Soviet Union And The United States From A Totalitarianism Perspective

Throughout history there have been many totalitarian regimes where there is only one individual that controls all aspects of a society; the government, the economy, the military, and the day to day activities of citizens. The reason for the beginning of the Cold War was a clash of ideologies, democratic versus communist governments; where the communist government was totalitarian. Moreover, events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Airlift during the Cold War are prime examples of an ideological conflict, where two opposing sides were unwilling to stand down. Additionally, World War II also began because of an ideological conflict where Hitler was the totalitarian ruler of the German people. If embraced, the ideologies presented in the source will be detrimental to the world as it is known today.

On the night of the 27th of February, 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin burned down in an act declared by the Nazi Party to be the inception of a widespread communist uprising. The Reichstag Fire, as it was called, can be observed as one of the most significant events in the formation of Nazi Germany through its pivotal role in the reduction of civil liberties of Germany’s citizens and the emergence of a near dictatorial regime within the Weimar Republic. The significance of the fire lies in its role as a catalyst towards effecting the power that the Nazi Party would hold throughout the 1930’s as a result of the various decrees and laws passed in response to it. There is little doubt that the

3) The ascent of National Socialism. In 1923, Hitler held a meeting of all high-ranking Nazis in a beer hall in Munich, where he revealed his plans for a coup. This failed attempt to overthrow the Weimar government would later be known as the Munich Putsch, which “gave the Nazi’s unparalleled publicity”. The use of the radio in order to spread the National socialist message played a pivotal role in the Nazi parties’ popular rise in society. Due to the ramifications that Germany faced after the First World War, the nation had unquestionably lost faith in tradition and their priorities had shifted to populist nationalism. On the eve of Hitler’s appointment, victory parades took place in dozens of German settlements. The capital saw nearly a million Berliners demonstrate their commitment to the National Socialist party who had pledged to establish “a strong-willed and strong-armed racial state” in “a very new twentieth-century Germany”. History shows that Hitler’s tremendous and irrefutably passionate presence came about at the perfect time, filling the void created by populace sentiment. Much of the

The Fire was used as evidence by the Nazi Party that communists were plotting against the German government to overthrow democracy. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Fascist dictatorship in Germany. Not to mention, the tremendous advantage the Nazi party in the 1933, The Reichstag Fire gave Hitler the perfect excuse he was looking for to ratchet up his wild statements. However, Hitler was anti-democratic and the burning of the Reichstag, the German parliament, stood for democracy. Burning it down was symbolic to Hitler as the destruction of democracy, which was everything that stood in the way of his coming

On February 27th of 1933, the Reichstag, the German parliament building, was burned completely down. To this day, nobody really knows who set the building on fire. Hitler took the arson as an opportunity to put blame on the Communists, but Communists believed that Hitler’s own party started the fire so that they could sabotage the Communists. Even some non-Nazi Germans thought that Hitler was behind it, but there was nothing they could do about it. If they spoke out there was a risk that they would be accused of being Communist sympathizers (Bergen, 2003). Hitler’s answer to this atrocity was to target the Communists, and soon Dachau was opened.

The German Reichstag was the parliament of Germany up to the early 1930s, when it was mysteriously burnt down, on a cold

Hitler combined his power with a blend of legitimateness and savagery. Notwithstanding when laws were passed, this was through a blend of dangers, falsehoods and control. Major legitimate developments were the Emergency announcement of February 1933, which permitted the suspension of social equality, and most particularly the Enabling Act of 1934, which Hitler used to obliterate the exchange unions, other political gatherings and the state legislatures of Germany. Roughness was utilized as well - the vote in favor of the brought under scaring circumstances with SA men swarming inside and outside the building. Most prominently brutality was utilized to expel a dangers from inside of the gathering.The Nazis despised the Reichstag as it was seen

The Reichstag is a building in Berlin, which housed the meeting place for the legislature of the German government around the time when Hitler gained the power in the office. It was burnt in February 23, 1933. Hitler used this event to give him more power by blaming the fault on the Communist Party, which at the time was a rival party to the Nazis. In fact, Hitler was able to destroy the strongest enemy and thus controlled all the power in Germany at the time. Therefore, the Nazi government continued to develop until it reached its peak in WWII.

Nazi’s authority had dramatically increased through its control over the police since Hitler used a suspicious fire in the German parliament in February 1933 to suspend basic civil rights. Political opponents, along with Jews, were subject to intimidation, persecution, and discriminatory legislation. Using the Civil Service Law of April 1933, German authorities began eliminating Jews from governmental agencies, and state positions in the economy, law and cultural life. The Nazi government abolished trade unions. By mid-July, the Nazi party was the only political party left in Germany. Hitler had the final say that, Nazi foreign policy was guided by the racist belief that Germany was biologically destined to expand eastward by military force and that an enlarged, racially superior German population should establish permanent rule in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Within this framework, “racially inferior” peoples, such as Jews and Gypsies, would be eliminated from the region.

After the World War II, despite the losses in material and in human lives, both United States and Soviet Union were the only two countries which emerged from that war, and whose powers were really strengthened. That was because both possessed some characteristics that other nations could not boast, such as a multi-ethnic society, a government able to exploit the immense human and industrial resources, implementing also new political programs worldwide. Moreover, these two great countries were markedly different from each other, for both ideologies and purposes, for this reason they proposed two distinct models of development: the "American model" which proposed a liberal system (political- economic), deeply individualistic and characterized

On February 27, 1933 a fire was set and destroyed the Reichstag. Hitler’s party was to blame, but they were able to use the event and arrest communist deputies. The Enabling Act gave Hitler and his cabinet absolute authority over the government for four years and he later claimed the Nazis the only political party in Germany on July 14.

The Nazi rise to power brought an end to the Weimar Republic, a (related to elected lawmakers)(system or country where leaders are chosen by votes) established in Germany after World War I. After a suspicious fire in the Reichstag (the German Parliament), on February 28, 1933, the government issued a legal statement which suspended (agreeing with, or related to, the Constitution) (the right to vote, to free speech, to fair and equal treatment, etc.,)and created a state of emergency in which official legal statements could be (did/done/put into law) without (related to elected lawmakers) confirmation.

The motto “everything is possible” needs to account for “everything is permitted” and the tyranny of totalitarianism. Tyranny can is connected to “common-sense” and can be found in rational decision making of everyday life because it uses what is already there to then set out to get it (Arendt OT, p.440). Totalitarianism however differs from this as it goes one step further by creating objects that did not exist in the first place to then transforms what was thought as unchangeable. How is this possible? As discussed, the aim of totalitarianism is to gain “total domination”, tyranny however can never reach total domination because as it is unable and limited to reach as stage where human sphere itself is changed. Totalitarianism recognises that total domination cannot happen if the present individual is the final and last form, thus it must reconstruct the very core of the human nature. Destroy individuality (Arendt, OT, p458/591). Concentration camps are a sphere in which this total domination and total transformation can be tried on and forced upon individuals. It is an environment where there are no external laws to interfere so here, everything can be tested, “everything is possible”. Only here can complete totalitarianism act and be recognised. It is a trial to test the success and possible expansion of the movement, thus it is a place where both ideologies are born yet tested in practise. The goal lies not within the number of murders but the goal is to give rise and

The Nazi party’s membership grew from 25,000 in 1925 to about 180,000 in 1929. It was the effects of the Great Depression and the unemployment in 1929-30 that intrigued millions of jobless people to join the Nazi party. From 1929 to 1932 membership increased from 800,000 in 1928 to 14,000,000 in July 1932 and it became the largest vote in (The German Parliament) also known as the Reichstag, with 230 members or 38 percent of the vote. In late 1932 unemployment began to drop in Germany and the Nazi party’s vote began to drop as well. On July 14, 1933 the Nazi party was the only political party in Germany. Hitler assumed dictatorial powers on March 23, 1933 when Reichstag passed the Enabling Act. Hitler took the title of Furer (“Leader”) and commander in chief of the army with the death of Hindenburg in 1934. In 1934 Hitler executed Ernst Rohm and other SA leaders in what is known as the “Night of the long knives”. After that, Hitler’s word was supreme and command in the party. It’s hierarchy was like a pyramid with mass organizations for youth, women, workers at the bottom, officials in the middle, and Hitler and his closest

One could argue that the Reichstag Fire was vital as a mean for Hitler to strengthen his control of Germany since it increased anti-communism and decreased the Communist vote.Hitler used the Reichstag fire as evidence that the Communists were plotting against his government (as found in Lacey and Shepard,63),this increased fear of Communists and therefore increased support of the Nazi party.In March elections 1933 the Nazis gained 288 seats and became the largest party in the Reichstag, this is the result of anti-communism since the Catholic Center party only collaborated with the Nazis since in a Communist country, religion is banned (as found in Walsh,159).The Reichstag fire did not only mean increasing anti-communism and more support for Hitler, but also meant less support for the Communists. In March election 1933 Communists had only