1 How did dictators use terror to maintain power?

Of the three main dictators of the 1940s, Stalin was most prominent for his use of Terror, Though Hitler and Mussiolini definitely employed terror, both of them were far more hesitant to use it on their own people, than Stalin was. All three used propaganda in order to inspire a growth in Industry and promoted patriotism and for both Germany and Italy this had positive effects, In Hitlers case, taking Germany out of hyperinflation and financial ruin and Mussolini industrialised Italy. Stalin was the only dictator to utilise terror in order to achieve a rise in Industrial progress, In Russia, Each worker had a quota to reach, if this was not reached, workers could lose their home, extra food rationing or even been sent to Jail, This struck terror into the working populace and pushed them to work harder, as many of the men working in Industry had families to provide for. Both Hitler and Stalin used work camps which inspired terror, Hitlers camps were known as concentration camps and contained Jews, people of foreign ethinticitys, homosexuals, Prisioners of war and Hitlers political enemies, there were two types of Concentration camps employed by Hitler, Work camps, in which the prisoners would be forced to do hard labour and extermination camps, in which prisoners were systematically exterminated it is estimated around million people died In Hitlers concentration camps. In Stalins Russia, They had Gulags which were which were essentially hard labour camps, Russian people were terrified of the Gulags, which where mostly in Sibera, the workers had a saying that in Siberia, winter was 12 months long and the rest summer it is estimated over a million people died in Stalins Gulags between 1933 and 1954. These were useful to the maintence of power as their presence inspired fear in many would-be revolutionaries, in Germanys case, it caused a lot of people who opposed Hitler to flee Germany out of fear and thus help him maintain power. Hitler and Stalin also used Secret police to maintain power, In Germany the SS were terrifying and notoriously the most ruthless arm of Hitlers government, The SS would not only round up Hitlers political enemies and take them to concentration camps, but anyone suspected or reported (even falsely) would be interrogated and most likely sent to camps, This inspired a huge amount of

Terror throughout Germany and the SS were effective not only in keeping the German people under the thumb of Hitler, but the terror they inspired would supress thoughts of resistance and allow Hitler to maintain power. Stalin employed the NKVD led initially by Yagoda, the NKVD were more ruthless and terror inspiring than the SS, They rarely had much direction and would arrest or execute people with little reason, as Stalin grew more and more paranoid, People could be arrested for little to no reason at all, Stalin carried out purges on the Russian people, in which millions were arrested, sent to Gulags or executed for what stalin called political crimes Generally being members of a fictional Trotskyite movement it was the NKVD which carried out these arrests, and the Russian people lived in absolute terror of them. Mussiolini also used his group the blackshirts to a similar extent, during his rise to power they were hired thugs who would use intimidation and fear on his political opponents in order to help Mussiolini grow more popular, when he rose to power, they became an official orginsation, they worked in a similar fashion to the NKVD and SS, but were not nearly as feared or formidable. One of Stalins most famous uses of terror is his show trials this occurred in 1936,37 and 38. They were chaired by Andrei Vyshinki a ruthless Stalin supporter who almost always gave the death penalty as sentence, The show Trials always followed a similar format, People would be accused of Terrorism, plotting against communism, being members of a Trotskyite movement or plotting to kill Stalin, the accused almost always admitted guilt, except for Kretinisky in the third show Trial, the 1938 Trial of 21 in which he initially pleaded not guilty but returned the next morning after a night with the NKVD to admit guilt. By the end of the 3 show Trials, only one of the remaining Bolshiveks was alive apart from Stalin and that was Trotsky, who was out of Russia. The show Trials inspired a terror of Stalin on an international level, as they were widely believed to be true, People believed Stalin was highly capable of catching any and all political enemies, In Russia, they struck fear into the locals, as they only highlighted the oppression they were under and that anyone at any time could be killed. Stalin was definitely the most ruthless in regard to employing terror on his people, he cause great damage the Russian people, killing an estimated 25-30 million of them during his reign, Both Hitler and Mussiolini though did readily

employ terror-tactics, They were far milder than that of Stalin and generally did not lead to as much death, apart from Hitlers concentration camps, Both the SS and Black shirts relied mostly on Intimidation, reputation and threats in order to terrorise their populations into submission, which contrasts to Stalins wanton slaughter and ruthlessness.