In vielen Diktaturen – im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland ebenso wie in der Sowjetunion – wurden regelmäßig Wahlen und Referenden abgehalten. Solche scheindemokratischen Wahlen waren nicht nur Mittel der Propaganda. Sie hatten, so zeigen die Beiträge dieses Bandes, durchaus eine Bedeutung für die Funktionsweise diktatorischer Herrschaft im 20. Jahrhundert.
Non-competitive elections in 20th century dictatorships : some questions and general considerations / Ralph Jessen and Hedwig Richter -- The self-staging of a plebiscitary dictatorship : the NS-Regime between uniformed Reichstag, referendum and Reichsparteitag / Markus Urban -- Popular sovereignty and constitutional rights in the USSR's Supreme Soviet elections of February 1946 / Mark B. Smith -- Integration, celebration, and challenge : Soviet youth and elections, 1953-1968 / Gleb Tsipursky -- Mass obedience : practices and functions of elections in the German Democratic Republic / Hedwig Richter -- Elections in modern dictatorships : some analytical considerations / Werner J. Patzelt -- The great Soviet paradox : elections and terror in the unions, 1937-1938 / Wendy Z. Goldman -- Plebiscites in Fascist Italy : national unity and the importance of the appearance of unity / Paul Corner -- Works council elections in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1968 / Peter Heumos -- Faking it : neo-Soviet electoral politics in Central Asia / Donnacha Ó Beacháin -- Elections, plebiscitary elections, and plebiscites in Fascist Italy and Nazi-Germany : comparative perspectives / Enzo Fimiani -- Germany totally National Socialist : National Socialist Reichstag elections and plebiscites, 1933-1938 : the example of Schleswig-Holstein / Frank Omland -- Elections in the Soviet Union, 1937-1989 : a view into a paternalistic world from below / Stephan Merl -- The people's voice : the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1958 in the Belarusian capital Minsk / Thomas M. Bohn.
Nazi ideology drove Hitler's quest for power in 1933, colored everything in the Third Reich, and culminated in the Second World War and the Holocaust. In this book, Gellately addresses often-debated questions about how Führer discovered the ideology and why millions adopted aspects of National Socialism without having laid eyes on the "leader" or reading his work.
From the author of the international bestseller On Tyranny, the definitive history of Hitler’s and Stalin’s politics of mass killing, explaining why Ukraine has been at the center of Western history for the last century. Americans call the Second World War “the Good War.” But before it even began, America’s ally Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens—and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war’s end, German and Soviet killing sites fell behind the Iron Curtain, leaving the history of mass killing in darkness. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single story. With a new afterword addressing the relevance of these events to the contemporary decline of democracy, Bloodlands is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history and its meaning today.
Challenging the traditional belief that Hitler's supporters were largely from the lower middle class, Richard F. Hamilton analyzes Nazi electoral successes by turning to previously untapped sources--urban voting records. This examination of data from a series of elections in fourteen of the largest German cities shows that in most of them the vote for the Nazis varied directly with the class level of the district, with the wealthiest districts giving it the strongest support. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
In the early- and mid-1880s, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the forerunner of the modern IRA, waged a bombing campaign that terrorized the citizens of London for more than four years. Explosives were detonated in such places as the Tower of London, the House of Commons, Victoria station and at the London Bridge. The bombings were carried out in an attempt to secure Ireland's freedom from England. The Fenians, as they were called, hoped citizens would put pressure on the government to resolve the dispute. Implored by the government to end the reign of terror, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson take up residence in a doss house in Whitechapel, which would achieve even greater notoriety a few years later courtesy of Jack the Ripper, posing as dock workers in order to learn more about the shadowy group and ingratiate themselves with its members. When Holmes learns a new bomb-maker is on the way and the bombings will increase in frequency, he understands time is running out. Despite proving his bona fides by bombing 10 Downing Street, Holmes is still held at arm's length by the group's leader Michael. As plans for the extensive new bombing campaign are formulated, Holmes realizes that he must act quickly in order to stop the terror. However, as clever as Holmes is, Michael is his match. The Devil's Disciples pits Holmes against an adversary who is every bit as cunning as he - but far more ruthless.
A masterful account culminating in the fateful days before Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, "June 1941" offers penetrating insights and a new portrait of Hitler and Stalin.
A bold new accounting of the great social and political upheavals that enveloped Europe between 1914 and 1945—from the Russian Revolution through the Second World War. In Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, acclaimed historian Robert Gellately focuses on the dominant powers of the time, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but also analyzes the catastrophe of those years in an effort to uncover its political and ideological nature. Arguing that the tragedies endured by Europe were inextricably linked through the dictatorships of Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, Gellately explains how the pursuit of their “utopian” ideals turned into dystopian nightmares. Dismantling the myth of Lenin as a relatively benevolent precursor to Hitler and Stalin and contrasting the divergent ways that Hitler and Stalin achieved their calamitous goals, Gellately creates in Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler a vital analysis of a critical period in modern history.
A hugely important book that solely and fully explores for the first time the complex partnership during World War II between FDR and Stalin, by the editor of My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin (“History owes a debt to Susan Butler for the collection and annotation of these exchanges”—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr). Making use of previously classified materials from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, and the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, as well as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and three hundred hot war messages between Roosevelt and Stalin, Butler tells the story of how the leader of the capitalist world and the leader of the Communist world became more than allies of convenience during World War II. Butler reassess in-depth how the two men became partners, how they shared the same outlook for the postwar world, and how they formed an uneasy but deep friendship, shaping the world’s political stage from the war to the decades leading up to and into the new century. Roosevelt and Stalin tells of the first face-to-face meetings of the two leaders over four days in December 1943 at Tehran, in which the Allies focused on the next phases of the war against the Axis Powers in Europe and Asia; of Stalin’s agreement to launch another major offensive on the Eastern Front; and of his agreement to declare war against Japan following the Allied victory over Germany. Butler writes of the weeklong meeting at Yalta in February of 1945, two months before Roosevelt’s death, where the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was agreed on and postwar Europe was reorganized, and where Stalin agreed to participate in Roosevelt’s vision of the United Nations. The book makes clear that Roosevelt worked hard to win Stalin over, pursuing the Russian leader, always holding out the promise that Roosevelt’s own ideas were the best bet for the future peace and security of Russia; however, Stalin was not at all sure that Roosevelt’s concept of a world organization, even with police powers, would be enough to keep Germany from starting a third world war, but we see how Stalin’s view of Roosevelt evolved, how he began to see FDR as the key to a peaceful world. Butler’s book is the first to show how FDR pushed Stalin to reinstate religion in the Soviet Union, which he did in 1943; how J. Edgar Hoover derailed the U.S.-planned establishment of an OSS intelligence mission in Moscow and a Soviet counterpart in America before the 1944 election; and that Roosevelt had wanted to involve Stalin in the testing of the atomic bomb at Alamogardo, New Mexico. We see how Roosevelt’s death deeply affected Stalin. Averell Harriman, American ambassador to the Soviet Union, reported that the Russian premier was “more disturbed than I had ever seen him,” and said to Harriman, “President Roosevelt has died but his cause must live on. We shall support President Truman with all our forces and all our will.” And the author explores how Churchill’s—and Truman’s—mutual mistrust and provocation of Stalin resulted in the Cold War. A fascinating, revelatory portrait of this crucial, world-changing partnership.
Forty years after his Hitler: A Study in Tyranny set a standard for scholarship of the Nazi era, Lord Alan Bullock gives readers a breathtakingly accomplished dual biography that places Adolf Hitler's origins, personality, career, and legacy alongside those of Joseph Stalin--his implacable antagonist and moral mirror image.
