2. Totalitarian regimes

Key issues:

  • Assess the role of totalitarianism in the collapse of global peace in the late 1930s

Key terms:

  • Totalitarianism

Discussion points:

Italian invasion of Abyssinia (1935-6), Rape of Nanjing (1937-8), Appeasement (1936-38)

#1. Totalitarian regimes: similarities, and ideological contrasts

#A. New order for a new world: common aspects of totalitarian ideologies

#a) The primacy of the community over the individual

  • In all three regimes, the individual is denied.
  • Soviet project:
    • New society: egalitarian and classless
    • Originates from the spontaneous proletarian movement
  • Fascist project:
    • The state and its restored strength take precedence over individual interests
  • Nazi project:
    • The Aryan race is the purified, unified community (Volksgemeinschaft)
    • Individuals must be willing to sacrifice themselves

#Common methods:

  • Suppression of freedoms
  • Mass mobilisation
  • Constant control of individuals
  • Militarisation to fight external enemies
  • Stalin’s obsession: "encirclement of the USSR" by capitalist powers

#B. The creation or rebirth of a new man

#Soviet project:

  • Marxism is a stage that leads to the end of history.
  • A new man, freed from class struggle, is destined to emerge.
  • After the dictatorship of the proletariat, this new man will only care about the common good.

#Fascist project:

  • Man emerges from decadence through the strength of the state.
  • It’s a revolution that brings him back to moral order.
  • This man is athletic, admires the splendour of the Empire, and the strength of his community, to which he dedicates his military virtue.

#Nazi project:

  • The obsession lies in the purity of the Aryan race.
  • The new man is purified, living in a society without any races or groups seen as inferior.

#2. Mass mobilisation and propaganda

  • Workers are controlled. Trade unions no longer exist, or they are dependent on the single party.
  • Wealthy industrialists financially benefit from Nazism or fascism in Germany and Italy. They sign contracts with the state and profit from these deals.
  • Leisure and access to culture are also controlled.
  • Propaganda is intense and constant, directed by Goebbels in Germany and by Zhdanov in the USSR.
  • Artists must express the party’s doctrine, and any criticism leads to harassment and systematic repression.
  • In Germany, large spectacles are organised by Albert Speer.

#3. Terror, repression, and deportation

  • Opposition is rare because the terror is pervasive.
  • Fear seeps into the mentality, and expression is immediately stifled as the risk is too high.
  • The repression of opponents is systematic and relentless.
  • Examples include students in Germany, such as Sophie Scholl and the "White Rose" group, who were executed publicly for distributing political pamphlets.
  • In 1936, Stalin initiated the Great Purge, known as the "Great Terror."
  • Deportation and execution were common punishments, carried out in gulags, salt mines, or concentration camps.

#Common feature:

  • The aim of these regimes was to suffocate dissent before it could even be expressed, through terror.