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Why did Stalin and Hitler, mortal enemies, sign a non aggression pact in 1939 on the eve of the Second World War? This podcast explores the origins and the consequences of the pact. If you’d like to know more you can check out my ebook Hitler, Stalin and the Destruction of Poland: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitler-Stalin-Destruction-Poland-Shepley-ebook/dp/B00E0KVDFW Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to
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Throughout the 19th Century Britain felt constantly threatened by and suspicious of Russia. Russian expansionism in the Balkans threatened Britain’s ability to access the routes to her Indian Empire and the British were committed to supporting the weakening Ottoman Empire against Russian expansionism. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.
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In 1932 Oswald Mosley formed the British Union of Fascists, basing his new party firstly on Italian Fascism and later German Nazism. Within four years the movement had been broken, partly by anti fascist activism but mainly because it was rejected by the British public, fearful of its association with Nazism. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe an
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in 1956 Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev spoke for the first time the 20th Party Congress about the crimes of his predecessor Joseph Stalin. His speech shocked those gathered and had profound consequences for the future of the Soviet regime, this podcast explores why. You can read more about this in our three ebooks on the Soviet Regime and communism: The Communist Century: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Communist-Century-Revolution-Series-ebook/dp/B00IN6PY40/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393664105&sr=8-1&k
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Between 1936 and 1938 nearly 2,000 British men and women travelled in secret to Spain to fight on the side of the Spanish Republic against a nationalist military rebellion. Motivated by fears of a fascist Europe and by the intervention on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the side of the rebels, the men and women of the international brigade suffered appalling hardship and losses in an ultimately doomed struggle. Here is a short introduction exploring the context of their idealistic fight.Also c
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When the Italian Socialist Giacomo Matteotti was assassinated in 1924, parts of the nation were united in outrage, strongly suspecting that their Prime Minister Mussolini was behind the killing. How did Mussolini manage to turn the situation to his advantage and emerge as the dictator of Italy a year later? Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and
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Why did the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour give an assurance to Britain’s Zionists that there would be a Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1917? This podcast gives a brief outline of the politics of the Balfour Declaration and Britain’s deals with the Arabs, French and Jews. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show
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What are the origins of Italian Fascism? In order to understand Fascism as a concept we have to delve into the 19th Century history of the country. The manner in which Italy was unified as a nation state led to a fundamentally divided country that was chaotic and unstable – an authoritarian idea like Fascism seemed to many on the right to be the solution to Italy’s weaknesses. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connec
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The Five Year Plans involved and immense bureaucratic effort to industrialise Russia on a massive scale. Beyond the massive cost to the Russian people and the coercion of much of the population, there was also an immense degree of participation and consent in the grand historical undertaking to build socialism. This podcast explores the efforts of the Stakhanovites and other participants in the plans. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and exp
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Theodor Herzl is credited with being the father of Zionism and the intellectual force behind the founding of the state of Israel, even though he died nearly half a century earlier. How did Herzl’s ideas emerge and evolve in the mid to late 19th Century and how was he influenced by the growing climate of intolerance across Europe in the last quarter of the century? Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to