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authoritarian state?
1) Batista & Corruption- Batista took over power from the former president, in a coup 3
months before the elections were to even happen. Batista wasnt projected to win, so in order to
verify that he would win, he fixed the polls in order to do so. However due to the amount of
corruption within Cuba previously, the country was basically used to what Batista had done.
2) United States involvement with Cuba- United States President, Harry Truman, began to provide
military and economic support in echange for Cubas support, due to Batistas new rise to power.
During this time, the US was very involved in Cubas economy. This progression towards
capitalism led to the rise & revolution of Castro.
3) Castros Revolution- Overall, Castro was a strong advocate for the lower class and poor
population of Cuba. By joining the Cuban Peoples Party, Castro was able to begin changing the
quality of life for the peasant community. Castro was able to convince members of this party that
change needed to happen, and that Cubas government needed to be removed. This ultimately
sparked a revolution, which eventually allowed Castro to take over power, force Batista out of
office, and began to move away from Cuba becoming a capitalist type government.
help the country out. Castros main foreign goal however, was to promote the freedom of smaller
countries from their much more powerful and wealthier controllers. In addition, since the United
states attempted to cripple the Cuban government through a trade barricade, many other countries
that were against the US, began to support Castros regime.
3) New mans theory- this theory was an idea that Castro and Che Guevara created, that
regulated work and employment throughout Cuba. It consisted of the idea that all Cubans should
no longer work for the benefit of themselves, but rather for the good of everyone in society. This
increased benefits for Cubans, such as education. From this, Castro aimed to improve the entire
society as a whole, rather then just certain individuals.
however due to his socialist principles, Cuba cannot be considered a totalitarian ruled country.
- First off, at the beginning of Castros regime, he implemented new policies that took care of the
poor community, by taking away money and land form the rich, and distributing it to the peasants.
Creating social equality, in the sense that there was no personal gain on jobs, everyone gets paid
the same amount, no matter what they had been previously paid, created a world of equality, and
hard working people. This ideology can be considered extremely communist, however Castro was
still considered a socialist, and therefore did not implement complete communist ideology.
- Castro improved many problems within cuba, through implementation of communist ideology. For
example, the literacy rate began to increase drastically throughout his rule, and quality free health
care was accessible to almost everyone. These economic policies and importance of such,
somewhat reflect that of a totalitarian ruled nation.
- Furthermore, Castro controlled the propaganda throughout Cuba. From controlling the media, to
banning certain books to be public accessible, Castro was able to create a totalitarian ruled state to
some extent, however not completely.
2) Establishment of Power:
] Describe
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- Social Policies Castro used his popularity, and his focus upon the importance of education, as
a means to maintain power. As for popularity, Castro used this as his main tactic to maintain
power. By highlighting the importance of the people of Cuba, and how he wanted to help
improve the lives of Cuban society, through equality, he was able to maintain a large support
group, which ultimately allowed him to maintain power. Furthermore, Castro stressed the
importance of education. By making education easily accessible for a majority of the population,
Castro was able to improve the educational situation in Cuba drastically. The literacy rate
increased momentously. Here is a url to a website that shows the increasing literacy rate within
cuba :
3) Castro used communism as a force to unite the various communist groups of Cuba and later
destroyed them in order to consolidate his power and establish preeminence over all potential
rivals.
After a series of political manipulations and impeachment, Castro supported the radical left wing of
his movement and strengthened his control until the party posed no serious challenge.
As promised during the revolution, Castro introduced a new constitution that introduced a system
of Poder Popular which set up a three-tier system to allow for democratic decision-making.
July 1960:
Relations between USA and Cuba worsened, but USSR relations with
Cuba improved.
The USA, President J.F. Kennedy even approved a plan to invade Cuba:
How would the other American states react to a new socialist threat at their
doorstep?
Cubas economy was far too reliant on sugar and the price fluctuations
of the world sugar market.
He wrote a book on the guerrilla warfare, which had big impact on Latin
America.
Education
Housing
Health
Medical facilities
Communication
All children were getting some sort of education (only 50% before
1959)
The inability to diversify the industries and the agricultural output was
the most serious failure. This made Cuba more dependent:
Unemployment rose
Hitler
Edit
Hitler as an individual
Role in the Munich Putsch (1923)
Strategies
1Propaganda
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2
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3
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3
1
Ideology
Germans way of life dedicated to the furthering of the state.
Organization of all aspects of life.
Organized militarily. Always a standing military.
Anti-Communist
Race is an important aspect. Aryans vs. Non-Aryans. Master race. Jews and
others inferior. Anti-Semetic.
Creation of a powerful Germany.
Remove unemployment and give everyone jobs. Everyone works towards making
the state better.
Make Germany self sufficient by boosting exports and reducing imports.
Totalitarian state with control over industry, agriculture, and way of life. Personal
freedom limited.
Opposition
It became dangerous to oppose the Nazis after the Enabling Law. Hitler had
absolute control.
Early opposition were communists. Jailed many of them. Attacked by the SS.
Blamed the Reichstag fire on communists.
Suspected enemies of the state jailed for no reason.
Focused on the persecution of Jews later in his rule.
Hitler formed an agreement with religious (Concordat). Agreement broken, schools
shut down. Religious arrested.
Sent Jews to concentration camps.
Courts supported Hitler, no real trials.
Main enemies were communists, social democrats, Jews, Catholics, and
Protestants.
Used Jews as scapegoats. Hitler blamed them.
Nuremberg Laws- Deprived Jews of rights.
Final Solution- extermination of Jews.
Murdered General Rohm and other SA leaders when they opposed him. Knight of
the Long Knives.
Had people shot for opposing him. Brutal.
Stalin
removed those who gave him opposition. He surrounded himself with strong supporters of
his beliefs.
c. In the beginning Stalin was never strong in his opinions and kept to himself. Although
there was much argument after Lenin died
about how the Communist regime should be run, Stalin only expressed the ideal that
Trotsky should be exiled. This allowed him to
slowly get rid of his competition and rise to power.
d. Stalin knew the power of his position with his job he had the power of appointment and
promotion to important party positions. He
filled these posts with his own supporters and removed the supporters of rivals to remote
parts of country. Then, Party conferences and
congresses filled with his supporters, who then elected the top leadership.
B. Aims
a. Stalin aimed to reduce all competition to his party, even after he had gained power.
i. He felt insecure because the government had lost support due to the discontent with the
collectivization and hardships of
the Five Year Plans.
ii. This discontent led to a wide number of purges that moved millions of innocent people
into prisons and labor camps
because Stalin was paranoid of a government overthrow.
iii. The Great Terror from 1936-1938 showed how Stalin murdered over three million
people in two years because of his
aims to continue to gain more power across Russia.
b. Stalin strived to make the country produce more products.
i. With his collectivization of farms and Five Year plans, he made sure that the countrys
economy was on its way to a world
power.
C. Ideology
a. Improve the economic situation in Russia and strive to make the economy number one.
i. He did this through his collectivization and his Five Year Plans
b. Communist government throughout Russia without any opposition towards his
leadership.
i. He made sure that all everyone surrounding him in power was for his leadership and
eliminated anyone who showed any
opposition.
were charged heavily for use of government machinery. They were also forced to pay to the
government all profits and
surpluses.
ii. Stalins law brought about severe punishments for people with bad workmanship and
many were convicted for
being saboteurs when targets were not met.
b. Collectivization dealt with the farming problems and forced small private farms to merge
into one large collective farm to produce more
products.
i. Stalin wanted to eliminate the peasant class with collectivization because he thought that
the kulaks were a threat to Communism.
ii. All the peasants who were landowners were brutally forced into the collective farms.
They were stripped of all their land, crops and
livestock and forced to work for the government. Peasants who refused to join were
tortured, arrested and murdered.
iii. Collectivization didnt even increase production and ultimately failed.
B. Political Totalitarianism
a. Stalin felt that under his totalitarian rule political and social aspects must be controlled
just as much as economic life. He aimed at
complete and unchallenged power for himself and became increasingly paranoid throughout
his reign.
b. Stalin used the murder of one of his leaders to start the Purges.
i. Over the next four years hundreds of political leaders were arrested, tortured, and made to
confess all sorts of crimes that they
were mostly innocent for.
j. Millions of innocent people who were convicted ended up in labor camps.
C. Social Totalitarianism
a. Writers, artists, and musicians were forced to create things that promoted Communism
and Stalins regime and anyone who did not
conform was executed.
b. Education was also closely watched by the secret police, although literacy did increase.
c. Also, churches were closed and clergy were prosecuted.
I. Method of taking control in Russia
a. Russian Revolution- Despite not having much of an impact on the actual events of the
Russian Revolution, many sources refer to Stalin as little more than a petty thief for the
communists, but it did clear the way for Stalin to eventually seize power from his closest
allies.
b. Communist Party and Lenin- Stalin was quick in the post Tsarist Russia to make allies.
He aligned himself not only with the Communist Party but with its greatest leader; Vladimir
Lenin. Stalin took up the unthreatening position of General Secretary and made more
allies on the side that opposed Lenin, covering all his bases.
c. Upheaval of Trotsky- Stalin appeared to be right, as Lenin, on his death bed, declared
Leon Trotsky as his successor and pleaded with the Communist Party to listen. Stalin used
his allies from the party to quickly overthrow the intellectual Trotsky and seize the position
as the USSRs leader.
II. Form of Government in Russia
a. THE Communist State- The Soviet Union was the single most powerful communist state
in history and followed strict communist ideals under Stalin. However Stalin did slowly drift
away from traditional Marxism in favour of more cost effective means.
b. Cold War and Weapons Development- The Soviet Union and the United States became
locked in a struggle that would define the 20th century, as such, Stalin focused much of his
government on weapons development and expansionism. Russia even designed what is
universally referred to as the most reliable gun on the planet; the AK-47.
c. Suppression of the People- A cornerstone of Stalins society was that he maintained an
iron grip over almost every aspect of his people. Many consider Stalin to be one of two of
the biggest authoritarian dictators of the 20th century.
d. The Communist Elite- The Soviet Union was guilty of perpetuating a sort of Communist
Elite, something they always swore against, in which some communist wielded
unbelievable power and money over all other people in their nation.
III. Nature, extent, and Treatment of Opposition
a. Suppression of All Rights- As mentioned above, Stalin brutally repressed nearly all of his
peoples rights to the point that he was easily an authoritarian dictator, which allowed him
to easily crush opposition beneath his heel.
b. Detainment of Enemies- The Gulags are probably one of Stalins most famous forms of
dealing with his enemies. Although exile did exist, such as with Trotsky, Stalins preferred
method was sending all his opponents to the harsh Gulags.
c. Eventual Slaughter- Although not exactly a blatant slaughter directly ordered by Stalin,
Stalin must have been aware of the nigh unbelievable amount of people being killed at the
Gulags, and he used that slaughter to his advantage to scare other enemies into silence.
ii. Great Terror: After the murder of Kirov in 1934, Stalins regime executed and sent to
labor camps nearly three million people. Officials were arrested, tortured, and forced to
confess crimes that they did not commit. Old Bolsheviks were targeted for bringing about
the 1917 revolution. The army was also targeted as the Commander-in-Chief of the Red
Army, 13 generals and top officers were executed. The great terror was successful in
creating fear within the Russian society to obey Stalin and his policies. However, because
so many top officials and educated people were executed, the countrys progress was
sacrificed.
b. Economic:
i. Five Year Plan: Stalin believed a rapid expansion of heavy industry was vitally important
to Russias success. He recognized that Russia was behind and that the country needed
to make up for lost time so he installed a series of plans to expand industrialization.
1. First Five Year Plan: The first of the two plans was concentrated on expanding heavy
industry including coal, iron, steel, oil and machinery.
2. Second Five Year Plan: This plan did not meet all of its targets. It tried to increase
consumer goods as well 'as heavy industry. These plans brought about strict working
conditions and if quotas were not met, some workers were sent to forced labor camps.
3. Success: The plans were mostly successful. By 1940 the USSR had surpassed Britain
in iron and steel production. The plans were made possible by cash provided by the
Russians themselves rather than foreign investment. Many foreign technicians were
brought in to the USSR to help with the plans.
ii. Collectivization:
1. Reasons: Small farms were inefficient and need to be replaced by larger, mechanized
farms. The Kulaks were enemies of communism, so extreme force needed to be used.
2. Process: Small farms were combined and made into larger, more efficient farms. Many
peasants were reluctant and had to be forced to give their land and cattle to the
government. Kulaks often revolted by burning crops and killing their cattle, however these
peasants that refused were either sent to labor camps or killed. In reality, the program was
not successful as total grain production did not increase. This led to famine during 1932-3.
While grain exports were increased, nearly 5 million peasants died of starvation. Stalin
claims collectivization was a success because it increased mechanization, but many critics
look to the amount of peasants that died during the process.
c. Social:
ii. Education: Education was closely monitored by the secret police and much of the
material taught glorified Stalin and the Soviet Union. Education was compulsory and free
and literacy rates did increase.
iii. Orthodox Church: Churches were closed and clergy was persecuted during Stalins
reign. However, Stalins plan to eliminate the Orthodox Church failed as half of the
population were still convinced believers in 1940.
III. Role of education, arts, media and propaganda
a. Education: This was one of Stalins main achievements. He was able to raise the
literacy rate from 50% to nearly 100%. Teachers reverted back to a more traditional style
of teaching with an emphasis on math and science. As part of the five-year plan, education
in colleges and universities was expanded to provide a new generation of skilled workers.
b. Media and propaganda were strictly regulated. Any anti-Stalin literature, news etc was
prohibited and anyone that openly opposed Stalin was sent to labor camps or executed.
IV. Status of women, treatment of religious groups and minorities
a. Kulaks: Stalin wanted to eliminate the class of prosperous peasants known as the
kulaks. He believed that they were standing in the way of progress so he used
collectivization to undermine their power. This led to the death and starvation of many
peasants, which Stalin saw as an easy was to get rid of the unwanted population.
b. Stalin was committed to shutting down the orthodox church by closing churches and
persecuting clergy.