Download Benito Mussolini - Europe 1920-1945

Benito Mussolini
Mussolini was born in Northern Italy in 1883. He was a member of the Socialist
Party and editor of their newspaper Avanti. He was expelled from the Socialist
Party in 1914 when he supported Italy’s involvement in World War One. After
the war he formed the Fascist Party. In 1922 Mussolini demands to be made
Prime Minister and announces that the Fascist Party will ‘March on Rome’. The
King of Italy appoints him Prime Minister. Mussolini sets about establishing a
Fascist dictatorship in Italy with himself as ‘Il Duce’. Mussolini uses propaganda
and intimidation to control the state. He censors the newspapers and bans
opposition parties and trade unions. In 1929 Mussolini signs the Lateran Treaty
with the Pope. In 1934 he opposes the German takeover of Austria. In 1935
Mussolini invades Abyssinia. In 1936 Mussolini signs the Rome-Berlin Axis with
Germany and in 1939 the ‘Pact of Steel’. He brings Italy into the war in 1940
but the army performs badly. Mussolini is executed in 1945.
Adolf Hitler
Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. Before World War One he develops his
hatred of Jews and Communists. Hitler joins the German army during World
War One. After the war he joins the German Workers Party as a government
spy. He soon become leader of the party and begins to develop the Nazis. In
1923 he organises the failed Munich Putsch. While in jail he writes ‘Mein
Kampf’. The Nazis grow after the Wall Street Crash in 1929. In 1933 he is made
Chancellor of Germany. Over the next few years Hitler establishes a fascist
dictatorship in Germany. He is called ‘Fuhrer’. In 1934 he begins his expansion
plans by taking over Austria. In 1939 Hitler invades Poland to start World War
Two. During the war the Nazis murder millions of Jews and other concentration
camp prisoners. As the Russians reach Berlin at the end of the war, Hitler
commits suicide.
Joseph Goebbels
Goebbels was born in Germany in 1897. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and
became editor of one of their newspapers. Goebbels developed and intense
loyalty to Hitler. In 1929 he becomes propaganda leader of the Nazi Party.
Goebbels runs Hitler’s presidential campaigns in 1930 and 1932. When Hitler
comes to power, Goebbels becomes Minister for Propaganda. He takes control
of all aspects of the media. Goebbels is responsible for keeping morale high,
especially when the war goes badly for Germany. After Hitler commits suicide,
Goebbels and his wife commit suicide after they kill their six children.
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Leni Riefenstahl
Riefenstahl was born in Berlin in 1902. She became a film actress and director.
In 1931 she formed her own film company and won several awards. In 1934
Hitler asked her to produce a film documentary on the Nuremburg Rally called
‘Triumph of the Will’. She also filmed the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a film
called ‘Olympia’. After World War Two she was cleared of being a Nazi.
Riefenstahl claimed that she only a film director and was not a follower of
Hitler’s ideas. However, her film career was destroyed after the war because of
her association with the Nazis. She later became a photographer. Her life was
still controversial right up to her death in 2003 aged 101.
Lenin
Lenin was born in Russia in 1870. He joined the Social Democratic Party, a
Russian Marxist party. He led the Bolshevik faction within the Social Democrats.
Lenin spent World War One in exile in Switzerland. He returned to Russia after
the revolution in February 1917. In October 1917 the Bolsheviks took control of
Russia. The Bolsheviks signed a peace treaty with Germany in order to get
Russia out of the war. Lenin and Trotsky organised the Red Army during the
Russian Civil War. During the civil war Lenin implemented a policy of ‘War
Communism’ and confiscated food from the countryside. After the civil war he
proposed the ‘New Economic Policy’. In 1923 Lenin suffered a series of strokes
and eventually died in 1924. In his ‘Last Testament’ Lenin warned about the
dangers of Stalin.
Stalin
Stalin was born in Georgia in 1879. He joined the Bolsheviks but did not have a
prominent role until after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Stalin was involved in
the Russian Civil War and afterwards became General Secretary of the
Communist Party. When Lenin died Stalin won a power struggle for leadership
of the Bolsheviks. By 1928 he was the most powerful person in the Soviet
Union. Stalin began to build ‘Socialism in One Country’. He introduced several
five-year plans to in order to industrialise the country. However, his policy of
collectivisation of agriculture did serious damage including causing a famine in
Russia. During the 1930’s Stalin purged all his opponents from the Communist
Party and set up the Moscow ‘Show Trials’. After defeating the Germans, Stalin
took part in conferences with Churchill and Roosevelt. He was still in power
when he joined in 1953.
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