In Germany and Russia democracy failed to work for long in the post WWI era. In Germany, democracy was struck down by the people and in Russia, democracy was destroyed by the government.
In February 1919, Germany set up the Weimar Republic in response to the Treaty of Versailles. The Weimar Republic was a good democracy modeled on the democracies of Western Europe. The democracy included a Bill of Rights and men and women who were over the age of 21 could vote in the elections. All persons in the Weimar Republic government were elected by popular vote. Many of the German people were not fond of the new democracy and did not like the new government. Left and right-wing citizens assassinated political leaders to show their unhappiness. To add to the already stressed republic, no majority was ever reached in government because it was made up of many smaller parties. Also, the Great Depression began to add economic stress to the country. Just when it seemed it couldn't get any worse, France invaded the lucrative coal mines of Germany. The economy then completely collapsed. The small terrorist group called the Nazis eventually became a political party and gradually took over the government election by election. When the Nazis finally had majority control, they put Hitler into power and named him Supreme Chancellor.
The consequences of the Treaty of Versailles put the people of Germany into a bad position and the revenge of other countries on Germany sealed its fate. The people of Germany were ultimately the ones who made Germany a totalitarian state. Over many years, the people of Germany elected the Nazi party to a greater and greater roll in government. They did not feel any regrets for putting Hitler into power. Some people might argue that the people did not make Germany totalitarian because they did not elect Hitler as their leader. However, they did elect the Nazi party as their leader and were obviously comfortable with their position. Many German people even liked Hitler and were proud to have him as leader. The government takeover by the Nazis under the eye of Hitler set the stage for the second world war and worries for Europe in the years to come.
In Russia the totalitarian revolution was somewhat different than it was in Germany. Before 1919, Nicholas II and and the Russian monarchy were destroyed. Lenin arrived from Germany with many ideas of communism to help improve his country. When Lenin had secured his place on top of the government, he allowed an election to determine the members of the Constituent Assembly. He felt that the election would only add security to his government. However, his party only recieved one quarter of the votes behind the less-progressive Menshevik party. In a sense, Lenin "looses his power." Naturally, being a totalitiarian, Lenin did not like this at all. After one and a half days in session, Lenin dissolved the Constituent Assembly with the use of his Red Army. This led to a hardening of opposition from his people. Between 1918 and 1920 a civil war breaks out in Russia between the communists and the others (There were many people who were against the communists). The communists end up winning the war.
In Russia it is very clear that the people did not have a choice in the progression of democracy. When the people were allowed to vote in an election they decided that it was best to have less radical people in government. Lenin completely discredited their decision and took over the power of government himself. Some people might say that the people did choose to have a communist society because one quarter of the people that voted, voted for someone who was a communist. While this is true, it is important to remember the three quarters of the people did not vote for the communists. That is a huge number of people that were not okay with the totalitarian takeover of Russia.
In conclusion, the people of Germany were comfortable with the totalitarian takeover of their country while the people of Russia were not okay with it. This sets the stage for events that will happen in the future. For example, the very nationalistic feelings in Germany lead to the start of WWII and the smaller support for government in Russia led to the murder of over 30 million people so that the government would be supported. In Germany smaller amounts of people were killed because there were more people on board with the government in the first place. Throughout history the rise and fall of communist regimes can be traced to the actions of people or the actions of government.
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For more information please visit these websites...
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/attachments/world-wars/16595d1255447772-hilarious-post-wwi-map-after-math-first-world-war.jpg
http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/germany/weimar.gif
http://www.johndclare.net/Basics_Germany.htm
http://www.thecorner.org/hist/total/s-russia.htm
