During the 1920’s and 1930’s while the world was at war, the authoritarian government appealed to the population through communism, philosophy and propaganda.
One of the ways that the authoritarian government appealed to the people was through communism. In document 1, three German communists blame the bad things of WWI on the ruling classes; it also says that those ruling classes will not prevent further conflicts. This document was written by three German communists at the end of WWI. At that time, German was surrendering forcibly by the French, English, and Americans. They were extremely upset due to the fact that those countries forced Germany into paying for the war. After reading this, I believe that these ‘ruling classes’ that the authors are talking about and are blaming for the horrors of WWI are France, Great Britain, and America, while saying that they will not be able to prevent further conflicts. This is an indication that Germany is very upset with them at this point in time. The dictators were trying to get the peoples support by saying those countries were the bad guys and they are evil. In document 5, Stalin is giving a speech to Industrial managers a part of the Soviet Union. He is saying that they are lacking proper technology and if they do not get up to speed with their technology, the other countries with the better technology will destroy bolshevism. He says bolshevism must win or basically lose. This connects with document 1 because Stalin is also making the countries with the better technology look like they are taking over the world. In my opinion, I thought that Stalin was basically forcing them to do as what he was telling them in his speech, after reading the document. After reviewing the documents, I wish there could have been a capitalist view of the situation so I could have examined the other side to the issue where the capitalists would explain what the communists are doing wrong and what the people need to be careful of.
Another way that the authoritarian government appealed to the population was through philosophy. Document 4 focuses on a characteristic of fascism, a different form of authoritarianism that believes decisions are not always based on reason. His point of view is what he saw going on in Italy and Germany might be started in his own country. From my stand point, what he wrote could possibly tie into communism. Reason being, communists do not necessarily think with reason, they think with free will and what is better for them. In document 6, Mussolini is saying that the nineteenth century was about Socialism, Liberalism, and Democracy but the twentieth century does not have to be. Mussolini is emphasizing his fascist belief. His point of view is that he would rather have the twentieth century be fascist, he would rather have change. After reading the document, it seems like he is more conservative than liberal, also, I feel he is more of a collectivist than an individualist. In document 9, it is talking about how the world is taking a new form. How there is more than one religion in a nation besides one. How race, nationality, class etc. get to all be a part of the collective and have some sort of a say as to what goes on in their nation. The author seems to be elated by this fact, but there also seems to be some sort of regret in the passage. I find this document ironic because he is talking about collectivism when in WWII, Hitler was using the collective, but for something the collective was not educated about the real story, something the collective did not really want. In document 8, it is asking how to identify a person by their race. It directly discriminates a Jew by asking the student how they walk, body language