20th-century totalitarian regimes

1.

20TH-CENTURY TOTALITARIAN
REGIMES
NBU CIVICS

2.

INTRO
Do you recognise
these? What do you
know about them?
Why put them together
on a single slide?
Soviet communism,
fascism, Nazism – the
core ‘totalitarian evils’ of
Europe’s 20th c.

3.

WHAT IS ‘TOTALITARIANISM’?
It is a neologism first used by Italian political journalists in the 1920s to describe the ‘dangers’ of
Mussolini’s ‘fascism’
Mussolini in fact embraced the accusations: ‘Yes, we ARE totalitarian!’
The word itself: a hybrid neologism merging two cores:
TOTALITARIAN
TOTAL
+
AUTHORITARIAN
Hence: ‘totalitarianism’ occurs whenever one part of a society (political/ethnic/religious/racial group, etc.)
takes over this society in its entirety

4.

EXAMPLE 1: ‘STATE’ TOTALITARIANISM
‘Totalitarianism’ may be based on the supremacy
of the state, e.g. in the case of Mussolini, the
inventor of ‘fascism’:
‘The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing;
outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much
less have value. Thus understood, Fascism, is
totalitarian, and the Fascist State - a synthesis and a unit
inclusive of all values - interprets, develops, and
potentates the whole life of a people… The keystone of
the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its
essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the
State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.
Individuals and groups are admissible in so far as they
come within the State’
(Extract: Mussolini, La dottrina…, link)

5.

EXAMPLE 2: ‘RACIAL’ TOTALITARIANISM
‘Totalitarianism’ may be
based on the supremacy
of a race, e.g. in the case
of Nazi Germany:
This is a visual explainer for
Hitler’s Law for the
Protection of German
Blood, part of the
Nuremberg Laws (1935),
the main Nazi legislation
after 1933
The Blood Law regulates
civil marriage and prohibits
certain combinations (i.e.
half Jew + full German)
(Image)

6.

EXAMPLE 3: ‘COMMUNIST’ TOTALITARIANISM
‘Totalitarianism’ may be based on the supremacy
of a political party, e.g. in the case of Soviet
communism:
USSR Constitution (1971), Chapter 1, ‘The
Political System’:
Article 6. The leading and guiding force of the Soviet
society and the nucleus of its political system, of all
state organisations and public organisations, is the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The
CPSU exists for the people and serves the people.
The Communist Party, armed with Marxism-Leninism,
determines the general perspectives of the
development of society and the course of the home
and foreign policy of the USSR, directs the great
constructive work of the Soviet people, and imparts a
planned, systematic and theoretically substantiated
character to their struggle for the victory of
communism

7.

EXTRA EXAMPLE: BULGARIA’S ‘COMMUNIST’ TOTALITARIANISM
Between 1946-1990, this was not the ‘Republic of
Bulgaria’, but the ‘People’s Republic of Bulgaria’
PRB, like the USSR, updated its constitution in
1971; and this is what Article 1 (!) read:
The People’s Republic of Bulgaria is a socialist state
of the workers from cities and villages with the
Working Class in the lead
The governing authority in the society and in the state
is the Bulgarian Communist Party
The Bulgarian Communist Party guides the formation
of a developed socialist society in the People’s
Republic of Bulgaria in close brotherly co-operation
with the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union

8.

EXTRA EXAMPLE: BULGARIA’S ‘COMMUNIST’ TOTALITARIANISM
The Party was all-
embracing indeed:
1985, first-graders in
Sofia:
Georgi Dimitrov, the
communist Head of
State / Party since
1946 instructs pupils
‘to study hard, with
strenuous labour!’
(top left)
Communist star right
below our school bell
(mid right)
(Photo: personal
archive)

9.

EXTRA EXAMPLE: BULGARIA’S ‘COMMUNIST’ TOTALITARIANISM
Hence these protest posters
(December 1989): ‘DOWN
WITH ARTICLE ONE!’ (i.e.,
Article 1 of the 1971
communist Constitution)
(Photo)

10.

THE RISE OF THE NAZIS, 1933-45
Common trend: totalitarian regimes normally arise legally and
backed by strong popular support
A typical example: Nazi Germany
Nazis’ rise to power: Hitler’s 1930s referendum series

11.

PRE-NAZI GERMANY: LEAGUE OF NATIONS
To get an idea of how it happened, some preliminary details:
LEAGUE OF NATIONS: the first intergovernmental
worldwide organisation with a mission to protect world peace;
formed in 1920 after the end of WW1
Images: first calls for its establishment (NYT, 1918); first
session (15 Nov 1920, Geneva); LN’s flag

12.

PRE-NAZI GERMANY: TERRITORIES & CONSTITUTION
Suffering a heavy defeat in WW1,
Germany abolished monarchy in
1918, which resulted in the formation
of the Weimar Republic
Following the Treaty of Versailles
(1919), there were also significant
territorial changes:
Portions of Rhineland – occupied
Saarland – transferred to the
League of Nations until 1935
Portions of Rhineland –
demilitarised
Additionally – substantial territorial
losses in the eastern part (Upper
Silesia, Posen/Poznań, Eastern
Pomerania...)

13.

PRE-NAZI GERMANY: FREE ELECTIONS
March/April 1932:
presidential elections –
Hindenburg vs Hitler, 53/37%
(second round)
Step two: series of
Reichstag elections:
July 1932, Nazi support
rises from 13% to 32%;
November 1932: 33%;
Hindenburg convinced to
appoint Hitler as Chancellor;
coalition government formed
(30 January 1933)
Hopes: Hitler put under
‘control’ of coalition partners
Left: Hindenburg’s election
poster, 1932; right: Hitler and
Hindenburg, 1933

14.

PRE-NAZI GERMANY: FREE ELECTIONS
Hitler’s main
newspaper on 31
January 1933:

15.

THE BIG CHANGE BEGINS: PRELUDE
14 July 1933: Reichstag voted for Hitler’s Law of Referenda and the Law of
Political Parties – Hitler’s party becomes the only legal political party in Germany

16.

REFERENDUM 1/5: 1933
Packed with new federal elections – as required by the new Law of Political Parties
The elections: following the new law, voters only received a list of Nazi candidates; result: 100% Nazi
Reichstag (8% of ballot papers invalid/against)
Referendum: Should Germany leave the League of Nations? (95/5% yes/no)
Source 1, source 2

17.

REFERENDUM 2/5: 1934
Days after President Hindenburg died (right: ballot paper)
Question: ‘Do you support merging the president’s and the
chancellor’s office into the new office of the Fuehrer?’
(90/10% yes/no):

18.

REFERENDUM 3/5: 1935
Question: should Saarland reunite with Germany?
Results: 90/10% yes/no
Image source (right)

19.

REFERENDUM 4/5: 1936
Again, packed with new
federal elections, as the
Nuremberg Laws (1935) had
deprived Jews of civil rights,
including the right to vote,
which required new elections
ELECTIONS: again, a single
Nazi list with a yes/no circle
(100% full victory)
REFERENDUM: ‘Should the
Reich re-militarise
Rhineland?’ (results: 99/1%)
Right: referendum poster,
1936

20.

REFERENDUM 5/5: 1938
‘Austrian referendum’: ‘Should Austria re-join the Reich?’ (results: 99.73% in favour; poster source)

21.

RECAP
Nazi Germany = free parliamentary elections and 5 referenda
Therefore: a healthy society requires more than freedom
What might this be?
If you are sincerely worried about the question above, then the job of this class is done :-)
Instead of thank you, here is an animal: