Any form of opposition is severely punished: on February 24, a woman demonstrated in Moscow against the Russian war of invasion
Image: Ekaterina Nevskaja/Laif
Historically, Russia is the first country to leave totalitarianism behind – only to restore it after several decades. How can this be explained? A guest post.
HIn 1951, in “Elements and Origins of Total Government”, Annah Arendt attempted to understand totalitarianism as a new form of government that could no longer be grasped using the traditional instruments of political science. The philosopher recognized imperialism and anti-Semitism as historical foundations and a radical mass movement as the bearer of total rule. When she looked back at her work in 1966, she worried about China, but at the same time stated that with the deaths of Hitler and Stalin, the “story that this book has to tell has come to an end, at least for the time being”. Today we see that she was right with her cautious formulation. In fact, the history of total domination ended only temporarily.
Today it continues in China and Russia. Under Xi Jinping’s rule, the Communist Party combined digital technologies with the labor camps we know from the 20th century. Despite an era of economic liberalization, it has never relinquished its power. In Putin’s Russia, on the other hand, the resurgence of totalitarianism is much more archaic. It is marked by propaganda, fear, repression and a genocidal war against Ukraine. In Moscow, the basic patterns of total domination described by Arendt are reappearing.
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