The Dynamics of Fascism 1015Right-Wing Authoritarian Movements in Eastern Europe
In Eastern and Central Europe, parliamentary governments did not survive
the instability wrought by the economic dislocation of the 1920s and
1930s, nor the bitter ethnic rivalries within these nations, which included
states that already existed at the outbreak of the war (Romania, Bulgaria,
and Greece, as well as Poland, once again independent) and the new state
of Yugoslavia. Except for the kingdom of Yugoslavia, each of these multina
tional states had some sort of liberal constitution in the 1920s. But by the
end of the 1930s, only Czechoslovakia had not become a dictatorship.
With the exception of Czechoslovakia, which included industrialized
Bohemia, all of these countries were heavily agricultural, poor, and had high
percentages of illiteracy. When compared with the countries of Western
Europe, the countries of Eastern Europe had very small middle classes,
except Czech Bohemia, parts of Serbia, and major cities like Budapest.
A daunting variety of conflicting economic interests could be found
among the people of Eastern Europe, ranging from those of wealthy Hun
garian landowners to Bosnian mountain dwellers scratching out a meager
living from thankless land. In Eastern Europe, most peasants were not
interested in politics and associated states with taxes. But they wanted land
reform, and this demand brought them into the political process. After the
war, the governments of the Eastern European states did implement ambi
tious land reform programs that reduced the number and size of the large
estates, adding to the ranks of small landholding farmers. But populist agrar
ian parties, such as the Smallholders in Hungary and the Romanian National
Peasant Party, were essentially single-interest parties that fell under the
sway of fascist demagogues. Such agrarian parties vilified Jews as ethnic
outsiders, mobilizing resentment against their economic roles as bankers,
small businessmen, and shopkeepers. In Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria,
wealthy landowners, desperate to protect their estates against further land
reform and frightened by the rise of small Communist parties, turned
toward authoritarian rule. As political parties and ultimately parliamentary
rule failed amid agricultural Depression, nationalism filled the gap, becom
ing ever more strident and aggressive.
Poland was the first Eastern European state to become a dictatorship.
General Jozef Pilsudski seized power in 1926, imposing a military dictator
ship that survived his death in 1935 (see Chapter 24). The Yugoslav experi
ment in parliamentary rule ended abruptly in 1929, when King Alexander I
(ruled 1921—1934) dissolved the assembly and banned political parties.
That year, Croats established the Ustasa (Insurrection) Party, a right-wing
nationalist party that demanded an independent Croatia. In 1934, King
Alexander was assassinated, with the help of Ustasa members. Five years
later, Croatia won status as an “autonomous” region with its own assembly,
but this did not reduce Serb domination of the multinational state. In Yugo
slavia, then, the principal battle was not between partisans of dictatorship