Totalitarianism as
Nationalism
1920s and 1930s
What is Totalitarianism?
 A governmental system that emerged in
the 20th C that exercised massive, direct
control over virtually all the activities of its
subjects
 Specifically refers to the regimes of
German, Italy, and the USSR during the
20s-40s, but other nations (China, etc.)
had totalitarian rule as well.
Russian Communism
 Began with Lenin
– The Red Terror
– “War Communism”
• Nationalized banks, industry, church holdings
• Private trade abolished
– New Economic Policy (1921)
• Reversed war communism
• Returned small-scale industries to private
ownership
• Program of electrification and technical schools
Russian Communism
 Continued with Stalin
– Eliminated all rivals following Lenin’s death
– Five Year Plan
• Production quotas, central state planning of entire
economy
• Heavy industry instead of consumer goods
– Collectivization of agriculture
• Collective farms
• Resisted by peasants
• Half of farms collectivized by 1931; 3 million
peasants killed or starved
Russian Communism
 Peaked with Stalin
– The Great Purge, 1935-1938
• The policy of collectivization was resisted
by some of Stalin’s administration
• 2/3 of Central Committee members and
over ½ of army’s officers purged
• By 1939, 8 million people were in gulags; 3
million died during “cleansing”
The Fascist Alternative
 New ideology of 1920s; from Italy to
Germany
 Hostile to liberal democracies AND to
socialism and communism
 Sought the subordination of individuals
to the service of the state
 Emphasized extreme form of nationalism,
often expressed as racism
– Veneration of the state; charismatic leaders
– Exalted military, lots of uniforms & parades
Spanish Fascism
 Spanish Civil War,
1936-1939
 Nationalists vs. the
Popular Front
(Republican)
 National (right wing):  Popular (Left Wing)
– Carlists (Ultra-Catholic
monarchists)
– Catholic Church
– Falange (fascist) party
– Monarchists
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Anarcho-syndicalists
Basques
Catalans
Communists
Marxists
Republicans
Socialists
Spanish Fascism
 Francisco Franco
– Previously army general
– Demoted for right-wing views following 1931
–
–
–
–
election
Military chief-of-staff in 1935
Governor of Canary Islands, 1936
February, 1936, Revolt
September 1936, purged right-wing rivals
Spanish Fascism
 April 1937, new party: Falange Espanola
Tradicionalista
– “One State! One Country! One Chief!
Franco! Franco! Franco!”
 With German & Italian troops, slowly
seized control of Spain
 Cruel & vindictive
– 200,000 political prisoners died as a result of
starvation, overwork, & executions
– Persecuted political opponents until 1944
when granted amnesties and pardons
Italian Fascism
 Benito Mussolini, founder of Italian
fascism, 1919
– Blackshirts
– After marched on Rome, invited by king to
become prime minister
 Fascist state
– All other political parties banned; 1-party
dictatorship
– Supported by business; crushed labor unions;
prohibited strikes
– Not aggressively anti-Semitic until after
alliance with Hitler in 1938
National Socialism (Nazi)
• A system of socialism which seeks a specially
privileged position for the members of a definite
nation. The pre-World War II German National
Socialist Party aimed at a socialist organization of
the world in which the people of "pure German
blood" would be assigned a privileged position,
while members of the "inferior" races would be
assigned tasks where they would serve the "Master
(German) race."
• Socialism: A system of social organization that calls
for the public ownership of the means of
production. A policy which aims at constructing a
society in which all the material means of
production are under the exclusive control of the
organized community, i.e., government, the social
organism of coercion, compulsion and repression.
German National Socialism
 Adolph Hitler (1889-1945)
– Born in Austria, schooled in Vienna;
hated Jews and Marxists
– Moved to Munich & fought in German
army in WWI
– 1921, joined obscure group, National
Socialist Worker’s Party
German National Socialism
 The emergence of the Nazi party
– 1923: attempt to take over Weimar Republic failed; Hitler
jailed; Mein Kampf
– Released in 1924, organized the party for legal takeover
through elections
 Power Struggle after 1929
– National socialism enjoyed broad appeal, esp. from
lower middle class
– Public lost faith in democracy
• Defeat, depression, inflation
• November Criminals!
– 1930-1932, Nazi party largest in parliament
– 1932, Hindenburg offered Hitler the chancellorship
– “Freedom and bread”
German National Socialism
 Power consolidation, 1933-1935
– 1-party dictatorship; outlawed other political parties
– Took over judiciary, civil service, military
 Ideology emphasized purity of race
– "...it [Nazi philosophy] by no means believes in an equality of
races, but along with their difference it recognizes their
higher or lesser value and feels itself obligated to promote
the victory of the better and stronger, and demand the
subordination of the inferior and weaker in accordance with
the eternal will that dominates this universe." - Hitler states in
Mein Kampf.
– Women praised as wives & mothers; discouraged from
working
• Cult of motherhood: propaganda campaign to
increase births (Lebensborn)
German National Socialism
 Ideology
– Nazi eugenics: deliberate policy to
improve the quality of the German
“race”
• Compulsory sterilization of undesirables:
mentally ill, disabled, Gypsies
• State-sponsored euthanasia of physically
and mentally handicapped
– Anti-Semitism
German National Socialism
 Ideology
– Anti-Semitism was central to Nazi ideology
• 1935, Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of
citizenship, outlawed intermarriage
• Jews economically isolated, lost jobs, assets,
businesses
• 1938, Kristallnacht:official attacks on synagogues
and Jewish businesses
• 250,000 Jews fled to other countries; many trapped
in Germany
Where does that leave us?
 Major European forces, using
nationalism to whip their citizenry
into a fervor over the ethnic
ancestry of the peoples…
 WAR