Chapter 29 Review Questions

  1. Describe conservative authoritarianism—as a theory, and its character in Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Portugal.
  2. What are the characteristics of modern totalitarianism? How does it differ from conservative authoritarianism?
  3. What was the purpose of Lenin’s New Economic Policy?
  4. How successful was Stalin’s program of five-year plans for the industrialization of Soviet Russia? What were its strengths and weaknesses?
  5. How does one explain that despite a falling standard of living, many Russians in the 1920s and 1930s willingly worked harder and were happy?
  6. Generally, did women gain or lose status and power in the new Stalinist Russian state?
  7. What were the circumstances under which Mussolini rose to power in Italy? What were his goals and tactics?
  8. Many Germans in the 1920s and 1930s viewed Hitler as a reformer. What were his ideas about the problems and the future of Germany?
  9. How did the Great Depression affect German political life?
  10. What was the role of mass propaganda and psychology in Hitler’s rise to power?
  11. Why did Hitler acquire such a mass appeal? Did he improve German life?
  12. Describe the Munich Conference of 1938 and Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. Why were so many British willing to appease Hitler? What was the result of the Munich Conference?
  13. What was Hitler’s foreign and military policy up to 1938? Was there enough evidence of aggression to convince the world that Hitler was dangerous?
  14. What was the “final solution of the Jewish question”? Why did this occur and who is responsible?
  15. Describe German-Soviet relations between 1939 and 1941. Was war between the two inevitable?
  16. What were the strengths of the Grand Alliance?
  17. How did the allies finally defeat Hitler?

Conservative authoritarianism Modern totalitarianism

Hitler’s final solution “socialism in one country”

Appeasement fascism

anti-Semitism Weimar Republic

National Socialist German Workers’ party Benito Mussolini

General Paul Hindenburg Neville Chamberlain

Kulaks Nazi Labor Front

Nazi Storm Troopers (the SA) Joseph Goebbles

German Social Democrats Stalin’s collectivization program

Lenin’s New Economic Policy (1921) Mussolini’s march on Rome (1922)

Great Depression in Germany (1929-1933) Munich Conference (1938)

Russo-German nonaggression pact (1939) Stalin’s five-year plans

Grand Alliance Battle of Stalingrad, 1942

Battle of El Alamein, 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, 1942

Normandy invasion, June 6, 1944 Hiroshima and Nagasaki