Chronology of Significant Events (1898-1940)
Russian and Soviet History
- 1898: Russian Social Democratic Party Founded
- 1917: Fall of the Tsars
- 1918: Peace Signed at Brest-Litovsk
- 1922: USSR Created
- 1924: Death of Lenin
- 1940: Death of Trotsky
German and Nazi History
- 1920: Hitler Founds the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party)
- 1933: Boycott of Jewish Businesses Enacted
- 1933: Concentration Camps Created
- 1934: Death of Hindenburg
- 1935: Nuremberg Laws Passed
Global and American Events
- 1915: Treaty of London
- 1919: Fasci di Combattimento Founded (Early Fascist Movement)
- 1929: Stock Market Crash
- 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt Wins Election
Essential Historical Terms and Concepts
Soviets
Councils of workers, peasants, and soldiers who demanded the withdrawal of the Tsar, an end to war, and autocracy.
USSR
A federal state that united all the nationalities of the former Tsarist Empire.
Dictatorship of the Proletariat
A state postulated by Marxism where the working class is established as dominant.
Gulag
Russian acronym for the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps, a system of forced labor camps for dissidents under the Stalinist Soviet regime.
Cult of Personality
Excessive adulation and adoration given to a living political leader.
Fordism
A system of mass production, pioneered by Henry Ford in his Detroit automobile factories in the 1920s, characterized by the assembly line.
New Deal
A series of programs and reforms in the United States (1933-1939) defending state intervention to revive the economy during the Great Depression.
Irredentism
A political attitude advocating the incorporation of a territory into another nation to which it is believed to belong.
Fascist Paramilitary Groups
Paramilitary groups that emerged to suppress the rising labor movement, violently attacking workers and their leaders.
Munich Putsch (Beer Hall Putsch)
A failed coup attempt led by members of the Nazi Party in 1923.
Mein Kampf
Adolf Hitler's autobiographical manifesto, expressing his contempt for parliamentary democracy and hatred of Bolshevism.
Gestapo
The official secret police of Nazi Germany.
Autarky
A state organization aspiring to political and economic self-sufficiency.
Lebensraum (Living Space)
An expression used by the Nazis to justify Germany's need for territorial expansion to accommodate its population.
Stalinism: Key Characteristics
- Private property was banned.
- Priority was given to heavy industry.
- It instituted a state-directed economy.
