How Did Lenin Lead To The Rise Of Fascism

Many people without an in depth knowledge of the world wars think that fascism was conceived in Italy. While they’re not wrong, before you understand the conception of fascism you must first understand what was happening in Russia just prior. Vladimir Lenin was the leader and founder of the Russian Communist Party and architect and head of the Soviet State. He was also the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and aided the Bolsheviks in gaining control of the government. He was the head of the Soviet state until 1924 when he died from a series of strokes that plagued him beginning in 1922. There were two men who were involved in the debate about who would succeed him. A power struggle between Trotsky and Iosif Dzhugashvili, general secretary

32). As to be expected after any war, especially a war of this magnitude, there were a great number of dead and Italy was left with feelings of frustration and betrayal. Those who did return home from the war had a difficult time assimilating to their post-war lives and many blamed their problems on the government for poor negotiations at the culmination of the war and the country’s economic problems. It was because of these problems and the Italian people’s lack of trust in their government, that Benito Mussolini and the Fascists rose to power so

After Germany’s abysmal defeat in World War I, Adolf Hitler because a more recognized name. Prior to his fame and power, he joined an extremist party called the National Socialist Workers’ Party. “Hitler soon revealed an exceptional gift for oratory and an astonishing ability to dominate his fellow party members by sheer force of personality” (pg. 35). He filled the minds of his followers with nationalist ideas saying that Germans were better and smarter than anyone else in the world and he picked out groups like the Jews who he deemed inferior. The last and perhaps most radical of his ideas was that the only way Germany could survive as a great power was if the world was rid of such inferiority. The group gave him the official tile of Fuhrer, or leader, when the party was renamed the Nazi party or the National Socialist German Workers’ party in 1921. Hitler was not unlike Mussolini in his coming to power, as he saw the conditions in post-war Germany and used them to his advantage. In the negotiations after World War I, Germany lost land and weapons, was made to pay reparations for the destruction caused by the war, and the economic situation in Germany was less than appealing, to put it nicely. He understood the frustration of the country and used its damaged ego as a blank canvas for his fascist and extremist propaganda. He dissolved parliament and took complete