Dictators
World of the Wars Dictators
Just a few facts
by Kim Cox
Hirohito (1901- ) Emperor of Japan
Educated at the Imperial Education Institute in Tokyo
He visited Europe in 1921 and was the first Japanese prince to leave his native country.
Married in 1924
The expanding
supremacy of a militaristic band of statesmen and heads of the army and navy is
how his reign was marked.
In 1934 he was largely responsible of the establishment by Japan of the puppet
state of Manchukuo.
(1937-1945)--was the period of the Sino-Japanese War and the Japanese attack on
the United
States.
1941 started their participation in WWII on the side of Germany and Italy
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945) Germany “Fuhrer” (leader)
German political
and military leader
Born in Austria in 1889
He became a German Citizen in 1932.
In his youth, he failed as an agricultural draftsman, artist, and businessman.
He received two decorations for bravery during WWI in a Bavarian regiment.
Hitler, along with six other men founded the National Socialist German Workers “Nazi” party. The purpose of the party was to heal domestic economic and political ills, and the betterment of its inferior international situation after losing WWI.
In 1923 he failed and was sentenced to five years in prison for treason after he
attempted to seize control of the Bavarian government in Munich. He was paroled
after serving nine months.
From 1928-1932--Under Hitler’s leadership Nazi representation extensively
multiplied.
In 1932 Hitler was defeated by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg for the office
of president of the
German
Republic.
In 1933 Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor.
In 1934 Hindenburg died, Hitler abolished the presidency, merging its functions
with those of the chancellorship to which he assumed the title of “Der Fuhrer”,
or “supreme leader” of Germany. Hitler’s plan included rearmament, economic
reorganization from his violent anit-Semitic program. Germany’s power and
territory of Europe was rapidly increased.
Germany
reoccupied a zone between
France
and Germany known as Rhineland.
In 1938 was the annexing of Austria.
In March of 1939 was the annexing of Czechoslavia, in September of 1939 Germany
invaded Poland. This invasion was one of the factors that brought on
WWII.
By 1941,
Germany had
conquered Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium, France,
Greece and Yugoslavia.
When Hitler personally took command of the forces invading Russia in December
1941, it was disastrous for Germany.
From 1943-1945 told the defeat of Germany.
In 1944 Hitler escaped an attempt with the Nazi party to assassinate him.
He committed suicide on April 30,1945 in Berlin.
Mussolini, Benito (1883-1945) Italian Dictator
Born in Predappio
Educated at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland--expelled from Switzerland
in 1904 and later from Austria.
Marxian socialist
Started Lotta di Classe in 1911
Edited Avanti in Milan from 1912-1914
Member of Italian Communist Party
Corporal in WWI until February 1917 when he was wounded.
He founded the first “Fascio di Combattimento” (the fascist) in 1919 to suppress
Bolshevism
By means of coup d’etat (march on Rome by his followers on October 28,1922) he
gained premiership
In 1929 he terminated the sixty-year dispute between church and state.
In 1931 he conducted negotiations leading to the withdrawal of the church from
Italian political activities.
In 1933 he announced a plan for a state controlled guild system for industry
In 1935 he ordered the invasion of Ethiopia
In 1938 he was made
Marshall
of the empire but retained title “Il Duce” (the leader)
In 1943 his alliance of Italy with Germany and the impending defeat of his
country triggered his downfall.
On April
28,1945 the
wrath of the people caused his execution in
Milan
Stalin, Joseph (1879-1953) Soviet Dictator
Assumed name Yosif Vessarionovich Djugashvili
He was born in the Georgian Village of Gori.
He was accounted as one of the most notable men in Russian history and most
influential in world affairs in the period immediately preceding WWII.
In 1902 he was arrested for revolutionary activities.
In 1902 he was exiled from
Siberia.
In 1904 he escaped to
Transcaucasia.
In 1905, during a revolution he directed a number of attacks on Czarist
officials and so-called “expropriations” of bank in order to acquire funds for
revolutionary activities.
From 1908-1913 he was imprisoned on several occasions and exiled but escaped.
In 1912 he became a member of the central committee of the Bolshevik Party.
In 1913 he exiled to northern
Siberia
and remained until 1917 he overthrew the czarist monarchy during a revolution.
From 1918 to 1921 there was a civil war and in 1920 a Russo-Polish war, he
participated in the formulation of military policy and service as a political
commissar (government representative).
In 1928 he made decisions resulting in the institution of national economic
planning by means of a five year plan.
From 1922-1923 he was involved in revolutionary activities.
From 1924-1929 there was a struggle for power in Bolshevik party, the Soviet
State and Third (Communist) International.
In 1929 he acquired unopposed leadership of the Soviet State.
In the 1930’s he made decisions that forced the collectiveness of the peasantry
which caused hundreds of thousands deaths and the deportation from their homes
of millions of others. Millions of Soviet citizens and foreigners were forced
into slave labor and the final conversion of the Soviet government into a
terrorist police. The population had no civil liberties and the workers were at
the disposition of the state. Millions of persons lost their jobs, homes,
freedom, and many their lives.
From 1936 to 1938 he made the decision of the institution of trials where except
for two or three close loyal associates, all surviving leaders of the Bolshevik
Party and revolution were found guilty of treachery antedating and following the
revolution, and were executed.
In 1941 during WWII, he directed the military operations of Soviet Germany
against Nazi Germany.
