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Key points * Hitler was appointed chancellor: he did not achieve this by electoral victory. * There were so many political parties in Weimar Germany that none could achieve absolute [...]

The German army began one of the greatest military battles of all time when it invaded the Soviet Union in Jun 1941. The German army had three main fronts, vast resources of men and machinery, and it caused the death of millions of Soviet citizens, yet the Great Patriotic War had a Soviet victory. Significant factors in the Soviet victory were the weather, support from Britain and the US, and, outstandingly, the commitment of the Russian people. However, the Germans made military errors and their barbaric treatment of the Soviet people was a grave error of judgement.

Collectivisation had an extremely wide-reaching impact on agricultural activity in the Soviet Union from when it was first implemented in 1928. It was claimed that 14,264,300 households had been collectivised by Mar 1930, with dispossessed peasants slaughtering livestock in extremely large numbers. It is clear that Stalin cannot be seen as bearing all the responsibility for the chaos that emerged in the countryside as a result of collectivisation. However, he must be seen as responsible for issuing unclear and inconsistent instructions.

Fascism grew as a response to the economic and political difficulties found in both Germany and Italy, during the inter-war years. German Fascism, known as Nazism, was conceived in response to the growing spread of communism. Central to Nazism was the belief the Aryan race were superior and the Jewish people were responsible for the economic crisis. Nazism had little ideology but always supported in anti-semitism. Italian Fascism initially grew in opposition to left wing activism. It did not have an ideology but allowed Benito Mussolini to bring all classes of Italian people together.

Felix Dzherzhinsky, Reinhard Heydrich and Antoine St Just are three historical revolutionaries who played leading roles in important political events of their time. Felix Dzherzhinsky became head of Russia's Cheka in 1917 and is thought to be responsible for up to 150,000 deaths during the Bolshevik period. Reinhard Heydrich was head of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, when up to 6 million Jews were murdered. Antoine St just was a leading figure in the French Revolution. A comparison of the three men's personal characteristics and political motivations is presented.

Leon Trotsky failed to become dominant in the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s primarily because Joseph Stalin was more determined to succeed. Stalin combined his subtlety and ruthlessness as a political tactician with his excellent bureaucratic skills to meet the Soviet Union's needs at the time, while Trotsky was disinterested in political bureaucracy. Stalin made it appear that he had a close relationship with Lenin, with Lenin's death in 1924 then giving him the opportunity to seize power. Trotsky, meanwhile, remained politically immobile. Stalin's rise to power is examined in detail.

Italy suffered from a range of problems in 1919, such as high unemployment, inflation, and rural disturbances, and Benito Mussolini was able to use the nationalist ideas of Gabriele D'Annunzio to rise to power. He was also aided by constantly changing governments, in contrast to which, he appeared to offer stability and leadership, and he was supported by better off peasants in northern and central Italy, who feared losing their land under socialism. Mussolini then achieved the backing of Pope Pius XI, who saw him as a defender of Catholicicm, and benefited from lack of unity among the opposition.

Gabriele D'Annunzio was the creator of Fascism in Italy. He was born in 1863 and was a poet, playwright and novelist. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the First World War. D'Annunzio had a reputation for duelling and debauchery. He is most famous for the taking of the city of Fiume on September 12, 1919.