Examples Of Totalitarianism

In the 1930’s a new form of government began to sweep its way from east to west with greatest evidence in Soviet Union and Germany. This new government was totalitarian meaning that the government controlled every aspect of human life such as communication, the economy, and everyday activities. Much of this control came from the use of police and military force by instilling great terror on the nation’s people (Cote). The most famous examples of totalitarianism is Nazi Germany and Stalinist Soviet Union. Both movies covered in class depict each of these regimes from a civilian’s perspective. “The Inner Circle” gave viewers a look into the brainwashing power of Stalin and how dependent people became on his directions. This dedication reached its peak at the end of the movie with Stalin’s death and the extreme distress felt by the Soviet people. Unlike “The Inner Circle”, “Europa, Europa” showed viewers the extremes that people went to in efforts to avoid and survive the Nazi regime. The young boy did
Hitler was able to appeal to the people to be elected whereas Stalin blackmailed many of the leaders in the communist government until he was able to eliminate his rival (Cote). At the time the communist government kept business in the ownership of “the people” while Nazism allowed business owners to keep business if they followed all desires of the government (Floderus). Another great difference between the two totalitarian types is the level of racism embedded into the ideologies. Nazi racism against Jews is well known and Stalin had some racism in his regime but not to the extent as Hitler. Communist governments focused on prosecuting those who were against the political parties views whereas the Nazi government deemed Jewish people as the devil and made efforts to completely eliminate the race from the world