European interwar dictatorships

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File:20th Century European Dictatorships by Duration.png
20th Century European Dictatorships by Duration


This is a list of dictatorial regimes operational in European states in the period between the First World War and the Second World War.


Table summary

Country Leader[1] Start End Duration (days) Head of State[2] Head of Government[3] Head of State Party[4] Parliament[5] Party System[6]
 Albania Ahmed Zogu 1925-02-01 1939-04-07 5,178 yes[7] till 1928 no redesigned tolerated
Austria Engelbert Dolfuss 1933-03-07 1934-07-25 505 no yes yes redesigned abolished
 Austria Kurt Schuschnigg 1934-07-29 1938-03-12 1,322 no yes since 1936[8] redesigned abolished
 Bulgaria Alexander Tsankov 1923-06-09 1926-01-04 940 no yes yes[9] coerced abolished
 Bulgaria Boris III 1935-01-22 1943-08-28 3,140 yes no no redesigned abolished
 Estonia Konstantin Päts 1934-03-12 1940-06-17 2,289 yes[10] till 1938 yes[11] coerced abolished[12]
 Germany Adolf Hitler 1933-01-30 1945-04-30 4,473 since 1934[13] yes yes coerced[14] abolished
 Greece Theodoros Pangalos 1925-06-24 1926-08-26 428 since 1926[15] till 1926 no coerced tolerated
 Greece Ioannis Metaxas 1936-08-04 1941-04-25 1,725 no yes no[16] none abolished
 Hungary Béla Kun 1919-03-21 1919-08-01 133 no[17] no yes none tolerated
 Hungary Miklós Horthy 1920-03-01 1944-10-15 8,994 yes no no[18] coerced tolerated
Italy Benito Mussolini 1922-10-31 1945-04-28 8,215 no[19] yes yes redesigned[20] abolished[21]
 Latvia Kārlis Ulmanis 1934-05-15 1940-06-15 2,223 since 1936[22] yes no[23] none[24] abolished[25]
 Lithuania Antanas Smetona 1926-12-19 1940-06-15 4,927 yes no till 1926[26] redesigned[27] tolerated[28]
 Poland Józef Piłsudski 1926-05-14 1935-05-12 3,285 no 1926-1930[29] no[30] coerced tolerated
 Poland collective[31] 1935-05-12 1939-09-17 1,589 n/a n/a n/a coerced tolerated
 Portugal Sidónio Pais[32] 1917-12-17 1918-12-14 362 since 1917[33] yes[34] no coerced tolerated
 Portugal collective[35] 1926-05-28 1933-03-19 2,487 n/a n/a n/a coerced tolerated
 Portugal Antonio Salazar 1933-03-19 1968-08-03 12,291 no yes yes[36] redesigned abolished
 Romania Carol II 1938-02-11 1940-09-05 937 yes no no[37] none[38] abolished
 Romania Ion Antonescu 1940-09-05 1944-08-23 1,448 no yes no[39] none abolished
 Slovakia Jozef Tiso 1939-03-14 1945-04-01 2,210 yes[40] till 1939 yes redesigned tolerated[41]
23x15px Spain Miguel Primo de Rivera 1923-09-23 1930-01-28 2,319 no yes yes redesigned[42] abolished
23x15px Spain collective[43] 1930-01-28 1931-04-14 441 n/a n/a n/a redesigned tolerated
 Spain (R) collective[44] 1936-07-18 1939-03-31 986 n/a n/a n/a coerced[45] tolerated[46]
 Spain (N) Francisco Franco 1936-10-01 1975-11-20 14,294 yes till 1973 yes redesigned abolished[47]
 Turkey collective[48] 1938-11-10 1950-05-22 4,211 n/a n/a n/a redesigned tolerated
 Soviet Union collective[49] 1917-11-07 1927-11-12 3,657 n/a n/a n/a redesigned abolished
 Soviet Union Joseph Stalin 1927-11-12 1953-03-05 9,246 no since 1941 yes redesigned abolished
 Yugoslavia Alexander I 1929-01-06 1934-04-09 1,919 yes no no redesigned[50] tolerated[51]
 Yugoslavia collective[52] 1934-04-09 1941-03-27 2,544 n/a n/a n/a redesigned tolerated

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ if clear. Otherwise brief information provided against specific cases
  2. ↑ flag whether the dictator was formally a head of state, either as a monarch (king, tsar), regent, president, leader, state elder, chairman of a collegial body or any other formally recognised title. "N/a" stands for collective dictatorships, where there was no person identified as a dictator
  3. ↑ flag whether the dictator was heading the country executive, typically a government, with the role of a prime minister
  4. ↑ includes monopolistic parties such as NSDAP, and organisations posing as non-party citizen associations, e.g. Unión Patriótica in Spain or Vaterländische Front in Austria. In few cases such organisation existed, but the dictator was neither its leader nor even member, see e.g. the case of BBWR in Poland or Frontul Renașterii Naționale in Romania. "N/a" stands for collective dictatorships with no clear personal leader
  5. ↑ "corced" stands for a parliament formally elected and operating according to pre-dictatorial rules, but controlled by means of electoral process and subservient majority; "redesigned" stands for a parliament composed and functioning according to new rules, defined by the dictatorship; "none" stands for no parliament at all
  6. ↑ refers to political parties other than the state party (if such existed); "abolished" stands for political parties having been either explicitly banned/dissolved or suspended or their operations made formally impossible due to other regulations, e.g. martial law; "tolerated" stands for the case when at least some political parties were legally permitted to operate, but because of various degree of control exercised on part of dictatorial regime, they were deprived of political importance
  7. ↑ until 1928 as president, afterwards as king
  8. ↑ following the assassination of Dolfuss, leadership of Vaterländische Front was assumed by Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg. Schuschnigg replaced him in 1936
  9. ↑ the regime created Демократически сговор, a heterogeneous political entity intended as a platform of popular mobilisation; leadership in the party was heavily contested between Tsankov and Andrey Lyapchev
  10. ↑ until 1937 as State Elder, a specific Estonian role; since 1938 as president
  11. ↑ before seizing power Päts led an own party, Asunikkude ning väikemaapidajate Koondis, which he dissolved upon seizing power. He then set up a patriotic-front type organisation, Isamaaliit, the only legal political entity in the country
  12. ↑ since March 20, 1935, John Clark Ridpath, History of the Word, London 1936, p. 4156
  13. ↑ in 1933-1934 the head of state was president Hindenburg; following his death Hitler abolished the role altogether and merged presidential rights into a new role, "der Führer und Reichskanzler"
  14. ↑ formally the regime did not introduce major institutional changes to electoral and parliamentarian regime. However, in practice elections staged in 1933, 1936 and 1938 were fully manipulated by the Nazis. Between 1933 and 1942 Reichstag convened 20 times, mostly as an audience to Hitler's harrangues; it exercised no political power
  15. ↑ till 1926 the head of state was president Pavlos Kountouriotis; Pangalos deposed him following rigged presidential elections
  16. ↑ Metaxas headed own party, Κόμμα των Ελευθεροφρόνων, which he dissolved upon seizing power
  17. ↑ as First Hungarian Republic has never achieved legal stability, the role of head of state has not been clearly specified. The closest position was this of head of the Hungarian Central Executive Council, the role held by Sándor Garbai
  18. ↑ due to rigged political system, the party victorious in all elections organized was Egységes Párt / Nemzeti Egység Pártja / Magyar Élet Pártja; though customarily referred to as "the government party" it has formed an autonomous part of the Horthy regime, independent of the regent himself
  19. ↑ till 1943 the head of state was king Victor Emmanuel III. The Italian Social Republic has never adopted a constitution or other legal act which formally defined head of state, even though Mussolini de facto acted as such
  20. ↑ the Italian parliament underwent a few major changes throughout the fascist era; the Acerbo Law of 1923 re-defined electoral regime, in 1938 the chamber was replaced with entirely new corporative Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni, and in 1943 an Assemblea Costituente was declared for the RSI
  21. ↑ until 1926 political parties were formally allowed to operate
  22. ↑ until 1936 the president was Alberts Kviesis. Upon expiration of his term, Ulmanis by decree assumed presidential duties
  23. ↑ Ulmanis led his own party, Latvijas Zemnieku savienība, which he dissolved upon seizing power. There were other organizations he supported or created as vehicles of popular mobilization, like the paramilitary Aizsargi or self-development Mazpulki, but none amounted either to a state party or general patriotic front
  24. ↑ numerous professional chambers have been created, with sort of their joint representation, but they never assumed political duties
  25. ↑ Tyler Kuck 2014, p. 241
  26. ↑ in 1926 Smetona handed the leadership of Lietuvių Tautininkų Sąjunga to Liudas Noreika; other party leaders followed later
  27. ↑ the original Seimas was not convened until 1936; afterwards elections were organized according to new rules set up by the regime
  28. ↑ towards the end of the regime it was increasingly assuming a one-party-state formula, Payne 1983, p. 125
  29. ↑ Piłsudski was prime minister during two strings of 634 days (1926-1928) and 101 days (1930). Usually he preferred to rule from the back seat with his appointees in the front row
  30. ↑ the regime formed its own organisation which claimed not to have been a party, BBWR; its head was Walery Sławek and Piłsudski did not bother to join
  31. ↑ following the death of Piłsudski there was no obvious leader among his successors, with individuals like his personal friend Walery Sławek, president Ignacy Mościcki or army head Edward Rydz-Śmigły competing for power
  32. ↑ leader of the 1917 coup, Sidónio Pais held the post of Portugal's president; the system is noted as "plebiscitary effort at a presidential regime", though some think it fell short of a personal dictatorship, Payne 1983, p. 140
  33. ↑ the president Bernardino Machado went on exile on Dec 15, 1917. Pais became acting president following his decree of Dec 27, 1917; following rigged presidential elections of April 1918 he was formally confirmed as president in May 1918
  34. ↑ officially as prime minister until May 1918; afterwards premiership role was formally merged with this of the president
  35. ↑ initially the key though not dominating person behind the regime was its president, Oscar Carmona. He shared power with other military and prime ministers, like José Vicente de Freitas, Artur Ivens Ferraz and Domingos Oliveira; over time the finance minister Antonio Salazar exercised more and more power, Payne 1983, p. 157
  36. ↑ in an array of support mobilisation platforms, like Mocidade Portuguesa or Fundação Nacional para a Alegria no Trabalho, União Nacional was secondary to formation of Salazar regime, with phases of lethargy and re-animation interchanging, António Costa Pinto, ''Salazar’s ‘New State’: The Paradoxes of Hybridization in the Fascist Era, [in:] António Costa Pinto, Aristotle Kallis (eds.), Rethinking Fascism, London 2014, ISBN 9781349480883, p. 165
  37. ↑ the royal regime set up Frontul Renașterii Naționale as the only legal political organization; it was headed by individuals other than the king, Armand Călinescu, Gheorghe Argeșanu and Constantin Argetoianu
  38. ↑ initially Carol II intended to build a royal coalition, but eventually gave up, suspended the constitution and ruled as a royal dictator, Patrick G. Zander, Fascism through History: Culture, Ideology, and Daily Life, London 2020, ISBN 9781440861949, p. 424
  39. ↑ until 1941 Legiunea Arhanghelului Mihail was the sole political organisation allowed, though Antonescu did not join it. Afterwards it was marginalised to non-existence
  40. ↑ till late 1939 the role of head of state was formally with the government; it was headed by Tiso. Later he assumed the newly created presidential role
  41. ↑ parties of German and Hungarian minorities were allowed to operate
  42. ↑ Asamblea Nacional Consultiva was created in 1927, met rarely, and held no political power
  43. ↑ following resignation of Primo de Rivera there was no clear political leader; power was shared between Alfonso XIII and prime ministers, Damaso Berenguer and then Juan Aznar
  44. ↑ exact political system in the so-called Republican zone of Spain evades easy categorization. Some scholars implicitly though not explicitly associate the wartime Republic with democracy, see e.g. Martin Blinkhorn, Democracy and Civil War in Spain 1931-1939, London 2008, ISBN 9781134986347, p. 28, or Julian Casanova, The Spanish Civil War, London 2017, ISBN 9781350127586, p. 186. Some refer rather to a multi-current revolutionary regime with no force assuming a clearly dictatorial role, though many - e.g. the Communists or the Anarchists - willing to introduce their own type of dictatorship, Stanley G. Payne, The Spanish Civil War, Cambridge 2012, ISBN 9780521174701, p. 96. In the late 20th century Juan Negrin was at times referred to as a dictator, but currently this position is not maintained
  45. ↑ MPs from parties other than those within the Popular Front were either killed or fled or went into hiding. The chamber exercised no political power, did not authorise change of governments, and convened few times, mostly as demonstration intended for foreign audience that the Republican democracy was well and alive
  46. ↑ parties which used to form the Popular Front formed the backbone of the dictatorship; opposition parties have been declared illegal
  47. ↑ in line with the Unification Decree, the only political organisation permitted to operate was FET
  48. ↑ following death of Kemal Atatürk the head of state was the president, İsmet İnönü; however, the regime was far from his personal dictatorship, with personal influence of prime ministers (Celâl Bayar, Refik Saydam) and some military
  49. ↑ heads of state changed in line with changing formal position (Lev Kamenev, Yakov Sverdlov, Mikhail Kalinin); prime ministers were Lenin and Alexei Rykov; there were also successive leaders of the communist party, РСДРП, РКП(б) and ВКП(б) like Nikolay Krestinsky, Vyacheslav Molotov and Stalin, Communist International head Grigory Zinoviev, plus persons like Leon Trotsky, who did not go above the rank of a minister
  50. ↑ Lee 2016, p.343
  51. ↑ having staged a self-coup, Alexander initially abolished all political parties. The constitution he imposed in 1931 permitted operations of political parties, Lee 2016, p. 343
  52. ↑ following assassination of king Alexander I the role of head of state was assumed by a collegial regency, led by Prince Paul and composed of lesser personalities like Radenko Stanković and Ivo Perović; much power was exercised by the PM, Milan Stojadinović, with other key politicians like Vladko Maček contributing to shaky balance of powers

Further reading

  • Gerhard Besier, Katarzyna Stokłosa, European Dictatorships: A Comparative History of the Twentieth Century, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 9781443855211
  • Carles Boix, Michael K. Miller, Sebastian Rosato, A Complete Dataset of Political Regimes, 1800-2007, [in:] Comparative Political Studies 46/12 (2013), pp. 1523-1554
  • Stephen J. Lee, European Dictatorships, 1918-1945, London 2002, ISBN 9780415230452
  • Monty G. Marshall,Ted Gurr, Keith Jaggers, The Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2012 – Dataset Users’ Manual, s.l. 2017, available here
  • Jørgen Møller, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Mapping Political Regime Developments in Interwar Europe: A Multidimensional Approach [paper delivered at ECPR session], Salamanca 2014

External links

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