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The origins of Stalinist purges and show trials
Paranoia and the obsessional belief that the party and state were infiltrated by enemies and saboteurs created a culture of confession and interrogat…
8 years, 5 months ago
Roosevelt, Wilkie and the 1940 Presidential Election
With ever more alarming new unfolding in Europe and the fate of Britain hanging in the balance, Franklin Roosevelt decided to stand for re-election f…
8 years, 5 months ago
Lenin and the founding of the British Communist Party: 1920
The formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain had direct organisational, financial and ideological input from Lenin himself. He saw it as ess…
8 years, 5 months ago
Hitler's Reich Governors
The Nazi regime's consolidation of power led to an assault on the structures of Germany's federal system. It resulted in the creation of regional gov…
8 years, 5 months ago
The fall of Greece and Crete 1941
A series of strategic errors, missed opportunities and disasters handed Germany victory in Greece and Crete and led to two further allied evacuations…
8 years, 6 months ago
Chiang, Mao and the battle for China 1945-49 (Part One)
In 1946 General George Marshall met both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai Shek, and concluded that the nationalist cause in China was lost. From this fatefu…
8 years, 6 months ago
Sachsenhausen, Dachau and the later Nazi Camps 1936-39
After the initial chaotic phase of the development of the camp system, by 1936 new purpose build camp complexes that dwarfed their predecessors emerg…
8 years, 6 months ago
The Crisis of American Labor Unions 1945-50
In the post war years a rise in union militancy was matched by an increase in anti union hostility by the federal government and a decline in union p…
8 years, 6 months ago
Mussolini's War in Greece: 1940-41
The impulsive decision by Mussolini to invade Greece dragged the Balkans into the Second World War, with terrible consequences for Greece, Albania, Y…
8 years, 6 months ago
The Politics of Stalinism Part Two
More on the inner workings of the Soviet Communist Party after 1928
Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical convers…
8 years, 6 months ago