Totalitarianism 1 Fabio Capano June 15, 2008 TOTALITARIANISM IN TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPE Labelled as a fictitious Cold War concept, totalitarianism has lost its former status as a modern ideology. I argue that despite its use as a synthesizing Cold War tool, totalitarianism remains central to our understanding of two important historical experiences and modern governmental systems: Nazism and Stalinist Communism. Totalitarianism became the unifying concept of the ideological struggle of the Cold War. As stated by Gleason, “by 1947, it may be said to have entered into its golden age with the proclamation of the Truman Doctrine, in which the term played an essential role in linking America‟s former Soviet allies with Nazi Germany” 1 . Also, as noted by John Lewis Gaddis, “the long telegram had the great influence that it did because it provided a way to fuse concerns about totalitarianism and communism in dealing with the Soviet Union” 2 . The intensity of the Cold War propaganda resulted in weakening an objective discussion of the term. In doing so, totalitarianism was used to rhetorically depict the reality of the non democratic world and stress the natural goodness of democracy. This rhetorical use contributed to underpin the spread of democracy in the struggle against the “Evil‟s Empire”, and conferred to democracy a specific sense of Messianism. The human happiness was strictly anchored to its worldwide affirmation. I analyze totalitarianism by adopting a historiographical approach. I assert that totalitarian governments strove to forge a new classless society based on foundations of Darwinist or Marxist interpretation of history. Race or class struggle directed the goals of this system, in particular the creation of a new society centered on the proletarian class or a Master Aryan race. Totalitarian ideologies became undisputed political creeds and promoted popular mobilization to justify 1 Abbott Gleason, Totalitarianism: The Inner History of the Cold War, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 61 2 Ibidem, p.75