Birth of the Weimar Republic

In the early years of the twentieth century, Germany fought the First
World War (1914-1918) alongside the Austrian Empire and against the
Allies (England, France and Russia.). All resources of Europe were drained
out because of the war. Germany occupied France and Belgium. But,
unfortunately, the Allies, strengthened by the US entry in 1917, won,
defeating Germany and the Central Powers in November 1918. At Weimar,
the National Assembly met and established a democratic constitution with
a federal structure. In the German Parliament, deputies were elected on
the basis of equal and universal votes cast by all adults, including women.
Germany lost its overseas colonies. The War Guilt Clause held Germany
responsible for the war and the damages the Allied countries suffered. The
Allied armies occupied Rhineland in the 1920s.

The Effects of the War

The entire continent was devastated by the war, both psychologically and
financially. The war of guilt and national humiliation was carried by the
Republic, which was financially crippled by being forced to pay
compensation. Socialists, Catholics and Democrats supported the Weimar
Republic, and they were mockingly called the ‘November criminals’. The
First World War left a deep imprint on European society and polity.
Soldiers are placed above civilians, but unfortunately, soldiers live a
miserable life. Democracy was a young and fragile idea which could not
survive the instabilities of interwar Europe.

Political Radicalism and Economic Crises

The Weimar Republic’s birth coincided with the revolutionary uprising of
the Spartacist League on the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia. They crushed the uprising with the help of a war veterans
organisation called Free Corps. Communists and Socialists became
enemies. Political radicalisation was heightened by the economic crisis of
1923. Germany refused to pay, and the French occupied its leading
industrial area, Ruhr, to claim their coal. The image of Germans carrying
cartloads of currency notes to buy a loaf of bread was widely publicised,
evoking worldwide sympathy. This crisis came to be known as
hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise phenomenally high.
The Years of Depression
The years between 1924 and 1928 saw some stability. The support of
short-term loans was withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed
in 1929. The Great Economic Depression started, and over the next three
years, between 1929 and 1932, the national income of the USA fell by
half. The economy of Germany was the worst hit. Workers became jobless
and went on streets with placards saying, ‘Willing to do any work’. Youths
indulged themselves in criminal activities. The middle class and small
businessmen were filled with the fear of proletarianisation, anxiety of
being reduced to the ranks of the working class or unemployment.
Politically also, the Weimar Republic was fragile. The Weimar Constitution,
due to some inherent defects, made it unstable and vulnerable to
dictatorship. One inherent defect was proportional representation.
Another defect was Article 48, which gave the President the powers to
impose emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Hilter rose to power. He was born in 1889 in Austria and spent his youth in
poverty. In the First World War, he enrolled on the army, acted as a
messenger in the front, became a corporal, and earned medals for
bravery. Hitler joined a small group called the German Workers’ Party in
1919. He took over the organisation and renamed it the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party, which later came to be known as the Nazi Party.
In 1923, he planned to seize control of Bavaria, march to Berlin and
capture power. During the Great Depression, Nazism became a mass
movement. After 1929, banks collapsed, businesses shut down, workers
lost their jobs, and the middle classes were threatened with destitution. In
such a situation, Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future.

Hitler was a powerful speaker, and his words moved people. In his speech,
he promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles
Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people. He also promised
employment for those looking for work and a secure future for the youth.
He promised to remove all foreign influences and resist all foreign
‘conspiracies’ against Germany. Hitler started following a new style of
politics, and his followers held big rallies and public meetings to
demonstrate support. According to the Nazi propaganda, Hitler was called
a messiah, a saviour, and someone who had arrived to deliver people
from their distress.

The Destruction of Democracy

President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship, on 30 January 1933, the
highest position in the cabinet of ministers, to Hitler. The Fire Decree of 28
February 1933 suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and
assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimar Constitution. On 3
March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed, which established a
dictatorship in Germany. The state took control over the economy, media,
army and judiciary. Apart from the already existing regular police in a
green uniform and the SA or the Storm Troopers, these included the
Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the protection squads), criminal
police and the Security Service (SD).

Reconstruction
Economic recovery was assigned to the economist Hjalmar Schacht by
Hitler, who aimed at full production and full employment through a state-
funded work-creation programme. This project produced the famous
German superhighways and the people’s car, the Volkswagen. Hitler ruled
out the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, and
integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan, One people,
One empire and One leader. Schacht advised Hitler against investing
hugely in rearmament as the state still ran on deficit financing.

The Nazi Worldview

Nazis are linked to a system of belief and a set of practices. According to
their ideology, there was no equality between people but only a racial
hierarchy. The racism of Hitler was borrowed from thinkers like Charles
Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The argument of the Nazis was simple: the
strongest race would survive, and the weak ones would perish. The Aryan
race was the finest who retained its purity, became stronger and
dominated the world. The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the
geopolitical concept of Lebensraum, or living space. Hitler intended to
extend German boundaries by moving eastwards to concentrate all
Germans geographically in one place.

Establishment of the Racial State

Nazis came into power and quickly began to implement their dream of
creating an exclusive racial community of pure Germans. They wanted a
society of ‘pure and healthy Nordic Aryans’. Under the Euthanasia
Programme, Helmuth’s father had condemned to death many Germans
who were considered mentally or physically unfit. Germany occupied
Poland and parts of Russia captured civilians and forced them to work as
slave labour. Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. Hitler
hated Jews based on pseudoscientific theories of race. From 1933 to 1938,
the Nazis terrorised, pauperised and segregated the Jews, compelling
them to leave the country.

The Racial Utopia

Genocide and war became two sides of the same coin. Poland was
divided, and much of north-western Poland was annexed to Germany.

People of Poland were forced to leave their homes and properties.

Members of the Polish intelligentsia were murdered in large numbers, and
Polish children who looked like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their
mothers and examined by ‘race experts’.

Youth in Nazi Germany

Hitler was interested in the youth of the country. Schools were cleansed
and purified. Germans and Jews were not allowed to sit or play together.
In the 1940s, Jews were taken to the gas chambers. Introduction of racial
science to justify Nazi ideas of race. Children were taught to be loyal and
submissive, hate Jews and worship Hitler. Youth organisations were
responsible for educating German youth in ‘the spirit of National
Socialism’. At the age of 14, boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation
where they were taught to worship war, glorify aggression and violence,
condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies and all those
categorised as ‘undesirable’. Later, they joined the Labour Service at the
age of 18 and served in the armed forces and entered one of the Nazi
organisations. In 1922, the Youth League of the Nazis was founded.

The Nazi Cult of Motherhood

In Nazi Germany, children were told women were different from men.
Boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel-hearted and girls
were told to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children.
Girls had to maintain the purity of the race, distance themselves from
Jews, look after their homes and teach their children Nazi values. But all
mothers were not treated equally. Honours Crosses were awarded to
those who encouraged women to produce more children. Bronze cross for
four children, silver for six and gold for eight or more. Women who
maintained contact with Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded through
the town with shaved heads, blackened faces and placards hanging
around their necks announcing, ‘I have sullied the honour of the nation’.

The Art of Propaganda

Nazis termed mass killings as special treatment, the final solution (for the
Jews), euthanasia (for the disabled), selection and disinfection.
‘Evacuation’ meant deporting people to gas chambers. Gas chambers
were labelled as ‘‘disinfection areas’, and looked like bathrooms equipped
with fake showerheads. Nazi ideas were spread through visual images,
films, radio, posters, catchy slogans and leaflets. Orthodox Jews were
stereotyped and marked and were referred to as vermin, rats and pests.
The Nazis made equal efforts to appeal to all the different sections of the
population. They sought to win their support by suggesting that Nazis
alone could solve all their problems.

Ordinary People and the Crimes Against Humanity

People started seeing the world through Nazi eyes and spoke their Nazi
language. They felt hatred and anger against Jews and genuinely believed
Nazism would bring prosperity and improve general well-being. Pastor
Niemoeller protested an uncanny silence amongst ordinary Germans
against brutal and organised crimes committed in the Nazi empire.
Charlotte Beradt’s book called ‘The Third Reich of Dreams’ describes how
Jews themselves began believing in the Nazi stereotypes about them.

Knowledge about the Holocaust

The war ended and Germany was defeated. While Germans were
preoccupied with their own plight, the Jews wanted the world to remember
the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the Nazi killing
operations – also called the Holocaust. When they lost the war, the Nazi
leadership distributed petrol to its functionaries to destroy all
incriminating evidence available in offices.
The Age of Social Change
After the revolution, individual rights and social power began to be
discussed in many parts of the world, including Europe and Asia. Colonial
development reshaped ideas of societal change, but everyone was not in
favour of the complete transformation of society. Through the revolution
in Russia, socialism became one of the most significant and powerful
ideas to shape society in the twentieth century.

Liberals, Radicals and Conservatives

Liberals wanted a nation which tolerated all religions. They opposed the
uncontrolled power of dynastic rules and argued for a representative,
elected parliamentary government subject to laws interpreted by a well-
trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and officials. They wanted
a government based on the majority of a country’s population.
Conservatives, after the nineteenth century, accepted changes but also
believed the past needed to be respected and change should begin
slowly.

Industrial Society and Social Change

Industrial Revolution led to changes in social and economic life, new cities
came up, and new industrialised regions developed. Men, women and
children came to factories in search of work. But, unfortunately, working
hours were long, and wages were poor. There was unemployment during
the time of low demand for industrial goods. Liberals and radicals made
wealth through trade or industrial ventures. According to them, society
can be developed if the freedom of individuals is ensured, if the poor can
labour, and if those with capital can operate without restraint. In France,
Italy, Germany and Russia, revolutionaries overthrow existing monarchs.
Nationalists talked of revolutions to create ‘nations’ with equal rights.

The Coming of Socialism to Europe

Socialism was a well-known body of ideas by the mid-nineteenth century
in Europe. Socialists were against private property and saw it as the root
of all social ills of the time. They wanted to change it and campaigned for
it. Robert Owen (1771-1858) sought to build a cooperative community
called New Harmony in Indiana (USA). Louis Blanc (1813-1882) wanted
the government to encourage cooperatives and replace capitalist
enterprises. Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
added other ideas to this body of arguments. According to Marx, industrial
society was ‘capitalist’ who owned the capital invested in factories, and
the profit of capitalists was produced by workers. Capitalism and the rule
of private property were overthrown. Marx believed that a communist
society was the natural society of the future.

Support for Socialism

By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe, and they formed an
international body – namely, the Second International. Associations were
formed by workers in Germany and England to fight for better living and
working conditions. The Labour Party and Socialist Party were formed by
socialists and trade unionists by 1905.

The Russian Revolution

In the October Revolution of 1917, socialists took over the government in
Russia. The fall of the monarchy in February 1917 and the events of
October were termed the Russian Revolution.

The Russian Empire in 1914

In 1914, Russia was ruled by Tsar Nicholas II and its empire. The Russian
Empire included current-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of
Poland, Ukraine and Belarus, stretching to the Pacific and comprised
today’s Central Asian states, as well as Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The majority of the population was Russian Orthodox Christianity.

Economy and Society

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian population was
dominated by agriculturalists, who used to cultivate for the market as well
as for their own needs. St Petersburg and Moscow were prominent
industrial areas. Craftsmen undertook much of the production, but large
factories existed alongside craft workshops. In the 1890s, more factories
were set up, and foreign investment in industry increased. Large factories
were supervised by the government to ensure minimum wages and
limited hours of work. Workers were a divided social group. They were
also divided by their skill. Despite divisions, workers united to stop work
when they disagreed with employers about dismissals or work conditions.
Peasants cultivated most of the land, but the nobility, the crown and the
Orthodox Church owned large properties. Nobles got power and position
through their services to the Tsar. In Russia, peasants wanted the land of
the nobles.

Socialism in Russia
Political parties in Russia were legal before 1914. In 1898, socialists
founded the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party, which respected
Marx’s ideas. Some Russian socialists felt that the Russian peasant
custom of dividing land periodically made them natural socialists.
Throughout the nineteenth century, socialists were active in the
countryside and formed the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1900. The
party struggled for peasants’ rights and demanded land belonging to
nobles be transferred to peasants. The party was divided over the
strategy of the organisation. According to Vladimir Lenin, in a repressive
society like Tsarist Russia, the party should be disciplined and should
control the number and quality of its members. Mensheviks thought that
the party should be open to all.

A Turbulent Time: The 1905 Revolution

Russia was an autocracy, and even at the beginning of the twentieth
century, the Tsar was not subject to Parliament. During the Revolution of
1905, Russia, along with the Social Democrats and Socialist
Revolutionaries, worked with peasants and workers to demand a
constitution. For Russian workers, bad times started from the year 1904
as prices of essential goods rose and their real wages declined by 20 per
cent. Workers went on strike demanding a reduction in the working day to
eight hours, an increase in wages and an improvement in working
conditions. The procession was attacked by the police and the Cossacks
when it reached the Winter Palace. The incident, known as Bloody Sunday,
started a series of events which resulted in the 1905 Revolution. During
the 1905 Revolution, the Tsar allowed the creation of an elected
consultative Parliament or Duma. After 1905, most committees and
unions worked unofficially since they were declared illegal.

The First World War and the Russian Empire

In 1914, war broke out between two European alliances – Germany,
Austria and Turkey (the Central powers) and France, Britain and Russia
(later Italy and Romania). This was the First World War. The war became
popular, and as it continued, the Tsar refused to consult the main parties
in the Duma. Support wore thin. The First World War was different on the
easter front and on the western front. Between 1914 and 1916 Russian
army lost badly in Germany and Austria. Russian army destroyed crops
and buildings to prevent the enemy from being able to live off the land.
The country was cut off from other suppliers of industrial goods by
German control of the Baltic Sea. Railway lines began to break down by
1916. For the people in the cities, bread and flour became scarce. By the
winter of 1916, riots at bread shops were common.

The February Revolution in Petrograd

Petrograd City is divided among its people. On the right bank of the River
Neva, workers’ quarters and factories were located and on the left bank
located fashionable areas such as the Winter Palace and official buildings.
Food shortages deeply affected the workers’ quarters. On the right bank,
a factory was shut down on February 22. Women also led the way to
strikes, and it is called International Women’s Day. The government
imposed a curfew as the fashionable quarters and official buildings were
surrounded by workers. Duma was suspended on 25th February. The
streets thronged with demonstrators raising slogans about bread, wages,
better hours and democracy. The government called out the cavalry, but
they refused to fire on the demonstrators. Soldiers and striking workers
gathered to form a ‘soviet’ or ‘council’ in the same building where the
Duma met, and it is termed the Petrograd Soviet. Soviet leaders and
Duma leaders formed a Provisional Government to run the country.
Russia’s future would be decided by a constituent assembly elected on
the basis of universal adult suffrage. Petrograd led the February
Revolution which brought down the monarchy in February 1917.

After February
Under the Provisional Government, army officials, landowners and
industrialists were influential. Liberals and socialists worked towards an
elected government. Restrictions on public meetings and associations
were removed. In April 1917, the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin returned
to Russia from his exile. Lenin demanded three things termed as ‘April
Theses’. He wanted war to end, land to be transferred to the peasants,
and banks to be nationalised. He also emphasised renaming the Bolshevik
Party to the Communist Party. Workers’ movement spread throughout the
summer. Factory committees formed, and trade unions grew in numbers.
When the Provisional Government saw its power reduced and Bolshevik
influence grew, they decided to take stern measures against the
spreading discontent. In the countryside, peasants and their Socialist
Revolutionary leaders pressed for a redistribution of land. Encouraged by
the Socialist Revolutionaries, peasants seized land between July and
September 1917.

The Revolution of October 1917

The conflict between the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks
grew. On 16 October 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and the
Bolshevik Party to agree to a socialist seizure of power. To organise the
seizure, a Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet
under Leon Trotskii. The Military Revolutionary Committee ordered its
supporters to seize government offices and arrest ministers. By nightfall,
the city was under the committee’s control and the ministers had
surrendered. At a meeting of the All Russian Congress of Soviets in
Petrograd, the majority approved the Bolshevik action.

What Changed after October?

Industry and banks were nationalised in November 1917, which meant
that the government took over ownership and management. Land was
declared as social property, and peasants were allowed to seize the land
of the nobility. The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist
Party (Bolshevik). Elections were conducted in November 1917 to the
Constituent Assembly, but they failed in the majority. In January 1918, the
Assembly rejected Bolshevik measures and Lenin dismissed the Assembly.
Despite opposition, in March 1918, the Bolsheviks made peace with
Germany at Brest Litovsk. The Bolsheviks participated in the elections to
the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which became the Parliament of the
country. Russia became a one-party state. After October 1917, this led to
experiments in the arts and architecture. But many became disillusioned
because of the censorship the Party encouraged.

The Civil War

The Russian Army broke up and their leaders moved to south Russia and
organised troops to fight the Bolsheviks (the ‘Reds’). During 1918 and
1919, the Russian Empire was controlled by the ‘Greens’ (Socialist
Revolutionaries) and ‘Whites’ (pro-Tsarists), backed by French, American,
British and Japanese troops. These troops and the Bolsheviks fought a civil
war. By January 1920, the Bolsheviks controlled most of the former
Russian empire. In the name of defending socialism, Bolshevik colonists
brutally massacred local nationalists. Most non-Russian nationalities were
given political autonomy in the Soviet Union (USSR) – the state the
Bolsheviks created from the Russian empire in December 1922.

Making a Socialist Society

During the civil war, industries and banks kept nationalised. Peasants
were permitted to cultivate the land. A centralised planning process was
introduced. Officials worked on how the economy will work and set targets
for a five-year period. During the first two ‘Plans’, the government fixed all
prices to promote industrial growth (1927-1932 and 1933-1938).
Centralised planning led to economic growth. But, rapid construction led
to poor working conditions. A schooling system was developed, and
arrangements were made for factory workers and peasants to enter
universities. For women workers, crèches were established in factories for
the children. Cheap public health care was provided. Model living quarters
were set up for workers.

Stalinism and Collectivisation

The period of the early Planned Economy led to the disaster of the
collectivisation of agriculture.

By 1927- 1928, the towns in Soviet Russia faced an acute problem of grain
supplies. Stalin introduced firm emergency measures. In 1928, party
members toured the grain-producing areas, supervising enforced grain
collections and raiding ‘kulaks’ – the name for well-to-do peasants. After
1917, the land was given over to peasants. From 1929, the Party forced
all peasants to cultivate in collective farms (kolkhoz). Peasants worked on
the land, and the kolkhoz profit was shared. Between 1929 and 1931, the
number of cattle fell by one-third. The government of Stalin allowed some
independent cultivation but treated such cultivators unsympathetically. In
spite of collectivisation, production did not increase immediately and due
to bad harvests of 1930-1933, over 4 million people died. Throughout the
country, accusations were made, and by 1939, over 2 million were in
prisons or labour camps.

The Global Influence of the Russian Revolution and

the USSR
In many countries, communist parties were formed, like the Communist
Party of Great Britain. Non-Russians from outside the USSR participated in
the Conference of the Peoples of the East (1920). The Bolshevik-founded
Comintern (an international union of pro-Bolshevik socialist parties).
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the USSR had given
socialism a global face and world stature. The USSR became a great
power, and its industries and agriculture developed, and the poor were
being fed. By the end of the twentieth century, the international
reputation of the USSR as a socialist country had declined.