fun history facts: dictators

Question 1

How did the army regard Hitler?

Answer 1

They were Prussian aristocracy and regarded him as a temporary Austrian upstart

Question 2

How did Hitler control the army

Answer 2

He dismissed Blomberg and Fritsch in a sex scandal

Question 3

What is an example of the disorganisation of the Hitler regime?

Answer 3

Both Roseberg and Ley were ‘heads of education’ and in charge of NAPOLAS

Question 4

What percentage of people in the Saarland voted to be German?

Answer 4

90%

Question 5

How did Schact tax?

Answer 5

He taxed, but fairly so it wouldn’t burden private industry and reinvested taxes back into state.

Question 6

What did the New Plan do for young men?

Answer 6

Men 18-25 Years old were required to join the National Labour Service for six months

Question 7

How did Albert Speer improve the economy?

Answer 7

He used slave labour. By 1944 a quarter of the German workforce were foreign slaves.

Question 8

How successful was Goering’s autarky

Answer 8

Germany still imported a third of their materials by 1939

Question 9

Did unemployment lessen under Hitler?

Answer 9

Yes, it fell from 6 million to 100 thousand. from 1932-39

Question 10

What was the weirdest part of Nazi propaganda?

Answer 10

the torch lit rallies at Nuremberg that portrayed hitler as a God

Question 11

What was the editors law?

Answer 11

Any editor who let their writer publish something anti-Nazi could be tried. As a result, editors censured themselves

Question 12

What effect did Hitler have on artists?

Answer 12

2500 went into exile. Some, like Heidegger, gave themselves up completely to the Nazis

Question 13

Wha percentage of Germans used radios?

Answer 13

increased from 22 to 70 % from 1932-37

Question 14

As a worker did life improve under the Nazis?

Answer 14

25 million people controlled by Volk but received insurance, bereavement and education.

Question 15

How many people participated in the KDF

Answer 15

1 in 7 was involved somehow in the Strength through Joy programme

Question 16

What was the women’s version of the Nazi Party?

Answer 16

NSF

Question 17

What was the Land Year Programme?

Answer 17

Single women went to work on a farm for a year

Question 18

What percentage of the workforce was women in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia?

Answer 18

Half!

Question 19

How did the Nazis persecute the disabled

Answer 19

350 thousand were sterilised, 70 thousand were euthanised and doctors were given a manual with 60 causes of death to tell the family.

Question 20

What was the Treaty of Rappallo?

Answer 20

A Treaty between Russia and Hitler. Stalin fell into suspicion of Hitler, however and it lapsed.

Question 21

What was the ‘second revolution’ of Russia?

Answer 21

Stalin’s top down economic policy

Question 22

Was de-kulakisation effective?

Answer 22

Yes. Poor peasants were eager to gain revenge and were encouraged by the OGPU. Displayed to peasants the need for obedience.

Question 23

Was there resistance to collectivisation?

Answer 23

In 1930 25% of farms were collectivised. The peasants tried to revolt with 30 thousand arson attacks but by 1939 all the farms were collectivised.

Question 24

How many died in the 1932 Russian famine?

Answer 24

8 million

Question 25

Were Stalins economic policies effective?

Answer 25

Yes, coal increased to 150 tonnes, steel to 18 and oil to 26

Question 26

What was the Ryutin affair?

Answer 26

An attempt to criticise Stalin that was used to justify the purges

Question 27

What happened following the Kirov murder?

Answer 27

The decree against terrorists act. Supporters used to replace old people eg Beria, Krushchevan, Ruskibislov,. Of the 1996 delegates of the 1934 party. 1108 were executed

Question 28

What was the Stalin Enrolment?

Answer 28

The 'educated elite' who wanted to advance their career worked for Stalin and gained promotion for obedience.

Question 29

What are some examples of purges within the armed forces?

Answer 29

Tukhachavsky accused of a 'gigantic conspiracy' to kill Stalin. 35 thousand officers were shot and 90% of military council was arrested

Question 30

How prevalent were Stalin's purges?

Answer 30

One in 8 people were arrested

Question 31

What are some examples of supposed 'crises' that justified Stalin's purges?

Answer 31

The Doctor's Plot, the Leningrad affair, the Ryutin affair

Question 32

What are some examples supporting the argument that art was suppressed in Soviet Russia?

Answer 32

60 plays were banned, Abstract art was condemned, Eisenstein and Meyerhold were censured.

Question 33

What was the Konsomol?

Answer 33

The Hitler Youth for soviet Russia, basically.

Question 34

How many people were affected by Stalin's anti-independence campaign?

Answer 34

20 million were uprooted

Question 35

Before WWII, how prevalent were churches in Soviet society?

Answer 35

Only 1% of the original amount were open

Question 36

What ensured that the PRC was effectively under military control?

Answer 36

The military commander and the political commissar, two of the four branches of government, were led by former members of the PLA

Question 37

What was the reunification campaign?

Answer 37

Mao's attempt to control outlying areas, 3 separate armies sent (one each to Guandong, Xianjing and Tibet) under the guise of 'helping' by building roads, imposed martial law.

Question 38

What was the anti-movement campaign?

Answer 38

An attempt to deliberately create fear and end the last remnants of the bourgeois. Chine people encouraged to inform, Dangan (dossiers) created that determined eligibility for work and housing, landlord property redistributed and landlord either became a peasant or put on public trial. Created a restrictive atmosphere, 1 million landlords killed.

Question 39

What was the 100 flowers campaign?

Answer 39

Mao asked intellectuals to offer suggestions for improvement and then purged all those that criticised. Some believe he felt overwhelmed by the criticism, other believed it was deliberate, other believe it was just a mask to prove that he wasn't a cult of personality to Krushnev. Thousands of 'rightists' killed.