Totalitarian and the Soviet Union
By:Shuya Xie
HST112
1.Introduction
Totalitarianism first appeared after the First World War and countries like Italy, Germany and Soviet Union were the typical examples of totalitarian in that period (Stalin, p. 103; Nazilaws, p. 118; Mussolini, p.114)[ Stalin, Collectivization and the Liquidation of the Kulaks, (1929)
Nazilaws, Laws Establishing the Hitler Dictatorship, (1933)
Mussolini, “The Doctrine of Fascism”, (1932)]. In order to be better informed of totalitarianism, it is essential to do research in Stalin’s dictatorship in Soviet Union. According to Giovanni Amendola, totalitarianism can be defined as the administration mode of a certain government that spares no efforts to have control over each aspect of people’s life. More specifically, totalitarianism refers to a specific governmental system where citizens and their life are under the supervision of the government. Meanwhile, citizens’ life is also monitored and no privacy can exist among the citizens (Arendt, p. 5)[ Arendt, Hannah. The origins of totalitarianism.Vol.244. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, (1973).]. The government guides the public ideologically and exerts influence on the life of people.
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As a defeated country, Russia suffered a lot at the expense of ground, natural resources and its train system. When Lenin was dead, Stalin succeeded him and became the new leader of the state. As soon as Stalin came to power, he began to make a five-year economic plan for the sake of realizing Lenin’s dream of turning Soviet Union into an industrialized country. Meanwhile, he also took some measures within the party. He obliterated the party and got rid of the rivals. As an active advocate of totalitarianism, he deployed some typical approaches in the process. These approaches include terror reign, dissemination and persecuting actions. The paper is going to delve into these approaches (Stalin, p. 103)[ Stalin,