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 a iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush all oppositio
Five-Year Plans
Plans that Stalin introduced to industrialize the Soviet Union rapidly. they set goals for the output of steel, electricity, machinery, and most other products were enforced by the police powers of the state. they succeeded in making the Soviet Union a ma
Benito Mussolini
Fascist dictator of Italy. He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia, joined Germany in the Axis pact, and allied Italiy with Germany in WWII. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy.
Fascist Party
Italian political party created by Benito Mussolini during WWI. 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, he became a radical German nationalist during WWI. He led the National Socialist German Worker's Party - the Nazis - in the 1920s and became dictator of Germany in 1933. Led Europe into WWII.
Nazis
German political party joined by Adolf Hitler, emphasizing nationalism, racism, and war. when Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, they became the only legal party and an instrument of Hitler's absolute rule. The party's formal name was National S
Chiang Kai-shek
Chinese military and political leader. Succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomindang in 1923; headed the Chinese gov't from 1928 to 1948; fought against the Chinese Communists and Japanese invaders. after 1949 he headed the Chinese Nationalist gov't in
Mao Zedong
Leader of the Chinese communist party. he led the communists on the Long March and rebuilt the Communist Party and Red Army during the Japanese occupation of China. after WWII, he led the Communists to victory over the Guomindang. ordered the Cultural Rev
Long March
The 6,000 mile flight of Chinese Communists from southeastern to northwestern China. The communists, led by Mao Zedong, were pursued by the Chinese army under orders from Chiang Kai-shek. The 4,000 survivors formed the nucleus of a revived Communist movem
Stalingrad
City in Russia, site of a Red Army victory over the German army in 1942. The Battle of _____ was the turning point in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. Today Volgograd.
El Alamein
Town in Egypt, site of the victory by Britain's Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery over German forces led by General Erwin Rommel
Pearl Harbor
Naval base in Hawaii attacked by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941. The sinking of much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet brought the U.S. into WWII.
Battle of Midway
U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in WWII.
Hiroshima
City in Japan, the first to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on Aug. 6, 1945. The bombing hastened the end of WWII.
Auschwitz
Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the Holocaust. close to a million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and others were killed there.
Holocaust
Nazis' program during WWII to kill people they considered undesirable. Some 6 million Jews perished during the this, along with millions of Poles, Gypsies communists, Socialists, and others.