Totalitarism Marion Cruz, Marielle

Velten

Main Idea

POWER AND AUTHORITY After Lenin died, Stalin seized power and transformed the Soviet Union into totalitarian state

Why it matters now?More recent

dictators have used Stalin’s tactics for

seizing total control over individuals and

the state.

Terms Totalitarianism- a political system where the government recognizes no limits to it’s authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life whether feasible.

Great Purge-known for “The Great Terror” as well. It was a campaign or a repression in the Soviet Union in 1936-1938. 830 million people killed.

Command economy - When the government chooses what goods should be produced, how much it will be produced and the price the product should have.

Five-Year Plan- Soviet Union government plan for the economic development, for five years.

Collective Farm- Little farms owned by the government.

Who?

Adolf Hitler (Germany) 1933-1945

Benito Mussolini (Italy) 1925-1943

Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union) 1929-1953

Kim Il Sung (North Korea) 1948-1994

Saddam Hussein (Iraq) 1979-2003

What?Totalitarianism describes a government that takes total, centralized, state control over every aspect of public and private life. The government takes control of everyone’s actions, income, etc…

It didn’t only control the people, but the economy as well, the market for example stated what should be sold, how expensive should it be, and how many should they sell.

For this to happen the government used two important tools, police terror and indoctrination.

Police terror- The government believed that violence and terror would make people obey.

Indoctrination- The main idea was to make people think in a specific way. The government controlled education.

Where?

Soviet Union / Russia

When?

20TH CENTURY

Why? Stalin wanted to be among the most powerful economically and politically countries. He wanted to be known as the god of that time and the main figure.

How? Mass communication helped the totalitarian government to implement and support with efficiency their rules and policies. Surveillance technology helped as well to keep track of people’s activities. Violence was a big factor in totalitarianism at the time, police terror made people agree with the terms of the government, the people who disagreed with the government where violently punished.

Religion Stalin made people believe he was God, and he based a religion on him.

Education

Kids were being taught communism.

Totalitarianism today • “There are many authoritarian regimes in the world, but there are very few actual totalitarian governments. In 2000, one monitoring agency identified five totalitarian regimes—Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam.”

Bibliography https://www.sps186.org/downloads/basic/588627/ch30_2.pdf

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