Wednesday, September 16, 2015

To what length did the idea of Totalitarianism exist in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union under Stalin? Give the uttermost detail with lots of...

There are two slightly different senses of "totalitarianism", but both of them fit both Germany under Hitler and the USSR under Stalin perfectly.

In the first sense, a totalitarian government is any government that seeks to completely control the behavior of its citizens, through constant surveillance, strict laws, and brutal enforcement.

In the second sense, a totalitarian government is one that fits the above description, and in addition is largely or entirely controlled by a single individual who acts as an absolute dictator.

Detailing all the examples of totalitarianism in these two states could fill entire books (indeed I'm fairly sure it has), but here is a brief summary:

Under Hitler: The government had total control over the media, and used propaganda heavily to manipulate public opinion. They had secret militarized police who arrested, detained, and even executed people without trial, often for "crimes" such as being Jewish or disagreeing with the government. Hitler himself, called the Fuehrer (meaning basically "Leader"), had essentially absolute power. 

Under Stalin: The government instituted mass surveillance, monitoring letters and phone calls, and planted spies everywhere to monitor the population. Their system of espionage was the most powerful in the world. The media was heavily censored. School curriculum was dictated according to the interests of the Communist Party, resulting in large distortions of content especially in history and social sciences (but also even physics and biology, lauding the "achievements" of minor Soviets while downplaying anything invented by Westerners; also Darwinian evolution was viewed as anti-Soviet and was thoroughly excluded). Stalin himself had absolute power and used it ruthlessly, frequently ordering the detention or execution of people for believing the wrong things or even simply because he didn't like them. Stalin was so ruthless indeed that he detained members of his own family when they crossed him. Millions of people, mostly political dissidents, were rounded up into labor camps.

In both cases, a single man held enormous power over a government that itself had near-total authority over the behavior of its citizens. Everything you could read or see on television was controlled. You had to be careful what you said, lest secret police come to take you away. Millions of people were murdered by both governments.

There are many similarities between the two systems of government, but also many important differences. Hitler loved corporations and sought to integrate them into his system of government as a kind of capitalist oligarchy. Stalin (and other Soviet leaders before him) abhorred corporations and had them all completely dismantled and replaced by new government-controlled institutions that were far more corrupt and inefficient. Hitler's mass murder was explicitly genocidal, particularly against Jews, while Stalin's was much more political and based on eradicating political dissent.

I could easily go on, but hopefully that will get you started.

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