Analyze the ways in which technology and mass culture contributed to the success of dictators in the 1920s and

1930s. After the First World War, Europe was shattered, with nations now struggling to put together the pieces of their broken countries. The interwar years were marked by the emergence of dictators, who were successful both then, and through the Second World War. Technology and mass culture contributed to their success, as it was used to spread their ideas, regulated to prevent the dispersion of opposing ideas, and used to control the populace through emotionally directed propaganda (the serious application of which began only in World War I, qualifying it to be considered new technology at the time). The application of technology and mass media in such a manner can be observed in Germany under Adolf Hitler, and in the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin. Hitler used tactics such as emotionally appealing propaganda in terms of his use of technology, and both manipulated and molded German mass culture. Stalin used mass culture to gain and hold his power, while employing propaganda to disillusion the public during war as well as to encourage agricultural production, and ensure stability in society. He was famous for his censorship, which included editing pictures to omit certain people as well as jamming radio signals from other countries. Adolf Hitler was elected leader of Germany from 1934-1945, and used the aforementioned techniques to rise to power. He exploited common opinions of public, who felt bitter and angry about the treatment of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles. He then built his platform partially on righting the wrongs dealt to Germany and exacting revenge on what was widely seen to be brutal and unfair punishment. He placed the blame of German defeat on the Jewish community, and convinced the public through movies and posters, exacerbating an already present anti-Semitism. Although the messages he spread were neither factually correct nor logically valid, they appealed to the anti-Semitism and bitterness of the German people. In other words, he combined an existing mass culture characteristic with the use of technology in the form of communication and media. Through doing this, he built support as well as made it easier to proceed with his ethnic cleansing agenda, making both his rise to power and plan of action more successful. He not only used mass culture to become successful, he planned to use it for the future, by establishing the Hitler Youth movement. This developed a mindset and opinion in an entire generation, and not coincidently this mindset coincided with that of Hitler and the Nazi party. Had Germany not been dismantled, there would be an entire adult population bred with Hitlers ideology. Stalin, like Hitler, used technology and mass culture to ensure success during and leading up to his term in power. After Lenins death, there was a heated battle between him and Leon Trotsky for control of the Soviet Union. He used propaganda such as posters and political cartoons to exploit his Jewish descent against him. He eventually gained the support of both people and influential members of parliament, rising to power, and culminating with the murder of Trotsky in Mexico. During his reign, he used both emotionally directed propaganda, and bandwagon appeal to boost war time production and morale. Examples include posters encouraging farm workers to produce more, and even stamps showing triumphant workers. Propaganda almost always emphasized the equality of people supposedly established when communism was, as well as other theoretical but usually impractical communist pillars. This propaganda actually did lead, whether or not

directly, to increased production, and a triumphant military, which supports the conjecture that technology and mass culture made the government under Stalin successful. In addition to distributing messages through the media, Stalin controlled the media, preventing external radio signals and other foreign messages. This was crucial in covering up atrocities such as the mass execution of twenty million Jews, Poles, and Soviets among others. Had Stalin not used technology to deny the public certain ideas, he might have lost respect, favor, and even power.