Totalitarianism
1920-1940
Totalitarianism v. Absolutism
Totalitarianism
• People expected to
participate in government
• Technology
• Wiretap, coordination ,
propaganda, mobility
• Censorship
• Indoctrination
• Terror
• Either fascist or communist
Absolutism (Conservative
Authoritarianism)
• Anti democratic
• Prevent major change
• Little to no participation in
government
• Sought the status quo
• Limited in power & in
objective
• Came back after WWI, except
Czech, Austria, Bulgaria,
Romania, Greece, Estonia,
Latvia
Fascism v. Communism
Fascism
Communism
• Glorification of the state
• Single party; single ruler (dictator)
• Condemns democracy: rival
parties destroy unity. Man is
unable to successfully govern
collectively.
• Supports the idea of capitalism &
owning of private property so
long as it serves the needs of the
state
• Corporate State: captains of
industry become state economic
deputies
• World wide "dictatorship of the
proletariat" (classless society)
• One party (communist) under the
control of the Politburo.
Dictatorship is not the final goal.
• Condemns capitalism for
exploiting workers (“haves” vs.
“have nots”)
• Government controls all means of
production (industrial &
agricultural). No private
ownership.
• Economy is centralized under the
communist party
Fascism v. Communism
Fascism
Communism
• Aggressive nationalism
• Advocates Social Darwinism
(powerful states control
weaker ones)
• Believes desire for peace
shows weakness of gov't
• Glorification of war (military
sacrifice is glorified)
• Emphasizes the inequalities
among humans
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Spread of communism for the
benefit of the world's working class
(Comintern)
Condemns imperialism: advocates
a world without nationalism with
the workers united
Peace is the ultimate goal
Violent revolution to bring about
the "dictatorship of the
proletariat." War is not the end but
merely the means.
Emphasizes the perfectibility of
society. Mankind is basically good.
Soviet Union (USSR)
• Lenin
– No imperialism
– Educated, professional revolutionaries
– Revolution from above
– World wide revolution
– COMINTERN
– War Communism
– Cheka
– Kronstadt Rebellion
Soviet Union (USSR)
• Lenin
– NEP
– “necessary step backwards”
– Soviet Union, USSR
– 1924, power struggle
Soviet Union (USSR)
• Stalin
– Socialism in one country
• Trotsky
– Permanent revolution
Soviet Union (USSR)
• Stalin
– 5-year plans
– “Revolution from above”
– Collectivization
– Kulaks
– Central Committee
– Politburo
– General Secretary
Soviet Union (USSR)
• Stalin
– Propaganda
– Benefits for workers
– Women
– The Great Terror
– Show trials
– Old Bolsheviks
– Purges
– Gulags
The Fasces Symbol
Fascist Italy
• Causes
• Benito Mussolini, Il Duce
– Fascist Party
– Blackshirts
– March on Rome
• Corporate State
– Everything in the state, nothing outside the state,
nothing against the state
Fascist Italy
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Mussolini creates a dictatorship
Never truly became a totalitarian regime
Women in Italy
Accomplishments
Legacy
The Lateran Treaty
The Fascist Family
The Fascists encouraged the development of large
families.
Education
• The first sentence
pronounced by children at
school was Let us salute the
flag in the Roman fashion;
hail to Italy; hail to
Mussolini.
• Textbooks emphasized:
– The glorious pat of the ancient
Romans.
– The limitations imposed upon
the present inhabitants by
geography and the West.
– The imperial destiny that
awaited Italy’s future
development.
Anti-Semitism
• 50,000 Jews lived in Italy in the 1930s.
• Mussolini did NOT implement an extermination
program in Italy.
– 75% of Italian Jews survived World War II.
– 8,000 died in German extermination camps.
• 1938 anti-Semitic laws passed
– Manifesto degli Scienziati Razzisti [The Manifesto of the
Racist Scientists].
• Excluded foreign Jews [most of them were sent to German
death camps].
• Forbade all Jews from teaching.
• Excluded Jews from serving in the government or in the
military.
Mussolini Was Hitler’s Role Model
Nazi Germany
• Nazism
• Aryan Race
• Rise of Adolf Hitler
– National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI)
– SA (Brown Shirts)
– Beer Hall Putsch
– Mein Kampf
• Lebensraum
Nazi Germany
• Rise of Hitler
– Fall of Weimar Republic
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Economic
Social chaos
Appealing
Hitler became Chancellor 1933
Nazi Germany
• The Third Reich
– Hitler consolidates power
• Reichstag fire
• Enabling Act
– Joseph Goebbles
• Triumph of the Will
– Night of the Long Knives
• SA and SS under Heinrich Himmler
Nazi Germany
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Gestapo
Hitler Youth
German economic recovery
Nazi society
Persecution of the Jews
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Enabling Act
Nuremburg Laws 1935
Out of society
50% leave
Kristallnacht
Holocaust
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Exclusion
Expulsion
Enclosure
Extermination