List of totalitarian regimes facts for kids
This is a list of totalitarian regimes. There are regimes that have been commonly referred to as "totalitarian", or the concept of totalitarianism has been applied to them, for which there is wide consensus among scholars to be called as such. Totalitarian regimes are usually distinguished from authoritarian regimes in the sense that totalitarianism represents an extreme version of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism primarily differs from totalitarianism in that social and economic institutions exist that are not under governmental control.
Prose
Note: Because of differing opinions about the definition of totalitarianism, and the variable nature of each regime, this article first states in prose the various opinions given by sources, even when those opinions might conflict or be at angles to each other. It is followed by a convenience table of basic facts, but the table is limited by its binary nature and can not always accurately reflect the complex and nuanced nature of the sources, which are more fully described in the prose section.
|
Soviet Union
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the early Soviet Union was a "modern example" of a totalitarian state. Britannica says it was "the first examples of decentralized or popular totalitarianism, in which the state achieved overwhelming popular support for its leadership". This contrasted with earlier totalitarian states that were imposed on the people. Totalitarianism in Russia began with the founding of the Soviet Union under Lenin, after the October Revolution of 1917. According to Britannica, "every aspect of the Soviet Union's political, economic, cultural, and intellectual life came to be regulated by the Communist Party in a strict and regimented fashion that would tolerate no opposition". According to Peter Rutland (1993), with the death of Stalin, "This was still an oppressive regime, but not a totalitarian one." This view is echoed by Igor Krupnik (1995), "The era of 'social engineering' in the Soviet Union ended with the death of Stalin in 1953 or soon after; and that was the close of the totalitarian regime itself." According to Klaus von Beyme (2014), "The Soviet Union after the death of Stalin moved from totalitarianism to authoritarian rule."
Table
Country | Totalitarianism | Leader(s) | Ruling party/group | Ideology | Government | Continent | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Start | End | ||||||
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | 1917 | 1953 | Vladimir Lenin (1917–1924) Joseph Stalin (1924–1953) | All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) | Marxism–Leninism Soviet Communism Soviet patriotism Stalinism (after 1927) |
Federal one-party socialist republic | Eurasia |
Kingdom of Italy | 1925 | 1943 | Benito Mussolini | National Fascist Party | Fascism Militarism Ultranationalism Corporatism |
Unitary one-party constitutional monarchy | Europe |
Greater German Reich | 1933 | 1945 | Adolf Hitler | National Socialist German Workers' Party | Nazism | Unitary one-party Nazi fascist state | Europe |
Spanish State | 1936 | 1959 | Francisco Franco | FET y de las JONS | Fascism Falangism National Catholicism Anti-communism Anti-Masonry |
Unitary one-party fascist state | Europe |
Kingdom of Romania | 1940 | 1941 | Ion Antonescu Horia Sima |
Iron Guard | Clerical fascism Monarchism Anti-communism Anti-semitism |
Unitary one-party fascist constitutional monarchy | Europe |
Empire of Japan | 1940 | 1945 | Hirohito Fumimaro Konoe (1940–1941) Hideki Tojo (1941–1944) Kuniaki Koiso (1944–1945) Kantarō Suzuki (Until August 1945) |
Imperial Rule Assistance Association | Statism Japanese imperialism (Hakkō ichiu, Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere) State Shinto |
Unitary one-party constitutional monarchy | Asia |
People's Socialist Republic of Albania | 1946 | 1985 | Enver Hoxha (1946–1985) |
Party of Labour of Albania | Anti-revisionism Hoxhaism Marxism–Leninism |
Unitary one-party republic | Europe |
Socialist Republic of Romania | 1971 | 1989 | Nicolae Ceaușescu | Romanian Communist Party | Marxism–Leninism National Communism |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Europe |
Democratic People's Republic of Korea | 1948 | Active | Kim dynasty | Workers' Party of Korea | Juche Songun Marxism–Leninism (until 2009) Stalinism (formerly) |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Asia |
People's Republic of China | 1949 | 1976 | Mao Zedong | Chinese Communist Party | Chinese communism Maoism Marxism–Leninism |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Asia |
Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma | 1962 | 1988 | Ne Win | Burma Socialist Programme Party | Burmese Way to Socialism | Unitary one-party socialist republic | Asia |
Syrian Arab Republic | 1963 | Active | Amin al-Hafiz (1963–1966) General Salah Jadid (1966–70) General Hafez al-Assad (1970–2000) Bashar al-Assad (2000–present) |
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region | Neo-Ba'athism Militarism Left-wing nationalism Assadism |
Unitary de facto one-party presidential republic (neo-Ba'athist de-jure one-party socialist republic until 2012) | Asia |
Republic of Equatorial Guinea | 1968 | 1979 | Francisco Macías Nguema | United National Workers' Party | Ultranationalism Anti-colonialism Anti-intellectualism Pan-Africanism |
Unitary socialist one-party presidential republic | Africa |
Democratic Kampuchea | 1975 | 1979 | Pol Pot | Communist Party of Kampuchea | Agrarian socialism Khmer nationalism Maoism Anti-intellectualism |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Asia |
Iraqi Republic / Republic of Iraq | 1979 | 2003 | Saddam Hussein | Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party | Ba'athism Saddamism |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Asia |
Turkmenistan | 1991 | Active | Saparmurat Niyazov (1991–2006) Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (2006–2022) Serdar Berdimuhamedow (2022–present) |
Democratic Party of Turkmenistan | Nationalism Social conservatism |
Unitary presidential republic (one-party state until 2008) | Asia |
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | 1996 | 2001 | Mullah Omar | Taliban | Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism Islamism Pashtunwali Religious nationalism |
Unitary theocratic Islamic emirate | Asia |
State of Eritrea | 2001 | Active | Isaias Afwerki | People's Front for Democracy and Justice | Eritrean nationalism Left-wing nationalism |
Unitary one-party presidential republic | Africa |
Islamic State | 2014 | 2019 | Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi | Islamic State (Daesh) | Wahhabism Qutbism Salafi jihadism |
Unitary Salafi Jihadist proto-state | Asia |
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | 2021 | Active | Hibatullah Akhundzada | Taliban | Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism Islamism Pashtunwali Religious nationalism |
Unitary provisional theocratic Islamic emirate | Asia |
List of totalitarian puppet regimes
The following is a list of puppet states of various outside states (mostly Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union), which are considered to be totalitarian.
Country | Totalitarianism | Leader(s) | Ruling party/group | Ideology | Government | Continent | Administrative status | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Start | End | |||||||
Mongolian People's Republic | 1924 | 1953 | Khorloogiin Choibalsan (1937–1952) |
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party | Marxism–Leninism Stalinism |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Asia | Soviet satellite state |
Empire of Manchuria | 1932 | 1945 | Zheng Xiaoxu (1932–1935) Zhang Jinghui (1935–1945) |
Concordia Association of Manchukuo | Anti-communism Fascism Manchurian nationalism Pan-Asianism |
One-party constitutional monarchy | Asia | Japanese puppet state |
Slovak Republic | 1939 | 1945 | Jozef Tiso | Slovak People’s Party | Clerical fascism Slovak nationalism Anti-Hungarianism |
Unitary one-party fascist state | Europe | Nazi-German puppet state |
Independent State of Croatia | 1941 | 1945 | Ante Pavelić | Ustaše | Clerical fascism Anti-communism Anti-Serb sentiment |
Fascist one-party state | Europe | Nazi-German puppet state |
Italian Social Republic | 1943 | 1945 | Benito Mussolini | Republican Fascist Party | Fascism Militarism Ultranationalism Corporatism |
Unitary one-party state | Europe | Nazi-German puppet state |
Hungarian People's Republic | 1949 | 1953 | Mátyás Rákosi | Hungarian Working People's Party | Marxism–Leninism Stalinism |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Europe | Soviet satellite state |
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan | 1978 | 1989 | Nur Muhammad Taraki (1978–1979) Hafizullah Amin (1979) Babrak Karmal (1979–1986) Mohammad Najibullah (1986–1989) |
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan | Marxism-Leninism Neo-Stalinism Anti-intellectualism |
Unitary one-party socialist republic | Asia | Soviet satellite state |