NOTES:

CHAPTER II: SOCIALISM IN EUROPE AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

NCERT QUESTIONS : [BOOK QUESTIONS]
Q1.What were the social, economic and political conditions in Russia before
1905? [5]
Ans:
I. Economic:

 About 85 per cent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from
agriculture. This proportion was higher than in most European countries.
 In the Russian empire, cultivators produced for the market as well as for their
own needs and Russia were a major exporter of grain.
 Industry was found in pockets. Prominent industrial areas were St Petersburg
and Moscow. Craftsmen undertook much of the production, but large factories
existed alongside craft workshops.
 Many factories were set up in the 1890s, when Russia’s railway network was
extended, and foreign investment in industry increased. Coal production
doubled and iron and steel output quadrupled. By the 1900s, in some areas
factory workers and craftsmen were almost equal in number.
 Most industry was the private property of industrialists. Government
supervised large factories to ensure minimum wages and limited hours of
work. But factory inspectors could not prevent rules being broken.
II. Social:
Workers were a divided social group.

 Some had strong links with the villages from which they came. Others had
settled in cities permanently.
 Workers were divided by skill. Metalworkers considered themselves
aristocrats among other workers as they were more trained and skilled.
 Women made up 31 per cent of the factory labour force by 1914, but they
were paid less than men (between half and three-quarters of a man’s wage).
 Divisions among workers showed themselves in dress and manners too.
 In the countryside, peasants cultivated most of the land. But the nobility, the
crown and the Orthodox Church owned large properties.
 Like workers, peasants too were divided. They were also deeply religious. But
except in a few cases they had no respect for the Source A nobility. Nobles
got their power and position through their services to the Tsar, not through
local popularity.
III. Political:

 Despite divisions, workers did unite to strike work (stop work) when they
disagreed with employers about dismissals or work conditions.
 Some workers formed associations to help members in times of
unemployment or financial hardship but such associations were few.
 In Russia, peasants wanted the land of the nobles to be given to them.
Frequently, they refused to pay rent and even murdered landlords.
  Russian peasants were different from other European peasants in another
way. They pooled their land together periodically and their commune (mir)
divided it according to the needs of individual families.
2. In what ways was the working population in Russia different from other
countries in Europe, before 1917? [3]
i. About 85 per cent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from
agriculture. This proportion was higher than in most European countries. For
instance, in France and Germany the proportion was between 40 per cent and 50
per cent.
ii. Peasants in Russia had no respect for the nobles. Frequently, they refused to pay
rent and even murdered landlords. This was unlike France where, during the French
Revolution in Brittany, peasants respected nobles and fought for them.
iii. Russian peasants were different from other European peasants in another way.
They pooled their land together periodically and their commune (mir) divided it
according to the needs of individual families.
3. Why did the Tsarist autocracy collapse in 1917? [2]
i. During the February Revolution the Petrograd Soviet was formed on 27th February
1917.
ii. The very next day, a delegation went to see the Tsar. Military commanders
advised him to abdicate. He followed their advice and abdicated on 2 March.
iii. Soviet leaders and Duma leaders formed a Provisional Government to run the
country. Russia’s future would be decided by a constituent assembly, elected on the
basis of universal adult suffrage. Petrograd had led the February Revolution that
brought down the monarchy in February 1917.
4. What were the main changes brought about by the Bolsheviks immediately
after the October Revolution? [3]/[5]
Most industry and banks were nationalised in November 1917.
The government took over ownership and management. Land was declared social
property and peasants were allowed to seize the land of the nobility.
In cities, Bolsheviks enforced the partition of large houses according to family
requirements
They banned the use of the old titles of aristocracy.
To assert the change, new uniforms were designed for the army and officials,
following a clothing competition organised in 1918 – when the Soviet hat
(budeonovka) was chosen.
The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik)
In November 1917, the Bolsheviks conducted the elections to the Constituent
Assembly, but they failed to gain majority support. In January 1918, the Assembly
rejected Bolshevik measures and Lenin dismissed the Assembly.
In March 1918, despite opposition by their political allies, the Bolsheviks made peace
with Germany at Brest Litovsk.
In the years that followed, the Bolsheviks became the only party to participate in the
elections to the All Russian Congress of Soviets, which became the Parliament of
the country.
Russia became a one-party state. Trade unions were kept under party control.
The secret police (called the Cheka first, and later OGPU and NKVD) punished
those who criticised the Bolsheviks.
After October 1917, this led to experiments in the arts and architecture. But many
became disillusioned because of the censorship the Party encouraged.
CHAPTER III: NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER
NCERT QUESTIONS : [BOOK QUESTIONS]
Q1. Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic. [5]
Ans: i. The Weimar Republic was not well received by its own people

 Because of the terms it was forced to accept after Germany’s defeat at the
end of the First World War.
 Many Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for not only the
defeat in the war but the disgrace at Versailles.
ii. The Communists and Socialists became irreconcilable enemies and so could not
prevent the rise of Hitler. Thus radical solutions were sought were both.
iii. The Republic could not cope with the economic crisis of 1923 when Germany
defaulted in payment of war reparation with the depletion of the gold reserve and
France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr. Germany retaliated with passive resistance
and printed paper currency recklessly and as a result the exchange rate between the
US Dollar and the German Mark was one trillion. It led to hyperinflation in Germany.
iv. Germany was worst hit by the global economic crisis of 1929. It led to the number
of the unemployed touching an unprecedented 6 million and created deep anxieties
and fear in the people. Thus the extremist views of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
gained support among the people.
v. The Weimar constitution had some inherent defects of proportional representation
that always led to coalitions. Article 48, gave the President the powers to impose
emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree. Thus the Weimar Republic saw
twenty different cabinets lasting on an average 239 days, and a liberal use of Article
48.
2. Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930. [3]
Ans: i. The Weimar Republic could not manage the crises it faced and so people
lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no
solutions.
ii. Banks collapsed and businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs and the middle
classes were threatened with destitution during the period of the Great Depression.
In such a situation Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future and by 1932, it
had become the largest party with 37 per cent votes.
iii. Using his oratory skill Hitler mustered people’s support through the promises of a
strong nation, employment and resistance to foreign conspiracies. The new style of
politics of the Nazis and the skilful projection of Hitler as the messiah captured the
imagination of a people whose sense of dignity and pride had been shattered, and
who were living in a time of acute economic and political crises.
3. What are the peculiar features of Nazi thinking? [3]
Ans: i. According to the Nazi world view there is no equality between people. The
people of the world are to be placed in a racial hierarchy with the Nordic Aryans
placed on the top rung and the Jews on the lowest rung as they were an anti race.
ii. All other coloured people are to be placed in-between depending upon their
external features. Hitler based his racist ideas on the scientific theories of evolution
and natural selection of Charles Darwin and survival of the fittest of Herbert Spencer.
iii. Such ideas were used by racist thinkers and politicians to justify imperial rule over
conquered peoples. The Nazi argument was simple: the strongest race would
survive and the weak ones would perish.
4. Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews.
[5]
Ans: i. Write about the promises of Hitler
ii. The new style of politics and Hitler being projected as the messiah.
iii. The use of schools – change in curriculum and text books and school cleansing
iv. Use of language and media
v. All these measures mobilised the people whose sense of dignity and pride had
been shattered, and who were living in a time of acute economic and political crises.
5. Explain what role women had in Nazi society. [5]
Ans: i. The fight for equal rights for men and women that had become part of
democratic struggles everywhere was wrong and it would destroy society. While
boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel hearted, girls were told that
they had to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children.
ii. Girls had to maintain the purity of the race, distance themselves from Jews, look
after the home, and teach their children Nazi values. They had to be the bearers of
the Aryan culture and race.
iii. In 1933 Hitler said: ‘In my state the mother is the most important citizen.’ But in
Nazi Germany all mothers were not treated equally. Women who bore racially
undesirable children were punished and those who produced racially desirable
children were awarded.
iv. They were given favoured treatment in hospitals and were also entitled to
concessions in shops and on theatre tickets and railway fares. To encourage women
to produce many children, Honour Crosses were awarded. A bronze cross was given
for four children, silver for six and gold for eight or more.
v. Those who maintained contact with Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded
through the town with shaved heads, blackened faces and placards hanging around
their necks announcing ‘I have sullied the honour of the nation’. Many received jail
sentences and lost civic honour as well as their husbands and families for this
‘criminal offence’.
6. In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its
people? [5]
Ans: i. Through the Enabling Act of 3rd March 1933 the Nazi state established
complete control over the economy, media, army and judiciary.
ii. Special surveillance and security forces were created to control and order society
in ways that the Nazis wanted.
iii. Apart from the already existing regular police in green uniform and the SA or the
Storm Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the
protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD).
iv. It was the extra-constitutional powers of these newly organised forces that gave
the Nazi state its reputation as the most dreaded criminal state.
v. People could now be detained in Gestapo torture chambers, rounded up and sent
to concentration camps, deported at will or arrested without any legal procedures.
The police forces acquired powers to rule with impunity.