The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism
By Vladimir Tismaneanu (Romanian)
Constructing the enemy
Communist regimes tried to permanently excise the segments of the society that it designated as potentially inimical to the relaization of utopia. They created a world of enemies, and ultimately there was no other solution to the threat that these imagined enemies posed than their total physical annihilation. In Nazi Germany, terror was unleashed mainly against minorities (Jews, ROma, the disabled, gays) and foreign populations. The regime sought its victims mainly outside the Volksgemeinschaft.
Utopian Radicalism & Dehumanization
Communism was consistently presented as ysnonymous with hope but the dream turned into a nightmare: Communism not only murdered millions, but also took away the hope.
Communism and Facsism forged their own versions of modernity based on porgrams of radical change that advocated homogenization as well as social, economic, and cultural transformation pre-supposing "the wholesale renovation of the body of the people."
Leninism was a mutation in the praxis of social democracy, not just a continuation of the "illuminist" - democratic legacies of socialism.
Fascism, in its radicalized, Nazi form, was mor than just a reaction to Bolshevism, or to the cult of progress and the sentimental exaltation of abstract humanity symbolized by the proletariat. It was in fact something brand new, an attempt to renovate the world by getting rid of the bourgeoisie, the gold, the money, the parliaments, the parties, and all the other "decadent," "Judeo-plutocratic" elements. So, Facism was not a counterrevolution, rather it is itself a revolution: "The arrow of time points not backwards but forwards, even when the archer looks over his shoulder for guidance where to aim." Facism was a revolutionary form of nationalism, based on the core myth that only a populist, trans-class movement of purifying, cathartic national rebirth can stem the tide of decadence. At stake is the reaction to the "system" that is, to bourgeois-individualistic values, rights, and institutions. The one-party system by Mussolini and Hitler was a new form of soverignty that was contemptuous of individuals, fragmentation, deliberation, and dialogue.
A note should be made regarding the possible difference between Italian Fascism and Nazism. In German case the institutionalization of charisma was overshadowd by the "Führer principle". In Nazi Germany, politicas were fundamentally marked by "personalized power -- in the double meaning of the term, centered around the person of Hitler and founded upon direct person-to-person relationship. Political power was merely the executive of the Leader's will. The attraction of the leader principle comes closer rather to the Lenin cult in the Soviet (than the cult of Stalin or Mussolini).
In Mussolini's Italy, the Mussolini myth came into being within the environment of the Fascist religion once the latter had been institutionalized.
The black book of communism published, came out to an enormous success in France, Italian and German. In American edition, the foreword by Martin Malia: "The communist regimes did not just commit criminal acts; they were criminal enterprises in their very essence; on principle, they all ruled lawlessly, by violence, and without regard for human life." The black book builds a successful and convincing case for the equation between Communism and radical evil, thus placing it in the same category as Fascism.
The comparison between Communism and Nazism had been long sensitive in Russian, East European and Western analyses. The Stalinist destruction of the kulaks was fundamentally analogous to Nazi genocidal politics against groups considered racially inferior.
In Western academia, scholars who chose to focus on the crimes of communism were and remain a minority and face the career-blocking danger of being labeled as right-wingers.
In Nazi, HItler's Aryan-centered cosmology hyperbolized the imaginary Jew as simultaneously the organizer of market exploitation. For the Nazis, the demonization of the Jews was part and parcel of the regime's millenarian vision of national salvation.
The analyses of differences between stages and countries: Poland and Hungary, especially after Stalin's death, were not exactly totalitarian. The Hungarian revolution was initiated by a group of anti-Stalinist reform Communists.
East European leaders engineered similar campaigns of praise and idolatry in their own countries, echoing Stalin's cult. National Stalinism in Romania and in POland was characterized by reaffirmation of the Jew among the archetypical OTHERS of the dominant ethnic group.
Nationalism
Ethnic nationalism appeals more often than not to primary insticnts of unity and identification with one's own group: foreigners are often seen as vicious destablizers, dishonest breakers of traditions, and agents of dissolution. Nationalism, indeed, sanctifies tradition, described by " right to vote granted to the dead people." Especially in times of social frustration, foreginers tend to be demonized and scapegoated.
Ralf Dahrendorf: "Citizens of Central and Eastern Europe are still trying to make sense of their existence."
Constructing the enemy
Communist regimes tried to permanently excise the segments of the society that it designated as potentially inimical to the relaization of utopia. They created a world of enemies, and ultimately there was no other solution to the threat that these imagined enemies posed than their total physical annihilation. In Nazi Germany, terror was unleashed mainly against minorities (Jews, ROma, the disabled, gays) and foreign populations. The regime sought its victims mainly outside the Volksgemeinschaft.
Utopian Radicalism & Dehumanization
Communism was consistently presented as ysnonymous with hope but the dream turned into a nightmare: Communism not only murdered millions, but also took away the hope.
Communism and Facsism forged their own versions of modernity based on porgrams of radical change that advocated homogenization as well as social, economic, and cultural transformation pre-supposing "the wholesale renovation of the body of the people."
Leninism was a mutation in the praxis of social democracy, not just a continuation of the "illuminist" - democratic legacies of socialism.
Fascism, in its radicalized, Nazi form, was mor than just a reaction to Bolshevism, or to the cult of progress and the sentimental exaltation of abstract humanity symbolized by the proletariat. It was in fact something brand new, an attempt to renovate the world by getting rid of the bourgeoisie, the gold, the money, the parliaments, the parties, and all the other "decadent," "Judeo-plutocratic" elements. So, Facism was not a counterrevolution, rather it is itself a revolution: "The arrow of time points not backwards but forwards, even when the archer looks over his shoulder for guidance where to aim." Facism was a revolutionary form of nationalism, based on the core myth that only a populist, trans-class movement of purifying, cathartic national rebirth can stem the tide of decadence. At stake is the reaction to the "system" that is, to bourgeois-individualistic values, rights, and institutions. The one-party system by Mussolini and Hitler was a new form of soverignty that was contemptuous of individuals, fragmentation, deliberation, and dialogue.
A note should be made regarding the possible difference between Italian Fascism and Nazism. In German case the institutionalization of charisma was overshadowd by the "Führer principle". In Nazi Germany, politicas were fundamentally marked by "personalized power -- in the double meaning of the term, centered around the person of Hitler and founded upon direct person-to-person relationship. Political power was merely the executive of the Leader's will. The attraction of the leader principle comes closer rather to the Lenin cult in the Soviet (than the cult of Stalin or Mussolini).
In Mussolini's Italy, the Mussolini myth came into being within the environment of the Fascist religion once the latter had been institutionalized.
The black book of communism published, came out to an enormous success in France, Italian and German. In American edition, the foreword by Martin Malia: "The communist regimes did not just commit criminal acts; they were criminal enterprises in their very essence; on principle, they all ruled lawlessly, by violence, and without regard for human life." The black book builds a successful and convincing case for the equation between Communism and radical evil, thus placing it in the same category as Fascism.
The comparison between Communism and Nazism had been long sensitive in Russian, East European and Western analyses. The Stalinist destruction of the kulaks was fundamentally analogous to Nazi genocidal politics against groups considered racially inferior.
In Western academia, scholars who chose to focus on the crimes of communism were and remain a minority and face the career-blocking danger of being labeled as right-wingers.
In Nazi, HItler's Aryan-centered cosmology hyperbolized the imaginary Jew as simultaneously the organizer of market exploitation. For the Nazis, the demonization of the Jews was part and parcel of the regime's millenarian vision of national salvation.
The analyses of differences between stages and countries: Poland and Hungary, especially after Stalin's death, were not exactly totalitarian. The Hungarian revolution was initiated by a group of anti-Stalinist reform Communists.
East European leaders engineered similar campaigns of praise and idolatry in their own countries, echoing Stalin's cult. National Stalinism in Romania and in POland was characterized by reaffirmation of the Jew among the archetypical OTHERS of the dominant ethnic group.
Nationalism
Ethnic nationalism appeals more often than not to primary insticnts of unity and identification with one's own group: foreigners are often seen as vicious destablizers, dishonest breakers of traditions, and agents of dissolution. Nationalism, indeed, sanctifies tradition, described by " right to vote granted to the dead people." Especially in times of social frustration, foreginers tend to be demonized and scapegoated.
Ralf Dahrendorf: "Citizens of Central and Eastern Europe are still trying to make sense of their existence."
Comments
Post a Comment