Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism Ideology • set of beliefs by which people live their lives. • Applied on a national scale it becomes a set of beliefs by which the nation is guided

Totalitarian State • A Totalitarian State will share the following characteristics • One leader with absolute power • Only on ideology • Extreme use of the Secret police • Use of Terror • No dissent allowed • Use of Censorship and propaganda • The perversion of education • The use of “purges” to eliminate the opposition

Fascism • 20th century dictators were unique in their ability to control every aspect of the country from Government, media to the army • Fascism was a Latin term for a beheading axe which symbolized the power of the state • Fascism had no written philosophy but was based largely on action rather than thought

Key components of Fascism are: • Action over thought • Belief in extreme nationalism • Purpose of the individual is to serve the state • Ultimate goal was imperial conquest through war • Anti- Communist

Stalin’s Soviet Union

Lenin died in 1924 leaving a bitter power struggle between his two lieutenants Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky • Trotsky had the support of those who wanted to institute full communism • Stalin was supported by the moderates • Stalin was merely using them

By 1927 Stalin has defeated Trotsky and sent him into exile and eventually has him assassinated • Stalin immediately strengthens his hold on power by shipping all the moderates to Gulags in Siberia • Stalin goes to the extreme of Marxism then Lenin had • He abandons the goal of global revolution in favour of “socialism in one country”

Stalin’s Economic Plan • Stalin changed the economy of the Soviet Union into a Command Economy where the government controlled all aspects of the economy; production, distribution and consumption • Stalin outlined these goals in Five Year Plans

First Five Year Plan • Introduced in 1928, Stalin’s first five year plan was extremely ambitious in its goals • It laid out production quotas and goals for all aspects of the Soviet Economy • Stalin wanted to accomplish in ten years what the western world accomplished in 150 years • To do this he concentrated on two main areas

Collectivization • Collectivization was the pooling of all land and equipment into huge farms • Stalin forced Collectivization on the peasants of the Soviet Union

The party dictated what and how much was to be grown • The peasants and farmers resisted at first • So Stalin eliminated an entire class of farmers the Kulaks

Stalin eliminated them as they were successful farmers who owned their own land • Stalin saw them as a threat to collectivization • He eliminated through mass executions and hard labour in gulags • The population of the Kulaks was estimated to be about 3-4 million strong

Heavy Industry • Stalin wanted to force the development of Soviet heavy industry • He felt it was important to improve infrastructure and would allow them to better defend themselves

“We must do in ten years what you have done in 150” Stalin told western leaders • Stalin’s plans set unattainable goals which had to be met • The first Five Year plan only succeeded in meeting goals in the oil industry • It did however drastically improve the levels of production

Cost of the Five Year Plan • Collectivization failed miserably, as a result agriculture production fell which led to a food crisis in the country • Several million people died of starvation • The Soviet Union made great strides in heavy industry but at great cost • Workers worked seven days a week under less than ideal conditions • There was no complaining allowed

Purges • Those who did complain risked running into Stalin’s secret police the NKVD • Stalin eliminated any who spoke out against the Party or Stalin • Used show trials to find dissenters guilty and then publicly executed them • He purged the Army, government, the intelligentsia and any other group that he felt could pose a threat

Stalin introduced the 2nd five year plan in 1933 but it had to modified in 1934 as it was too severe • By 1941 production had vastly improved • Most of the peasants were living on collectives • It came at a terrible cost as some believe that 30 million Russians died during Stalin’s reign

Mussolini and the rise of the Italian Fascists

Italy after WWI • Italy felt betrayed by the allies after the end of World War One • Democracy was in its infancy and the people were not really buying in to it • There were too many parties and this led to a very ineffective parliamentary system • Socialism was gaining power and was seen as a threat to the wealthy

The Early Days • Benito Mussolini started the Fasciti in 1919, they were originally a socialist party • Mussolini saw that he could gain more support from those with power by being anti-socialist so he switched philosophies

The party was made up of many veterans of the First World War, it was organized along paramilitary lines with his Blackshirts acting as his muscle • By 1921 the party membership is over 300,000, but it managed to win only35 seats in parliament • October 1922 Mussolini and 26,000 Blackshirts march on Rome to end public strikes and protests

Parliament appealed to King Emmanuel III to give them power to deal with Mussolini and his Fascists • The King instead asks Mussolini to form a parliament

Italy becomes a Totalitarian State • At this point Mussolini is not in complete control • Mussolini reorganized the economy to resemble a command economy, planning was centralized and the workers were to aid in running the factories • Il Duce as he was known took the following steps to strengthen his hold on the nation

The Acerbo Law • Changed parliamentary law so the party which received the most votes in an election would receive 2/3 of the seats in parliament • This gave Mussolini a vast majority in the election of 1923 2. Elimination of the Opposition • After the 1923 election socialist leader Giancomo Matteotti spoke out against the Fascists and was murdered 11 days later by the Blackshirts

Loss of Freedoms • Freedoms of the press, assembly, speech and freedom from arbitrary arrest were all abolished • The formation of the OVRA • The Lateran Accords • The Catholic Church was the last hurdle to Mussolini’s complete control of the nation • He signed an agreement with the church which recognized that Catholicism was the official religion of Italy • He gave the pope his own state and control over education • In return the pope gave his official approval to Mussolini

Totalitarianism