for liberty. And for the only liberty which ___________________________________________________
can be a real thing, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State. Therefore, for the Fascist, ___________________________________________________
everything is in the State, and nothing human or spiritual exists, much less has value, outside the State. In ___________________________________________________
this sense Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State, the synthesis and unity of all values, interprets, ___________________________________________________
develops and gives strength to the whole life of the people.”
33
TASK #34 - Weimar Republic & Hyperinflation 1. Describe the German economy, compared
to the rest of Europe, before WWI? ______
Before World War I Germany was a prosperous country, with a gold-backed currency, expanding industry, and world
leadership in optics, chemicals, and machinery. The German Mark, the British shilling, the French franc, and the Italian ______________________________________
lira all had about equal value, and all were exchanged four or five to the dollar. That was in 1914. In 1923, at the most ______________________________________
fevered moment of the German hyperinflation, the exchange rate between the dollar and the Mark was one trillion ______________________________________
Marks to one dollar, and a wheelbarrow full of money would not even buy a newspaper. Most Germans were taken 2. How did the German economy change by
by surprise by the financial tornado. 1923? _____________________________
The Weimar Republic is the quintessential example of hyperinflation (a severe decrease in the value of a nation’s ______________________________________
currency). Walter Levy is a German-born oil consultant whose father, a German lawyer, took out a life insurance ______________________________________
policy in 1903. Every month he had made the payments faithfully,” recounts Levy. “It was a twenty-year policy, and ______________________________________
when it came due, he cashed it in and bought a single loaf of bread. Such was life in the German Weimar Republic. 3. What is hyperinflation? _______________
Things got so bad there for a while, dentists and doctors stopped asking for currency, seeking payment in butter or ______________________________________
eggs instead. But the farmers weren’t keen on trading their produce for paper money either. Prices rose not just by 4. What did Walter Levy do with his life
the day, but by the hour — or even the minute. If you had your morning coffee in a café, and you preferred drinking insurance policy when it came due in
two cups rather than one, it was cheaper to order both cups at the same time. 1933? _____________________________
Here is how a Weimar factory worker described payday (which was every day): “At eleven o’clock in the morning a ______________________________________
siren sounded and everybody gathered in the factory forecourt where a five-ton lorry [truck] was drawn up loaded 5. What began to replace money during this
brimful with paper money. The chief cashier and his assistants climbed up on top. They read out names and just period of hyperinflation? _____________
threw out bundles of notes. As soon as you had caught one you made a dash for the nearest shop and bought just ______________________________________
anything that was going.” 6. How did a Weimar factory worker describe
Crime was rampant then too. he flight from currency that had begun with the buying of diamonds, gold, country the payment process? ________________
houses, and antiques now extended to minor and almost useless items — bric-a-brac, soap, hairpins. The law-abiding ______________________________________
country crumbled into petty thievery. Copper pipes and brass armatures weren’t safe. Gasoline was siphoned from ______________________________________
cars. People bought things they didn’t need and used them to barter — a pair of shoes for a shirt, some crockery for 7. What new criminal activity occurred?
coffee.
______________________________________
The Weimar Republic — a name bestowed by historians — was established in 1919. (“Weimar” was the name of the ______________________________________
city where the constitutional assembly that formed the republic was held.) But here is the thing. Inflation had been ______________________________________
running rampant in Germany well before Weimar came about. Largely due to the war, prices had already doubled 8. How did George Goodman characterize
between 1914 and 1919. Not only did the ramp-up to hyperinflation take a while, but the German government the Weimar government’s response to the
remained complacent long after inflation strains went from moderate to severe. hyperinflation crisis?
As George Goodman explains, “Why did the German government not act to halt the inflation? It was a shaky, fragile ______________________________________
government…More than inflation, the Germans feared unemployment. In 1919 the Communists had tried to take ______________________________________
over, and severe unemployment might give the Communists another chance. The great German industrial combines ______________________________________
— Krupp, Thysen, Farben, Stinnes — condoned the inflation and survived it well. A cheaper mark, they reasoned, ______________________________________
would make German goods cheap and easy to export, and they needed the export earnings to buy raw materials ______________________________________
abroad. Inflation kept everyone working. So the printing presses ran, and once they began to run, they were hard to ______________________________________
stop…” ______________________________________
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34
SOURCE: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/08/an-important-history-lesson.html ______________________________________
TASK # 35 – Hyperinflation and the Fall of the Weimar Republic
1. What happened to the price of bread in
To understand the incomprehensible scope of the German inflation, it is best to start with something Germany between 1914 and 1920?
basic….like a loaf of bread. (To keep things simple we’ll substitute dollars and cents in place of marks ____________________________________
and pfennigs. You’ll get the picture.) In the middle of 1914, just before the war, a one pound loaf of 2. What happened to the price of bread in
bread cost 13 cents. Two years later it was 19 cents. Two years more and it sold for 22 cents. By Germany between 1921 and the end of
1919 it was 26 cents. Now the fun begins.
1923? ___________________________
In 1920, a loaf of bread soared to $1.20, and then in 1921 it hit $1.35. By the middle of 1922 it was 3. How much did a kilo of butter cost that
$3.50. At the start of 1923 it rocketed to $700 a loaf. Five months later a loaf went for $1200. By same year? _______________________
September it was $2 million. A month later it was $670 million (wide spread rioting broke out). The 4. How did the cost of butter in 1923
next month it hit $3 billion. By mid month it was $100 billion. Then it all collapsed. relate to the whole German economy?
____________________________________
Let’s go back to “marks”. In 1913, the total currency of Germany was a grand total of 6 billion marks.
5. What occurred in 1929?
In November of 1923 that loaf of bread we just talked about cost 428 billion marks. A kilo of fresh
butter cost 6000 billion marks (as you will note that kilo of butter cost 1000 times more than the ____________________________________
entire money supply of the nations just 10 years earlier). ____________________________________
____________________________________
This hyperinflation crisis grew even more extreme with the collapse of the global economy in 1929. The Wall ____________________________________
Street Crash of 1929 created an economic disaster that brought about the onset of a worldwide depression. The
6. How did the global economic
American stock market crash and bank failures led to a recall of American loans to Germany. This development
added to Germany’s economic hardship. Mass unemployment and suffering followed. Many Germans became depression allow for the growth of
increasingly disillusioned with the Weimar Republic and began to turn toward radical anti-democratic parties radical anti-democratic political parties,
whose representatives promised to relieve their economic hardships, like the National Socialist German Workers like the Nazis?
Party (a.k.a the Nazi Party). ____________________________________
____________________________________
Before the crash of 1929, 1.25 million people were unemployed in Germany. By the end of 1930, the figure had
reached nearly 4 million, 15.3% of the population. Even those in work suffered as many were only working part- ____________________________________
time. With the drop in demand for labor, wages also fell and those with full-time work had to survive on lower ____________________________________
incomes. Adolf Hitler, who was considered a fool in 1928 when he predicted economic disaster, was now seen in 7. How much did unemployment increase
a different light. People began to say that if he was clever enough to predict the depression maybe he also knew in Germany after the crash of 1929?
how to solve it. ____________________________________
By 1932 over 30% of the German workforce was unemployed. In the 1933 election campaign, Adolf Hitler 8. What promises did Hitler make to gain
promised that if he gained power he would abolish unemployment. He was lucky in that the German economy the support of the German people?
was just beginning to recover when he came into office. However, the policies that Hitler introduced did help to ____________________________________
reduce the number of people unemployed in Germany. ____________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____________________________________
SOURCE: http://www.businessinsider.com/art-cashin-on-germany-hyperinflation-2011-10#ixzz2vg2j72HI
____________________________________
35
TASK #36 - Hitler’s Mein Kampf
1. How was Mein Kampf written?
Although it is thought of as having been 'written' by Hitler, Mein Kampf is not a book in the usual sense. Hitler never actually sat ________________________________________________
down and pecked at a typewriter or wrote longhand, but instead dictated it to Rudolf Hess while pacing around his prison cell in 2. What was it primarily about?
1923-24 and later at an inn at Berchtesgaden. Reading Mein Kampf is like listening to Hitler speak at length about his youth, ________________________________________________
early days in the Nazi Party, future plans for Germany, and ideas on politics and race. ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
The original title Hitler chose was "Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice." His Nazi publisher
3. What was the original title?
knew better and shortened it to "Mein Kampf," simply My Struggle, or My Battle. In his book, Hitler divides humans into
categories based on physical appearance, establishing higher and lower orders, or types of humans. At the top, according to ________________________________________________
Hitler, is the Germanic man with his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Hitler refers to this type of person as an Aryan. He 4. According to Hitler, which group was the highest order of
asserts that the Aryan is the supreme form of human, or master race. And so it follows in Hitler's thinking, if there is a supreme humans? ________________________________________
form of human, then there must be others less than supreme, the Untermenschen, or racially inferior. Hitler assigns this 5. What did this highest order look like?
position to Jews and the Slavic peoples, notably the Czechs, Poles, and Russians. ________________________________________________
6. What does Untermenschen mean?
In Mein Kampf, Hitler states: "...it [Nazi philosophy] by no means believes in an equality of races, but along with their difference ________________________________________________
it recognizes their higher or lesser value and feels itself obligated to promote the victory of the better and stronger, and
7. Who are the Untermenschen, according to Hitler?
demand the subordination of the inferior and weaker in accordance with the eternal will that dominates this universe." Hitler
________________________________________________
then states the Aryan is also culturally superior: "All the human culture, all the results of art, science, and technology that we
see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan...Hence it is no accident that the first cultures 8. In what ways are the Aryans superior, according to
arose in places where the Aryan, in his encounters with lower peoples, subjugated them and bent them to his will. They then Hitler? ___________________________________________
became the first technical instrument in the service of a developing culture." ________________________________________________
9. How were the Jews impacting the Aryans, according to
But it is the Jews, Hitler says, who are engaged in a conspiracy to keep this master race from assuming its rightful position as Hitler? __________________________________________
rulers of the world, by tainting its racial and cultural purity and even inventing forms of government in which the Aryan comes ________________________________________________
to believe in equality and fails to recognize his racial superiority. Hitler describes the struggle for world domination as an ________________________________________________
ongoing racial, cultural, and political battle between Aryans and Jews. He outlines his thoughts in detail, accusing the Jews of
10. What did the Jews control, in Hitler’s opinion?
conducting an international conspiracy to control world finances, controlling the press, inventing liberal democracy as well as
________________________________________________
Marxism, promoting prostitution and vice, and using culture to spread disharmony.
________________________________________________
This conspiracy idea and the notion of competition for world domination between Jews and Aryans would become widespread 11. How widespread does Hitler’s ideas become?
beliefs in Nazi Germany and would even be taught to school children. This, combined with Hitler's racial attitude toward the ________________________________________________
Jews, would be shared to varying degrees by millions of Germans and people from occupied countries, so that they either ________________________________________________
remained silent or actively participated in the Nazi effort to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe. 12. What does Lebensraum mean?
________________________________________________
Mein Kampf also provides an explanation for the military conquests later attempted by Hitler and the Germans. Hitler states 13. Why did the Aryans need and deserve Lebensraum,
that since the Aryans are the master race, they are entitled simply by that fact to acquire more land for themselves. This
according to Hitler? _______________________________
Lebensraum, or living space, will be acquired by force and includes the lands to the east of Germany, namely Russia. That land
________________________________________________
would be used to cultivate food and to provide room for the expanding Aryan population at the expense of the Slavic peoples,
who were to be removed, eliminated, or enslaved. ________________________________________________
14. When Lebensraum was achieved, what would happen
But in order to achieve this, Hitler states, Germany must first defeat its old enemy France, to avenge the German defeat of to the people east of Germany? ______________________
World War I, and to secure the western border. Hitler bitterly recalls the end of the First World War saying the German Army ________________________________________________
was denied its chance for victory on the battlefield by political treachery at home. In the second volume of Mein Kampf he 15. How was Hitler ultimately going to achieve this?
attaches most of the blame to Jewish conspirators in a highly menacing and ever more threatening tone. ________________________________________________
________________________________________________
36
 1. What groups were targeted in the four laws? __________
TASK #37 - Nazi Laws & Nuremberg Laws
__________________________________________________
In 12 years of Nazi rule, the Reichstag only passed four laws: the Nuremberg laws were two of them. The laws targeted Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, chronically ill, __________________________________________________
elderly, criminals, mentally and physically disabled, and other minority groups – all as part of the Nazi agenda to create an ideal Aryan society.
2. Why were these groups targeted? ___________________
“Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, July 14, 1933
__________________________________________________
Section 1 __________________________________________________
1. Anyone who has a hereditary illness can be rendered sterile by a surgical operation if, according to the experience of medical science, there is a strong
probability that his/her offspring will suffer from serious hereditary defects of a physical or mental nature.
3. Who can be forcibly sterilized? Why? _________________
2. Anyone is hereditarily ill within the meaning of this law who suffers from one of the following illnesses: (a) Congenital feeblemindedness. (b) Schizophrenia. (c) __________________________________________________
Manic depression. (d) Hereditary epilepsy. (e) Huntington’s chorea. (f) Hereditary blindness. (g) Hereditary deafness. (h) Serious physical deformities. __________________________________________________
3. In addition, anyone who suffers from chronic alcoholism can be sterilized. 4. What argument does the Reichstag make for passing the
Section 2 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring?
In the case of persons who are either not legally responsible or have been certified because of mental deficiency or have not yet reached their nineteenth __________________________________________________
birthday, the legal guardian is so entitled [to apply for sterilization].
__________________________________________________
Section 12 __________________________________________________
If the Court had decided finally in favor of sterilization, the sterilization must be carried out even against the wishes of the person to be sterilized…
5. What does it reveal about the Nazi mentality that
Reasons for the Law: Since the National Uprising public opinion has become increasingly preoccupied with questions of population policy and the continuing homosexuals are in the same category as murderers,
decline in the birthrate. However, it is not only the decline in population which is the cause of serious concern but equally the increasingly evident genetic make-
up of our people. Whereas the hereditarily healthy families have for the most part adopted a policy of having only one or two children, countless numbers of pedophiles, etc.? ___________________________________
inferiors and those suffering from hereditary ailments are reproducing unrestrainedly while their sick and asocial offspring are a burden on the community…” __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals and Measures for Protection and Recovery, November 24, 1933
6. What does the pink triangle symbolize? What purpose
This law gave German judges the power to order compulsory castrations for homosexuality, rapists, pedophiles, murderers, etc., all of whom were lumped into a does this symbol serve? ______________________________
general category of habitual criminal. Persons convicted under these laws were required to wear the pink triangle.
__________________________________________________
“Nuremberg Laws __________________________________________________
I. The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, September 5, 1935 7. Why are marriages forbidden between Jews and Aryans?
Moved by the understanding that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising __________________________________________________
determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith: __________________________________________________
Section 1 8. Jews are forbidden from displaying the national flag, but
Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of their right to “display the Jewish colours” is “protected by
evading this law, they were concluded abroad [in another country].
the State.” Why? ___________________________________
Section 2
__________________________________________________
Extramarital sexual relations between Jews and "German or related blood" is forbidden.
__________________________________________________
Section 3
9. According to The Reich Citizenship Law, Article 2
Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens under the age of 45, of German or kindred blood, as domestic workers.
“citizenship is acquired by the granting of Reich citizenship
Section 4
papers.” How does this enable the State to exercise greater
1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colours. control over the people? _____________________________
2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colours. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.
__________________________________________________
II. The Reich Citizenship Law (5 September 1935) __________________________________________________
Article 2
10. What do these laws reveal about how Nazis used the
1. A citizen of the Reich is that subject only who is of German or kindred blood and who, through his conduct, shows that he is both desirous and fit to serve the
legal process to discriminate? _________________________
German people and Reich faithfully.
2. The right to citizenship is acquired by the granting of Reich citizenship papers. __________________________________________________
3. Only the citizen of the Reich enjoys full political rights in accordance with the provision of the laws.”
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
37