Two Totalitarian Regimes: Communism and Nazism Essay

The Totalitarian Aspects of Nazi Germany The government of Nazi Germany was a fascist, totalitarian state. They ruled in Germany ever since Hitler became chancellor in 1933, to 1945. Totalitarianism was a form of government in which the state involves itself in all facts of society, including the daily life of its citizens. It penetrates and controls all aspects of public and private life, through the state's use of propaganda, terror and technology.

In the 20th century totalitarian governments had come to power in Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union. These governments had forced their political authority and centralized control over all aspects of life (Document 3 and 6). The government had imposed public gatherings to invade people’s lives and indoctrination of totalitarian ideas had influenced youth organizations and literature to help the government gain authority over one’s country (Document 2). One method used by totalitarian dictatorship is having mass rallies and speeches. The totalitarian government that used these method leaders was Benito Mussolini of Italy and Adolf Hitler of Germany.

Hitler and Stalin will probably go down in history as two of the greatest known evil leaders of the 20th Century. You might ask what could bring two men to become the menaces they were. What kind of upbringing would cause someone to turnout the way they did?

The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in the 1930s as Totalitarian States A totalitarian state usually refers to a country in which the central government has total control over almost all aspects of people's life. Main features include an infallible leader, one-party rule, elitism, strict party discipline, purges against enemies and political dissidents, planned economy, strong armaments, indoctrination, encouragement of nationalism, an official doctrine that everybody has to believe, and absolute obedience of individuals to the State, etc. In the 1930s, to a large extent, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler could be deemed totalitarian states.

for is a difference in this two regimes . A pure race and Arians were

During that time period, many were hypnotized by Hitler’s words and were under his rule as if they were under a spell. The people were so influenced by Hitler’s say in the country that many were protesting against Jews, discriminating them, and ransacking Jewish people’s houses; those who supported or kept Jews safe had to keep it a secret. “He ordered systematic racially based murder of about 11 million of people of which 6 million were Jews, while his foreign policy provoked World War II which claimed 50 to 70 million lives.”(Historylists) Evaluating this quote, one can say that Jews were mistreated and were killed because of their religion. In addition, Hitler planned 11 million murders while World War II was happening that lost many lives already; he aimed at Jews and his enemies, obviously. Under the control of Hitler, many people were impacted by

Communist rule was confined to the Soviet Union until the end of World War II.

Hitler as a Totalitarian Dictator Before I begin to answer the question, "to what extent was Hitler a totalitarian dictator", I must first expand on the meanings of these two widely used political terms. In the "Reader's Digest Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary", the definition of totalitarian dictator is as follows: "Totalitarian (adjective). Of, pertaining to, régime which permits no rival loyalties or parties and arrogates to itself all rights including those normally belonging to individuals. "

. Fascism and Communism are two different forms of government that were very similar. Fascism is a 20th century form of nationalistic, militaristic, totalitarian dictatorship that seeks to create a feasible society through strict regimentation of national and individual lives. Communism is type of government in which there is no private property and the government controls the entire economy. Communism tries to satisfy the basic needs of society by sharing work and benefits. Both theories were dictatorships that at first were loved by the people and soon later hated by them.

And they burned holy books as well as forcing the Jewish people to sit through long sermons promising hell to anyone who died Jewish. But, the difference between the anti-Jewish behavior of the Church and the anti-Semitic behavior of the Nazi’s was that the Church wished to destroy Judaism by converting the Jewish people, Hitler wanted to destroy the Jews themselves (45-47). This was the first recorded anti-Jewish behavior. After the murder of Christ, all Christians and Catholics hated the Jewish people. But they had reason and every generation the Churches have decided of way after way of punishing the Jewish people. But Germany has had a long history of anti-Semitism.

Fascism, and discontent go hand in hand. After WWI Europe was devastated, the people had lost hope in the systems, neither the liberals, nor conservatives had been able to prevent the terrible disaster that was the war. Socialists were the closest one, however not happy with socialism either, a group of socialist joined and formed their own ideology. The difference between this new ideology, and other that had originated before, is that the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about fascism, is not what they stood for but what they hated most. Fascist hated socialism because of its internationality. They hated liberals because specifically because their ideology center in the

The Meaning of the Term Totalitarianism Totalitarianism was a one-party political system that was based on dictatorship. It first started in Europe in the 1920s and 30s. It was an absolutism that emphasized the importance of the state at the expense of individual liberties. It displays the following features: One-party dictatorship and one-man rule were emphasized in a totalitarian state. Only one party ruled in a totalitarian state, for example, the Fascist Part in Italy, the Nazi Party in Germany and the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.

Communist had a long history during the 20th century, and communism was very influential. Almost all of Asia and East Europe became Communist. From the start of the theory then many civil wars in Russia affected the whole world. Communist defined the idea of itself in many different ways, it helps many nations came together formed a party fought wars, but it also made many countries became really poor, and the economy in most of the countries got pushed back about 10 years. Communism is an economic and political system that sought to create an egalitarian society; it collapsed because of personal interest and government’s corruption.

The leaders of the Nazi party made it one of the most infamous groups to lead a nation in history. The horrible things done under their rule and with their stamp of approval has made the term Nazi one of the worst possible. The amazing thing about the Nazi party is that many of the main aspects of their ideology existed in Germany even before they formed or came to power. Some of the major aspects of Nazi ideology such as antisemitism, the desire to expand the German empire, and the belief in the strength of the Aryan race existed in Germany years before Adolf Hitler was a name anyone in Germany would recognize.

Communism started in Russia, 1912 but did not become the official ruling party until 1918. V.I. Lenin was one of the founders of the Bolshevik Party in Russia and believed the Bolsheviks, or the working class, was the core of the Russian Revolution and should be rewarded for communism occurring. Communist believed that in an ideal society where everyone would be equal with no political leader or social classes. Everyone would work solely for the betterment of society and not for personal gain. Communist Russian leaders ideologies were against popular concepts of the time, which was primarily about the state, while communism was anti-state.