Joseph Stalin

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communist Party after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush all oppositi

Five-Year Plans

Plans that Joseph Stalin introduced to industrialize the Soviet Union rapidly, beginning in 1928. They set goals for the output of steel, electricity, machinery, and most other products and were enforced by the police powers of the state. They succeeded i

Collectivization

Consolidating small private farms into vast collectives and making the farmers work together in commonly owned fields. Each collective was expected to supply the government with a fixed amount of food and distribute what was left among it's members. Colle

Kulaks

Better-off peasants ("fists")

NKVD

Stalin's secret police force

Black Thursday

October 24, 1929 the day the New York Stock Market went into a dive. Within days stocks had lost half their value. The fall continued for three years, ruining millions of investors. People with bank accounts rushed to make withdrawals, causing thousands o

Benito Mussolini

Fascist dictator of Italy (1922-1943). He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia (1935), joined Germany in the Axis pact (1936), and allied Italy with Germany in World War II. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy.

Fascist Party

Italian political party created. By Benito Mussolini during World War I. It emphasized aggressive nationalism and was Mussolini's instrument for the creation of a dictatorship in Italy from 1922 to 1943.

Adolf Hitler

Born in Austria, Hitler became a radical German nationalist during World War I. He led the National Socialist German Workers' Party-the Nazis-in the 1920s and became dictator of Germany in 1933. He led Europe into World War II.

Nazis

German political party led by Adolfo Hitler, emphasizing nationalism, racism, and war. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazis became the only legal party and an instrument if Hitler's absolute rule. The party's formal name was Nationa

Munich Conference

German-speaking minority lived along the German border of Czechoslovakia. Hitler first demanded their autonomy from Czech rule, then their annexation to Germany. Throughout the summer he threatened to go to war. At the Munich Conference of September 1938,

Appeasement

The weakness of democracies. Problems include deep-seated fear of war among people who lad lived through WW I, the fear of communism among conservatives who fear bed Stalin more than Hitler because Hitler claimed to respect Christianity and private proper

Axis Powers

Germany and Italy signed an alliance called the Axis, the Soviet Union joined the alliance.

Chiang Kai-shek

Chinese military leader. Succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomimdang in 1925; headed the Chinese government from 1938 to 1948; fought against the Chinese Communist invaders. After 1949 he headed the Chinese Nationalist government in Taiwan.

Mao Zedong

Leader if the Chinese Communist Party (1927-1976). He led the Communists on the Long March (1934-1935) and rebuilt the Communist Party and Red Army during the Japanese occupation of China (1937-1945). After World War II, he led the Communists to victory o

The Long March

The 6,000-mile flight of Chinese Communists from southeastern to northwestern China. The Communists, lead by Mao Zedong, were pursued by the Chinese army under Chiang Kai-shek. The four thousand survivors of the march formed the nucleus of a revived Commu

Sino-Japanese War

1937-1945, Japanese forces conquered the coastal provinces of China; in the ensuing violent war, however, Japan gained few real advantages.

Blitzkrieg

German "lightning war" battle tactic: fighter planes scattered enemy troops and disrupted communications, tanks punctured the enemy's defenses, and then, with the help of the infantry, they encircled and captured enemy troops.

Stalingrad

Now Volgograd, Germans attacked this key territory to the Volga River and a the supply to oil in August.

El Alamein

Town in Egypt, site of the victory by Britain's Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery over German forces led by General Erwin Rommel (the "Desert Fox").

Pearl Harbor

Naval bad in Hawaii attacked by Japanese aircraft of December 7, 1941. The sinking of much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet brought the United States into World War II.

Battle of Midway

U.S. Naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four (out of six) of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.

D-Day

On June 6, 1944 156,000 British, American, and Canadian troops landed on the coast of Normandy in western France-the largest shipborne assault ever staged. Within a week the Allies had more troops in France than Germany did, and by September Germany faced

Hiroshima

City in Japan, the first to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. The bombing hastened the end of World War II.

Auschwitz

Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the Holocaust. Close to a million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and others where killed there.

Holocaust

Nazi's program during World War II to kill people they considered undesirable. Some 6 million Jews perished during the Holocaust, along with millions of Poles, Gypsies, Communists, Socialists, and others.