Day 31 – Q 3.What is totalitarianism? How did it affect Russia? Discuss.
3. What is totalitarianism? How did it affect Russia? Discuss.
अधिनायकाद क्या है? इसने रूस को कैसे प्रभावित किया है? चर्चा करें।
INTRODUCTION
Reducing individuals to mere numbers, giving complete importance to state, not recognizing the inviolability of the individual are the basic features of Totalitarianism. It started as being perceived as a panacea for most problems during that time with the help of charismatic leadership, but ended as being the worst period in human history, with worst forms of barbarianism in different intensities & different forms in different parts of the world.
BODY
Totalitarianism is a form of government which involves complete submission of people to the government. The State recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to control every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. Not only this but, it also tries to control their thoughts, even people’s private thinking must conform completely with its ruling ideology. The perceived need for revolutionary change in the society from top to bottom is used as rationale for this type of control. It involves single mass party rule lead by a dictator, popular support to the ideology of party & intolerance towards activities with harmful intention towards that ideology.
Examples of Totalitarianism in the world in the past were-
- Italy under Benito Mussolini
- Germany under Hitler
- Spain under Francisco Franco
- USSR under Stalin.
Totalitarianism regime carries out its ideology through the following features-
- Glorification of war
- Giving primacy to states.
- Propagating the Individuals have no rights but only duties.
- Against Democracy
- Imperialist Foreign Policy
- One party Dominance
- Charismatic leader
In Russia the concept of Totalitarianism was gradually employed by Stalin which has many interrelated impacts on state of Russia
POSITIVE EFFECTS
- Nationalism of Natural Resources and Industries
- Hundreds of factories were setup and Russia recorded impressive growth
- However, heavy focus on industrialized goods- lead to lack of access to basics by common man.
- Five year Plan Concept
- It helped to shift focus on many sectors one by one.
- eg- 3rd FYP – focus on armament sector,5th FYP -focus on heavy industries.
- Collective farming
- It improved agriculture efficiency and diverted extra workers to industrial sector
- Focus on Science and Technology
NEGATIVE EFFECTS
- Heavy focus on Military
- It was due to one party rule, with ultimate objective of Spread of Communism to the western countries, it placed USSR as the supreme military power, this drained the economic resources of USSR
- No private property
- Collective farming
- Lands were collected and everyone was made to work on collective level, so no matter how hard you work all were given same wage, this lead to the stagnation of Agriculture.
- Russia’s authority over other nations
- Excessive interference lead to decrease in confidence of other associated nation.
- Religious impact
- It tried to eliminate religious bonding.
- Police destroyed churches & killing church leaders or by sending them to labour camps.
- Purge
- Stalin put in place the system of Purge- no trial and opposition of any opposition member.
- Absence of Rights
- Free speech, freedom of association and even freedom to garner a particular ideology was absent. Stalin used secret police to keep a control on people.
- Execution of political personalities by labeling then counter-revolutionaries.
CONCLUSION
Thus, totalitarianism is focused too much on centralized form of leadership, eventually leading to dictatorship – it goes against the ethos of democracy, considering people just as means to achieve the end of “Glorification of the state’. In Russia as well the policy of Stalinism was amended by Khrushchev and later by Gorbachev, but the imprint of Totalitarianism was so deep that finally manifested in the breakup of USSR.
BEST ANSWER: Vipasha Parul
