Dictatorship for Dummies

Dummies Guide to Dictators By: Julia

Chapter 1: Hitler

Techniques of Dictators 1. Scapegoating- A person or group of people unfairly blamed for natural disasters or wrong actions done by others. 2. Indoctrination- Teaching someone to accept a set of beliefs without questioning them. 3. Propaganda- Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. 4. Controlled Participation- The controlling of individual behavior to give the impression of free will. Ex. Rigged elections. 5. Threat of Force/Fear- Instilling fear within individuals in order to make them act in the ways one wants. Through threatening individuals and causing them to be fearful, a leader can keep their citizens controlled. Ex. Threatening war.

Hitler Rise to Power: Hirler started giving lectures to promote his ideas but by 1923 he decided that the Natzi Party would need to seize power by force. After his attempt failed, he was sent to jail and the Natzi party was banned. While in prison Hitler wrote Mein Kampf wrote a book describing his understandings of facism that would influence the facist movement in Germany for years to come. By 1925 he was released from prison and two years later the ban on the Natzi party was lifted. In the early 1930s, Germany was a sad place to be. The worldwide economic depression had hit the country especially hard, and millions of people were out of work. These times gave the chance for the rise of a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers' Party AKA Nazi Party. Hitler promised a better life and a new/ better Germany. The party rose to power quickly and in January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German government. Germans believed they had found someone who would save their nation.

Hitler Techniques used: ● Scapegoating: Hitler unfairly blamed the Jews for all of the economic, political, and cultural problems in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. (The Jews were the scapegoats of the Nazis) ● Propaganda: Hitler’s Naziz effectively used propaganda to win the support of millions of Germans in a democracy. During their dictatorship, they used it to facilitate persecution, war, and ultimately genocide. The propaganda would incite hatred, stereotype jewish people, and ultimately made people indifferent to the fate of Jewish people at the time.

Hitler Techniques used continued: ● Threat of force/fear: The Nazis created a terror-state. They achived this by instuilling fear within the population and threatening them. Those living in Germany were too scared to disobey Nazi laws, keeping them in power. ● Indoctrination: Natzi youth educators glorified their own race, while labeling Jews and other races as inferior, parasitic races, incapable of creating culture or civilization. Natzi youth wanted to produce racist, obedient, and self sacrificing youth. ● Controlled Participation: Hitler and the Nazis banned Boy Scoutsand many other youth organizations. Instead, every non-Jewish boy in Germany was forced to be part of the Hitler Youth- the Nazis’ youth arm.

How Did They Justify Their Rejection of Liberalism? Hiter and the Nazis justified their rejection of Liberalism by unfairly blamed the Jews for all of the economic, political, and cultural problems in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. He convinced citizens of germany that this was true through using propaganda. Natzi youth educators glorified their own race, while labeling Jews and other races as inferior races. Natzi youth therefore produced racist, obedient youth through indoctrination. (Indoctrinated youth to agree with the rejection of liberalism happening in Germany.) With Germany in the state it was with high unemployment and low currency rates ext, Liberalism wasn't working for Germany and Hitler expressed that.

Chapter 2: Stalin

Stalin Rise to power: Stalin was born into poverty and as a young man, eventually became involved in revolutionary politics along with criminal activities. After Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin died, the struggle for power between Leon Trotsky and Stalin results in Stalin’s victory and Trotsky’s exile and assassination. Once attaining power Stalin collectivized farming and had potential enemies executed or sent to forced labor camps. Between 1928 and 1940, Stalin uses violence and fear to force the rapid industrialization of the country and the consolidation of private land into collective farms.

Stalin Techniques used: ● Propaganda/Indoctrination: As leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin pushed pervasive Soviet propaganda, along with the communist economic system. Stalin knew that propaganda would strengthen his own totalitarian regime by creating individuals with qualities that Stalin wanted. Ex. They cared more about the collective than themselves, they believed in the Soviet country and the Communist party, and they would help spread socialism around the world. Further Stalin made sure that people were indoctrinated in his communist ideology by using the press to launch propaganda campaigns depicting himself as Russia's greatest leader.

Stalin Techniques used continued: ● Threat of force/fear: The “Great Terror,” was a horrifying political campaign led by dictatoir Joseph Stalin to eliminate members of the Communist Party/ people he considered a threat. At least 750,000 people were executed during the Great Purge. (1936-1938) The great terror caused fear within individuals, and caused them to follow Stalin as a lader without question. Stalin used violence and fear to force the rapid industrialization of the country and the consolidation of private land into collective farms. ● Controlled Participation: The candidates during an election could either be Communist or independent but they had to be approved by the Communist Party. Stalin was the only name on the ballot when the voting took place.

Stalin Techniques Continued: Propaganda/Indoctrination: Stalin made sure that people were indoctrinated and brainwashed in his communist ideology. He used the press to launch propaganda campaigns depicting himself as Russia's greatest leader and his portraits were prominently displayed in public places. Schools and Communist Youth organizations such as the Young pioneers and Komsomol served to remove children from the \"petit-bourgeois\" family and indoctrinate the next generation into the “New soviet Men”

How Did They Justify Their Rejection of Liberalism? Stalin carried on Lenin's beliefs through wanting to defeat the west. Stalin worked hard to achieve the industrialization of the Soviet Union. He knew that eventually that the west (USA) would challenge the Soviets Militarily and that industrialization would give them the tools to fight back. He thought that communism would help them reach this economic goal and therefore did not believe in capitalism. He said that USA was beating them economically, and that they had to use communism to beat them in that sense.

Chapter 3- Pol Pot

Pol Pot Rise to Power: His Cambodian education continued until 1949, when he went to Paris on a scholarship. While there, he studied radio technology and became active in communist circles. When Pol Pot returned to Cambodia in January 1953, Cambodia officially gained its independence from France later that year. Pol Pot then joined the proto-communist Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party (KPRP). From 1956 to 1963, Pol Pot taught history, geography and French literature at a private school while simultaneously plotting a revolution. He spent the next 12 years building up the Communist Party that had been organized in Cambodia in 1960, and he served as the party’s secretary. Pol Pot, who had begun to emerge as Cambodian party chief, and the newly formed Khmer Rouge guerilla army, launched a national uprising in 1968.

Pol Pot Techniques used: Propaganda: Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge had profited greatly from the US bombings. It used the devastation and massacre of civilians as recruitment propaganda and as an excuse for its brutal, radical policies and its purge of moderate communists and Sihanoukists. Religion of all kinds was banned as were music and radios. Money was abolished and all aspects of life were subject to regulation Indoctrination: For the Khmer Rouge, children were important to the revolution as they believed they could be easily moulded, conditioned and indoctrinated. They could be taught to obey orders, become soldiers and kill enemies. Children were taught to believe that anyone not conforming to the Khmer laws were corrupt enemies.

Pol Pot Techniques Continued: Threat of force/fear: Pol Pot conducted a rule of terror that led to the deaths of nearly a quarter of Cambodia's seven million people, by the most widely accepted estimates, through execution, torture, starvation and disease. The Khmer Rouge arrested and killed all those whom it considered “NOT PURE PEOPLE”. According to them previous regime, educated, capitalist and city people were not pure. (create a classless society) Controlled Participation: Formal education ceased and from January 1977, all children from the age of eight were separated from their parents and placed in labour camps.

How Did They Justify Their Rejection of Liberalism? There is no justification for Pol Pot’s rejection of liberalism. Although he justified it in his head, it is not justifiable to the average person. Pol did not have to justify to anyone why he rejected liberalism because if anyone questioned him, they were killed. Pol Pot wanted a country free of influence from other countries and beliefs that did not align with his own and Khmer Rouge’s. Anyone who disagreed was killed and pol did not have to justify his actions.

Weird Facts! 1. Hitler once lived in a homeless shelter 2. He never visited one of his extermination camps 3. A priest saved Hitler from drowning in a river as a child 4. Before he had the name Stalin, he used the name \"Koba\" 5. Smallpox as a child left Stalin with lasting scars and a deformity 6. Stalin’s eldest child died in a Nazi concentration camp 7. Pol pot was never punished for his crimes 8. Pol Pot’s Real Name is Salot Sar