Chapter 5
We’ve already looked at responses to classical
liberalism (Classical conservatism, Marxism,
socialism, and welfare capitalism).
Now we will look at ideologies that completely
rejected liberalism in favour of totalitarian systems
of government.
 Communism
and Fascism were the two
most influential ideologies to reject liberalism
and both used totalitarian forms of
government.
 Totalitarianism means complete control of
the government over the public and private
lives of its citizens.
“Everything within the state, nothing
outside the state, nothing against the
state.”
-Benito Mussolini
Totalitarian regimes are responding to what they see as
dangerous and destabilizing changes. They consider the
existing society in need of a complete transformation.
These transformations may be...
RADICAL


As in the USSR
The change desired is a
move toward the far left
side of the economic
spectrum and a complete
rejection of political and
economic traditions of the
past
REACTIONARY


As in Nazi Germany
The change desired is a
move toward an idealized
past and an acceptance of
economic inequality
(accepting the belief that
some people are naturally
better than others.)
Political
Freedom
United
States
Canada
Economic
Control
Economic
Freedom
USSR
Nazi
Germany
Political
Control
Refer to page 168 of
your text
 Like
most ideologies, totalitarian regimes
provide an account of the past, and
explanation of the present, and a vision
for the future.
 However, the extensive use of
propaganda, coercive power, and
communications technologies ensure the
totalitarian governments maintain strict
control over their citizens.
 Extensive
local, regional, and national
organization
 Youth, professional, cultural, and athletic
groups (often forced participation)
 A secret police using terror
 Indoctrination through education
 The censorship of the media
 Redirecting popular discontent (using
scapegoats)
vs
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Tsar Nicholas II
Tsarist government won’t
accept liberal ideologies
 1904-1905 RussoJapanese war leads to
hardships and
embarrassing defeat
 Liberal and radical
groups press for change
 January 22, 1905, workers
gather to peacefully
protest economic
hardships
 Tsar’s troops fire on the
crowd

Bloody Sunday Anniversary Poster
 Demands
for reforms
 General strike paralyzes country in
October
 Army is occupied with Russo-Japanese
war
 Government falters
 Nicholas II promises civil liberties, a
popularly elected Duma (parliament),
legalization of unions
 Troops return, repression restores the
old order by 1907
 1914 World War
One begins
 August 1915, Nicolas II leaves to
supervise WWI troops personally
 People
blame the Tsar for heavy losses
from the war
 Tsarina
Alexandra comes
under the sway of
Rasputin (who
claims to be able
to heal her son)
 Even
aristocratic
supporters rebel
at his access to
the royal families,
influence on
policies
Rasputin has a “hold” on the royal family
 Cities
face severe hardships due to WWI
 Women strike in March 1917, demand an
end to high prices and the rule of
Nicholas II
 Troops reluctant to fire on the crowd
because of the presence of women
 Government falls
 March 12 – 1st Provisional Government
organized, Nicholas II abdicates
 Initial
plan is for a modern
constitutional parliamentary
democracy, politicians from the upper
classes
 Must share power with workers’ groups
(soviets), which want socialist self-rule
 Government continues unpopular
involvement in WWI
 Neither group can control the peasants,
who hoard food, seize land, make
shortages worse
 Initial
leaders resign,
moderate socialists (led
by Kerensky) head the
new government
 Bolshevik minority
agitates for radical
change
 Kerensky stays in WWI,
throws Bolsheviks in
prison or forces them to
flee
Alexander Kerensky
Lenin Sweeps Away Workers’
Enemies
 Threat
of military
coup forced
Kerensky to release
Bolsheviks to defend
the capital
 Provisional
government
discredited
 Demonstrations on
Nov. 6/7 cause
Kerensky to flee
 Lenin takes control to
“defend” the state
 March
– Sign Treaty of BrestLitovsk with Germany,
despite harsh terms
 Russia loses Finland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine,
and Georgia
 Much of the population no
longer in Russia, ¾ of iron,
9/10 of Russia’s coal
 Begin to give power to the
workers


1918-1920, Civil War
between Whites
(aristocracy,
supported by Allied
Powers) and Reds
(anticapitalist
Bolshevik
government)
Reds see betrayal
everywhere and try
to spread revolution
to Central Europe
(where post-war
instability makes it
possible)
 Abolish
private property, nationalize
factories, legalize universal suffrage
 Attempt to centralize agricultural
production (seize grain to feed army and
workforce)- War Communism
 Not successful: industrial production at
13% of pre-WWI levels
 Famine strikes, peasants revolt, workers
strike, sailors mutiny
 NEP
(New Economic Plan) attempts to
solve the problems with its
“compromise with capitalism)
 Small amounts of private ownership
are allowed
 Peasants manage and sell their own
crops
 Other countries become less
threatened by Bolshevism and
recognize Russia (except USA, which
doesn’t recognize the USSR until 1933)
 Communist
Party becomes formalized
(and all candidates must belong to the
CPSU)
 Cheka (secret police, precursor to
KGB)
 New structures promote totalitarian
state, brutally suppress opposition.
 he
died





Joseph Stalin
Lenin dies in 1924 –
who is his heir?
Most assume Trotsky
(brilliant leader of the
Red Army)
Stalin posed as Lenin’s
heir, led movement to
deify Lenin
Stalin brings new
people into the Party
Stalin uses control over
Central Committee to
seize power in 1928
Approximately 8 mins