The Interwar Years: Stalin's Rise, Economic Collapse, and Global Turmoil

A World in Crisis

• In the USSR, Stalin came to power, establishing a totalitarian Communist regime that altered political, economic, and social development and influenced the rest of Europe.
• In 1919, the League of Nations was created with the aim of regulating international relations and peacekeeping.
• The economic crisis of 1929 shocked the economies of many nations and put an end to the prosperous 1920s.
• Dictatorships and totalitarian regimes were implemented as an alternative to the democratic system, which was considered ineffective in solving social and economic problems.
• There was a crisis of values and belief in Western civilization.

Political and Economic Evolution

Stalin's USSR

In the late 1920s, the Russian Revolution began its second phase: Stalinism. This name is given to Stalin's personal totalitarian government, supported by the Communist Party. He established a police state, making use of concentration camps in Siberia to get rid of any political dissenters.

The Economy

Stalin imposed an economic system based on central planning with the creation of an agency, called Gosplan, that centralized economic activity through Five-Year Plans, characterized by:

• Rural collectivization was achieved by persecuting the kulaks (wealthy peasant landowners). Cooperative farms (kolkhoz) and state-owned farms with salaried employees (sovkhoz) were established.
• Planned industrialization. He developed heavy industries and increased the production of electricity. The arms industry was given a strong impetus.

Society

The social structure was altered by:

• The reduction of the rural population
• The increase of industrial workers
• A new social category: the intelligentsia

The State of Western Democracies

• In Germany, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed. It experienced a difficult economic situation due to the payment of war reparations and monetary hyperinflation, a situation made difficult by the revolutionary attempts of extremist parties.
• France and Britain faced a crisis and rising unemployment. The British Empire transitioned into the Commonwealth.
• The United States was the nation most benefited by the war and victory. It was consolidated as the first world power.

The League of Nations

Its purpose was to ensure peace and order in international relations. It contributed to maintaining international peace and collective security, alongside agreements like the Treaty of Locarno (1925). In the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928), member nations agreed not to resort to war to resolve disputes.