History 0246 Midterm

Polish Corridor

strip of land, 20 to 70 miles (32 to 112 km) wide, that gave the newly reconstituted state of Poland access to the Baltic Sea after World War I. The corridor lay along the lower course of the Vistula River and consisted of West Prussia and most of the province of Posen (Poznań), which the Treaty of Versailles (1919) transferred from defeated Germany to Poland. Perhaps no provision of the treaty caused so much animosity and resentment among Germans than this arrangement, for the corridor ran between Pomerania and East Prussia and separated the latter province from the main body of the German Reich to the west. On the other hand, it should be noted that (1) the territory was historically Polish (that is, before the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century) and was inhabited by a Polish majority; (2) the provision accorded with the 13th of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, for giving Poland "a free and secure access to the sea" and indeed its only access; and (3) the territory ceded did not include Danzig (Gdańsk), then a purely German town, which was established as a free city under the sovereignty of the League of Nations. The Polish Corridor was the issue, or at least the apparent pretext, over which World War II began. In March 1939 the Nazi dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler, demanded the cession of Danzig and the creation of extraterritorial German highways across the corridor connecting to East Prussia. Poland refused these demands and secured French and British guarantees against German aggression. In September Germany invaded Poland, thus beginning the war.

Chamberlain (1869-1940)

Chamberlain was British prime minister between 1937 and 1940 and is closely associated with the policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany. Like many in Britain who had lived through World War One, Chamberlain was determined to avert another war. His policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler culminated in the Munich Agreement in which Britain and France accepted that the Czech region of the Sudetenland should be ceded to Germany. Chamberlain left Munich believing that by appeasing Hitler he had assured 'peace for our time'. However, in March 1939 Hitler annexed the rest of the Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia, with Slovakia becoming a puppet state of Germany. Five months later in September 1939 Hitler's forces invaded Poland. Chamberlain responded with a British declaration of war on Germany. In May 1940, after the disastrous Norwegian campaign, Chamberlain resigned, and Winston Churchill became prime minister

Kolkhoz

Collective Farms in the Soviet Union, operated by peasants who were paid on the basis of the labor contributed. Launched in 1929 by Stalin, with opposition from a strong portion of the party (which was eliminated), the plan was a forced "voluntary" union of peasants. Stalin emphasized the need of the liquidation of the Kulaks, who dominated and controlled peasants throughout the country, and instead to replace that with the domination of the peasantry to the state. On October 1, 1927, 286,000 families were in the kolkhozy. On June 1 1929, the figure had reached 1,008,000. The collective farms were controlled by government officials (kolkhoz chairmen) who were elected by the peasants of the commune; however, such elections were not without corruption and coercion. Individual households (worker's property) were retained in the collective farm, and by 1935 part of the land used by the entire collective farm was divided to allow each household garden plots.

Moscow Trials

Conducted between 1936-1938 were the prolonged blood purges and frame-up trials through which Stalin consolidated his personal terroristic tyranny over the Soviet Union. The men in the dock included all the members of Lenin's Politbureau, except Stalin himself. Trotsky, though absent, was the chief defendant in these proceedings. He and the Bolshevik old guard were charged with plotting to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, of conspiring to wreck the country's economic and military power, and of killing masses of Russian workers. They were likewise accused of working, from the earliest days of the Russian Revolution, for the espionage services of Britain, France, Japan, and Germany and of making secret agreements with agents of Hitler and the Mikado to cede vast slices of Soviet territory to imperialist Germany and Japan. The defendants in Moscow abjectly confessed to their guilt; Trotsky alone did not. The trials of these notables were accompanied and followed by a frightful purge of people from every walk of Soviet life: party members, military men, Comintern leaders, intellectuals, officials, ordinary workers and peasants. Stalin arrested and executed almost every important living Bolshevik participant in the Revolution. Of 1,966 delegates to the seventeenth Soviet party congress in 1934, 1,108 were arrested. Of 139 members of the Central Committee, 98 were arrested. Along with the three Soviet marshals, one-third to one-half of the 75,000 Red Army officers were arrested or shot.

Fourteen Points

Designed as guidelines for the rebuilding of the postwar world, the points included Wilson's ideas regarding nations' conduct of foreign policy, including freedom of the seas and free trade and the concept of national self-determination, with the achievement of this through the dismantling of European empires and the creation of new states. Most importantly, however, was Point 14, which called for a "general association of nations" that would offer "mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small nations alike." When Wilson left for Paris in December 1918, he was determined that the Fourteen Points, and his League of Nations (as the association of nations was known), be incorporated into the peace settlements.

Anschluss

German: "Union", political union of Austria with Germany, achieved through annexation by Adolf Hitler in 1938. In February 1938 Hitler invited the Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg to Germany and forced him to agree to give the Austrian Nazis virtually a free hand. Earlier in the decade Austria had turned to Italy for support, but by this time Italian leader Benito Mussolini had abandoned the idea of intervening to protect Austria. Still, Schuschnigg later repudiated the agreement and announced a plebiscite on the Anschluss question. He was bullied into canceling the plebiscite, and he obediently resigned. On March 12 Germany invaded, and the enthusiasm that followed gave Hitler the cover to annex Austria outright on March 13. A controlled plebiscite of April 10 gave a 99.7 percent approval.

Trotsky (1879-1940)

Leon Trotsky, born Lev Bronstein, was a Marxist writer, orator and organizer became a significant leader in the Bolshevik party and the Soviet republic. At the Second Congress of the Social Democrats in 1903, Trotsky sided with the Mensheviks against Lenin, though he later sought to reconcile the two factions. In 1917, Trotsky returned from exile in the United States and by the middle of the year was working with the Bolsheviks, especially in the Petrograd Soviet. Trotsky organized the Red Guards and supported Lenin's call for an armed insurrection. The October Revolution was largely due to his tactical planning. Trotsky later negotiated peace with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk, served as Commissar for War, formed the Red Army, led the Civil War effort and was a pivotal member of the Politburo. He was eventually sidelined from positions of power by his rival, Stalin.

Mensheviks

Like the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks began as a faction of the Russian Social Democratic party or SDs, the nation's largest Marxist party, formed in 1898. The Mensheviks formed following debates and voting over the issue of party membership in 1903. The Menshevik position was that membership should be broad-based. Between 1905 and 1917, the Mensheviks were the largest and most visible of the factions, openly participating in unionism and politics and controlling the SD newspaper. The Menshevik view was that Marxist parties should work within the capitalist system to lay the groundwork for socialist revolution - but not instigate a revolution themselves. The outbreak of World War I created further divisions within the Menshevik movement, with the party's left-wing opposed to Russia's involvement. They eventually settled on a policy of negotiated peace and "revolutionary defensism".

Squadristi

Member of any of the armed squads of Italian Fascists under Benito Mussolini, who wore black shirts as part of their uniform. The first squads—each of which was called Squadre d'Azione ("Action Squad")—were organized in March 1919 to destroy the political and economic organizations of socialists. By the end of 1920 the Blackshirts were attacking and destroying the organizations not only of socialists but also of communists, republicans, Catholics, trade unionists, and those in cooperatives, and hundreds of people were killed as the Fascist squads expanded in number.

Mussolini (1883-1945)

Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He allied Italy with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War Two. In March 1919, Mussolini formed the Fascist Party, galvanizing the support of many unemployed war veterans. He organized them into armed squads known as Black Shirts, who terrorized their political opponents. In 1921, the Fascist Party was invited to join the coalition government. By October 1922, Italy seemed to be slipping into political chaos. The Black Shirts marched on Rome and Mussolini presented himself as the only man capable of restoring order. King Victor Emmanuel invited Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini gradually dismantled the institutions of democratic government and in 1925 made himself dictator. He set about attempting to re-establish Italy as a great European power. The regime was held together by strong state control and Mussolini's cult of personality. In 1935, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and incorporated it into his new Italian Empire. He provided military support to Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

Gavrilo Princip (1894-1918)

South Slav nationalist who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his consort, Sophie, Duchess von Hohenberg at Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914. Princip's act gave Austria-Hungary the excuse that it had sought for opening hostilities against Serbia and thus precipitated World War I. In Yugoslavia—the South Slav state that he had envisioned—Princip came to be regarded as a national hero. Born into a Bosnian Serb peasant family, Princip was trained in terrorism by the Serbian secret society known as the Black Hand. Wanting to destroy Austro-Hungarian rule in the Balkans and to unite the South Slav peoples into a federal nation, he believed that the first step must be the assassination of a member of the Habsburg imperial family or a high official of the government. Austria-Hungary held Serbia responsible and declared war July 28. After trial in Sarajevo, Princip was sentenced to the 20 years imprisonment.

First Five-Year Plan

Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. Joseph Stalin , in 1928, launched the first Five-Year Plan; it was designed to industrialize the USSR in the shortest possible time and, in the process, to expedite the collectivization of farms. The plan, put into action ruthlessly, aimed at making the USSR self-sufficient and emphasized heavy industry at the expense of consumer goods. It covered the period from 1928 to 1933, but was officially considered completed in 1932

Nicholas II (1868-1918)

(1868-1918) Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia. He was deposed during the Russian Revolution and executed by the Bolsheviks. Nicholas married Princess Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt (a duchy in Germany) in 1894, the same year where he succeeded his father. They had four daughters and a son, Alexis, who suffered from the disease hemophilia. The mystic, Rasputin had gained great influence through his apparent ability to treat the haemophilia of Alexis, the heir to the throne. During his reign he went to war with Japan over Russian expansion in Manchuria in the year 1904. The result was a loss, which led to strikes and riots. The Russian parliament, Duma, was created shortly after. Shortly after the World War I, the Bolosheviks revolted and took power due to the weakness of the provisional government, economic and social problems, and people's frustration over the continuation of the war. His death marked the end of Romanov rule after more than 3 centuries.

Munich Conference

(September 30, 1938) Settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia. Like almost everyone in Europe, including most Germans, Chamberlain thought that practically anything was preferable to a repeat of the war of 1914-18. He misunderstood Hitler, who he believed could be appeased by suitable concessions and neither he nor the French saw good reason for a war to preserve Czechoslovakia, which had only been created in 1918. No Czech representative was invited to the conference. At Munich Hitler gained what he wanted - the domination of Central Europe - and German troops marched into the Sudetenland on the night of October 1st. The day before, the Czech government had accepted the Munich pact. The French and British premiers had flown home in triumph to tumultuous welcomes from their peoples, who felt huge relief that another European war had been avoided.

Dawes Plan

After the First World War Germany had great difficulty paying the reparations that had been agreed under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Charles G. Dawes, an American banker, was asked by the Allied Reparations Committee to investigate the problem. His report, published in April, 1924, proposed a plan for instituting annual payments of reparations on a fixed scale. He also recommended the reorganization of the German State Bank and increased foreign loans. German politicians like Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hugenberg attacked the Dawes Plan because it did not reduce the reparations total. They also disliked the idea that foreigners would have control over the German economy. The Dawes Plan was initially a great success. The currency was stabilized and inflation was brought under control. Large loans were raised in the United States and this investment resulted in a fall in unemployment. Germany was also able to meet her obligations under the Treaty of Versailles for the next five years. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 triggered a global depression, partly due to close knit relations of national economies created in the Dawes Plan.

Hitler (1889-1945)

As a young man, Adolf Hitler struggled to earn a living in Vienna, where he was exposed to anti-Semitic ideas. He joined the German army and fought in World War I but felt betrayed by the November 1918 ceasefire. Like many others, Hitler felt the surrender of Germany and the harsh war terms were engineered by Jews. He joined a fringe party in 1919, rose to become its leader and transformed it into the Nazi Party. Hitler rose to power in 1933, by means of election, promising the restoration of German supremacy and action against its Jews.

Kerensky (1881-1970)

Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a Russian lawyer, politician and statesman. He was one of the key political figures between March and October 1917, when he was a minister and later Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government. Kerensky was the only socialist to join the first cabinet of the Provisional Government. He was renowned for his stirring and emotional oratory, his commitment to coalition government, and to Russia's continued engagement in the war. Alexander Kerensky was born in the same town as Vladimir Lenin. He later studied law in St Petersburg where he was exposed to radical political movements. Kerensky joined the Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1905 and edited their newspaper. Kerensky was elected to the Duma in 1912. By the outbreak of World War I, he was well known for his powerful speeches in the Duma that were often critical of tsarism. Kerensky served as Minister of Justice then Minister of War in the first cabinet of the Provisional Government. He became prime minister when the cabinet collapsed in July 1917. In August, Kerensky's authority was challenged by a possible military counter-revolution led by General Kornilov. This exposed the powerlessness of his position. Kerensky attempted to rescue the Provisional Government by declaring it a socialist government and cracking down on Bolshevik activity, however, this only served to instigate the October Revolution.

Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918)

Alexandra Feodorovna was the wife of the Russian Czar Nicholas II. Her rule precipitated the collapse of Russia's imperial government. She was murdered, along with her entire family, in 1918. She was a German princess and married Nicholas in 1894. Gave birth to her first son, Alexis, who was a hemophiliac. Rasputin was able to gain influence with Alexandra after becoming Alexis's personal healer. Alexandra was not warmly received by the Russian people nor the royal court, though she continued to involve herself in affairs of state. When Nicholas II left for the frontline during WWI, Alexandra oversaw the government. The poor performance by the Russian military on the battlefield led to unfounded rumors that Alexandra was a German collaborator, further deepening her unpopularity with the Russian people. On December 16, 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by conspirators from the royal court. By February 1917, poor management of the government led to food shortages and famine gripped the cities. Industrial workers went on strike and people began rioting in the streets of St. Petersburg. Nicholas feared all was lost and abdicated the throne. Alexandra was killed shortly after with her family in July of 1918.

Gleichschaltung

Gleichschaltung was the process of the Nazi Party taking control over all aspects of Germany. It is otherwise known as coordination or Nazification. The process primarily took place between 1933-1934. The Nazi's started with the Civil Service, issuing the Act for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the 7 April 1933. This act legalized removing anyone of non-Ayran descent from the civil service. In the judicial system specifically, this act removed any judges that were deemed non-compliant with Nazi laws or principles. The People's Court, a court created by the Nazis in April 1934 with judges chosen specifically for their Nazi beliefs, replaced the Supreme Court. With these measures in place, the Nazification of the judicial system was complete. Gleichschaltung was applied across every possible aspect of government policy. To take control of cultural policy, the Nazis appointed Joseph Goebbels as Minister for Public Engagement and Propaganda on the 13 March 1933. Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects. Goebbels soon radicalized each of these areas, ensuring that they advocated Nazi ideas. Gleichschaltung was largely successful. By the end of 1934, the Nazis had managed to infiltrate and take control of every major aspect of German government.

Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934)

Hindenburg was a senior military figure in Germany during World War One and second president of the Weimar Republic (1925 - 1934). Hindenburg was re-elected president in 1932, mainly with the support of those who saw him as a protection against Nazi lawlessness and brutality. Yet Hindenburg's own circle thought the Nazis as a useful - albeit unpleasant - group, who were worth accommodating. Two successive governments failed to win Nazi support as Adolf Hitler insisted on becoming chancellor in any government in which his party participated. Despite considerable pressure, Hindenburg refused to appoint him. But in November 1932 an agreement was reached between Hitler and Franz von Papen - a former chancellor - to form a government with Hitler as chancellor, but with non-Nazis in most other posts. Once in office, Hitler quickly secured almost unlimited political power through terror and manipulations. Hitler was publicly respectful to Hindenburg, who remained in office until his death on 2 August 1934.

Volksgemeinschaft

Hitler envisioned the ideal German society as a Volksgemeinschaft, a racially unified and hierarchically organized body in which the interests of individuals would be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or Volk. Like a military battalion, the people's community would be permanently prepared for war and would accept the discipline that this required. The Italian, French, and Spanish versions of this doctrine, known as "integral nationalism," were similarly illiberal, though not racist. Volksgemeinschaft sought to exclude those with "inferior blood".

Rasputin (1869-1916)

In 1903, the infant heir to the Russian throne, Alexis, was diagnosed with hemophilia. Tsarina Alexandra became desperate to help him and lost faith in doctors. In St. Petersburg, Rasputin moved in the Russian capital's aristocratic circles, achieving recognition and a small following. Under the recommendation of the Grand Duchess, Rasputin was summoned to appear before Alexandra. Somehow, Rasputin managed to stop Alexis' bleeding, and gained Nicholas and Alexandra's undivided support. As the monk's fortunes rose in St. Petersburg, so did the number of his enemies. Alexandra grew increasingly dependent on Rasputin and, after 1911, several roles within high government were filled by his appointees, allowing him great influence over matters of state. This perceived weakness of the Tsar and Tsarina helped to destroy the general respect for them. In 1916, a group of aristocrats tried to murder Rasputin. Within three months of Rasputin's death, Tsar Nicholas lost his throne, and the imperial family were imprisoned.

Hyperinflation

In November 1922 Germany defaulted on its reparation's payment as scheduled. The first reparations payment had taken all she could afford to pay. The French believed Germany could make the repayment but were choosing not to, however the German government argued they could not afford to pay. In response, France and Belgium sent troops into Germany's main industrial area, the Ruhr Valley. Their aim was to confiscate industrial goods as reparations payments as they didn't believe Germany was unable to pay the second instalment. They occupied coal mines, railways, steel works and factories - all things that were important to Germany's economy. The German government ordered workers to follow a policy of 'passive resistance' - refusing to work or co-operate with the foreign troops and in return the government continued to pay their wages. In order to pay the striking workers, the government simply printed more money. This flood of money led to hyperinflation as the more money was printed, the more prices rose. By autumn 1923 it cost more to print a note than the note was worth.

London Pact -1915

On April 26, 1915, after receiving the promise of significant territorial gains, Italy signs the Treaty of London, committing itself to enter World War I on the side of the Allies. Under the terms of the Triple Alliance agreement, Italy was only bound to defend its allies if one of them was attacked first. Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra deemed the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia late that month an act of aggression, declaring that Italy was free of its alliance obligations, and was officially neutral. Italy signed the Treaty of London on April 26, 1915. Italy was promised the fulfillment of its national dream: control over territory on its border with Austria-Hungary stretching from Trentino through the South Tyrol to Trieste. In the treaty, the Allies gave them that and more, including parts of Dalmatia and numerous islands along Austria-Hungary's Adriatic coast; the Albanian port city of Vlore (Italian: Valona) and a central protectorate in Albania; and territory from the Ottoman Empire. Carrying out its part of the bargain, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary (but not on Germany) on May 23.

Blank Check

On July 5, 1914, in Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany pledges his country's unconditional support for whatever action Austria-Hungary chooses to take in its conflict with Serbia, a long-running rivalry thrown into crisis by the assassination, the previous June 28, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife by a Serbian nationalist during an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia. The kaiser's pledge, which historians have referred to as the carte blanche or "blank check" assurance, marked a decisive moment in the chain of events leading up to the outbreak of the First World War in Europe during the summer of 1914. Without Germany's backing, the conflict in the Balkans might have remained localized. With Germany promising to support Austria-Hungary's punitive actions towards Serbia, even at the cost of war with Russia, whose own powerful allies included France and Great Britain, the possible Balkan War threatened to explode into a general European one.

Clemenceau (1841-1929)

Part of the "Big 4", of the Paris Peace Conference. A man known to his own people as "the Tiger" for his ferociously brilliant political writing, Georges Clemenceau did as much as anyone to weaken the Fourteen Points that Woodrow Wilson brought to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Clemenceau saw Wilson as too idealistic. As French Premier, Clemenceau had acted as minister of war in his own cabinet, pushing the war vigorously until the Allies achieved victory over Germany. As leader of the French delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, he insisted on Germany's disarmament. Despite his best efforts, Clemenceau was defeated when he ran for the French presidency in 1920 because of what many French perceived as his government's post-war leniency toward the Germans.

Orlando (1860-1952)

Part of the "Big 4", of the Paris Peace Conference. Italian statesman and prime minister during the concluding years of World War I and head of his country's delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. After the war's victorious conclusion, Orlando went to Paris and Versailles, where he had a serious falling out with his allies, especially President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, over Italy's claims to formerly Austrian territory. On the question of the port of Fiume, which was contested by Yugoslavia after the war, Wilson appealed over Orlando's head to the Italian people, a maneuver that failed. Orlando's inability to get concessions from the Allies rapidly undermined his position, and he resigned on June 19, 1919. In the rising conflict between the workers' organizations and the new Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini, he at first supported Mussolini, but when the leader of the Italian Socialist Party, Giacomo Matteotti, was assassinated by the Fascists, Orlando withdrew his support. (The murder marked the beginning of Mussolini's dictatorship over Italy.)

Lloyd George (1863-1945)

Part of the "Big 4", of the Paris Peace Conference. Lloyd George was one of the great reforming British chancellors of the 20th century and prime minister from 1916 to 1922. At the successful conclusion of the war, Lloyd George was Britain's chief delegate to the Paris Peace Conference that drafted the Versailles Treaty. When Woodrow Wilson arrived at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, one of the men he faced at the negotiating table was British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. It was Lloyd George who served to balance Wilson's Fourteen Points against the harsh demands of French premier Georges Clemenceau and who, with his "conference diplomacy," did much to shape the final version of the peace treaty. In the 1911 Mansion House speech, Lloyd George warned an expansionist Germany not to interfere with British interests. He asserted that Britain would not stand by and let its power and prestige be assailed, stating that "peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure." Lloyd George's aggressive war policy caused frequent clashes with Allied military leaders. However, he advocated and was able to establish a unified Allied command under Marshal Ferdinand Foch. Lloyd George would lead the British through the war's end.

Reparations

Reparations were levied on the Central Powers after World War I to compensate the Allies for some of their war costs. They were meant to replace war indemnities which had been levied after earlier wars as a punitive measure as well as to compensate for economic losses. The Treaty of Versailles didn't just blame Germany for the war—it demanded financial restitution for the whole thing, to the tune of 132 billion gold marks, or about $269 billion today. Allied victors took a punitive approach to Germany at the end of World War I. Intense negotiation resulted in the Treaty of Versailles' "war guilt clause," which identified Germany as the sole responsible party for the war and forced it to pay reparations.

Kirov (1886-1934)

Russian Communist leader whose assassination marked the beginning of the Great Purge in the Soviet Union (1934-38). In 1926 Joseph Stalin, the general secretary of the party, transferred Kirov to Leningrad to head the Leningrad party organization. Kirov was also made a candidate member of the Politburo in 1926, and, after loyally supporting Stalin against his opponents, he was elected to full membership in the Politburo (1930). As party boss of Leningrad, he spurred the expansion and modernization of that city's industries. Although Kirov's official image remained that of a staunch Stalinist, in the early 1930s he demonstrated increasing independence in directing the activities of his Leningrad organization and gradually began to assume a position of power nearly rivaling that of Stalin. On December 1, 1934, Kirov was assassinated at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad by a youthful party member, Leonid Nikolayev. Subsequently, Stalin claimed to have discovered a widespread conspiracy of anti-Stalinist Communists who were planning to assassinate the entire Soviet leadership; he therefore launched an intense purge, executing hundreds of Leningrad citizens and sending thousands more to forced-labor camps for their alleged complicity in the plot.

Morozov (1918-1932)

Russian communist youth who was glorified as a martyr by the Soviet regime. The son of poor peasants, Morozov was the leader of the Young Pioneers' group at his village school and was a fanatical supporter of the Soviet government's collectivization drive in the countryside. In 1930, at age 12, he gained notoriety for denouncing his father, the head of the local soviet, to the Soviet authorities. In court Morozov charged that his father had forged documents and sold favors to kulaks (i.e., rich peasants who were resisting the collectivization drive). Morozov also accused other peasants of hoarding their grain and withholding it from the authorities. As a consequence of his denunciations, Morozov was brutally murdered by several local kulaks. Morozov serves as a tragic symbol of the pressures that Stalinism could exert upon the family.

Bolsheviks

The Bolsheviks were a radical revolutionary party, led by Vladimir Lenin. They were formed after a factional split in the Social Democratic party in 1903. The split was driven by Lenin's belief that the party should be small with restricted membership, tightly disciplined and its decisions made by an intellectual elite. After the 1905 Revolution, Lenin and his party boycotted the First Duma and set about raising funds by conducting a series of organized bank robberies dubbed 'expropriations'. These tactics, along with Lenin's forced exile and absence from Russia, saw the Bolsheviks lose considerable ground to the Mensheviks and other reformist groups. Despite some cooperation and several attempts to reconcile them, the two SD factions widened, and their separation was finalized at a conference in Prague in January 1912. Led by Vladimir Lenin and employing his theories of revolution, the Bolsheviks carried out the overthrow of the Provisional Government in October 1917 and went on to govern the new Soviet republic.

Enabling Law

The Enabling Act allowed Hitler to issue laws without the consent of Germany's parliament or the president, laying the foundation for the complete Nazification of German society. The law was passed on March 23, 1933, and published the following day. Its full name was the "Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich." Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party used intimidation and persecution to ensure the passage of the law. They prevented all 81 Communists and 26 of the 120 Social Democrats from taking their seats, detaining them in Nazi-controlled camps. German judges did not challenge the law. They viewed Hitler's government as legitimate and continued to regard themselves as state servants who owed him their allegiance and support. The Enabling Act became the cornerstone of Hitler's dictatorship.

February Revolution

The February Revolution was the first of two revolutions that took place in Russia in 1917. The revolution was a result of Russian infrastructure failure to meet the demands of the war. Russian industry depended heavily on foreign imports. When Germany and Turkey blockaded Russia's Eastern ports, its railway, electricity, and supply systems broke down. There were not enough laborers to collect the harvest and serious food shortages occurred. The war was going badly for Russia after the Tsar Nicholas took personal control of the army. With little food, no ammo, or even proper uniforms, Russian soldiers began to mutiny by the thousand. Strikes and protest in Russia saw no reforms from the government. Trade unions were banned, and troublemakers were exiled. By early 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the Tsarist regime. On February 22nd, 1917, metal workers in Petrograd went on strike. Thousands of protesters flocked the streets demanding a replacement of the Tsar and end of the war. The Tsar called on the commander of the Petrograd garrison to suppress the riots using force. But the troops refused and joined the protesters. Having lost the support of the army, Tsar Nicholas II stepped down from his role. This led to the creation of the Provisional Government which introduced some reforms to Russia. Russia however still continues to fight in the war.

Great Purge

The Great Purge, also known as the "Great Terror," was a brutal political campaign led by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to eliminate dissenting members of the Communist Party and anyone else he considered a threat. Although estimates vary, most experts believe at least 750,000 people were executed during the Great Purge, which took place between about 1936 and 1938. More than a million other people were sent to forced labor camps, known as Gulags. This ruthless and bloody operation caused rampant terror throughout the U.S.S.R. and impacted the country for many years. Stalin's acts of terror and torture broke the Soviet people's spirits and effectively eliminated certain groups of citizens, such as intellectuals and artists. His reign as dictator also made his people completely dependent on the state.

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an international diplomatic group developed after World War I as a way to solve disputes between countries before they erupted into open warfare. A precursor to the United Nations, the League achieved some victories but had a mixed record of success, sometimes putting self-interest before becoming involved with conflict resolution, while also contending with governments that did not recognize its authority. The League effectively ceased operations during World War II. Even though it was Wilson's idea, the United States did not join as a result of isolationist policies.

Locarno Treaties

The Locarno Pact, also known as The Locarno Treaties, were discussed at Locarno, Switzerland, on 5-16 October 1925 and officially signed in London on 1 December. Germany, Britain, France, Belgium and Italy signed the Treaty. All countries decided to renounce the use of invasion and force, except in self-defense. The Pact reassured France about its borders and Germany about any French invasion/occupation, as had happened in 1923. Germany also signed arbitration treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia renouncing the use of force and promising to refer any future disputes to an arbitration tribunal or to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The Treaties improved the relations between European countries up until 1930. It led to the belief that there would be peaceful settlements to any disputes in the future. This has often been called the spirit of Locarno. This was further re-enforced when Germany joined the League of Nations in 1926.

October Revolution

The October Revolution (also called the Bolshevik Revolution) overturned the interim provisional government and established the Soviet Union. The October Revolution was a much more deliberate event, orchestrated by a small group of people (Lead by Lenin and Trotsky). The Bolsheviks, who led this coup, prepared their coup in only six months. They were generally viewed as an extremist group and had very little popular support when they began serious efforts in April 1917. By October, the Bolsheviks' popular base was much larger; though still a minority within the country as a whole, they had built up a majority of support within Petrograd and other urban centers. After October, the Bolsheviks realized that they could not maintain power in an election-based system without sharing power with other parties and compromising their principles. As a result, they formally abandoned the democratic process in January 1918 and declared themselves the representatives of a Dictatorship of The Proletariat. In response, the Russian Civil War broke out in the summer of that year and would last well into 1920.

Paris Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference was an international meeting convened in January 1919 at Versailles just outside Paris. The purpose of the meeting was to establish the terms of the peace after World War. Though nearly thirty nations participated, the representatives of Great Britain, France, the United States, and Italy became known as the "Big Four." The "Big Four" would dominate the proceedings that led to the formulation of the Treaty of Versailles, a treaty that articulated the compromises reached at the conference. The Treaty of Versailles included a plan to form a League of Nations that would serve as an international forum and an international collective security arrangement. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was a strong advocate of the League as he believed it would prevent future wars. Negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference were not always easy. Great Britain, France, and Italy fought together during the First World War as Allied Powers. The United States entered the war in April 1917 as an Associated Power, and while it fought on the side of the Allies, it was not bound to honor pre-existing agreements between the Allied powers. These agreements tended to focus on postwar redistribution of territories. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson strongly opposed many of these arrangements, including Italian demands on the Adriatic. This often led to significant disagreements among the "Big Four." The Allied Powers refused to recognize the new Bolshevik Government and thus did not invite its representatives to the Peace Conference. The Allies also excluded the defeated Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria).

Provisional Government

The Provisional Government was formed in March 1917 after the abdication of Nicholas II. The basis of the new government was a temporary committee of Duma deputies. The sole mission of the Provisional Government was to manage Russia's transition from tsarism to a democratic government through an elected Constituent Assembly. The Provisional Government had no mandate, attracted dwindling levels of popular support and exerted little power. Its policies and orders were followed only when they were deemed acceptable. The Petrograd Soviet, a representative council of 3,000 delegates, also challenged the government's authority. The most pressing concern for the Provisional Government was its decision to maintain the war effort. This made the government extremely unpopular, particularly in April (forcing the resignation of Milyukov) and again in July (after Kerensky's failed offensive in Galicia).

Spring Offensive

The Spring Offensives of 1918 were Germany's last attempt to defeat the British and French armies on the Western Front, and thereby win total victory. Their failure by the mid-summer left the German army fatally weakened, demoralized and facing its own imminent and inevitable defeat through an Allied counteroffensive. The German spring offensive, which began on 21 March 1918, created the biggest crisis of the war for the Allies. General Erich Ludendorff was the driving force in the preparation of this onslaught, despite his position subordinate to the nominal commander, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. Essentially an opportunist, Ludendorff envisaged breaking through the Allied lines in the Somme area, after which he would determine the next move in light of the new situation created. But his general intention was to swing north and roll up the British front. As would become apparent, such an approach was self-defeating because maintaining momentum depended upon logistic support of the advancing forces, which could only be ensured by careful preparations in advance.

Sudetenland

The Sudetenland, which had a predominately German population, was incorporated into Czechoslovakia when that new nation's frontiers were drawn in 1918-19. Because of its German majority, the Sudetenland later became a major source of contention between Germany and Czechoslovakia, and in 1938 participants at the Munich Conference, yielding to Adolf Hitler, transferred it to Germany. The Czech government was unable to reach an accommodation with Hitler (who was using the Sudetenland as a pretext for the eventual takeover of all of Czechoslovakia). Consequently, France and Great Britain arranged to meet with Italy and Germany at Munich (September 29-30), where they issued an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany by October 10. Czechoslovakia did not participate in the Munich Conference.

Triple Alliance

The Triple Alliance was a secret agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy that was formed on the 20th of May 1882. Italy sought support against France shortly after losing North African ambitions to the French. The three countries agreed to support each other if attacked by either France or Russia. France felt threatened by this alliance. Otto von Bismarck is regarded as the principal architect of the alliance. His downfall contributed to the alliance's failure, even though the alliance was flawed from the beginning. The alliance renewed periodically until it expired in 1915 during World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been closely allied since 1879. The formation of the Triple Alliance caused the formation of the Triple Entente in response. Italy in a sense betrayed the Triple Alliance, declaring war on Austria-Hungary and secretly negotiating with France for years.

Triple Entente

The Triple Entente was the alliance formed in 1907 among the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente. The UK already had the Entente Cordiale with France since 1904, while France had concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894. The Triple Alliance formed in 1882 offered an ominous threat, thus the three nations bonded together in a compact designed to protect them from encroachment or attack. The Entente was in itself a defensive alliance. Fear and suspicion drove the three nations to seek a viable partnership as the German navy and army continued to grow in size and power. With the onset of World War I, the world would see the two alliances finally come to blows. The doctrine of the balance of power was behind the Alliance, which was meant to keep the peace. However, this did not take sufficient account of Triple Alliance ambitions for empire in and beyond the European space.

March on Rome

The insurrection by which Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in late October 1922. The March marked the beginning of fascist rule and meant the doom of the preceding parliamentary regimes of socialists and liberals. Widespread social discontent, aggravated by middle-class fear of a socialist revolution and by disappointment over Italy's meagre gains from the peace settlement after World War I, created an atmosphere favorable for Mussolini's rise to power. On October 24, 1922, the fascist party leaders planned an insurrection to take place on October 28, consisting of a march on Rome by the fascist armed squads known as Blackshirts and the capture of strategic local places throughout Italy. the government of Prime Minister Luigi Facta (which had resigned but continued to hold power) ordered a state of siege for Rome. King Victor Emmanuel III, however, refused to sign the order. This meant that the army, which might have stopped Mussolini, was not called on to oppose the fascists. Mussolini, now confident of his control over events, was determined to accept nothing less than control of the government, and on October 29 the king asked him to form a cabinet.

Stalin (1879-1953)

The man who turned the Soviet Union from a backward country into a world superpower at unimaginable human cost. In 1922, Stalin was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Stalin understood that "cadres are everything": if you control the personnel, you control the organization. He shrewdly used his new position to consolidate power in exactly this way--by controlling all appointments, setting agendas, and moving around Party staff in such a way that eventually everyone who counted for anything owed their position to him. By the time the Party's intellectual core realized what had happened, it was too late--Stalin had his (mostly mediocre) people in place, while Lenin, the only person with the moral authority to challenge him, was on his deathbed and incapable of speech after a series of strokes, and besides, Stalin even controlled who had access to the leader. Driven by his own sense of inferiority, which he projected onto his country as a whole, Stalin pursued an economic policy of mobilizing the entire country to achieve the goal of rapid industrialization, so that it could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Capitalist powers. To this end, he forcefully collectivized agriculture (one of the Bolsheviks' key policy stances in 1917 was to give the land to the peasants; collectivization took it back from them and effectively reduced them to the status of serfs again), instituted the Five-Year Plans to coordinate all investment and production in the country, and undertook a massive program of building heavy industry. Although the Soviet Union boasted that its economy was booming while the Capitalist world was experiencing the Great Depression, and its industrialization drive did succeed in rapidly creating an industrial infrastructure where there once had been none, the fact is that all this was done at exorbitant cost in human lives. Measures such as the violent expropriation of the harvest by the government, the forced resettlement and murder of the most successful peasants as counterrevolutionary elements, and the discovery of a source of cheap labor through the arrest of millions of innocent citizens led to countless millions of deaths from the worst man-made famine in human history and in the camps of the Gulag.

Treaty of Versailles

Treaty formed at the Paris Peace Conference following the end of WWII in 1919. According to French and British wishes, Germany was subjected to strict punitive measures under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The new German government was required to surrender approximately 10 percent of its prewar territory in Europe and all of its overseas possessions. The harbor city of Danzig (now Gdansk) and the coal-rich Saarland were placed under the administration of the League of Nations, and France was allowed to exploit the economic resources of the Saarland until 1935. The German Army and Navy were limited in size. Kaiser Wilhelm II and a number of other high-ranking German officials were to be tried as war criminals. Under the terms of Article 231 of the treaty, the Germans accepted responsibility for the war and, as such, were liable to pay financial reparations to the Allies, though the actual amount would be determined by an Inter-Allied Commission that would present its findings in 1921 (the amount they determined was 132 billion gold Reichmarks, or $32 billion, which came on top of an initial $5 billion payment demanded by the treaty). Germans would grow to resent these harsh conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.

Second Five-Year Plan

Under the Second Five-Year Plan (1933-37), the state devoted attention to consumer goods, and the factories built during the first plan helped increase industrial output in general. The Second Five-Year Plan (1933-37) continued the primary emphasis on heavy industry. By the late 1930s, however, collectivized farms were performing somewhat better (after reaching a nadir during the period 1931-34). In 1935 a new law permitted individual peasants to have private plots, the produce of which they could sell on the open market. According to official statistics, during the Second Five-Year Plan gross agricultural production increased by just under 54 percent. In contrast, gross industrial production more than doubled. In the mid-1930's, in response to imminent military danger from fascist countries, the Central Committee of the Party and the Soviet Government were forced to revise the previously planned orientation and working pace of the defense industry, and also to effect a transition from the compound system of building a regular Red Army

Lenin (1870-1924)

Vladimir Lenin was born Vladimir Ulyanov in Simbirsk. His political views were shaped by those of his liberal-minded father, then the execution of his revolutionary brother, Alexander. The young Lenin became involved in radical student groups and joined the Marxist Social Democrats. He spent long periods in exile and articulated his vision of a 'professional' revolutionary party. Lenin's radical ideas led to factionalism in the SDs and the formation of the Bolshevik group of the party in 1903. Lenin remained the leader of this group for the rest of his life. Lenin's return to Russia in April 1917 provided the impetus for the October Revolution. He took charge of the newly formed Soviet government immediately after this revolution. Lenin was seriously injured by an August 1918 assassination attempt. From 1920, he suffered continued poor health and a series of strokes that restricted his political leadership.

Wilhelm II

Wilhelm II was a member of the Prussian Hohenzollern royal family. He ruled as the Kaiser (emperor) of Germany from 1888 to the end of World War I. He was an admirer of Britain, British naval strength and its empire, Wilhelm envied these things and desired imperial and military expansion for Germany. Wilhelm's ascension to the throne in 1888 led to the displacement of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and a radical shift in foreign policy dubbed "Weltpolitik". "Weltpolitik" aim was to transform Germany into a global power. He alienated Britain with his naval expansion and a policy of aggressive German colonial expansion, and also supported the Boers in their fight against the British. Issued "Blank Check" to Austria-Hungary, that caused a chain reaction that led to the start of the war. Wilhelm was forced to abdicate following Germany's defeat in WWI.

Central Powers

World War I coalition that consisted primarily of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, the "central" European states that were at war from August 1914 against France and Britain on the Western Front and against Russia on the Eastern Front. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy had been parties to a secret agreement, the Triple Alliance, from 1882 until World War I, but Italy entered the war in opposition to Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers on October 29, 1914, as did Bulgaria on October 14, 1915. The geographical position of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires also gave the Central Powers at least one very important strategic advantage over the Allies they were fighting. It was much easier for the Germans and Austro-Hungarians to move troops, equipment and supplies from one battle front to another because they could do much of this on their domestic railway networks.

Kulak

a wealthy or prosperous peasant, generally characterized as one who owned a relatively large farm and several head of cattle and horses and who was financially capable of employing hired labor and leasing land. In 1927 the Soviet government began to shift its peasant policy by increasing the kulaks' taxes and restricting their right to lease land; in 1929 it began a drive for rapid collectivization of agriculture. The kulaks vigorously opposed the efforts to force the peasants to give up their small privately-owned farms and join large cooperative agricultural establishments. At the end of 1929 a campaign to "liquidate the kulaks as a class" ("dekulakization") was launched by the government. By 1934, when approximately 75 percent of the farms in the Soviet Union had been collectivized, most kulaks—as well as millions of other peasants who had opposed collectivization—had been deported to remote regions of the Soviet Union or arrested and their land and property confiscated.