Essay for Exam Chapter 23
The period between the end of World War I and the advent of World War II, also referred to as the Interwar years saw the transient emergence of divergent attempts at restoring stability and direction by varied political parties and individuals alike. In the face of controversial post-war treaties, severe economic and political turmoil, collapsing law and order, devastating war damages and acute agricultural production decline, people across nations began to lose faith in democracy and support more radical forms of government that promised remedying these dismal state of affairs.
The prevalent anarchy resulted in varied flavors of totalitarianism – in the guise of Russian Communism, Italian fascism, and German Nazism. Although there were considerable differences between these three versions of authoritarianism their underlying fundamental lay in establishing the State’s absolute (“total”) control over people’s economic, political and personal matters such as religion, press, assembly of freedom, etc. via a one – party dictatorial regime using extreme terror, censorship and violence to control all aspects of the citizens’ rights. The democratic states of Britain and France, on the other hand, empowered individuals with fundamental rights and the freedom to be an end in themselves with the government simply facilitating their fullest development and security.
In Russia protagonists such as Lenin used the chaotic war-ridden environment to establish the dramatic and revolutionary communistic rule marked by gross brutality and oppression of the masses. While the State was officially called the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”, superficially indicating that the provinces would be permitted considerable self-government, clearly USSR was ruled by Moscow and the Communist party alone. He also introduced the New Economic Policy as an intermittent step instead of nationalizing all property immediately allowing the expansion of a class of property-owning farmers(kulaks) with a view to revive the floundering economy and appease the massive peasant resistance to collectivization or joint collective farming. Mussolini on the other hand experimented with Italian fascism: a different form of authoritarianism that propagated State control over laissez-faire with labor and capital working together under a well-disciplined party elite run by an undisputed leader committed to destroying liberal democracy.
In Germany, rampant political and economic dysfunction coupled with hyperinflation and public frustration paved the way for Adolf Hitler to establish the National Socialist Workers Party or the Nazi Party. While all regimes enforced public conformance to the reigning party’s brutal and regimental dictates, there remained characteristic dissimilarities between fascism, an antidemocratic movement of the far right, and communism, an antidemocratic movement of the far left. However, irrespective of whether it was the Bolsheviks Red Army , Mussolini’s Black Shirts or the Nazi brown shirt SA (storm troopers), the interwar years palette remains strongly colored by the distinct hues of communism, fascism and Nazism attempting to remodel the power of the State through top-down planning in their search for stability.
“Chapter 23: The Troubled Interwar Years”. Western Civilization II Guides. 2007. Web. Accessed on 1 July 2015.
