Totalitarianism Unit
Unit Test Study Guide
Honors
Test Format:
 Multiple Choice
o 20 minutes
o 25 questions
o 50 points
 Discussion
o 15 minutes (half of the class will discuss at a time)
o Each group will discuss a different question
o 50 points
Important Concepts to Study:

Panopticism
o Definition
o Examples from across our case studies

Totalitarianism
o Definition
o Characteristics

Stalin & the Soviet Union
o The story of how Lenin came to power
o The Russian Civil War, War Communism, and Red Terror
o What was life like in Lenin’s Soviet Union?
o The story of how Stalin came to power
o What were the economic programs Stalin put into place once he came into office?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o What were the social & cultural programs Stalin put into place once he came into office?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o How was Stalin’s rule consistent with the characteristics of totalitarianism?
o How did Stalin’s rule rely on panopticism?

Mao & China
o What were the economic programs Mao put into place once he came into office?
o How were these programs consistent with communism (both real and allegedly)?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o What were the social & cultural programs Mao put into place once he came into office?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o How was Mao’s rule consistent with the characteristics of totalitarianism?
o How did Mao’s rule rely on panopticism?

Mussolini & Italy
o The story of how Mussolini came to power
o Arguments for why Mussolini came to power
o What are the main ideas of Mussolini’s philosophy of fascism?
o What were the economic programs Mussolini put into place once he came into office?
o How were these programs consistent with fascism?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o What were the social & cultural programs Mussolini put into place once he came into office?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o How was Mussolini’s rule consistent with the characteristics of totalitarianism?
o

How did Mussolini’s rule rely on panopticism?
Hitler & Nazi Germany
o Be able to describe what life was like in Nazi Germany in the following areas and why some
people perceived Germany to be experiencing a crisis in these areas:
 Art/Culture
 Economics
 Politics
 Foreign Sentiment / Anti-Semitism
 Gender/Sexuality/Sex
 Modernization/Industrialization
o The story of how Hitler came to power
o Arguments for why Hitler came to power
o What are the main ideas of Hitler’s philosophy of Nazism?
o What were the economic programs Hitler put into place once he came into office?
o How were these programs consistent with Nazism?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o What were the social & cultural programs Hitler put into place once he came into office?
o What were the effects of these programs?
o How was Hitler’s rule consistent with the characteristics of totalitarianism?
o How did Hitler’s rule rely on panopticism?
Discussion Questions
1.
What is the role of gender in totalitarian regimes?
2.
How did a nation’s relationship to modernity explain why it endorsed totalitarianism and whether it
supported a leftist or rightest totalitarian regime?