Key points Unit 7: Interwar period

The interwar period is the time elapsed between the end of World War I (1918) and the beginning of World War II (1939). During this period important events happened: the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression and the rise of totalitarian regimes.

The negative consequences of the participation of the Russian Empire in the Great War gave rise to the outbreak of the revolution. On the February Revolution of 1917 the Tsar abdicated and a Provisional Government was instituted. The October Revolution of 1917 was led by the bolsheviks and it proclaimed the socialist state. This was the seed of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

In the USA, the period between 1924 and 1929 was a period of economic growing, commonly known as the Roaring Twenties. But it was in fact a ficticious prosperity, due to the severe economic imbalances that resulted in the crisis of the 1930s, the Great Depression.

The democratic regimes established after the WWI became fragile, and some of them turned into dictatorships after a few years. Economic crisis, unemployment, poverty and political and social tensions helped the rise of dictatorial regimes, like the fascism in Italy and the nazism in Germany.