There are two branches in political government: democratic and anti-democratic structures. Totalitarian does not belong to the first of them. Its concept has been discussed for centuries, and it has attracted the attention of dozens of critics. It is difficult to find a person who does not know what a totalitarian regime is. But if you spend time on this concept, you can learn more interesting things.

Briefly, a totalitarian regime is complete control of all spheres of life by the authorities. Absolute subordination of citizens under one ideology. To be more precise, we can say that this is the exact opposite of democracy.

Over the years of its existence, totalitarianism has been criticized by political figures. The question of its origin is controversial. Despite the fact that the first rulers who “glorified” it throughout the world were Mussolini and Stalin, its origins go deeper into the centuries.

Each country makes its own adjustments, which can cause the concept to become distorted. However, there are basic features that fully reflect the peculiarity and essence of totalitarianism.

Interesting! In fact, even democracy does not promise complete freedoms and does not always provide rights to citizens.

The concept is fully revealed by the Wikipedia website. According to him, this is the desire of power for complete control of all areas of public life.

In addition, any resistance in a harsh form is suppressed. The emphasis is on the reign of Mussolini and Hitler, criticism of famous political scientists and the situation in the Soviet Union.

At the same time, it is noted that the history of such a manifestation of power does not begin in Italy, where the term itself was first used.

Interesting! How do natural and social

Characteristic

Despite the fact that each ruler has the right to formulate the concept in his own way, there are a number of well-known features. After reading them, it immediately becomes clear what this mode means. It is not only opposed to democracy, but also has common trends with authoritarianism and even socialism.

Main characteristics:

1. The first thing that attracts attention in a totalitarian society is one single ideology. It is the foundation of the political system. Citizens do not have the right to deviate from the generally accepted, do not want or do not even consider this idea acceptable.
2. Everyone is ruled by one single party, which does not give the right to choose. The dictator controls absolutely all processes.
3. The state influences all spheres of life.
4. The media are completely subordinated to the state apparatus.
5. If “objectionable” information is disseminated in the media and education, punishment will be imposed.
6. Political propaganda controls and subjugates absolutely the entire population.
7. This is political terror and repression.
8. All rights and freedoms of people are destroyed.
9. Militarization of society.

It is wrong to say that several points already fully characterize any system as totalitarian. The fact is that some restrictions are allowed not only in socialism, but also in democracy.

Of all of the above, political scientists single out the lack of rights and freedoms and a single ideology as the basis.

Who owns the power

A totalitarian system is characterized by the fact that power in the state belongs to one person. One who rules by depriving citizens of their rights and freedoms is called a dictator. When talking about total control of all spheres of life, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin are not left without attention.

The three rulers left their mark and perpetuated the years of their reign as times of total control, the primacy of ideology over the rights of the population and a whole system of manipulating the public masses. Moreover, if in relation to Mussolini the term was attached already in 1923 by Giovanni Amendola, then the system of government in the USSR from the end of the 1920s was actively disguised as a desire to make the country great and powerful.

Comparing Stalin and Hitler has become a whole science. Political scientists argue, find disagreements, and finally agree on one thing. The two cruelest rulers, the two bloody leaders, were so similar in their origins and reign, and ended things so differently.

The point is that there are different purposes and motives for this type of ownership. Hitler was delirious about the exclusivity of his ideas. Destroyed, killed, subjugated. And it ended in collapse, collapse and a black spot. Stalin used total surveillance as a tool to reach the peak of his power. As a result, he left a great state on the pages of history.

And after so many years, two people can argue: it was good or bad in the USSR. Opinions also differ on how cruel the dictators were. Hitler killed his enemies, Stalin killed his own too. But the former has more blood on his hands.

Mussolini is also a controversial character. The fact is that total surveillance is associated with it; the history of the term began with it. However, the dictator did not build that same totalitarian system in his country.

There were some differences and freedoms that now make it possible to challenge the opinion of political scientists about him as a brutal dictator and about his peculiarities of rule.

In the USSR, such an anti-democratic regime flourished only under Stalin. It's stupid to say that his whole story is based on total control.

Countries with totalitarian regimes

Opinions of political scientists and other public figures about countries with totalitarian foundations differ. It all comes from the fact that it is difficult to achieve a specific government. As already mentioned, each ruler sets his own standards. Many countries have experienced totalitarianism with “notes” of other phenomena of government.

No matter what disputes there are about Mussolini or Hitler, now we can still conclude that their nature of rule is total control, restriction of rights and freedoms. The USSR (only under Stalin), Germany and Italy are the most popular and obvious examples.

If we talk about modern states, the leader in the race is the DPRK. The Republic came closest to full control and isolated itself from other countries. If we consider only relative observation, then there are slightly more contenders.

Due to the fact that there are definitely few real examples that do not raise doubts, some completely refute the correctness of such a term as “totalitarianism” and attribute it to a deviation or tightening of authoritarianism. One little-known country in East Africa is striking in its peculiarities of government.

And even surpasses modern North Korea. In Eritrea, all residents, regardless of their position in society, serve from the age of 18 to 55. Communication in one circle of 3 people is a meeting for which you need to obtain permission.

No one can compete with both poverty and frozen war. If we talk about countries of the past, then we add Portugal, Japan, China, Iran. But this opinion is relatively erroneous.

Where does the regime originate?

The term has been around since the 20th century, but that doesn't mean it came out of nowhere. Examples of ancient states with similar restrictions were described in Plato’s works “The Republic”.

The first example is the Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur. This means that the story begins four thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. Many prohibitions were imposed on citizens.

First of all, free trade. Crafts were also controlled. Slavery flourished, which perfectly proves the assumptions about such a beginning. School education was controlled in every way and had to follow certain ideological considerations. History was falsified to please the ruler.

The second example is the Fajia philosophical school in Ancient China. The founder of the provisions developed a system based on the persecution of dissidents. Thus, residents had to be deprived of various types of entertainment, sent to study, and a system of punishments introduced. There should be 9 punishments per reward. These facts about the totalitarian regime are also covered by Wikipedia.

A more modern example is the Jesuit state in Paraguay. The beginning of the reign came from communism, but researchers claim a totalitarian system.

Criticism

There are quite a few critics of total restrictions. Who would like the restriction of any freedoms, manipulation, outright cruelty? In their works they analyzed in detail the following political direction:

• Friedrich Hayek;
• H. Arendt;
• K. Popper.

Hayek, in his works “The Road to Slavery and the “Constitution of Liberty,” clearly and briefly explained about the totalitarian regime, the inadmissibility of such control, and encroachments on rights. The economy and the market trading system were criticized.

Unlike other critics, Popper does not analyze systems of government, but gives their main features, which allows you to independently understand how bad or good it is. An example of an “open” and a “closed” society is given.

Hannah Arendt philosophizes about the origins, what a totalitarian regime meant for them, and analyzes the common features of Nazism and Stalinism.

Totalitarianism and authoritarianism

If a person gave about a dozen examples of countries with totalitarianism, then obviously all or most of them are actually with an authoritarian regime that has undergone changes. It is worth noting that they are not equally democratic.

Their common features:

1. Power is in the hands of a few people.
2. The principle of a “closed” society, which means complete isolation.
3. Any resistance is impossible.
4. Rights and freedoms are not ensured.
5. The army and law enforcement agencies are under the control of the authorities.
6. The sampling process is simulated.

Authoritarianism is based on the personality of the ruler. But totalitarianism is a regime in which the death of the dictator does not entail the collapse of the country. Ideology in the first version does not always take place. And the effect of total control is directly related to a single ideology. Similarities and subtle differences form different opinions about which country thrives in which system.

Literature and political regime

There are many political forms of government described in the literature. Totalitarianism has been repeatedly criticized and ridiculed in literary masterpieces. Such books are not immediately perceived. Not everyone knows how to look through the prism of metaphors. But such subtext can easily open your eyes.

Important! The most famous example, which amazes with its dirty truth, open criticism and the power of comparisons, is the novel “1984” by D. Orwell.

His satire “Animal Farm” is also included there, where totalitarianism reigned and pigs were associated with people. “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin and many other works that may not openly talk about anger towards the authorities, but there is an emphasis on the fact that the totalitarian regime is the pit of the past, do not go unnoticed and the great abyss of the future.

Useful video

Let's sum it up

Totalitarianism is a regime in which the goal is to completely restrict the freedoms and rights of citizens and interfere in all spheres of life. There are three countries in which it flourished: Italy under Mussolini, the USSR under Stalin, Germany under Hitler. There are many debates about the right to call the rule of these dictators totalitarianism. In the literature there are many examples of descriptions and comparisons of complete restrictions and interference in any processes of society that are criticized using literary techniques.

In contact with

Totalitarianism is a political regime in which control over all areas of social and human life belongs to the state.

According to Wikipedia, a totalitarian regime is characterized by forms of relations between society and the state, in which political power exercises complete control over society. In countries with such a regime, opposition is suppressed with particular cruelty.

In contact with

History of appearance

There are a number of conditions under which totalitarianism arises. These conditions are identical in all cases.

1. The disastrous state of the bulk of the population. More prosperous countries are not subject to the emergence of a totalitarian regime.
2. The predominance of the idea of ​​danger, which unites the people.
3. Society's dependence on sources of life (natural resources, food, etc.).

This is due to the difficulties that arise during the transition to industrialization of the state. During this period, the authorities resort to emergency measures leading to the politicization and militarization of society. Eventually a military dictatorship is established that maintains and protects political power in the country.

To a greater or lesser extent, these conditions for the emergence of a totalitarian regime were present in fascist Germany and the Soviet Union. The world first learned about totalitarianism in the twenties of the last century. At that time, Mussolini came to power in Italy. With the emergence of Italian fascism in the country, constitutional rights and freedoms disappeared, and mass repressions were carried out against opponents of this regime. There was a militarization of public life.

Countries with a totalitarian regime became a product of the 20th century in fascist and socialist states during the period of the cult of personality. This is due to the development of industrial production in the economy at that time, which made it possible to improve technological methods for controlling individuals. It also became possible to influence people’s consciousness, especially in difficult times of Civil Wars and socio-economic crises.

As we noted earlier, the first countries with signs of totalitarianism appeared immediately after the First World War. First, the premises of totalitarianism were formulated by the ideologists of fascism in Italy, and a little later with minor improvements and the Nazis in Germany. After World War II, politicians developed a totalitarian regime in China and some European countries. A totalitarian bias was inherent in state socialism, communism, fascism, Nazism and Muslim fundamentalism. In countries with such regimes, government authorities control public life, education, religion, business and social relations.

Signs

It is worth highlighting the signs by which states with a totalitarian regime can be distinguished.

1. Ideology of the state. Under totalitarianism, ideology is created and developed by the elite of society that has come to power, headed by a leader appointed by it.
2. Power belongs to one mass party. Under totalitarianism, all power belongs to one ruling organization with its leader. She is the only force in the social movement, and her guidelines are carried out unquestioningly. At the head of such an organization is a leader (leader, Fuhrer), who is declared the wisest, most honest and constantly thinking about the good of his people. Any other ideas of competing organizations are declared to be directed against national unity and as undermining the principles of public life.
3. The use of violence and terror during control in society. Under a totalitarian regime, violence and terror are present in almost all areas of society. In political life there are restrictions on rights and freedoms. And if rights and freedoms are enshrined in law, then in fact they are simply not implemented. Personal control under totalitarianism is a mandatory component of this regime and is assigned to the police authorities.
4. Militarization. Another distinctive feature of totalitarianism is militarization. The state authorities make most decisions aimed at increasing the power of the country's army. The entire ideology is built on the impending danger from outside and the need to improve the military-industrial complex. Almost all life in the country becomes like a large military camp. Totalitarianism is an aggressive regime based on the idea of ​​world domination. On the other hand, such a policy allows the ruling elite to distract the masses from pressing problems and enrich the bureaucracy.
5. Use of police detective. Under totalitarianism, police work is carried out on a grand scale, aimed at secret surveillance of imaginary enemies of the existing regime. In this work, the police use the latest achievements of science and technology. They widely use video equipment and listening devices, which forces the population to be in constant fear. There are massive violations of constitutional human rights, resulting in unjustified arrests.
6. Centralized control of the economy. An equally important sign of totalitarianism is the complete subordination of the country's economy, television, newspapers and other media. This form of control allows the authorities to completely control labor resources, thereby creating the necessary foundation for the further development of their political system. An example is the forced movement of labor to more backward areas of the national economy.
7. Creation of a special kind of man. Thanks to its ideology, the ruling power creates a special kind of person. Starting from childhood, a person develops a special type of psyche and behavior. He becomes completely susceptible to and supports the current political ideas of the authorities. A person begins to live not so much for himself, but for the good of society. As a result, such a person does not need to be controlled; he himself follows the existing slogans and calls of the leadership. True, in reality, such a policy leads to the writing of denunciations, betrayal and the complete disintegration of society.
8. The growing role of the executive branch. Under totalitarianism, the role of executive bodies increases sharply, and officials become omnipotent, holding their positions on the recommendation or by direct appointment of the ruling structures. Compared to the executive bodies, the “security forces” (army, police, prosecutor’s office and security agencies), which are under the control of state power, stand out especially.

Totalitarianism today

In conclusion, I would like to note that the totalitarian system is capable of changing, as happened in the history of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. In subsequent years, although totalitarianism remained, it lost a number of its features, that is, it actually became post-totalitarianism. At present, based on the presence of a number of signs, we can say that we have all the prerequisites for totalitarianism. The current leadership in power is leading the country towards this. I would also like to add that totalitarianism will inevitably collapse and this regime has no future.

MOSCOW FINANCIAL AND LEGAL ACADEMY

Faculty: jurisprudence

COURSE WORK

Discipline: Theory of State and Law

On the topic: Totalitarian state

Student: Lyudmila Valerievna Solomina

Scientific supervisor: Loktionova E.S.

MOSCOW 2013

WORK PLAN

Introduction.
I. The concept of a totalitarian state

II. Types of totalitarian states

2.1 Fascist totalitarian state

2.2 Communist totalitarian state

2.3 Modern totalitarian state

III. Advantages and disadvantages of totalitarian states

IV. Conclusion

V. References

INTRODUCTION

Totalitarianism is a political phenomenon of the 20th century. Totalitarianism, from the point of view of political science, is a form of relationship between society and government, in which political power takes complete (total) control of society, completely controlling all aspects of human life. The manifestation of opposition in any form is harshly and mercilessly suppressed or suppressed by the state. Another important feature of totalitarianism is the creation of the illusion of complete approval by the people of the actions of this government. A totalitarian state is characterized by unlimited powers of government, the elimination of constitutional rights and freedoms, repression of dissidents, and the militarization of public life.

The expression "totalitarianism" usually implies that the regimes of Adolf Hitler in Germany, Joseph Stalin in the USSR and Benito Mussolini were totalitarian. The starting point of the totalitarian model of the state is the declaration of a certain higher goal, in the name of which the regime calls on society to part with all political, legal and social traditions, since according to the totalitarian model, the desire for the highest goal was the ideological basis of the entire political system, its achievement could not be announced , since ideology occupied a subordinate position in relation to the leader of the country and could be arbitrarily interpreted by him depending on the situation. Another aspect of the totalitarian model is the rationale for organized large-scale violence against a specific large group (for example, the Jews in Nazi Germany or the kulaks in the Stalinist USSR). This group was accused of hostile acts against the state in the difficulties that arose.

To study this topic, we set the following tasks:

Expand the concept of a totalitarian state;

Identify the cause;

Consider the types of totalitarian states;

And also show the advantages and disadvantages of totalitarian regimes.

The work used educational and specialized literature, and a number of publications.

Chapter 1. The concept of a totalitarian state

The term “totalitarianism” in its modern understanding was formulated in the 20th century and expresses the general or total stateization of all aspects of life, expressed by Mussolini’s slogan “everything within the state, nothing outside the state.” Nevertheless, the principle of universal nationalization has been known to mankind since ancient times.

The first totalitarian power in known history was the Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur, which ruled Mesopotamia about four thousand years ago (2112 BC - 2003 BC). During the reign of this dynasty, the total nationalization of crafts was carried out, a state monopoly on foreign trade was introduced, and most of the land was nationalized. The economy was based on the forced labor of state slaves who worked for a fixed ration. For control, there was an extensive class of officials, and a complex system of bureaucratic reporting was created. The power of the king was unlimited, and the independence of communities, aristocrats and city-states traditional for Ancient Mesopotamia was eliminated. Such a system was the predecessor of the state-monopoly system that Stalin created in our country, called socialist. The second example of totalitarianism is the ancient Chinese philosophy of legalism. Legalism or the “school of law” is a form formed in the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC. theoretical justification for totalitarian - despotic management of state and society, which was the first in Chinese theory to achieve the status of a single official ideology in the first centralized Qin Empire (221 - 207 BC). Legist teaching is expressed in authentic tracts of the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC.

The ideology reached its apogee in the theory and practice of the ruler of the Shang region in the Qin kingdom, Gongsun Yang, who is considered the author of the masterpiece of Machiavellianism, Shang Jun Siu. Shang Yang came to the conclusion that the people were stupid and easy to control with the help of law. Thus, legalists practiced the principle of mutual responsibility, according to which all relatives of the convicted person along three lines - father, mother and wife - were also punished for committing a crime. The death penalty was widely practiced, and jurisprudence was dominated by the presumption of guilt of the accused, according to which he himself had to prove his innocence. The course of extreme military aggression was also encouraged, and the merits of commanders and soldiers were measured literally in the heads of killed opponents.

But in the 20s and 30s, in a group of states - the USSR, Germany, Italy, then Spain and a number of countries in Eastern Europe (and later Asia) political regimes emerged that had a whole range of similar features. Therefore, the following questions arise: What is a totalitarian phenomenon? How was power exercised? Why did these regimes last so long?

Already at the very beginning, totalitarianism was identified with fascism and communism. As a result, the term “totalitarianism” began to be used to designate the fascist regime in Italy and the German national socialist movement in the 20s. Since 1929, starting with publication in the Times newspaper, it began to be applied to the political regime of the Soviet Union. So in 1939, an American philosopher made the first attempt to give a scientific interpretation of totalitarianism - “a revolt against the entire historical civilization of the West.”

There are several principles of totalitarianism: the combination of the executive and legislative powers in one person with the virtual absence of an independent judiciary; the principle of leadership, and a leader of a charismatic type. Therefore, we can say that a totalitarian state could not and cannot be legal, that is, one where the court would not be independent of the authorities, and the laws were actually respected, therefore, formally recognizing civil liberties, totalitarian regimes used one condition: you can use such regimes was exclusively in the interests of the system that the leaders preached, which would mean support for their rule. In addition to foreign policy reasons and propaganda, it is also important that the totalitarian regime was obliged to provide legal guarantees to those on whom it relied, that is, the party. Formally, the laws protected the rights of all citizens, but in reality only those who did not fall into the category of “enemies of the people” or “enemies of the Reich.”

It must be borne in mind that totalitarianism is not only a certain dictatorial political system - it is a limitation of personal freedom and the subordination of the individual to state and other social control. Totalitarianism is one of the controversial concepts in science. Some authors attribute it to a certain type of state, a dictatorship of political power, others to a socio-political system, others to a social system covering all spheres of public life, or to a specific ideology. In our opinion, this is a certain social system that is characterized by the violent political, economic and ideological domination of the bureaucratic party-state apparatus, headed by the leader, over society and the individual, subordination of the entire social system to the dominant ideology and culture.

The main link in the political structure in totalitarianism is not the state, but the party - the bearer of the ideology that created the given socio-political system. The constitutional consolidation of the leading role of the ruling party leads to the unification of the party with the state, usurpation of power and privileges, and the exit of the state apparatus from the control of elected bodies. Vengerov A.B. believes that a totalitarian regime usually arises in crisis situations - post-war, during a civil war, when it is necessary to restore the economy through tough measures and ensure stability. Social groups that need protection, support and care from the state act as its social base. Powerful bureaucratic structures also use totalitarianism to secure claims to power. Therefore, totalitarianism has certain advantages in governing the state due to the rapid adoption of necessary laws and simplified procedures. But its final forms, as history testifies, present a sad spectacle of dead end, decline, and decay. This extreme form of totalitarianism is represented by the fascist regime, which is primarily characterized by nationalist ideology, ideas about the superiority of some nations over others, and extreme aggressiveness.

In a totalitarian state, an important criterion is strict centralized control over the economy. The ability to control the productive forces of society creates the material base and support necessary for the political regime, without which total control in other areas of life is hardly possible. A centralized economy serves as a means of political control.

According to K. Popper, the totalitarian model has long been the subject of study by historians and political scientists. In his work The Open Society and Its Enemies, he contrasted totalitarianism with liberal democracy. He argued that the process of accumulation of human knowledge is unpredictable, then the theory of ideal government, which lies at the foundation of totalitarianism, fundamentally does not exist, therefore the political system must be flexible so that the government can smoothly change its policies and so that the political elite can be removed from power without bloodshed.

Thus, Juan Linz argued that the main feature of totalitarianism is not terror itself, but the state’s desire to supervise all aspects of people’s lives, social order, economics, religion, and culture. However, Linz identified a number of features of totalitarian terror: systematic nature, ideological nature, unprecedented scale and lack of a legal basis.

The emergence of totalitarianism, as Max Weber believed, is preceded by a deep crisis, expressed in the aggravation of the conflict between the desire for self-realization and the predominance of the outside world. Since the 19th century, this conflict has manifested itself on a number of levels: social (individual versus people), economic (capitalism versus socialism), ideological (liberalism versus democracy).

Therefore, wherever totalitarianism came to power, everywhere it brought with it completely new political institutions and destroyed all the social, legal and political traditions of a given country. Isolation is a dead end where people are driven when the political structure in which they can act together is destroyed.

Chapter 2. Types of totalitarian states

2.1 Fascist totalitarian state

Such a social phenomenon as fascism, which shook the 20th century, will be of interest to historical researchers, political scientists, psychologists and people of other scientific orientations for a long time. These events had an incredible impact on the course of events around the world. There are many myths associated with fascism. The most persistent is that fascism, in exchange for freedom, gives order and prosperity. Usually fascism is attributed to Nazi Germany and less often to Chile under Pinochet or Spain under Franco.

An integral part of the inhuman fascist ideology was the “concept of a totalitarian state,” designed to justify the establishment by the fascists of a brutal terrorist dictatorship in their own country after their usurpation of state power.

The totalitarian state was by no means supra-class. It was the state of the big bourgeoisie, expressing the irresistible tendency of state monopoly capital. Totalitarianism acted as an alternative to the liberal democratic state after the bourgeois democratic revolutions. The famous German educator W. Humboldt defined the attitude of classical liberalism to the state. In his opinion, the state should take care of its citizens and not take on other functions other than ensuring security.

Fascist ideologists relied heavily on the views of their predecessors. For example, the Italian fascist philosopher Gentile argued that the liberal state cannot implement the general will because it is based on a false understanding of freedom. He believed that the role of the state is that it undertakes to implement the national destiny, and since the state determines the fate of the nation, it must have unlimited power, it must be totalitarian.

Explaining the concept of the fascist state, Mussolini proclaimed that the state is an absolute in comparison with which all individuals or groups have relative importance, “everything is in the state, nothing is outside the state.” These words were a kind of ideal conditions for the development of fascism.

In a fascist state, the main force of the state apparatus are fascist parties in which large masses are united by ideology, which simplifies control over society and pressure on it. Fascism takes on large-scale forms and that total control over society is exercised, which is an integral part of the totalitarian form of government, which is the definition of totalitarianism - the desire of the state or political system for complete control over all spheres of social life. The goals of Mussolini's fascism were still formulated before he came to power. He declared that with fascism a great period in the history of Italy would begin. The extensive program of fascism boiled down to the transformation of Italy into a colonial empire, extending its power to the lands surrounding the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, as well as to the lands of Egypt, part of the Turkish territory in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, French and English possessions in East Africa.

To implement the aggressive plans of Italian imperialism, Mussolini set himself the task of “transforming the Italians into a warlike, militaristic nation.” The establishment of a fascist dictatorship led to significant changes and the destruction of the democratic principles of organization and operation of the state mechanism. This was manifested in the concentration of all power in the hands of the fascist elite based on the principle of leaderism with the concentration of power in the hands of the leader of the party and the actual head of state, in the transformation of the governing bodies of the fascist party into the leading link of the state apparatus, in the strict centralization of state administration and the deprivation of representative bodies of their real powers (and then replacing them with a corporate system), in establishing an open terrorist regime.

From the point of view of V. Vipperman, Italian fascism owes its success not to the “excess”, but to the “lack” of capitalism, the industrialization of the industrial proletariat; it was only a kind of dictatorship that served the creation of industrial capitalism. Thus, by attributing absolute and original sovereignty to the state, the fascists rejected democracy, democratic institutions, and any democratic procedures.

The structure and functioning of the corporate system was even more complex and ambiguous. The basic principles of corporate policy were set out in the “Charter of Labor”, approved by the Great Fascist Council in 1927. 22 corporations were created, corresponding to various sectors of the national economy, industry, agriculture, trade, banks, transport, etc. At the head of the entire organization was the national council of the corporation, which, in addition to representatives of employers and workers, included delegates of the fascist party, ministers and their deputies, various experts and specialists. Moreover, all members of the Council were appointed by government decree, which completely turned it into a bureaucratic body.

Undoubtedly, the establishment of the corporate system allowed Mussolini to deal with parliament. Instead, one “chamber of fascist organizations and corporations” was created. The rights of the chamber were defined: cooperation with the government in the publication of laws. The fascist Italian corporate state served as a tool for the monopolies, which in turn served the interests of the fascists for the party and state elite. It is fair to note that the fascist regime cannot survive except through means of mass suppression and bloody reprisals. Accordingly, the importance of the police is determined, or more precisely of the many police services that were created under the Mussolini regime. To deal with enemies of the regime, special commissions called police courts were created. The members of these commissions were officials of the fascist repressive apparatus: the chief of police, the prosecutor, the chief of the fascist police. No motive other than suspicion of political “unreliability” was required for conviction. The most important political cases were considered by a “special tribunal”; an example is the sentencing of the outstanding founder and leader of the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci, to twenty years in prison.

The Catholic Church played a major role in the ideological support of the fascist regime, cooperation with which was secured in 1929 by the Laterno Pact concluded between the government and the Pope. The government recognized the papal sovereignty over the territory of the Vatican, and the Catholic religion as the official religion of the country and pledged to pay significant amounts of money to the Vatican. Thus, the pope used the influence of the Catholic Church to support fascism and strengthen its foreign policy positions, which the fascist dictatorship urgently needed.

Now consider the “order and prosperity” of Nazi Germany. After all, this is what people talk about most often, both in terms of establishing order and in terms of rapid economic growth.

So, the start of fascism in Germany occurred in 1933, eleven years later than in Italy. So the Nazis came to power, like other fascists, under the slogans of the revival of the country, liberation from the power of foreign capital, class peace (as in the “corporate state”), rising wages, and the elimination of debt slavery.

German fascism represents one of the extreme forms of totalitarianism, primarily characterized by nationalist ideology, ideas about the superiority of some nations over others, and extreme aggressiveness. Fascism in Germany was based on nationalist, racist demagoguery, which was elevated to the rank of official ideology. The goal of the fascist state was declared to be the protection of the national community, the solution of geopolitical social problems, and the protection of the purity of the race.

During the period of fascism's dominance, the system of state-monopoly regulation reached an unprecedented scale. To implement the plans for armament and military economy, covering the entire economy, a centralized system was created, which subordinated all the resources of the economy by violent methods. Monopolists received more and more direct government powers. Already in June 1933, a decree was created on the forced syndicalization of industry. Only these were not Soviet trusts and production associations that belonged to the country - these were syndicates subordinate to the largest and most influential monopolists, like Krup, Thysen, Flick, Fleger.

The Nazi totalitarian state was a terrible system of spiritual and physical suppression of workers, of all democratically minded citizens. The Nazis created a specific system of total control over all spheres of people's lives. For example, everyone, starting with six-year-old children, swore an oath to serve fascism until the last drop of blood. Raising children was based on the slogan: Believe - obey - fight.” In order to suppress any attempts at resistance, the fascists created an extensive system of intimidating people. These were extrajudicial persecutions, exiles, concentration camps.

In our opinion, the fascist empire was not only a criminal police machine, but also absolutely immoral. A bad example came straight from the top. Drunkenness, adultery, corruption, sexual perversion were in the order of things, and were not subject to any punishment, subject to slavishly blind devotion to Hitler.

As S. Haffner noted, at the final stage of the existence of the “Third Reich,” its constitutional legal order was more like a gang than a state, and Hitler was more a boss of gangsters than a head of state or government. The question arises, where did the prosperity of the economy of the fascist dictatorship come from:

1. Refusal to pay reparations with the support of England and the USA;

2. Aryanization of capital. Businesses were taken away from non-German entrepreneurs and transferred to German owners, some began to prosper, while others were sent to concentration camps. For example, Aryanization against Jews.

3. Robbery of occupied lands. Industry has doubled. Germany received gold and the currencies of Austria and Czechoslovakia. At the same time, Czech gold was transferred to the Nazis by the British from English banks.

But despite the growth, Germany was unable to develop without a major war. The Nazi fascists in Germany prepared the country for war much faster and better than the fascists in Italy, which led to a crisis from which there was no way out other than war.

But there were countries of “peaceful fascism” that existed on the periphery of the main political storms. Spain, Portugal, Chile and Greece. There was no noticeable surge there, there was no overtaking pace of development. In Chile, for example, it came to food riots, and in Paraguay, to the inability of residents of the capital to pay for water. And in Spain, all the fullness of political, legislative, executive, judicial and military power at all stages of the existence of the fascist dictatorship was in the hands of Caudillo Franco. He had unlimited powers in determining the norms and direction of the government, in approving decrees and laws, in appointing military and civil officials, deputies of the Cortes and municipalities. Franco was the head of state, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the only political party - the fascist Spanish Phalanx, and after its collapse - the National Movement, which united all supporters of the regime.

Similar features were inherent in fascist regimes not only in Europe, but also in other countries. For example, in Japan, totalitarianism manifested itself in the cult of the emperor, the army and samurai. Everyone had to submit to the supra-class imperial state. In our opinion, fascism in these countries solved the same problem as in Italy and Germany - the fight against democracy, but turned out to be only a temporary game of “corporate state”. With the class struggle, fascism returned power in the country to big capital, and the most severe dictatorship turned out to be the order, so we can say with confidence that fascism is a disguised totalitarian dictatorship of capital.

2.2 Communist totalitarian state

The first communist totalitarian state in the world was the Soviet Union. This regime emerged as a result of the socio-political changes of the 1930s. The Bolsheviks who came to power in Russia rejected the nationalism of the legal wing of social democracy; they proclaimed the construction of a free society as the ultimate goal, but shared social democratic ideas about the path to it through a centralized state, which was supposed to work as a monopoly serving the interests of all society. At the same time, they acted with harshly authoritarian methods of coercion, believing that the construction of socialism is possible only under the leadership of revolutionary power.

IN AND. Lenin believed that “accounting and control are the main things required for the proper functioning of a communist society. All citizens turn into employees of the state, which are armed workers, all citizens become employees and workers of one nationwide state syndicate.” This is how Lenin brought his ideas to life; in the post-October period, he created the policy of war communism. The established social structure was in many ways consistent with other totalitarian regimes, such as Hitler's in Germany, but there were still differences. The ideology of these two forms of totalitarianism was based on different principles. Stalinism as a form of the communist movement proceeded from class domination, and Nazism - from racial domination. Stalin's policy presupposed national consolidation; it was not accompanied by racial cleansing, although there were persecutions (albeit unofficial) of Jews. The dictatorship in the USSR was hidden behind high ideals inherited from socialist thought. But in reality everything turned out differently

Before the proclamation of socialism in the USSR by the Constitution of 1936, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poor peasantry officially operated. The Soviet political system did not recognize the principle of separation and independence of powers, placing the legislative power over the executive and judicial powers. Formally, the source of law was only the decisions of the legislator, that is, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which consisted of the Chairman, 15 Deputy Chairman, Secretary and 20 other members. The establishment of a totalitarian regime in the USSR was not an accidental phenomenon; it was due to many historical objective and subjective reasons and circumstances, and belief in a communist utopia. The totalitarian regime in the USSR lasted a long time. One of the reasons was the power of the party nomenklatura. The leading and guiding force of Soviet society, the core of its political system, state and public organizations was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Therefore, actual power in the USSR belonged to the leadership of this party, which functioned in accordance with its internal charter. If the population of the entire Soviet Union was 250 million people, then 19 million of them were party members.

In the first years of Soviet power, a certain dose of democracy, free-thinking, and the presentation of different views on the problems of socialist construction were allowed in the party. But Lenin’s intransigence to dissent was manifested in battles in relation to the “left” communists during the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk peace, to the “anarcho-syndicalists”, “workers’ opposition” and other groups in the party after October. The 10th Congress of 1921 turned out to be a turning point, adopting the well-known resolution “On Party Unity,” which prohibited the functional in practice, which meant the suppression of all dissent, the expulsion from the party of representatives of different blocs, deviations, factions and their isolation from society. Thus, under one party, the dictatorship of the class led to the dictatorship of the party, and then to the totalitarian power of its nomenklatura, which led to the establishment of a regime of power in the country.

Another reason for the long existence of totalitarianism in the USSR was the inculcation in people of blind faith in the communist ideal, devotion to Stalin - the “leader of the party” and the entire Soviet people, intolerance to other ideologies and other ways of thinking and life, readiness to obey the “will of the party” without thinking.

The establishment of a unified ideology and a one-party system of power was facilitated by the state monopoly on information, mass communications and citizen organizations, which the Bolsheviks introduced from the first days of coming to power. They sought to ensure totalitarian control over the social and spiritual life of society. By decrees of the Council of People's Commissars, liberal right-wing socialist, religious newspapers and magazines of Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks were closed, and censorship was established over all others. The means of nationwide control over power became the mouthpiece of the party, and then its apparatus. Lenin pointed out that there is no other path to socialism except through democracy, through political freedom, but he thought of this freedom within the framework of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In our opinion, in conditions of forced unanimity, society practically ceased to develop, moving in the direction pleasing to the Bolsheviks.

There is also another reason for the long existence of totalitarianism - this is the system of terrorist control and repression, which was the main support of the party and Bolshevism. The dictatorship of the proletariat, established in a country where the working class constituted an insignificant political minority, inevitably led to the oppression of the vast majority. The repressive apparatus created by Lenin in the form of the Cheka in December 1917 to persecute and then destroy entire sections of the population. For example, Lenin declared a merciless war against the kulaks: “Death to them! Hatred and contempt for the parties that defend them: the right Socialist Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks and the current left Socialist Revolutionaries!” In this leaflet, Lenin demanded the death of 10-12 million people. Real calls for genocide, this defined Bolshevism - communism in its original essence. Here one cannot help but recall the execution of the royal family - Nicholas II, his wife and children.

Soviet historiography claims that the Red Terror began as a response to the White Terror only after the assassination of Uritsky and the assassination attempt on Lenin in the summer of 1918, but in fact the terror and mass repressions began with the Bolsheviks coming to power. With the unfolding of a large-scale civil war, the official decree of the Red Terror from the summer of 1918 made it possible for the Cheka in the center and locally to introduce the institution of hostages and shoot them without trial. So, in Petrograd, in September, 500 were shot, in Kronstadt - 400, in Moscow - 300 hostages and suspicious persons. In the same month, F. Dzerzhinsky issued an order, which specified that the Cheka was completely independent in its actions (searches, arrests and executions).

The open trials were undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg of terror. Severe sentences were also passed by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court and the Special Meetings. More than half of the sentences were handed down in absentia. Almost all those repressed were subject to Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. So in 1937-38, 360 thousand death sentences were handed down per year. Starting with the trial of Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky in 1937, terror fell on the officer corps of the Red Army, about 40 thousand commanders were shot and imprisoned in camps. The punitive authorities were also subjected to repression, and the entire administrative apparatus was purged. A roller coaster of terror swept not only through the intelligentsia, but also over the common people (workers, office workers, housewives). Thus, Russian terror had the character of “Russian roulette”; anyone at any moment could turn out to be an “enemy of the people.”

Subsequently, Stalin physically destroyed all possible opponents, and turned the remaining workers of the apparatus into mindless executors of his will. Terror plunged the population into a state of prostration and turned it into submissive masses. Millions of prisoners were used as free labor on all five-year construction projects.

Thus, at the turn of the 20-30s. The process of formation of totalitarianism in the USSR was completed. Political power passed from the party to the nomenklatura, and then to the autocratic regime of Stalin, the Bolshevik ideology embraced not only all citizens, but also all aspects of society, and a state monopoly on mass communications was established. Instead of the rule of law and a market economy, large-scale violence, a monopoly on property and a command-administrative management system developed, and economic and socio-political life in society became militarized.

At the stage of Soviet totalitarianism, two stages are clearly visible. The first is from the Bolshevik coup in October 1917 to the end of the civil war, during these years the foundations of a totalitarian state were laid. And the second - the 20s, when, as a result of the general discontent of the people, the political and socio-economic crisis, an attempt was made to move to a rule of law state. However, the action of the laid down basic principles of totalitarianism and the desire of the Bolsheviks to maintain their power, based on violence, led in the 30s to the establishment of Soviet totalitarianism with the regime of Stalin’s personal power.

2.3 Modern totalitarian state

With all the diversity of totalitarian orders in fascist Italy, Germany, the Stalinist USSR, Cuba and other countries of the world, history has provided examples of three main types of totalitarianism: fascist (national socialist, Nazi), communist (Soviet) and theocratic. Each of them is distinguished by the uniqueness of its institutions, the nature and scale of repression. As mentioned above, the most historically lasting was the communist form of totalitarianism. And nowadays, totalitarian countries no longer play a significant role on the world stage. But is the world safe from such regimes? Friedrich and Brzezinski expressed the idea that over time, totalitarianism will evolve towards greater rationality, preserving its fundamental structures for the reproduction of power and social order. The source of danger for totalitarianism was outside the system. European countries, themselves fascist states in the recent past, chose the tactic of condemning communism (Stalinism) in Soviet Russia, unambiguously equating it with Nazism, so they underwent changes under the influence of the defeat of Nazi Germany and the awareness of their historical loss. The totalitarianism of Europeans is rooted in the mental perception of the victory of the USSR as a resentment against their own unfulfilled geopolitical projects associated with Germany (if it had defeated the Soviet Union).

Totalitarian ideology, totalitarian systems of power, despite the recognition of the values ​​of democracy (freedom of speech, elections, religion, press), tragic experience and implementation in the 20th century continue to remain a political phenomenon of our time. The search for manifestations of totalitarianism in current democracies and its grains in non-democratic countries does not go beyond the framework of “totalitarianism-authoritarianism-democracy”. There are no ideal democracies, just as there is no ideal totalitarian state.

In our opinion, problems with democracy exist in Russia, China, and Iran. For example, the United States can confidently be called a modern totalitarian state; today, control over modern means of communication prevails there, which make it possible to control any individual person. Modern mobile phones, after the events of September 11, are required to be able to quickly find the location of the phone with its owner. The systems allow you to listen to all telephone conversations in the country and respond to keywords. Thus, total control becomes a technically accessible reality. The US media, completely controlled by financial and oil corporations, widely use consciousness-shaping technologies that are more effective than conventional technologies.

The modern world largely operates according to rules that are different from the rules, for example, fifty years ago. Today there is a struggle between ideologies, ideas, and projects for the future world order.

Chapter 3. Advantages and disadvantages of totalitarian states

Totalitarian regimes are very unstable social formations, which in the end, no matter how long-term they are, still come to certain death. Let's look at a number of disadvantages. From an economic point of view, the country's closedness to the external market slows down the development of the economy; the world market is replaced by a forced division of labor and the creation of a chain of conquered states, whose economy is included in the economy of the conquering country. For example, in Germany, due to huge expenditures on the military sphere, the social life of the population and the development of many necessary industries are damaged, which leads to low purchasing power of the population. When the economy of enterprises is nationalized, management is seized by officials who are interested in their public office. Because of this, business leaders are not interested in innovation, which leads to the death of the state's economy.

On the political side, the lack of ensuring individual rights and freedoms in a totalitarian state covers the social and economic initiative of citizens, which is the key to the arbitrariness of state bodies. Due to the closed nature of a totalitarian society, citizens do not receive complete information about the state. The most important decisions are made by an autocratic leader or the top of the elite under the influence of ideological and political considerations and subjective calculations. This disadvantage is exacerbated by the excessive centralization of power in the hands of individuals at all levels of government. In a totalitarian regime, a new ruler comes to power through a fierce struggle that threatens the existence of the entire state or is brought to power by a party majority, so often a leader comes to power who does not reflect the interests of the country and the people, but meets the interests of the state apparatus. Totalitarian regimes are characterized by an aggressive foreign policy and a forceful method of resolving conflicts, which often provokes the likelihood of major wars.

The dominance of a single ideology always gives rise to a dogma of power, so government officials often follow ideological dogmas (for example, the policy of forced collectivization). With the long-term existence of a totalitarian state, power over time loses the trust of society and its ideological base. So in the USSR the development of science and culture was banned.

As for the advantages of totalitarian states, this is, first of all, freedom of control by social institutions and public opinion, therefore, totalitarian societies have the lowest crime rate, especially in comparison with all other societies and political systems, there are practically no antisocial phenomena such as drug addiction and prostitution, the number of suicides is much lower. As a rule, the state pays great attention to supporting the birth rate, so the demographic situation is stable.

The most important thing is to cultivate the patriotic spirit. In this connection, such important feelings as pride in their country and readiness for self-sacrifice are highly developed among citizens.

At critical moments, totalitarian states are capable of maximum concentration of funds and efforts, in conditions of lack of resources, they are distributed with the greatest efficiency, for example, fascist Germany (rapid creation of industry) and the USSR (space exploration). In addition, totalitarianism is a way out of the crisis of mass consciousness (Germany), a way to overcome political instability (USSR). Thus, in the early stages of existence, totalitarianism stabilizes the state, which is realized by emerging from deep crises.

Undoubtedly, in a totalitarian state there is an invulnerability of the state to outside influence, the impossibility of interference by other countries in its internal politics. Such features contribute to the maximum strength of a totalitarian state, its protection from both external and internal threats. It is impossible to destroy a totalitarian regime through conspiracy, uprising or coup d'etat unless brute military force is used. So, in order to eliminate totalitarianism in Germany, it was necessary to destroy Germany itself (it ceased to exist as a state for 4 years). In addition, during a war, a totalitarian state is very stable and is capable of waging war both after severe defeats (USSR) and in conditions of extremely limited resources with an absolute superiority of enemy forces (Third Reich).

However, all these benefits are realized only for a short time. As the totalitarian state develops, they become less and less important under the pressure of numerous shortcomings. Subsequently, the life of any totalitarian state is short, since the starting resources are quickly compressed: destruction from the outside (Nazi Germany); collapse (USSR) or transformation into more peaceful political regimes (PRC)

Conclusion

To summarize the above, we need to draw a conclusion in this work and answer the main question: So what is the totalitarian regime that shook the 20th century? This is a political system that has expanded its intervention in the lives of citizens. In a totalitarian state, the initiative of citizens is not needed, and freedom is dangerous, in other words, a person is completely enslaved, freedom becomes criminal and punishable.

The analysis showed that corporate and totalitarian states have common characteristics:

1. Monical structure of power, which is characterized by the combination of legislative power and judicial power in one person. In this case, the most important element is “leaderism”

2. A one-party political system that does not allow any other political movements. In addition, there is a unification of the state and party apparatus

3. The ideological role of totalitarianism, the main task of which is to justify the existing regime. The power of propaganda, the lack of sources of information, which closes access to determining opinions about the benefits or harm of decisions made at the top

4. State-organized terror, which is based on violence. Suppression of any dissent among the entire population

5. Suppression of civil society institutions: family, church, traditions

6. Strictly regulated economy, closed to the state, refusal to compete

7. Ban on the rights and freedoms of both individuals and citizens (freedom of speech, press, etc.).

Totalitarianism was the most intense state regime in history. This system of power, violence, terror, brought almost to the point of national extermination, is not able to flexibly adapt to the dynamics of complex societies. This is a closed system that follows the laws of self-isolation.

In the modern world, the main source of destruction and the impossibility of reproducing totalitarian orders in the 21st century is the lack of resources to maintain the information regime of mono-ideological domination. It remains only to note that a totalitarian state is an unviable option for the functioning of society. And this statement is connected, first of all, with the fact that denial of the role of a person as a citizen and an active unit of society can lead to the overthrow of the regime in question.

Literature

1. Monographs, textbooks, teaching aids

1.1. Wert N. History of the Soviet state 1900-1991. M., 1992

1.2. Zh. Zhelev Fascism (translation from Bulgarian). M., 1991.

1.3. History of the Second World War, Vol. 12.

1.4. News of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 1990 No. 5

1.5. Iritsky Yu.I. Concepts of totalitarianism: lessons from many years of discussions in the West / History of the USSR, 1990 No. 6

1.6. Carr E. History of Soviet Russia, T. 1 M., 1990

1.7. Lenin V.I. Complete Works, T. 33

1.8. Lenin V.I. Complete Works, T. 37

1.9. Lenin V.I. Complete Works, T. 44

1.10. Melgunov S.P. Red Terror in Russia

1.11. Ovchinnikova L.V. The collapse of the Weimar Republic in the bourgeois historiography of Germany. M., 1983

1.13. Theory of State and Law//Ed. N.I. Matuzova. M.: lawyer, 2004

1.14. Haffner S. Suicide of the German Empire

2. Internet resources

2.1. Arendt H. Origins of totalitarianism (www.fedy-diary.ru )

2.2. Great terror. Pages of history (storyo.ru)

2.3. Velichko S.A. Totalitarianism as a phenomenon of the 20th century (istgeography.su)

2.4. W. Wolfgang European fascism in comparison 1922-1982 (royallib.ru)

2.5. Vengerov A.B. Theory of State and Law (ex.jure.ru)

2.6. The political system of fascist Italy (urios.org.ua)

2.7. The Doctrine of Fascism by Benito Mussolini, 1932//Ed. Kudryavtseva G.G (http:www.azglobus.net)

2.8. History of state and law of foreign countries (www.bibliotekar.ru )

2.9. Chinese philosophy. Legalism. Dictionaries and encyclopedias on Academician (dic.academic.ru)

2.10. Constitution of the USSR (ru.wikipedia.org)

2.11. Totalitarianism. Wikipedia (ru.wikipedia.org)

2.12. Totalitarianism as a political phenomenon of the modern world (m-antonov.chat.ru)

2.13. Totalitarianism in Germany and Italy. Militarist regime in Japan (school.xvatit.com)

2.14. T.T. Filatov History of Fascism (www.katyn-books.ru )

2.15. H. Linz Typology of regimes (nashaucheba.ru)

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As a result of the Second World War, a significant part of the totalitarian regimes of the fascist type (German, Italian, Japanese, military-fascist regimes of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe) were destroyed, but fascist regimes remained in Spain, Portugal and some Latin American countries.

The most famous of these fascist regimes is the regime
F. Franco in Spain, who in the thirty post-war years turned from totalitarian to authoritarian. After 1945, the role of the phalanx quickly declined. The fascist salute was cancelled, the Phalangist militia was disbanded, and the Ministry of Education was removed from the control of the Phalanx veterans. Many phalangists lost their places in the state apparatus and by the mid-50s. occupied no more than 5% of government posts. Preparations began for the restoration of the monarchy. In 1948, Juan Carlos (grandson of Alfonso XIII) became Franco's heir. Legally, this was formalized by the “Basic Law on the Succession of the Head of State” of 1947, which gave the caudillo the right to appoint whoever in the future would “replace him as king or regent.” In July 1945, a new constitution was adopted, the “Charter of the Spaniards,” which proclaimed a number of political and social rights of Spanish citizens (freedom of speech, assembly, unions, the right of the poor and large families to state assistance, etc.).

In 1955-1966. The “blue” period of the Franco dictatorship ended completely, although back in 1958 the ideas of the phalanx were proclaimed “the fundamental principles of the Spanish state.” The Phalanx lost its role as the ruling party. In 1957, it dissolved into the broader organization “National Movement,” which de facto disintegrated in 1967 (de jure it existed until the second half of the 70s). In the early 60s. Falangist ministers were replaced by ministers from the Catholic sect “Opus Dei” (“God’s work”) and their henchmen, technocrats. At this time, the Franco government proclaimed a policy of “liberalization.” In 1963, the emergency military tribunal was dissolved; in the mid-60s. censorship has been weakened. In 1966, a new Spanish Constitution, the Organic Law of the State, was adopted, which separated the positions of head of state and head of government (both held by Franco since 1938). 20% of the deputies of the Cortes began to be elected (by the heads of the family), freedom of religion was proclaimed and the phalanx finally disappeared.
In 1969, Juan Carlos was declared Franco's official heir. However, all these reforms did not lead to the establishment of democracy in Spain and overcoming the crisis of the Franco regime.

The authoritarian nature of the Spanish political regime remained. There was a powerful repressive apparatus, the maintenance of which took 10% of the state budget (5-6% for education). Franco retained enormous power. He was the head of state, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, leader of the National Movement, appointed deputies of the Cortes and municipalities, officers and officials, and adopted decrees and laws. Key positions in the state were occupied by the leaders of the “bunker” (Spanish reaction). An example is the head of the Spanish government in 1966-1973. Admiral Carrero Blanco, who was called a "cannibal" and "more Francoist than Franco himself." Repression continued in Spain. In 1967, a more brutal criminal code was adopted. There were arrests and executions of anti-fascists. The Francoist courts gave survivors an average of 20-30 years in prison. In 1968, 1969, 1973 and 1975. a state of emergency was introduced in Spain (in the first half of the 60s it was introduced only twice).

The crisis of the Franco bloc deepened. Two groups have formed in the Spanish elite - the “bunker” and the “evolutionists”, or “civilized right” (supporters of reforms). The church, which until the 60s. was one of the strongest pillars of Francoism, split, and its “renovationist” wing launched open criticism of the regime, supporting the demands of the anti-fascist opposition for the restoration of democratic freedoms. A crisis has emerged in the country's top leadership. The new Prime Minister Arias Navarro, who replaced the leader of the “bunker” C. Blanco (“the cannibal” was killed by terrorists) in December 1973, proclaimed a policy of reform and stated that “you can no longer count on Franco.” The social support of the new political course, the evolution of the authoritarian Franco regime into a democratic state, was the new Spanish bourgeoisie, formed during the years of the “Spanish economic miracle” of the 60-70s.

Another result of World War II was a sharp increase in the number of authoritarian and totalitarian communist-type states. Before the war there were only 2 of them (in the USSR and Mongolia),
by the 80s became about 30. At the same time, the development of communist regimes in different regions of the world had its own characteristics.

In Eastern Europe, the process of formation of these regimes was complex and contradictory. As a result of the defeat of Hitler's Germany and its Eastern European allies (the regimes of Salasi in Hungary, Antonescu in Romania, etc.), the anti-fascist revolutions of 1944-1947 began here, which led to the establishment of the so-called “people's democracy” in this region. Modern Russian scholars consider the states of “people's democracy” in Eastern Europe to be a democratic alternative to the Stalinist totalitarian regime.

Their arguments:

1. In Eastern European countries in 1944 - 1948. a variety of forms of ownership and a diverse economy were preserved. In Czechoslovakia, the total nationalization of private enterprises began only in 1948. In Romania in 1948, the public sector provided only 20-30% of industrial output.

2. Political pluralism and multi-party system remained in this region, which was reflected in the results of parliamentary elections and the formation of Eastern European governments. In the parliamentary elections in Hungary in November 1945, the Party of Small Farmers received 57% of the votes, the Communist Party - 17%. In the first post-war Czechoslovak government, the communists had 9 seats, and other parties had 13. In Poland and Hungary, four parties were represented in the first post-war governments, in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Romania - five, in the Czech Republic - six. The heads of state and government in these countries were representatives of the old, pre-revolutionary elite (King Mihai, generals Sanatescu and Radescu - in Romania; President Benes -
in Czechoslovakia).

3. There was a democratization of the state system of Eastern European countries. The state apparatus was cleared of fascists and collaborators. Pre-war electoral laws, as a result of the adoption of amendments to them, became more democratic (in Bulgaria in 1945, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 19 years). Democratic constitutions abolished by dictators and German occupiers were restored (the Constitution of 1920 in Czechoslovakia, the Constitution of 1921 in Poland).

4. The national characteristics of Eastern European countries were taken into account, and communist parties did not copy the Soviet model.

From the point of view of modern Western scholars, the Eastern European states of “people's democracy” were authoritarian. Their arguments:

1. Countries of Eastern Europe in 1944-1945. were occupied by the Red Army and were under the strict control of the Soviet military administration and the NKVD, which began mass repressions there. From Hungary, whose entire population was
9 million people, 600 thousand people were sent to Soviet transit and labor camps, 200 thousand of them died in custody.
In East Germany, the Soviet occupation authorities executed 756 people. and threw 122 thousand people into camps and prisons, of which
46 thousand died in custody. On the territory of Poland in 1944-1947. Soviet troops operated, subordinate to the chief adviser of the NKVD at the Polish Ministry of National Security, General I. Serov (future - the first chairman of the KGB), including the 64th special forces division of the NKVD "Free Riflemen", which carried out punitive operations against the anti-communist underground and the civilian population . About the activities of NKVD officers in Poland, the commander of the Polish Army, General Z. Berling, whose army, together with the Red Army, reached Berlin, wrote: “Beria’s minions from the NKVD are bringing devastation to the whole country. Criminal elements from the apparatus of Radkiewicz (Minister of National Security of Poland) assist them. During legal and illegal searches, things go missing from people, completely innocent people are deported or thrown into prison, shot like dogs, ... no one knows what he is accused of, who is arresting him and for what, and what they intend to do with him.”

2. Immediately after the overthrow of the fascist regimes and the expulsion of the German occupiers, mass extrajudicial reprisals against the vanquished and groups of the population began in many countries of Eastern Europe. In Yugoslavia they were shot without trial or investigation
30 thousand people handed over to the communists by the British command (they surrendered to British troops in Italy in the last days of the war): officers, soldiers, policemen and officials of the Croatian state, soldiers of the Slovenian White Guard, Montenegrin Chetniks and members of their families. In Bulgaria at the end of 1944, 30-40 thousand people became victims of extrajudicial killings. (local politicians, teachers, priests, businessmen, etc.). In the Czech Republic, Czech nationalists killed several thousand German civilians in the summer of 1945. Jewish pogroms were organized in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

3. A powerful repressive apparatus was created, led by the communists, with the help of which they already in 1944-1945. mass repressions began. Communists were ministers of internal affairs in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, ministers of justice in Bulgaria and Romania, and headed state security agencies in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. In Poland, the Ministry of National Security had more than 20 thousand employees, and the internal security corps subordinate to it had 30 thousand soldiers and officers. Army units were also used to fight the partisan movement. As a result, in Poland in 1945-1948. About 9 thousand opponents of the communist regime were killed. In Bulgaria, the people's militia, state security agencies and “people's tribunals” (extraordinary courts), created in October 1944, became instruments of mass terror. By March
In 1945, according to their sentences, 2,138 people were shot. - generals, police officers, judges, industrialists, etc., including members of the Regency Council and the younger brother of Boris III, the Bulgarian Tsar in 1943-1944. Moreover, the victims of communist terror were not only fascists and collaborators, but also members of the Resistance movement. During the occupation of Poland by Soviet troops, they, together with units of SMERSH and the NKVD and with the support of the Polish Internal Security Corps, interned more than 30 thousand soldiers and officers of the Home Army (the Polish underground army subordinate to the London emigrant government of Poland). In March 1945, the entire AK command was arrested, including its commander, General Leopold Okulitsky, who died in a Soviet prison in December 1946. In Yugoslavia, the leader of the Serbian Chetniks (non-communist resistance fighters who began an armed struggle against the German occupiers two months earlier than the Yugoslav communists) and officers of his headquarters were executed. There were also reprisals against the allies of the Communist Parties in the Popular Fronts. Thus, in Bulgaria, before the elections in October 1946, 24 activists of the Bulgarian Agricultural People's Union (the party of the Bulgarian peasantry) were killed and its leader Nikola Petkov, who was executed by sentence of a communist court in September 1947, was arrested. At the same time, 15 members of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Socialist Party were arrested. Democratic Party. The main weapon of all these repressions was the state security apparatus, which already inspired fear even in the leaders of Eastern European communist parties. One of them, a prominent figure in the Polish communist movement W. Gomulka, wrote in May 1945: “The security agencies are turning into a state within a state. They pursue their own policies, which no one can interfere with. In our prisons, prisoners are treated like animals.”

Thus, in the mid-40s. In Eastern European countries, authoritarian political regimes formed that combined anti-fascist features with numerous elements of communist totalitarianism. This created the conditions for the complete elimination of democracy and the transition from authoritarianism to totalitarianism in 1947-1948. Reasons for this transition:

1. Strong pressure from the Stalinist regime.

2. Features of the historical development of the countries of Eastern Europe (in the first half of the 20th century, in all Eastern European countries, except Czechoslovakia, there was no democracy, and authoritarian regimes dominated).

3. The broad socio-political base of communist regimes is the lumpen sections of the population and the strong Stalinist-style communist parties that expressed their interests.

4. The general economic backwardness of most countries of Eastern Europe and economic ruin are the result of the Second World War.

5. The inability of the capitalist world in the late 40s. to contrast the socialist system with an attractive alternative (it appeared only in the 70-80s).

Installed in 1947-1948. In Eastern Europe, communist regimes went through two stages in their development:

1. Totalitarian regimes of the Stalinist type (1948-1956).

2. Softer totalitarian regimes, gradually turning into authoritarian ones (1956-1989).

A feature of the first stage was the apogee of communist terror, associated with the copying of the Soviet system in the last years of the Stalin era and the preparation of the “socialist camp” for the Third World War (Stalin planned to start it in 1953).
In Poland, the number of political parties almost doubled (in 1945 there were 20 thousand people in it, in 1952 - 34 thousand), and repressions sharply intensified. 5,200 thousand people were included in the lists of “suspicious elements”. (1/3 of adult Poles), about 140 thousand people were thrown into camps, the number of political prisoners in 1952 was about 50 thousand people. In Czechoslovakia, by 12.6 million inhabitants in 1948-1954. there were 200 thousand political prisoners. In Hungary
in 1948-1953 about 800 thousand people (10% of the population) were convicted. Reprisals began against communist allies and grandiose purges within the communist parties themselves. In 1948, the leaders of the Social Democratic parties in Bulgaria and Romania were arrested and convicted (the goal was to force the Social Democrats to unite with the Communists). In 1947, the Party of Small Farmers in Hungary and the “historical” parties in Romania were defeated. Their leaders were arrested. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the PMA Bela Kovacs, arrested in 1947, was in a Soviet prison until 1952. Leader of the National Tsaranist Party in Romania. Maniu - sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947, died in a camp in 1952 at the age of 75. In Czechoslovakia, the Slovak Democratic Party was banned in 1948, and the Czech National Socialist, Social Democratic and People's Parties were banned in 1950. In Yugoslavia, after Tito’s break with Stalin, more than 30 thousand communists who were oriented towards the USSR were repressed. In Bulgaria, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the BCP was arrested and executed, and four other leaders of the Communist Party were sentenced to life imprisonment. In the Czech Republic in 1952, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Rudolf Slansky, two of his deputies and eight other members of the top party leadership were executed, and three more, including the future leader of socialist Czechoslovakia Gustav Husak, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

After 1956, in all countries of Eastern Europe, except Romania and Albania, the repressive apparatus began to be reduced (in Poland, the number of political police was reduced to 9 thousand people, and advisers from the MGB returned to the USSR), mass repressions stopped, and social liberalization began -economic, political and spiritual life. However, isolated outbreaks of communist terror also occurred at this time. More than 100 thousand people suffered from communist terror in Hungary after the suppression of the national revolution in 1956. (229 people were executed, 35 thousand were thrown into prisons and camps, several thousand were deported to the USSR), 200 thousand Hungarians emigrated. In the Czech Republic, after the collapse of the “Prague Spring” of 1968 (the Czechoslovak “Thaw”), strict censorship was restored, about 70 democratic organizations were banned, and tens of thousands of people emigrated.

By the 80s. The features of Eastern European communist regimes finally emerged:

1. Copying the Soviet model, including in countries hostile to the USSR.

2. The same type of political system (dictatorship of the communist party, regime of personal power, lack of democratic freedoms, powerful repressive apparatus).

3. Some features compared to the USSR: “pocket” multi-party system (in the GDR, in addition to the ruling SED, there were the Democratic Peasant Party, the National Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic Union and the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany), the institution of the presidency, a higher standard of living and the wider spread of opposition sentiments among the clergy, intellectuals and youth.

At the same time, different Eastern European states had their own characteristics of the formation and development of communist regimes. The most brutal totalitarian regime was created in Albania. In April 1939 it was occupied by Italian troops, and in September 1943 by German troops. The resistance to the occupiers was led by the Communist Party of Albania (CPA), created in November 1941, whose leader was K. Dzodze. Enver Hoxha became his deputy and commander of the partisan army of the CPA (from July 1943 - the national liberation army), and M. Shehu, Hoxha's close assistant, became his chief of the communist headquarters. In November 1944, the PLA completely liberated Albania from the German occupiers and established Communist Party control over the entire territory of the country.

In December 1945, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in Albania, which was won by the Democratic Front created by the communists. In January 1946, the Constituent Assembly proclaimed Albania a People's Republic (before the occupation, Albania was a monarchy), and in March it adopted its constitution. De jure a democratic republic of the “people’s democratic” type was established in Albania, but de facto a dictatorship of the leader of the CPA
E. Hoxha. From October 1944 he was the head of the Albanian government and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and from 1947 he was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia. All the old party leadership, including K. Dzodze, were shot. The legal basis for communist repression was the criminal code of 1948, which provided for the death penalty for political crimes (in Albania at that time people were shot even for telling jokes about Hoxha and Stalin) or 30 years in prison.

The main feature of Hoxha's regime is the personality cult of Stalin taken to the extreme. In 1959, in Albania, in honor of the 80th anniversary of the “leader of the peoples,” the Order of Stalin was established, and the main political slogan after the start of the “thaw” in the USSR was the slogan: “We will destroy the enemies of socialism, we will defend the cause of Lenin-Stalin!” Hoxha invited Vasily Stalin to Albania (as a result he was arrested) and members of the anti-Khrushchev group Molotov-Malenkov. The result of this was a sharp deterioration in Soviet-Albanian relations. In 1960, Albania and the USSR broke off all relations, even diplomatic ones; in 1963, Khrushchev was preparing an invasion of Albania by Soviet troops (it failed due to Tito’s refusal to let them through the territory of Yugoslavia).

Another result of the construction of Stalinist-style socialism is the creation of the most brutal totalitarian regime in Europe. Hoxha tried to completely destroy religion in Albania. All Muslim and Catholic clergy were destroyed in the country (of the two Catholic archbishops, one died under house arrest, the other was sentenced to 30 years of forced labor and died from the consequences of torture; more than 100 Catholic priests were shot or died in custody), all mosques were closed and churches. In 1967, Albania was proclaimed "the first atheist state in the world." 19 camps and prisons were created in the country (for 3 million inhabitants), and petty regulation of the entire life of Albanians was introduced (it was forbidden to have cars and dachas, wear jeans, use “hostile” cosmetics, listen to jazz and rock, and have radios). At the same time, barracks socialism also affected the Albanian elite. In 1958, Hoxha ordered all executives and other members of the elite (scientists, artists, diplomats, etc.) to work for free for two months a year in factories or agricultural cooperatives (the dictator himself also worked). Since the mid-80s. In Albania, the salaries of workers in the party-state apparatus were reduced, and the savings were used to increase the salaries of workers and employees.

After the death of Hoxha (April 1985), the new Albanian leader Remiz Alia, who held the posts of first secretary of the Central Committee of the Albanian Labor Party (the CPA was renamed the ALP in 1948) and chairman of the People's Assembly of Albania, began liberalizing the political regime in the country. Diplomatic relations with the USSR and the USA were restored, the creation of private and joint ventures was allowed, a multi-party law was adopted and free parliamentary elections were held.

A communist regime close to the Albanian one was created in Romania. A feature of its formation was the longer coexistence of the remnants of pre-communist statehood and the harsh communist dictatorship than in other Eastern European countries. On the one hand, the communists failed to establish a one-party system in Romania for more than three years. Until December 1947, the country maintained a monarchy; until March 1945, the government of the old elite led by Antonescu's associates, Generals Sanatescu and Radescu. In 1945-1947 In Romania there were coalition governments, the head of which was Petru Groza, a large landowner and capitalist, in the 20-30s. - Member of the Romanian Parliament and minister in the government of Carol II, from the mid-40s. collaborated with the communists. However, in his government the latter were in the minority. On the other hand, already in these years the communists used all methods to establish their dictatorship: already in the first Romanian government formed after the overthrow of Antonescu, they received the posts of ministers of justice, internal affairs and communications. In February 1945, the old local authorities were liquidated, and a month later, activists of the pro-communist National Democratic Front became prefects in 52 out of 60 counties. A Soviet agent was placed at the head of the Romanian political police. After the victory of the one-party system (1948), the formation of a totalitarian regime began in Romania. In Romanian camps in the early 50s. there were 180 thousand prisoners, and a unique regime was established for their “re-education” with the help of other prisoners. The authors of this experiment were one of the leaders of the Romanian political police, communist Alexander Nikolski, and a prisoner with a fascist past (former legionnaire) Eugen Turcanu. The latter created the “Organization of Prisoners with Communist Beliefs” in prison, whose task was to “re-educate” prisoners through the study of communist literature combined with physical and moral torture (victims were brutally killed, their bodies were burned with cigarettes, they were dipped headlong into a vat full of urine and excrement etc.). Such torture lasted from one week to two months. However, the victims of the repressions of this time were not only “enemies of the dictatorship of the proletariat” (students, people from the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois strata of the population, priests, etc.), but also the communists themselves. In 1946, members of the Romanian political police killed the former General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP, Stefan Forscia (he held this post until 1944. ), and then his old mother, who was trying to find her missing son (her corpse with heavy stones tied to her neck was found in the river).

After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Romania (1958), the country began to change its foreign policy course - from complete subordination to the USSR to confrontation with it. As a result, a group of nationalists led by Nicolae Ceausescu, who in March 1965 was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, took over the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party. The Ceausescu regime quickly turned into a brutal totalitarian dictatorship. Mass repressions began in Romania, which did not happen in other Eastern European countries. During the quarter century of dictatorship of the new Romanian leader, 60 thousand people died. In December 1967, a decision was made to combine party and government posts. Ceausescu, retaining the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP, became chairman of the State Council (the highest body of executive power), the first secretaries of the district committees of the party became the chairmen of the executive committees of the district people's councils (analogous to the Soviet district executive committees). All public organizations united into the Socialist Unity Front, of which Ceausescu became its chairman. There were constant purges of the party and state apparatus in the country (Romanian generals were shot for “connection with the Soviet military attaché,” etc.). A powerful system of police control was created. All members of the Politburo of the RCP Central Committee were under surveillance. Special centers for wiretapping telephone conversations and mail inspection were created. The number of police informants grew. The main support of the regime was the securitate (secret political police).

Ceausescu's power was unlimited. In 1974 he became president. His relatives (about forty people) occupied senior government and party positions. One Ceausescu brother was deputy minister of defense and head of the Supreme Political Council of the Army, the other was the head of the Romanian State Planning Committee. The dictator's wife, Elena Ceausescu, became first deputy prime minister, chairman of the national council for science and education, academician and director of the Central Institute of Chemical Research, although she did not know the simplest chemical formulas, since she completed only four years of high school (this did not stop her from being declared " world-famous scientists"). Brother Ceausescu was the first secretary of the Bucharest party committee. The Ceausescu family owned 40 residences,
21 palaces and 20 hunting lodges. She took $8 billion out of Romania (N. Ceausescu’s personal account in Swiss banks alone contained $427 million).

At the same time, ordinary citizens of Romania were deprived of the most necessary things. Gas and hot water were supplied to apartments for several hours a day. There was a campaign for the most severe savings in electricity (in an apartment, regardless of the number of rooms, it was allowed to have only one lamp with a power of 15 watts; shops were open only in daylight, and street lighting was turned off at night). A card system was introduced in Romania. A system of cruel totalitarian control over the entire life of society was created. Prices on the peasant market were regulated, and household plots were cut back. Abortions were banned. Soldiers were sent to agricultural work, construction sites and mines. Officials had to live in the area in which they worked.

A milder communist regime was created in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). By decision of the Yalta Conference (February 1945), Germany was divided into four occupation zones - Soviet, American, British and French, the boundaries of which were finally determined at the Potsdam Conference (June 1945). The Soviet zone of occupation included the eastern regions of Germany with a population of about
20 million people Until 1949, power in this territory belonged to the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG). Therefore, the German communists, unlike the communist parties of other Eastern European countries, did not pursue a policy of repression (the Soviet occupation administration did this). The main victims of repression in East Germany were the German Social Democrats. In 1945-1950 Soviet and East German courts sentenced 5 thousand Social Democrats to various terms of imprisonment, 400 of them died in prison. This allowed the communists to break the resistance of part of the SPD leadership to the union of this party with the KPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (April 1946). Despite the numerical superiority of the former Social Democrats (there were 680 thousand of them, the Communists - 620 thousand), the leadership of the new party ended up in the hands of the Communists, which facilitated the creation of a pro-Soviet totalitarian regime in East Germany. De jure it was formalized by the formation of the GDR (October 1949).

The main feature of East German totalitarianism is a high (compared to other socialist countries) standard of living combined with a brutal police regime in the political sphere, which was finally formed after Erich Honecker, who played the role of dictator in the GDR, became the first secretary of the SED Central Committee in 1971 almost twenty years. The results of his reign were described by the Soviet historian A.I. Savchenko as follows: “... the social system that dominated the GDR over the past twenty years in the “Honecker era”, I would call a refined version of Stalinism. ... the recent history of the GDR is the apogee of the possibilities of the Stalinist system. ... thirty varieties of sausages and beer without a queue - this was offered to a resident of the GDR in exchange for his position as a “cog” in absolutely all areas.”

During the forty years of the existence of the communist regime in East Germany, 4.5 million people. were forced to flee the country (as a result, its population in 1945-1971 decreased from 20 million to 17 million people), 1 million lost their property, 340 thousand were illegally arrested, 90 thousand of them died in custody, over 100 thousand died from its consequences, more than 1 thousand people were killed.

The communist regimes of Asia, created in the second half of the twentieth century, had their own characteristics:

1. In Asia, unlike Eastern Europe, there was no single bloc of socialist states, therefore the death of socialism in the USSR did not automatically lead to the death of Asian communist regimes.

2. Nationalist sentiments were much stronger here than in Europe.

3. The ideas of the leadership of communist parties were much more successfully imposed on the entire society than in Eastern Europe and Russia.

At the same time, communist regimes in different Asian countries differed markedly from each other. The most powerful communist regime in history was created in China. He won the final victory over the Kuomintang regime of Chiang Kai-shek during the civil war of 1946-1949. At first it was unsuccessful for the communists. In July-October 1946, Chiang Kai-shek's troops captured about 100 cities in CCP-controlled territory, including the capital of the "special region" of Yan'an, but by the end of 1947 the strategic initiative passed to the communist army, called the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA). ). In the spring of 1948, it recaptured Yan'an from the Kuomintang, and then in the Battle of the Yellow River (November 1948 - January 1949) defeated the main forces of Chiang Kai-shek, who lost a quarter of his army in this battle. After the PLA took both Chinese capitals, Beijing and Nanjing, the remnants of the Kuomintang troops fled to the island. Taiwan, and all of mainland China, came under the rule of the CCP and its leader Mao Zedong.

The formation of a new, communist regime began in China already during the civil war of 1946-1949. In the provinces occupied by PLA units, the main form of power became military control committees (MCC), to which all other local authorities were subordinate. The VKK liquidated the old Kuomintang administration and created new provincial authorities - local people's governments (executive authorities) and conferences of people's representatives (analogous to the Russian congresses of councils of 1917-1936). In June 1949, the congress of leftist Chinese parties (CPC, Revolutionary Kuomintang, Democratic League, etc.) began its work - a preparatory committee for the convening of a political advisory council (the new Chinese parliament). The People's Political Consultative Council (PPCC), the de facto Chinese Constituent Assembly, formed at this congress, began its work in September 1949. It proclaimed the creation of a new state - the People's Republic of China
(October 1, 1949) and adopted the General Program of the CPP (de facto constitution of the PRC). The PPCC itself took over the functions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and became its first session, at which the highest authority of the PRC, the Central People's Government Council (CPGC), was elected. He formed other central government bodies - the State Administrative Council (the highest executive body, an analogue of the Soviet Council of People's Commissars), the People's Revolutionary Military Council (PLA command), the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office. Together with the Central People's Republic of China, all these bodies constituted the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. Thus, the de jure democratic structure of the new Chinese state was created. It represented different parties and organizations united in the Popular Front. In the General Program of the People's Republic of China, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed a “state of people's democracy,” based “on the alliance of workers and peasants and uniting all the democratic classes of the country,” etc. But de facto, a totalitarian communist regime was established in China in 1949.

Many principles of democracy did not apply in the PRC - separation of powers (the Administrative Council was not only the executive, but also the legislative body; the “people's courts”, the creation of which began in 1951, were included in the structure of local governments), representative democracy (the first elections to the NPC took place only in 1953-1954 and not in all regions of the PRC; local meetings of people’s representatives were not convened).

Enormous power was concentrated in the hands of the Chairman of the CPC Central Committee, Mao Zedong, who in 1949 also took the posts of Chairman of the Central People's Government, Chairman of the People's Revolutionary Military Council and head of the Central People's Party. As a result, the de facto dictatorship of Mao was established in China.

Mao's regime began a policy of mass repression during the civil war, which continued into the 50s. Hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang prisoners became the first laogai prisoners (corrective labor camps that combined the “re-education” of prisoners and their isolation from society). During the agrarian reform in the early 50s. About 5 million Chinese peasants were killed, and about 6 million were sent to Laogai. In 1949-1952. 2 million “bandits” (criminal elements associated with prostitution, gambling, sale of opium, etc.) were destroyed, and more
2 million were thrown into prisons and camps. A super-cruel regime was created in Laogai. Torture and on-site killings were widely used (in one camp, a prisoner-priest died after 102 hours of continuous torture; in other camps, the camp commander personally killed or ordered 1,320 people to be buried alive). There was a very high mortality rate among prisoners (in the 50s, up to 50% of prisoners in Chinese camps died within six months). Prisoner uprisings were brutally suppressed (in November 1949, 1 thousand out of 5 thousand people who participated in the uprising in one of the camps were buried alive in the ground). The minimum term of imprisonment was 8 years, but the average sentence was 20 years in prison. By 1957, as a result of a grandiose purge in the city and countryside, 4 million “counter-revolutionaries” (opponents of the communist regime) were destroyed. Suicides among those under investigation and convicts became widespread (in the 1950s there were 700 thousand; in Canton up to 50 people committed suicide per day). As a result of the “hundred flowers” ​​campaign (its slogan was Mao’s words: “Let hundreds of flowers bloom, let thousands of schools compete”) in 1957, the Chinese intelligentsia was defeated, which did not recognize the dominance of communist ideology and the dictatorship of the CCP. About 700 thousand people. (10% of the Chinese scientific and technological intelligentsia) received 20 years in camps, millions were sent temporarily or for life to certain areas for “introduction to rural labor.”

The instrument of terror was a powerful repressive apparatus - the security forces (1.2 million people) and the police (5.5 million people). In China, the most powerful prison camp system in the history of mankind was created - about 1 thousand large camps and tens of thousands of medium and small ones. Through them until the mid-80s. 50 million people passed through, 20 million of them died in custody. In 1955, 80% of prisoners were political prisoners, in the early 60s. their number dropped to 50%. It was almost impossible to get out of prison under Mao. Those under investigation were kept in detention centers (pre-trial detention centers) for a very long time (up to 10 years), and here they served short sentences (up to 2 years). Most prisoners were sent to Laogai camps, where they were divided according to army principles (into divisions, battalions, etc.). They were deprived of civil rights, worked for free and received very few visits from their families. In the Laojiao camp, the regime was softer - without fixed terms, with the preservation of civil rights and wages (but the main part was deducted for food). “Free workers” were kept in the Jue camp (twice a year they received short-term leave and had the right to live in the camp with their family). In this category until the early 60s. 95% of prisoners released from camps of other categories ended up. Thus, in China in the 50s. any sentence automatically became lifelong.

The entire population of China was divided into two groups - “red” (workers, poor peasants, PLA soldiers and “martyr revolutionaries” - people who suffered under the regime of Chiang Kai-shek) and “black” (landowners, wealthy peasants, counter-revolutionaries." harmful elements”, “right-wing deviationists”, etc.). In 1957, “blacks” were prohibited from being admitted to the CCP and other communist organizations and universities. They became the first victims of any purge. Thus, the “equality of citizens before the law” proclaimed by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China of 1954 was a fiction.

Until the mid-60s. Chinese totalitarianism was masked by “democratic” institutions. In January 1953, the Central People's Congress adopted the Resolution on the convening of the National People's Congress and local people's congresses.
In May 1953, the first general elections in Chinese history began, which lasted until August 1954. At the first session of the new NPC (September 1954), the First Constitution of the PRC was adopted. She proclaimed the task of building socialism (this task was not set in the “General Program” of 1949), secured some democratic freedoms (equality of citizens before the law, national equality, etc.) and made some changes to the political system of the PRC. The post of Chairman of the People's Republic of China (head of state) was introduced with broad powers (command of the armed forces, development of proposals “on important state issues,” etc.). The Administrative Council was transformed into the State Council (the highest body of central government).

However, already at the end of the 50s. Chinese “democracy” is beginning to collapse. Due to representative bodies of power, the influence of the party-state apparatus is strengthened. The legislative functions of the NPC were transferred to its Standing Committee (the Chinese government), the powers of local people's congresses were transferred to the people's committees (analogous to the Soviet executive committees), the composition of which completely coincided with the composition of the provincial, city and county committees of the CPC. Party committees replaced the court and prosecutor's office, and their secretaries replaced judges. In 1964, the “Learn the style of work from the PLA” campaign began, during which the establishment of barracks order in all spheres of public life began (according to Mao’s formula “All the people are soldiers”). The police were subordinated to the army; since 1964, army patrols and posts appeared on the streets of cities and villages.

Thus, by the mid-60s. In China, the foundation was laid for Mao’s military-bureaucratic dictatorship, but for its complete victory he had to carry out the “cultural revolution” of 1966-1976. Its main goal was to strengthen the regime of Mao’s personal power, which had been shaken as a result of the failure of the “Great Leap Forward” of 1958. In the early 60s. under pressure from the right, moderate wing of the CCP, Mao had to abandon his economic utopias. Part of their property, requisitioned during the “agrarian reform” of the 50s, was returned to the peasants. (livestock, agricultural implements, etc.) and personal plots. At industrial enterprises, the principles of material interest were restored. The post of Chairman of the People's Republic of China was taken by the leader of the right, Liu Shaoqi, and the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee - his like-minded person Deng Xiaoping.

Mao's weapon of reprisal against the group of Liu and Deng was first the Chinese youth, then the army. At the same time, the nature of the “cultural revolution” was contradictory, since it combined the struggle for power within the Chinese elite, the anarchic rebellion of the marginal layers of Chinese cities (in this regard, the French historian J.-L. Margolin called the events of 1966-1976 in China "anarchic totalitarianism") and a military coup.

The “Cultural Revolution” began in May 1966, when at an expanded meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, Mao announced the resignation of a number of senior leaders of the party, government and army, and the headquarters of the “cultural revolution”, the group for the affairs of the “cultural revolution” (GCR), was created. , which included Mao’s inner circle: his wife Jiang Qing, Mao’s secretary Chen Boda, the secretary of the Shanghai City Committee of the CPC Zhang Chunqiao, the secretary of the CPC Central Committee in charge of state security agencies, Kang Sheng and others. Gradually, the GKR replaced the Politburo and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and became the only real power in the PRC.

Immediately after this, detachments of Red Guards (“red guards”) were created in Chinese schools and universities, and in December 1966, detachments of zaofan (“rebels”), consisting mainly of young unskilled workers, were created. A significant part of them were “blacks”, embittered by discrimination and striving to improve their status in Chinese society (in Canton, 45% of the “rebels” were children of the intelligentsia, whose representatives were considered second-class citizens in the PRC). Carrying out Mao's call to “Fire at headquarters!” (made at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPC in August 1966), they, with the help of the army (its units suppressed resistance to the “rebels”, controlled communications, prisons, warehouses, banks, etc.) defeated the party-state apparatus of the PRC. 60% of the personnel leaders who participated in the “Long March” were removed from their posts
1934-1936, including many senior officials - Chairman of the People's Republic of China Liu Shaoqi (he died in prison in 1969), Foreign Minister Chen Yi, Minister of State Security Luo Ruiqing and others. The party leadership was radically renewed. The General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping, and four out of five vice-chairmen of the CPC Central Committee were removed from their posts (Mao’s only deputy, Lin Biao, his devoted Minister of Defense, remained). The state apparatus was paralyzed (with the exception of the army, which did not interfere in events before Mao's order). As a result, China found itself at the mercy of the Red Guards and Zaofan. They dealt with impunity against everyone they considered “class enemies” - the intelligentsia (142 thousand teachers of schools and universities, 53 thousand scientific and technical workers, 2,600 writers and other cultural figures, 500 professors of medicine were persecuted), officials, “ black”, etc. 10 thousand people. were killed, there were massive searches and arrests. In total, during the years of the “cultural revolution,” 4 million CCP members out of 18 million and 400 thousand military personnel were arrested. Gross interference in the private lives of citizens has become commonplace. It was forbidden to celebrate the Chinese New Year, wear modern clothes and Western-style shoes, etc. In Shanghai, the Red Guards cut off the braids and shaved the dyed hair of women, tore tight trousers, and broke shoes with high heels and narrow toes. At the same time, the attempts of the “rebels” to create a new state (their units actually turned into a “parallel Communist Party”; in schools, in administrative buildings they created their own judicial investigative system - cells, torture rooms) failed. The result was chaos in China. The old party-state apparatus was destroyed, a new one was not created. There was a civil war - “rebels” with “conservatives” - defenders of the pre-revolutionary state (in Shanghai, for a whole week they repelled the Red Guards’ assault on the city party committee), various groups of “rebels” with each other, etc.

Under these conditions, Mao in 1967 tried to normalize the situation by creating new government bodies - revolutionary committees, based on the “Three in One” formula (the revolutionary committees included representatives of the old state-party apparatus, “rebels” and the army). However, this attempt to reach a compromise between the "rebels", "conservatives" and the "neutral" army failed. In a number of provinces, the army united with the “conservatives” and inflicted a heavy defeat on the “rebels” (their detachments were defeated, the emissaries of the GKR were arrested); in other regions, the “rebels” began to escalate violence, which reached its climax in the first half of 1968. Shops and banks were looted. “Rebels” seized army warehouses (only on May 27, 1968, was it stolen from military arsenals
80 thousand units of firearms), artillery and tanks were used in battles between their units (they were assembled according to orders from Zaofan in military factories).

Therefore, Mao had to use his last reserve - the army. In June 1968, army units easily broke the resistance of the “rebels,” and in September their units and organizations were disbanded. In the fall of 1968, the first groups of Red Guards (1 million people) were exiled to remote provinces; by 1976, the number of exiled “rebels” had grown to 20 million. Attempts at resistance were brutally suppressed. In Wuzhou, troops used artillery and napalm against the “rebels”; in other provinces of Southern China, hundreds of thousands of “rebels” were killed (in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region - 100 thousand people, in Guangdong - 40 thousand, in Yunan -30 thousand). At the same time, the army and police, while dealing with the “rebels,” continued to deal with their opponents. 3 million dismissed officials were sent to “re-education centers” (camps and prisons), the number of prisoners in Laogai even after the amnesties of 1966 and 1976. reached 2 million. In Inner Mongolia, 346 thousand people were arrested. in the case of the Inner Mongolia People's Party (joined the CCP in 1947, but its members continued illegal activities), as a result
16 thousand people were killed and 87 thousand were maimed. In South China, during the suppression of unrest among national minorities, 14 thousand people were executed. Repressions continued in the first half of the 70s. After the death of Lin Biao (according to the official version, he tried to organize a military coup and, after its failure, died in a plane crash over the territory of Mongolia in September 1971), a purge of the PLA began, during which tens of thousands of Chinese generals and officers were repressed. The purge also took place in other departments - ministries (out of 2 thousand employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China were repressed
600 thousand), universities, enterprises, etc. As a result, the total number of victims during the years of the “cultural revolution” amounted to
100 million people, including 1 million dead.

Other results of the Cultural Revolution:

1. The defeat of the right, moderate wing of the CPC, the seizure of power by the ultra-left group of Mao Zedong and his wife Jiang Qingn.

2. Creation in China of a model of barracks socialism, the features of which are a complete rejection of economic methods of management (implantation of “people's communes”, brutal administration, equalization of wages, refusal of material incentives, etc.), total state control over the social sphere ( identical clothes and shoes, the desire for maximum equality of members of society), extreme militarization of the entire life of the country, aggressive foreign policy, etc.

3. Organizational and legal formalization of the results of the “cultural revolution” by the IX Congress of the CPC (April 1969), the X Congress of the CPC (August 1973) and the new Constitution of the PRC (January 1975), which was a complex and contradictory process. On the one hand, the party-state apparatus destroyed by the “cultural revolution” was restored (the Politburo and the Central Committee of the CPC, provincial party committees, primary organizations of the CPC, the Komsomol, trade unions, etc.), to which some officials who were repressed during the years of the “cultural revolution” returned , including right-wing leader Deng Xiaoping. On the other hand, Mao's group secured the fruits of its victory in the Cultural Revolution. Almost its entire headquarters (GKR) became part of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee. The Revolutionary Committees were declared the political basis of the PRC (in the Constitution of the PRC of 1975). Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao and other opponents of Mao were convicted. This inconsistency was especially evident in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China of 1975, which dealt a heavy blow to the system of Chinese representative bodies of power (de jure the revolutionary committees were declared permanent bodies of local people's congresses, de facto they replaced them, since the people's congresses all the years of the “cultural revolution” were not convened, and their powers were transferred to the revolutionary committees, deputies of the NPC were not elected, but appointed; the powers of the NPC and its Standing Committee were sharply narrowed) and other elements of Chinese “democracy” (the post of Chairman of the PRC was eliminated, and his powers were transferred to the Chairman of the Central Committee of the CPC, the prosecutor's office and autonomous regions were abolished, articles on national equality and equality of citizens before the law disappeared, etc.), but at the same time, legally secured some concessions to the right (the right of commune members to personal plots, recognition of the basic unit agricultural production not a commune, but a brigade, a declaration of the principle of payment according to work, etc.), although in practice the system of barracks socialism was preserved and strengthened. During the new political campaign of “studying the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat,” which began immediately after the adoption of the new Constitution of the PRC, there was a struggle against the right (Deng was again removed from all posts at the beginning of 1976), and their demands (distribution according to labor, the rights of peasants for personal plots, the development of commodity-money relations, etc.) were declared “bourgeois right”, which must be limited. This led to the destruction of the last elements of the market economy in China and the victory of the administrative-command system. In the PRC, measures of material incentives and personal plots were eliminated, and overtime work became commonplace. This led to an aggravation of the socio-political situation in the country (strikes and demonstrations began in China).

Thus, by the mid-70s. Mao's dictatorship was finally formed, and a brutal totalitarian regime was established in China. However, the apogee of Mao's dictatorship was short-lived. In the mid-70s. In China, the struggle between two factions in the country's top leadership intensified: the radicals led by Jiang Qing and the pragmatists led by the head of the Chinese government Zhou Enlai and the Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Deng Xiaoping. Zhou's death (January 8, 1976) weakened the position of the pragmatists and led to a temporary victory for the leftist group Jiang Qing. At a meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in April 1976, a decision was made to dismiss Deng Xiaoping from all posts and exile him.

However, the death of Mao (September 9, 1976) and the arrest of radical leaders Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen, whom pragmatists nicknamed the “Gang of Four” (October 6, 1976), led to fundamental changes in the balance of political forces in China and a decisive change in the course of its leadership. The leader of the pragmatists was elected vice-chairman of the CPC Central Committee, but de facto his role in post-Mao China was higher than the role of the official leaders of the PRC, the chairman of the CPC Central Committee and the chairman of the PRC; It is no coincidence that the new political course was called the “Deng Xiaoping Line.”

Under Deng's leadership, a number of radical socio-economic reforms were carried out in China, which led to the replacement of a military-communist type economy with a multi-structured market economy, a sharp acceleration in the rate of economic development (the average growth rate of the Chinese economy in the 80-90s was 10% in year, in some years - up to 14%) and a significant increase in the standard of living of its population.

In agriculture, administrative methods of management were replaced by economic ones. The land of communes and brigades was divided among peasant families, who received the right to freely dispose of the products of their farms. As a result, in 1979-1984. the volume of agricultural production and the average income of the peasant household doubled, productivity increased sharply (the grain harvest in 1984 exceeded 400 million tons, 2 times more than in 1958, and 1.5 times more than in 1975) , and for the first time in the history of China, the food problem was solved. At the same time, the private sector (independent peasant farms) played the main role in the rise of agriculture, and in the public sector in the 80s. only 10% of the Chinese peasantry remained.

In industry, the creation of free economic zones began (they allowed the investment of foreign capital and the application of civil and labor laws of capitalist states, guaranteed the export of profits and higher wages), joint and other foreign enterprises, and individual labor activity was allowed. As a result, a modern, highly developed industry was created in China, the products of which in the 80s. conquered the global consumer market.

In the social sphere, the Chinese leadership abandoned the policy of equality in poverty and the violent suppression of the wealthy segments of the population (Deng put forward the slogan: “Being rich is not a crime”), and the formation of new social strata began - the bourgeoisie, wealthy peasantry, etc.

The democratization of the Chinese state and law began.
In 1978, an amnesty was declared for 100 thousand prisoners.
2/3 of the exiles from the era of the “Cultural Revolution” returned to the cities, the rehabilitation of its victims began and payment of compensation to them for each year spent in prison or exile. Mass repressions stopped. Among new court cases, political cases accounted for only 5%. As a result, the number of prisoners in China in 1976-1986. decreased from 10 million to 5 million (0.5% of the population of China, the same as in the USA, and less than in the USSR in 1990). The situation of prisoners has noticeably improved. The administration of labor camps was transferred from the Ministry of State Security to the Ministry of Justice. In 1984, ideological indoctrination in prisons and camps (in the 50s it lasted at least 2 hours a day for the entire period, sometimes lasting continuously from one day to three months) was replaced by vocational training. A return to the family at the end of the term was guaranteed. It was forbidden to take into account the class affiliation of prisoners (when determining their term and regime of imprisonment). Early release was provided (for exemplary behavior). The judicial system was removed from party control. In 1983, the competence of the MGB was limited. The prosecutor's office received the right to cancel illegal arrests and consider complaints about illegal actions of the police. Number of lawyers in China in 1990-1996 has doubled. In 1996, the maximum penalty for administrative offenses became one month in prison, and the maximum sentence in Laojiao was three years.

Legally, the softening of the political regime was formalized by the Constitutions of the People's Republic of China of 1978 and 1982. The 1978 Constitution restored the provisions of the 1954 Constitution on national equality, guarantees of civil rights and the prosecutor's office (in connection with this it was restored), but the revolutionary committees were preserved (they were liquidated in the early 80s). The Constitution of 1982 eliminated all institutions born of the “cultural revolution” and restored the state system formalized by the Constitution of the PRC of 1954. At the same time, due to some limitation of the powers of the Chairman of the PRC (according to the new Constitution, he is not the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of China and does not have the right to convene the Supreme State Conference) the rights of the Standing Committee of the NPC and the State Council of the People's Republic of China were expanded. The 1982 Constitution also legally established the multi-structured Chinese economy, based on state, state-capitalist and private property. On the edge
80-90s A number of amendments were made to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, consolidating the results of Deng's reforms: on private peasant farms, land inheritance, multi-party system, "social market economy", etc.

The overall result of all these changes in Chinese society in the last quarter of the 20th century. was aptly expressed by a simple Chinese who, in a conversation with a foreign journalist, said: “I used to eat cabbage, listen to the radio and keep quiet. Today I watch color TV, chew a chicken leg and talk about problems.”

At the same time, the dismantling of the totalitarian system in China was not completed. The PRC maintains a one-party system: Chinese parties, according to the 1982 Constitution of the PRC, act according to the formula “multi-party cooperation under the leadership of the CPC.” Its leaders occupy all the highest government posts - chairmen of the People's Republic of China, the State Council, the National People's Congress, etc. Opposition to the communist regime is brutally suppressed. Chinese Democratic leader Wei Jingsheng, who said Maoism was the source of totalitarianism and tried to create a social democratic movement in China, was arrested and convicted twice.
In 1979, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for transmitting classified information to a foreigner (contact with a foreign journalist), in 1995 - to 10 years in prison for “actions aimed at overthrowing state power.” Student unrest under anti-communist slogans in 1989 in Tiananmen Square was suppressed with the help of the army. More than 1 thousand people died in Beijing, tens of thousands were injured and arrested. More than 30 thousand people were arrested in the province, hundreds were shot without trial. Thousands of participants in the democratic movement were convicted, and its organizers received up to 13 years in prison. There are 100 thousand political prisoners in China, including 1 thousand dissidents.

Thus, Chinese totalitarianism at the end of the 20th century. turned not into democracy, but into authoritarianism (de jure, according to the 1982 Chinese Constitution, into a “democratic dictatorship”).

A kind of communist regime (“hermit state”) was created in the second half of the forties in North Korea. In 1910-1945. Korea was a Japanese colony.
In August 1945, North Korea (north of the 38th parallel) was occupied by Soviet and South American troops. In the Soviet zone, with the help of the USSR, a communist regime of the Stalinist type was established, the leader of which was Kim Il Sung (until 1945, the commander of a small partisan detachment that fought the Japanese in Manchuria). Kim's rivals, the leaders of the Korean Communist Party, were destroyed.

The totalitarian nature of the regime of Kim Il Sung (1945-1994) was masked by “democracy” such as the Soviet or Eastern European one. In 1946, elections were held to provincial, city and district people's committees (analogous to Russian councils), and in 1947 - to rural and volost people's committees. In 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was proclaimed and its Supreme People's Assembly (North Korean Parliament) was elected, which in 1949 adopted the Constitution of the DPRK.

However, there was no de facto democracy in North Korea, and mass repression began. 1.5 million people died in the camps
100 thousand - during party purges. 1.3 million people died in the Korean War of 1950-1953, unleashed by the Kim regime. Thus, over half a century, about 3 million people became victims of the communist regime in North Korea (the entire population of the DPRK is 23 million people).

State security organs became a weapon of communist terror. In 1945, the Department of Public Security (political police) was created in North Korea, which was later transformed into the Ministry of National Security (since the 90s - the National Security Agency). Employees of these special services created a system of total control over the entire population of North Korea, from the elite to ordinary citizens. All Koreans are “invited” once a week to political classes and “life summaries” (sessions of criticism and self-criticism, during which they must expose themselves to political offenses at least once and their comrades at least twice). All conversations of the North Korean bureaucracy are monitored, their audio and video tapes are constantly checked by NSA employees who act under the guise of plumbers, electricians, gas workers, etc. Any travel requires an agreement from the place of work and permission from local authorities. There are about 200 thousand prisoners in North Korean camps. Of these, about 40 thousand die annually.

In the second half of the 40s. Citizens of the DPRK were divided into 51 categories, on which their career and financial situation depended. In the 80s the number of these categories has been reduced to three:

1. “Core of society” or “center” (citizens loyal to the regime).

The victims of the genocide in North Korea were physically disabled people (disabled people, dwarfs, etc.). The new North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, the son of Kim Il Sung, said: “The breed of dwarfs must disappear!” As a result, the latter were forbidden to have offspring and began to send them to camps. Disabled people are evicted from large cities and exiled to remote areas of the country (to the mountains, islands, etc.).

The totalitarian regime has a huge impact on North Korean law. The Criminal Code of the DPRK names 47 crimes punishable by death. In North Korea, they execute not only for political crimes (high treason, rebellion, etc.), but also for criminal ones (murder, rape, prostitution). Executions in the DPRK are public and often turn into lynchings. The nature of the punishment is determined by belonging to one of three categories (citizens of the “central” category are not executed for rape). Lawyers are appointed by party bodies. Legal proceedings in North Korea have been simplified to the extreme.

Simultaneously with the North Korean regime, the communist regime emerged in Vietnam. In the first half of the twentieth century. it was a French colony. In 1941, it was occupied by Japanese troops, but as a result of the August Revolution of 1945 (a communist-led uprising against the Japanese occupiers), the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) was proclaimed. The power in it belonged to the Viet Minh organization (the full name is the League of Struggle for the Independence of Vietnam), which was the Vietnamese analogue of the European Popular Fronts. The main role in it was played by the communists, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). From the first days of its existence, this party pursued a policy of communist terror. In 1931, when creating Chinese-style councils, the communists killed local landowners in their hundreds. Immediately after the August Revolution of 1945 in Vietnam, the extermination of members of other Vietnamese parties who actively participated in the fight against the Japanese occupiers (nationalists, Trotskyists, etc.) began. The instruments of repression were the Soviet-style state security agencies and the “Committee of Assault and Destruction” (an analogue of Hitler’s assault troops), whose members, mostly urban lumpens, staged a French pogrom in Saigon on September 25, 1945, during which hundreds of French citizens died.

After the invasion of Vietnam by French, British and Chinese (Kuomintang) troops (autumn 1945), the protracted Indochina War of 1945-1954 began, during which repression in the territory controlled by the Communists intensified. In August - September 1945 alone, thousands of Vietnamese were killed and tens of thousands were arrested. In July 1946, the physical extermination of members of all Vietnamese parties began, except for the CPC, including those who actively participated in the national liberation movement. In December 1946, political police and camps for enemies of the communist regime were created in North Vietnam (the south of the country was occupied by French troops at that time). Two thousand French prisoners of war out of 20 thousand captured in 1954 died in these camps (reasons: brutal beatings, torture, hunger, lack of medicine and hygiene products). In July 1954, the Geneva Agreements were concluded, according to which French troops were withdrawn from Indochina, but until general elections were held (they were scheduled for 1956, but were never held), only North Vietnam (north of 17th parallel).

The construction of a socialist state began here. In 1946, the People's Parliament and the Government of the Republic were created in North Vietnam and the Constitution of the DRV was adopted, according to which the head of state became the president, vested with broad powers. This post was occupied by the head of the Communist Party of China, Ho Chi Minh, the de facto North Vietnamese dictator. Under his leadership, massive repressions began in North Vietnam. During the agrarian reform of 1953-1956. About 5% of Vietnamese peasants were repressed. Some of them died, others lost their property and were thrown into camps. Torture was widely used in the Far Eastern Republic. In 1956, the most ambitious purge of the party and state apparatus in the entire history of Vietnam of the socialist era began here.

Totalitarian state

• Presentation as an appendix to a social studies lesson in 11th grade.

3. Totalitarian state Soviet propaganda poster (poster, 30s)

4. Totalitarianism (from the Latin totalis - whole, whole, complete) from the point of view of political science - a form of relationship between society and power, in which political power takes complete (total) control of society, forming a single whole with it, completely controlling all aspects of life person.

5. The term totalitarianism was first used by the Italian anti-fascist politician Giovanni Amendola in 1923 to define the regime of Benito Mussolini.

6. Since the 30s of the twentieth century, the term “totalitarianism” has been used mainly in relation to the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, by their opponents in a negative way, and by their supporters in a positive way. The term was later extended to other regimes created in the twentieth century and acquired an almost completely negative meaning.

7. At the same time, arguments were raised about the systemic similarity of the political regimes of Hitler and Mussolini with the USSR under the leadership of Stalin.

8. Demonstration with portraits of Mao Zedong and the DPRK, 50s.

9. North Korea is the most striking example of a totalitarian society in the modern world. Comrade Kim Jong Il - The Sun of the 21st Century.

10. All totalitarian states that have ever existed have common features, regardless of the officially professed ideology of the regime (Marxism, fascism, religious fundamentalism, etc.) Comparison of Soviet and fascist propaganda posters.

The presence of one comprehensive ideology, on which... "target="_blank"> 11.

• The presence of one comprehensive ideology on which the political system of society is built.

12. 2. The presence of a single party, usually led by a dictator, which merges with the state apparatus and the secret police.

13. 3. The extremely high role of the state apparatus, the penetration of the state into almost all spheres of life of society and the individual.

14. 4. Lack of pluralism in the media.

15. 5. Strict ideological censorship of all legal channels of information, as well as secondary and higher education programs. Criminal penalties for disseminating independent information.

16. 6. The large role of state propaganda, manipulation of the mass consciousness of the population.

17. 7. Denial of traditions, including traditional morality, and complete subordination of the choice of means to the goals set (to build a “new society”). Cover of the novel “1984” with AngSots slogans

18. 8. Mass repression and terror by security forces.

19. 9. Centralized economic planning.

20. 10. Almost comprehensive control of the ruling party over the armed forces and the distribution of weapons among the population.

21. 11. Commitment to expansionism.

22. 12. Administrative control over the administration of justice.

23. 13. The desire to erase all boundaries between the state, civil society and the individual.

24. Today, political science believes that the state model of totalitarianism has no prospects for historical development.

Homework

• Based on the lesson notes and textbook materials, prepare for a test on the topic “Totalitarian State”.

• Read J. Orwell's novel "1984". Describe the main features of the totalitarian society of Oceania, the reasons for its emergence and principles of functioning in the form of an essay or report (optional).

www. gulagmuseum.org

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• www. gulagmuseum.org