1

The Decline of Democracy and Rise of

Totalitarian States

INTRODUCTION: It became increasingly difficult to believe in progress and

civilizations advance after WWI. The years after were decades of
disillusionment and desperation as events discouraged democracy
1.

Why did democracy decline and fall in the 1920s & 1930s?
a.
Class conflict became central to political life. The real issues of
who was going to control the government and economic system.
Industrial and financial elites were not willing to surrender to the
great majorities that had sacrificed so much during the war. The
common people were simply ignored
b.
The creation of new nations encouraged debilitating economic
rivalries. The War had disoriented the world economy resulting in
depression and then inflation.
c.
Several states had national minorities. The combination of class
conflict, economic crisis and national minorities proved a poor
ground for establishing democracy. Democracy functions best in
an atmosphere of national purpose
d.
The rise of totalitarianism. Totalitarianism preached the
destruction of a political system that thus far was unsuccessful in
solving problems class conflict, economic chaos and nationalism.
Totalitarianism demanded the complete subordination individuals
and class to the state directed by a single party. The party used
violent force to intimidate and propaganda to spread its
message, all of its programs were framed in ideology.
i.
In Russia that took the form of a nationalist Marxism, in
Italy and Germany a peculiar concoction of 19th century
nationalism and socialism.
ii.
All these creeds professed the necessity of revolutionary
change, they encouraged the belief in the party and the
leader to effect that change.
iii.

2.

Totalitarianism appealed to the dispossessed, who believed

desperate measures were necessary to bring society to it
rights, legions of which lived in Europe and elsewhere.
The Rise of Totalitarianism in Communist Russia

A.

B.

C.

D.

Lenin and the Russian Revolution. Lenins power came from his
charismatic leadership and his abilities as a revolutionary
administrator. He completely believed in his own theories of
revolution, and was frank about the dangers and difficulties in
bringing a new society about.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) or Lev Bronstein was an independent
Marxist. He became a revolutionary as a student and was
imprisoned and twice exiled for his activities. After the revolution
Trotsky was made foreign affairs minister. It was largely through
his efforts that the Red Army was created.
Economic crisis and Civil war. When the politicians who initially
overthrew the Tsar were unwilling to end Russias participation in
the war, Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized the opportunity to gain
power. A humiliating peace with Germany and the Tsar and his
familys execution led to a civil war pitting the Reds (Bolsheviks)
against the Whites, made up of various factions including liberals
and foreigners. The war was bloody and devastating. Both sides
used terror and counter terror. The Bolsheviks better
organization finally won the war in 1922. By then Russias
economy had almost completely broken down. Its economic
production in 1920 was only 13% of what it had been in 1913.
Lenins government abolished wages and redistributed goods to
the needy. Private trade was prohibited and the state took the
agriculture surplus for capital and to feed the army. In 1924 a
new constitution created the U.S.S.R., composed of autonomous
republics but the real power lay in the Communist Partys central
committee
Lenins Communism vs. traditional Marxism
1.
Although Lenin said that he used a strict interpretation of
Marx he did in fact deviate from it. Marx believed that the
revolution would occur in the most industrialized countries,
but Russia was one of the least industrialized countries.
Marx wrote that a society had to undergo a capitalist stage
before reaching socialism but Russia hadnt gone through a
capitalist stage yet. Lenin then decided to drag Russia from
feudalism to socialism by emphasizing the revolutionary
nature of socialism. Because Russia lack a working class it
didnt have the conditions for a dictatorship of the
proletariat, so Lenin used a dictatorship of the party elite
over both bourgeois and proletarians calling it democratic
centralism.
2.
Lenins premature death brought the party to elect his
successor. It was generally assumed that Trotsky would

win as he was the best known communist after Lenin. His

opponent, Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) was considered
intellectually dull. Lenin held neither in high esteem.
Trotsky had a too far reaching self-confidence while Stalin
was too rough and capricious, and Lenin urged his
removal from party leadership. But Stalin had the office of
secretary general of the communist partyan unglamorous
seemingly dead end job, but one in which Stalin controlled
the nomination of commissars, the agency responsible for
the daily operations. Although Trotsky was clearly brilliant
and well known, many felt that he was erratic and were
also anti-Semitic. Stalin seemed predicable and safe.
3.

II.

The major issue which separated them was world

revolution. Trotsky felt that Russian socialism would never
be safe until capitalism was overthrown in the surrounding
countries; hence he supported a world crusade for
revolution. But Stalin believed that world revolution should
be temporarily abandoned to concentrate on building
socialism in Russia. His strategy for the immediate future
led to a nationalist Marxism.
4.
Stalin won the election and soon expelled Trotsky from the
party. In 1929 he was exiled and In 1940, assassinated in
Mexico by one of Stalins henchmen.
The Party, State, and foreign policy under Stalin.
A.
Stalin reorganized Russia by instituting five year plans that
contained an elaborate set of priorities in national industrial
output, wages and consumer prices as a part of the drastic steps
taken to industrialize Russia. Stalins most controversial step
occurred in 1932 to collectivize all private farms into 7,000 acre
state run farms. These were thought to be more efficient than
private farms and would provide the capital necessary to
mechanize agriculture. To do meant destroying the kulaks who
owned small and medium sized farms. Their resistance and led
Stalin to liquidate them through direct violence and enforced
famine. By 1939 this was a fate accompli but at the cost of at
least 8 million dead peasants and 20 million more forced to
move to cities. Although the output was far less than expected,
by regulating food distribution the government made the system
work.
1.
Stalin created, in strict Marxist terms, a conservative
foreign policy. He doubled the armys size and organized it
on a western model. Patriotism became synonymous with

soviet virtue. Along with joining the League of nations,

Stalin signed a military alliance with France.
2.

The 1936 Constitution and show trials marked another

milestone in Stalins rule. The constitution provided for a
two chamber parliament, bill of rights, guaranteed
employment, leisure and old age pensions. But only one
million communists out of Russias 150 million population
could vote. Stalins psychological instability and
pathological distrust of everyone led to the purge trials.
The victims included old Bolsheviks and perhaps nine
million people in all.

The costs and consequences of the Soviet Revolution were profound, it

was essentially a twenty year attempt to completely reorder politics, the
economy and society. By 1939 private manufacture and trade had been
abolished. The government owned the means of productionmines,
factories, railroads, and stores. Russia was now completely industrialized, by
1932 70% of its GDP was from industry. Illiteracy went from over half to
20%, health standards rose, and higher education was now available to
everyone----but at the cost of millions of deaths, an unrelenting campaign of
indoctrination. Religion, the arts, literature, and education were now tools of
the state. Stalins tyranny was as heavy as any under the Tsars.
3.