Hist143 Europe and the Modern World
Tooley

A Chronology of     
           Totalitarianism in Europe    

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1793-1794--Under Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety, the French Revolution becomes something like a total state, killing large numbers because they came from the wrong class, or because they questioned the authority of the state.  This regime ended with a political reaction (the Thermidor movement) and the hasty death of Robespierre and his henchmen.

1795-96:  Gracchus Babeuf and others attempt to take over the French Revolution to create a total state.  No dice.

Between 1800 and 1917, Europe was ruled by authoritarians like the Tsar of Russia and the (very different) Emperor Napoleon.  And eventually by constitutionally constrained monarchs such as Queen Victoria and Louis Philippe of France, etc.  Indeed, by and large, we think of the "liberal" period of Europe as the absolute decline even of authoritarian government.  (Though the Russian regime became more authoritarian after 1881, when the reforming Tsar Alexander II was assassinated.)  It was really World War I that brought totalitarian thinking to the fore and gave it a chance to take over.

1848--In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx calls for a dictatorship of the proletariat, etc.

1903--Lenin divides the Russian Socialist Party, establishing the Bolsheviks (a minority of the party) as the avant garde--the radicals who desired world revolution and total overthrow of existing regimes.

1914--World War I breaks out.  Italy stays out of the war at first, and one of Lenin's international socialist comrades, Benito Mussolini, leaves the socialists but takes some of their doctrine. He wants an authoritarian "national socialism" of state control, but one that extols the nation of Italy.  This becomes the Fascist movement.  Mussolini, or one of his intellectual associates, coined the term "totalitarianism" in 1915.

1917--After a first Russian Revolution in February topples the Tsar, a second, the Bolshevik Revolution, breaks out in October.  The Bolsheviks, or Communists, led by Lenin, seize the power centers in Moscow and Petrograd.  They then defend their (Red) regime against tremendous "White" opposition (generals, politicians, etc.) in the Civil War, which rages from 1918 to 1922.  During this time, the Bolsheviks under Lenin set up the first total state:  concentration camps, mass executions, government starvation of entire regions, closing of churches, confiscation of all property, etc. etc. 

1919--In Munich, Adolf Hitler takes over the small, crackpot DAP (German Workers Party), redesigns it, and renames it:  the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP for the German acronym).  This a partly leftwing, partly rightwing group of anti-Semites. 

1922--Mussolini succeeds in becoming prime minister, consolidating power over the next few years until Italy becomes a one-party "totalitarian" state under the Fascists in 1927.  (Caution:  although Mussolini coined the term totalitarianism, Italy's total regime was very weak compared to those of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, etc.)  Mussolini takes to calling himself "il Duce"--"the Leader."

1923--Hitler tries to take over the Bavarian state government, fails, is sentenced to jail (easy house arrest), and while there writes Mein Kampf, which becomes the Bible of the Nazi Movement.

1924--Lenin dies.  A prominent Bolshevik leader, Josef Stalin starts a brutal struggle to succeed Lenin.  He continues the development of the total state in Russia.

1927--Stalin declares himself the leader, carrying out show trials and purges of all who oppose him.   Stalin takes to calling himself "Vozhd"--"the Leader."

1930--Depression hits Europe--Germany and Austria hardest of all.  Within a year and half, in Germany (pop. 35 million), seven million workers were out of work.  Political system radicalizes toward Communist Party on one end, and the Nazi Party on the other.

1932--Among other mass crimes and murders, Stalin initiates punishment in Ukraine, Belorus, and other regions (where the peasants oppose communism), by simply collecting all grain and starving the populations.  Somewhere between eight and eleven million died.

1933--Jan. 30, Hitler becomes chancellor (prime minister) of Germany in a coalition government.  But by clever manipulation of the system and ignoring of the constitution, the Nazis seize power to make Germany a one-party state by the summer of 1933. 

1934--Germany's president dies, and Hitler "wins" the position.  But he says to his titles of chancellor and president, he prefers, simply, "der Führer"--the Leader.

(in the years 1930 to 1935, Mao Zedong took control of the young Chinese Communist movement, adopting the full range of totalitarian techniques)

1939--War breaks out.  By 1940, the beginnings of the Holocaust are at hand. 

1941-1945--The totalitarian Germany and totalitarian Russia decimate the heart of East Central Europe (possibly nearly equally), carrying out mass killing, slave labor, ethnic cleansing, and other brutality. 

1945--Hitler kills himself.  Mussolini is caught by anti-government Italians and hanged.  Stalin rides high as one of the Big Three.

1945-1953--Stalin maps out the opening stages of the Cold War, including the Soviet occupation of an enormous chunk of Eastern Europe and Central Europe.

1953--Stalin died, more or less peacefully.

(Mao died in 1976)

And of course, there have been totalitarians since these "great" ones from the mid-twentieth century.


Quick Note on Victims

(There is much dispute on the absolute numbers killed by each of the totalitarian regimes.  Historians have to think through whether starting a war and getting individuals killed in war should be counted in such totals.  But of course democratic regimes have started many wars and gotten their soldiers killed in the process.  Hence, we are thinking here of victims of mass murder, ethnic cleansing, execution of political prisoners, execution of POWs, etc.).  The following numbers are simply giving the range of the lowest numbers generally assigned by competent scholars and the highest numbers generally assigned by competent scholars.  You can decide after further study, if you like, exactly how many you think each totalitarian killed, but it would probably be a number within the range given here.

totalitarian	range of competent estimates of deaths (non-military)	probable ranking in absolute numbers	probable ranking in terms of rate of killing
Lenin (1917-1924)	from 3 million to 8 million	4	4
Stalin (1926-1953)	from 10 million to 66 million	2	3
Mussolini (1921-1943)	from 25,000 to 200,000*	5	5
Hitler (1933-1945)	from 10 million to 25 million	3	1
Mao (1934-1976)	from 29 million to 74 million	1	2

*  The total number of death sentences passed by Mussolini's Italy for political crimes up to 1939 was 29.  Most of the killings included in estimates for Mussolini took place in Ethiopia, Libya, Greece,  and Yugoslavia.