Civil War in Russia (1918-1920)
Many groups opposed the Bolshevik siezure of power and a Civil War broke out in Russia between the Whites (supporters of the Tsar) and the Reds (or Bolsheviks). There were local civil wars in Ukraine, in the north, and in the East. Leon Trotsky was the chief organizer of the Red Army, which was set up immediately after revolution and proved very effective. By 1920/21, the Bolsheviks were firmly in control.
Primary Source: Vladmir Illyich Lenin (1870-1924): On the Organization of and Extraordinary Commission to Fight Counter Revolution, Letter to Dzerzhinskii, December 19, 1917 The origins of the Cheka, NKVD, and KGB.
Image: Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), Leader of Red Army.

Versailles Treaty (1919)
Unlike the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15, the Versailles settlement attempted to redraw the map of Europe, and to punish the vanquished. Germany, Austria and Russia all lost territory, and nine new "nation-states" were created: Finland, Estonia,Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary. Germany was to pay reparations of $5 Billion per year until 1921, and then a fixed sum which would be paid off over 30 years. Germany was also forced to accept that it bore the guilt of starting the war.
Primary Source: The Versailles Treaty, 1919
Primary Source: John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946): The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920
Image: Lloyd George, Orlando, Clemenceau, Wilson

Russian Famine (1920-1921)
After the war with Germany, and the Civil War, Russia faced a third disaster in 1920-1921 when a famine struck and between 4 and 7 million people died. Recognizing the need for a rapid increase in food production, Lenin instituted the New Economic Policy(NEP), which allowed small scale private production in both industry and agriculture. The policy was successful an soon there was enough to eat.
Image: Red Cross Hospital in the Ukraine 1920

Irish Free State (1921)
In 1919 Irish Nationalists began a war with the British over control of Ireland. After two years of bloodshed, a treaty in 1921 created the "Irish Free State" in 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, with a Protestant enclave created in Northern Ireland. The war, the civil war within the Irish Free State, and the discrimination visited on Catholics in Northern Ireland created a legacy of bitterness that still persists.
Primary Source: The Constitution of the Irish Free State 1922

Joyce's Ulysses (1922)
Image: James Joyce Ulysses
Web Site: James Joyce's Ulysses

March on Rome (1922)
After World War I, Italy was in turmoil. There was upset about Italy's failure to become a great power, and its liberal democratic government was seen by many Italians as corrupt. In this situation a former editor of a socialist newspaper, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), created a political movement called Fascism designed to appeal to a desperate middle class. Mussolini's followers, called Black Shirts, attacked socialists both verbally and physically. In October 1922 they staged a "March on Rome" which led to King Victor Emmanuel III's (1900-46) appointing Mussolini as Prime Minister, even though his party was in minority in parliament. In 1924a new election law was passed that mandated that the largest party with over 25% would gets 2/3 of the seats in parliament. Using this law, Mussolini rapidly secured complete political power.
Primary Source: Benito Mussolini (1883-1945): What is Fascism?,1932
Image: March on Rome 1922

Egyptian Independence (1923)
Nationalist movements around the world began to challenge European empires in the 1920s. In Egypt, which had been controlled by the British but was nominally independent, nationalist opposition forced the British to grant real independence in 1923. In other areas, the struggle was to take much longer.
Primary Source: Modern Account of Egyptian independence

Occupation of Ruhr (1923)
The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to accept guilt for the war and to pay reparations to the victorious powers. In May 1921 the figure for such reparations was set at 123 Billion gold marks, an amount that proved impossible to pay. When Germany defaulted, the nationalist French Prime Minister Raymond Poincare (1860-1934) ordered French troops to occupy Germany's industrial heartland, the Ruhr Valley. The German government responded by calling for general resistance and by printing money to pay for a general strike. The result was the massive inflation of 1923: in 1914 $1 was worth 4.2 German Marks; in 1921 $1 was worth 64 marks; by November 1923, $1 was worth 4 trillion Marks. This inflation destroyed middle class saving and was important in explaining the turn to extreme solutions.

Munich Putsch (1923)
The National Socialist German Workers Party [NSDAP], or nazis, grew rapidly from about 1920. In 1923, after the period of massive inflation, and with the help of the German war hero General Ludendorff, Nazis in Munich marched on local government offices in order to sieze power. The "putsch" was easily suppressed, and Hitler was tried and sent to prison for a few months. The incident succeeded in generating a lot of publicity for the Nazis, although they remained politically impotent until 1929.
Primary Source: The Horst Wessel Song
Image: Nazi Poster 1928
Web Site: Weimar Republic Page

Death of Lenin (1924)
After the end of the Russian Civil war, Lenin moved to consolidate Bolshevik power in Russia. In 1922 he had a stroke and died 1924. Lenin's role was crucial in the Russian Revolution. In the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, Lenin was lionized, and his tomb in Red Square, Moscow, was a center of secular pilgrimage.
Text: Vladimir Illyich Lenin (1870-1924): Excerpts from Lenin's Testament, 1922
Image: Lenin and Stalin

Beginning of First Five Year Plan (1928)
There was competition for power once Lenin started to fade. Initially main struggle was between Nikolai Bukahrin (1888-1939) and Leon Trotsky (1877-1940), with another,Joseph Djugushvili "Stalin" (1879-1953) on the sidelines. Trotsky's power was due to role as head of the Red Army. His was the more left wing faction and was not keen on NEP. He wanted rapid industrialization to make Russia a great power and looked for worldwide revolution to support the Russian Revolution. Bukharin (1888-1938) led the group opposed to Trotsky and was the editor of Pravda. He tended to be pro peasant. The real power, however, turned out to belong to Stalin. He came to power as a party bureaucrat, placing his supporters in significant positions all over the Party. Initially Stalin supported the NEP and Bukharin, and then he won the struggle against Trotsky. Stalin was concerned to have the revolution successful in one country --Russia -- before the rest of the world and proposed a "Socialism in one country"doctrine 1924. From 1928 on, Stalin created a second revolution in the form of a series of Five Year plans to force through massive industrial development. The methods used to obtain results were brutal, but in terms of achieving goals this was a success . There was a 400% increase in production in 12 years 1928-40 - the most rapid advance to industrialization ever.
Primary Source: Josef Stalin (1879-1953): Industrialization of the Country,1928
Image: Soviet Poster 1927

Stock market crash (1929)
Although the European economies did not expand much in the 1920s, there was a boom in USA. In October 1929, the New York Stock Market crashed and induced a major economic depression in both the US and the rest of the world. There were declines in production, employment, and consumption, with very high rates of unemployment, up to 22% in some areas. Overall Western European economies in 1932 shrank to half their 1929 size.None of the solutions adopted by Western governments succeeded in ending the depression,which lasted until World War II. In the meantime, the highly directed economic growth of totalitarian states looked like solutions to many.
Image: Hooverville 1935
Web Site: American Life Histories, Manuscripts from the Federal Writers's Project, 1936-1940

Japan invades Manchuria (1931)
In 1931, Japan initiated a pattern of aggressive invasion by conquering the Chinese province of Manchuria. The Japanese Tet up a puppet government and renamed the state Manchukuo. Thus began the Japanese effort to create a large scale Japanese empire in East Asia.

Famine in Russia (1931-1932)
The Russian New Economic Policy(NEP) had been supported by Stalin. Its aim had been to stop food shortages. But in 1928-29 it stopped working as the government wanted when some farmers (known as Kulaks) held grain off the market to raise prices. In 1929,Stalin decided that Russia must take control of agriculture. Many peasants resisted the government take over of their land, and destroyed crops and livestock in protest. In response the Stalin ordered the enforcement of collectivization and destruction of the kulaks. The result was a mass famine in which 4 to 6 million people were deliberately starved to death. The state successfully took control of the land, but Soviet agriculture was never able to achieve production goals.
Primary Source: Memorandum on the Grain Problem, 1932 [At LC]
The memo which indicates the deliberate start of the Ukrainian famine.
Web Site: Revelations From the Russian Archives

Nazis gain power (1933)
Adolph Hitler (1888-1945) was the Austrian-born son of a minor customs official. He fought in the German Army during World War I as a non-commissioned officer but did not become a German citizen until 1932. The Nazis' appeal stemmed from the promises the party made to get rid of the economic hardship faced by Germany in the 1920s, and again during the Depression that began in 1929. Between 1930 and 1932 German unemployment rose from: 2.25to 6 million. In this context both Nazis and Communists gained increased support: In the 1928 elections, the Nazis held 12 seats, Communists 54; in 1930, the Nazis won 107 seats,Communists 77; in July 1932, the Nazis won 230 seats and 37.5% of vote. November 1932 elections actually saw a drop to 196 seats and 33.1% of the vote. Franz von Papen, Chancellor in May 1932, drew the Nazis into government, and despite their losses in the November elections, they emerged as the largest party in the German Parliament. In January 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg made Hitler Chancellor of Germany. Another round of elections was held, and this time the Nazis won 44% of the vote. Shortly after the elections, there was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, and the Nazis, with some allies, passed the Enabling Act of July 1933. All other parties were abolished and the act gave Hitler dictatorial power under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. When Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler was in sole control.
Primary Source: Bruno Heilig: "Why the German Republic Fell", 1938
Image: Nazi Poster 1932
Web Site: Modern History Sourcebook: Nazism

Beginning of Great Purges in Soviet Union (1934)
Stalin did not feel secure in his power. He was especially jealous of old Bolsheviks and those who had worked during the 1917 revolutions. After Sergei Kirov (1888-1934),government official, was assassinated in 1934, there were a series of purges and show trials in which Stalin's opponents would be forced publicly to recant their wrong-doings. In scenes reminiscent of the French reign of terror, there were mass trials 1936-38. Hundred of thousands were killed or sent to a series of prison camps called Gulags.
Primary Source: The Soviet Purges-Official Explanation, 1936
Primary Source: N.I. Bukharin: Last Plea, from"The case of the Anti-Soviet 'Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites', Heard before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, March 2-13, 1938
Primary Source: Hymn to Stalin

Nuremberg Laws (1935)
Nazi anti-Semitism combined longstanding Christian anti-Judaism with ideas of racial superiority derived from Darwinian theory. From the start the party used anti-Semitic literature as part of its appeal. In 1935, a series of "Nuremberg Laws" were passed against Jews, depriving them of citizenship and marriage rights, and requiring Jews to wear a yellow star of David on their clothes. For the Nazis, anyone with one Jewish grandparent was a Jew, regardless of current beliefs.
Primary Source: Holocaust/Shoah Page [Nuremberg Laws and URL]
Web Site: German Propaganda Archive

Italy invades Ethiopia (1935)
Mussolini's professed goal was to make Italy an imperial great power. In 1935,Italian troops invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia). This action was condemned by the international League of Nations, but nothing was done to prevent the Italian conquest.This proved to be a sign to Hitler that international organizations were too weak to prevent aggression.
Primary Source: Appeal of Haile Selassieto the League of Nations, 1936
Secondary Discussion: Italian Conquest of Ethiopia, 1935-36 Image: 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia

Popular Front in France (1936-1938)
The Popular Front was an alliance of Communists, Socialists and moderates against the growing threat of Fascism. A Popular Front government controlled France from 1936 until 1938, but was unable to pull France out of the economic depression. Its collapse left France more politically divided than ever.

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
In 1936 civil war broke out in Spain between an elected radical republican government and right-wing nationalist rebels led by General Francisco Franco (1892-1975).Germany and Italy supported the rebels, but there was no official support from other Western states for the republican government. The war saw the first use in Europe of airplanes to bomb large numbers of civilians and set the pattern for the coming world war. By 1939, Franco had won the war, and remained in power until his death in 1975.
Primary Source: George Orwell (1903-1950): Homage to Catalonia [At etext.org] On Barcelona in 1936
Image: PBS: Guernica

Japanese-Chinese War Begins (1937)
In 1937, Japan expanded its effort to control China from the northern province of Manchuria to the more populated areas to the south. Fairly rapidly the Japanese took control of most coastal areas and began to push inland. In the process, major atrocities were perpetrated against Chinese civilians, including the infamous rape of the Chinese capital of Nanking.
Primary Source: The Nanking Massacre,The New York Times, December 18, 1937
Image/Web Site: Nanking Massacre

Kristallnacht (1938)
Although the Nuremburg laws of 1935 attacked Jews legally, Anti-Semitism became more radical from 1938 and systematic violent persecution began in November of that year. On the night of November 9-10, Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish-owned shops and destroyed over 1000 synagogues across Germany. Thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The sound of breaking glass gave this nights its German name of Kristallnacht.
Web Site: Kristallnacht
Web Site: Modern History Sourcebook: Holocaust

Munich Conference (1938)
Much of German foreign policy was in Hitler's hands. His explicit goal was an expansion in territory controlled by the German people, which he presented as inherently superior and destined to rule. In March 1935, Germany renounced disarmament. In March 1936, Germany moved its army into the Rhineland, which had been a demilitarized zone under the Versailles treaty. In March, 1938. Nazis marched into Austria and forcibly united it with the rest of Germany. The Western powers did nothing to prevent any of this activity. In May 1938, Germany began to demand territory -- called the Sudentenland - in Czechoslovakia. This time the Western powers intervened, and on Sept 15-29 1938 there was a conference in Munich. France and Britain, which was led by Neville Chamberlain and was committed to avoiding war by appeasing Hitler, allowed Germany to take the Sudetenland.Germany occupied the Sudetenland and then all of Czechoslavakia by March 15 1939.
Primary Source: Neville Chamberlain: Peace in Our Time, 1938

Russo-German agreement (1939)
The great threat for Germany, as in 1914, was a war on two fronts. But the Soviet Union also was not ready for war, and so on August 23, 1939, a Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact was signed. The pact included secret provisions -- it divided Poland between Russia and Germany, and it allowed the Soviet Union to take over the Baltic States and Bessarabia.
Primary Source: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact,Aug 29, 1939

Invasion of Poland (1939)
After the pact with the Soviet Union, Poland was next target of Hitler's aggression. The German propaganda calling attention to the number of Germans in Poland began in March,1939. This time British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced a guarantee to the Polish government. When Germany attacked Poland on Sept 1, 1939, Britain and France declared war on September 3.
Primary Source: Germany's Invasion of Poland
Web Site: World War II Documents

Battle of Britain (1940)
Image: London, September 7, 1940
Image: Battle of Britain: German perspective
Primary Source: Aircraft strengths and losses during Battle of Britain

Dunkirk (1940)
Speed and force were the key to early German success as the generals were keen to avoid the trench stalemate of WWI. There was a period known as the "Phoney War" in the west until Spring 1940, but then France was invaded in April 1940, and its army proved completely incapable of responding to the attack. British troops were trapped by the French collapse on the beaches of Dunkirk. A flotilla of small craft managed to rescue 200,000 British and over 100,000 French troops.
Primary Source: Winston S. Churchill, "Blood, Toil, Tearsand Sweat" Speech, 1940
Image: Map of Retreat

France falls (1940)
After the failure of its army, in June 1940, France asked for an armistice. Under Field Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, northern France was given over to German rule, while the South was ruled from the town of Vichy. For over a year, Britain was the only power opposing Germany.
Primary Source: Franco-German Armistice: June 25, 1940

Germans attack Soviet Union (1941)
Germany attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa in June 22 1941.The initial plan had been to start in May, but the Italian attack on Greece and Egypt diverted German resources as Mussolini failed, and delayed Operation Barbarossafor six weeks. German advances were rapid and the Nazis get as far as Leningrad and Moscow by Dec 1941. Despite early warnings Stalin was surprised at attack, and the Soviet Union initially lost 2.5 million of its 4 million troops. Of 15,000 planes, only 700 were left.Moscow could probably have been taken, but Hitler diverted resources south to try to access Russian oil fields. When the Winter set in, the German army's advance was halted as the troops were unprepared to deal with the Russian winter.
Primary Source: Vyacheslav Molotov (1889-1986): Broadcast Speech on the Invasion of The Soviet Union, June 22, 1941
Primary Source: Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau on the Ideological Mission of the German Army in the Soviet Union, October 1941

Pearl Harbor (1941)
On December 7, 1941, hoping to prevent American opposition to its imperial efforts in Asia, Japanese planes attacked and bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The United States government immediately declared war on Japan and joined in the European war against Japan's allies, Germany and Italy. Despite the Depression, the United States remained untouched by devastation that was occurring elsewhere, and was producing 35% of the world's industrial output: its participation swung the course of the war..
Image: Pearl Harbor
Web Site: Pearl Harbor -Documents
Web Site: Pearl Harbor Raid, 7 December 1941

Stalingrad (1942)
The German goal in 1942 was to access the oil fields of the Caspian Sea. In August 1942, the Germans reached the outskirts of Stalingrad. There the greatest land battle in history took place in which the Russians lost more men (over 1 million) than the US did in the whole war. By February 1943, the Russians had won and began to push back the German army.
Web Site: Stalingrad

Battle of Midway (1942)
Although a decision was made to concentrate on the War in Europe, the first necessity was to stop Japanese advances in the Pacific. At the Battle of the Coral Sea in Spring 1942,and the Battle of Midway in June, Japanese advances were stopped. By August, with the American capture of Guadalcanal, the offensive against Japan began.
Image/Web Site: Battle of Midway, 4-7 June 1942 -- Overview and Special Image Selection

Normandy invasion (1944)
Under the leadership of the American General Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969), Britain became a troop camp as United States and the other Allies trained an invasion army. On D-Day -June 6 1940 - Allied armies invaded Normandy and, at huge cost of life, establish a beachhead in continental Europe. On March 7, 1945 the river Rhine was crossed at Remagen, and the German collapse soon followed. The War in Europe ended on May 8th.
Image: Maps of the Normandy Invasion
Web Site: EB: Normandy 1944

Hiroshima (1945)
With Germany defeated the problem of defeating Japan remained. A series successful "island hopping" battles had enabled the United States to reach the Mariana Islands in June 1944. These were used as a base from which to bomb Japan, although the Japanese put up a strong resistance. It was calculated, in the light of Japanese resistance, that a frontal attack on Japan might cost from 30,000 to one million, US casualties. Meanwhile a fear amongst some scientists that the Nazis were developing an atomic bomb led to establishment of the "Manhattan Project" in Spring 1943 with the goal of developing an American Atomic capability. Four bombs were made by 1945. On July 16,1945, a successful Atomic test explosion was conducted. In what is still a controversial action, on August 6, 1945, a 9000 lb bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. This city had not been bombed before and one aim of bombing it was to see the effects of a bomb on a virgin area. A Uranium bomb was used, and exploded at 32,000 feet. At least 78,000 men, women and children were killed out of a population of 200,000. This included 6,000 young children on their way to school, and 20 US air men in POW camps. On August 9th a plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasakai and 30,000 people killed. At the same time conventional B-29 raids continued, including a 1000 B-29 raid on August 14, as the commander, General Carl Spaatz wanted "as big a finale as possible." On August 14th 1945, the Japanese surrendered and World War II was over.
Primary Source: The Manhattan Engineer District, June 29, 1946 : The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Image: The Bomb 1945
Web Site: Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy--Hiroshima