Characteristics of Totalitarianism

In a totalitarian state the individual must surrender to the "well-being of the community." An individual can speak, write, and demonstrate only if that action supports the community. The government claims to stand for the interests of the community as a whole. It is the agent of the community and makes decisions for everyone.

The totalitarian state is a total state. It has total control over all areas of public and private life. Political obedience is not enough. The government requires total individual commitment to the state. It attempts to influence people to think and act in the way the totalitarian leaders wish. A person is told how to act, what to do for a living, and how to behave within the family.

Let's look at some features of a totalitarian system. The following quotations show six aspects of totalitarianism.

Characteristic One:

The government has passed the following law, which is being proclaimed herewith.

Article One: The sole political party existing in Germany is the National Socialists German Workers' Party.

Article Two: Whoever shall undertake to maintain the organization of another party or to found a new party shall be punished with a sentence of hard labor of up to three years, or of prison between six months and three years.

Berlin, July 14,1933                                     The Chancellor, Adolf Hitler

Characteristic Two:

(a)   Formerly, we were in the habit of saying: this is right or wrong. Today, we must put the question accordingly: What would the Leader say? We are under the great obligation of recognizing as a holy work of our people's spirit the laws signed by Adolf Hitler's name—Statement delivered by the Nazi Minister of Justice, Hans Frank.

(b)   Praise be to Stalin! Stalin is brighter than the sun. For the sun shines by

day, but Stalin shines night and day. —Slogan on a Soviet poster.

Characteristic Three:

(a)     We must exterminate the idea that it is the judge's function to let the law prevail even if the world should perish. That is pure madness. It should be the other way around: the primary task is to secure the social order!

      — Statement delivered by the Chancellor Adolf Hitler

(b)     The protection of the social and political order of the Soviet Union is the most important task of the socialist administration of justice

      —From a bulletin published in the Soviet Union, 1935.

(c)     Several years ago, a little peasant was brought to me to be cross-examined. Cross-examinations were conducted in a very gentlemanly way. I talked at him for half an hour. He never opened his mouth and alternately picked his nose and ears. I went on talking, although I saw that he held the whole thing for a superb joke and was not listening at all. I held strictly to the regulations; it never even occurred to me that there were other methods.

At that time I had twenty to thirty such cases daily. My colleagues had the same. The Revolution was in danger of foundering on those little fat peasants. The workers were undernourished; whole districts were ravaged by starvation and typhus; we had no credit with which to build up our armament industry, and we were expecting to be attacked from month to month. Two hundred millions in gold lay hidden in the woolen stockings of these fellows and half the crops were buried underground.

The third hearing of my man took place at two o'clock at night; I had previously worked for eighteen hours on end. He had been woken up; he was drunk with sleep and frightened; he betrayed himself. From that time I cross-examined my people chiefly at night

—Abridged from Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon, a fictional account of the purge trials in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

The first three characteristics of a totalitarian society related to totalitarian philosophy, or totalitarian goals and beliefs. The next three describe some of the means used to reach those goals.

Characteristic Four:

(a)     It is not only in home and school, but in the Hitler Youth as well, that all of Germany's youth is to be educated, physically, mentally, and morally, in the spirit of National Socialism.

      —Article 2 of 1936 law on Hitler Youth

(b)     Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

—Joseph Stalin, head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

(c)     In connection with the task, entrusted to me by the leaders, of
eradicating the works of degenerate artists from our museums, no fewer than 608 paintings of yours had to be seized. This fact could leave no doubt in your mind that your paintings did not contribute to the advancement of German culture in its responsibility toward people and nation

—Letter to a German artist from the president of the National Chamber of Fine Arts.

(d)     Creative work in literature and art must illustrate the spirit of a struggle for communism.

           —Joseph Stalin

Characteristic Five:

We have put a stop to the idea that it is a part of everybody's civil rights to say whatever he pleases.

—Adolf Hitler

Characteristic Six:

(a)     Terrorism is an effective political tool. I shall not deprive myself of it merely because simple-minded 'softies' take offense. These so-called atrocities render it unnecessary for me to conduct hundreds of thousands of individual raids against mutinous and dissatisfied people. People will think twice before opposing us, if they know what awaits them in the camps.

      —Adolf Hitler

(b)     The trip was a nightmare. We crouched in the cars, crowded together, children crying, women going mad.... A ghastly scene greeted us at the end. Hundreds of bodies lay about, together with scattered luggage and clothes, all in wild confusion. We were herded out of the carriages, as German and Ukrainian [guards] mounted to the roofs and began to shoot indiscriminately into the crowd. Men, women, and children writhed in their own blood; screams and sobs rent the air.

  —Abridged account of Oskar Berger, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp.

(c)   After a minute Boris said, "You must meet my friend, Shura" he added, "He is my friend—not simply my comrade, one has many comrades—my friend."

Faubion felt that this was a [chance] to ask, "What is the difference? When does a comrade become a friend?"

Boris said thoughtfully, "A comrade can be—can be— another member of the Party who knows something about you that he can report. You know something about him also. Neither of you reports You are comrades."

"And a friend?"

"A friend would not report. Even if you know nothing bad about him, he will not report."

"How do you decide when someone becomes a friend?"

"Ah, for that you must test him."

"Test him," Faubion repeated.

"First you tell him something small. Then you wait. If he has repeated it to others, you will hear. Then you try with something not so small."

"And at last you have confidence in each other?"

Boris nodded. "But sometimes can also be betrayal."

"How long did it take you to be sure of Shura?"

"Seven years," Boris said promptly "We were at school together."

—A talk with a young Soviet citizen abridged from Santha Rama Rau, My Russian Journey, 1958.