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1933
On Sunday January First 1933 globally people woke to an uncertain world. In Leicester John Kingsley Orton is born, while in Nicaragua American Marine survivors from the previous day’s ambush are being treated. Financial depression gripped the world’s markets as the aftershocks of the 1929 Wall Street Crash had seen first the American and then other leading countries introduce tariffs and call in loans to cover financial shortfalls. America, German, Britain, France, and the other leading powers were wary, though hope hung in the air that the worst of it could be put behind. In America the nation waited for the lame duck Herbert Hoover to be replaced by recently elected Franklyn D Roosevelt, while in Germany leading industrialists were unhappy with the state of German politics. The Soviet Union began its second Five-Year plan, seeking to double its gross national product and edge itself closer to the industrial output of other leading nations. Stalin implicitly approves of harsher measures to force Ukrainian farmers to hand over any remaining grain they may have.
Much has been written about the Nazi rise to power over the first three months of 1933, though as I will…
