Peter the Great

As Danielle has said, my group will be studying the different presences of totalitarianism in European history. These differences will be not only in terms of time period, but also in terms of means (the use of propaganda, military force, etc) as well as the reason why totalitarianism was used. While totalitarianism is greatly associated with the reigns of Stalin and Hitler in the 20th century, Danielle, Zak and I are going to look at the roots of totalitarianism, and why totalitarianism is almost exclusively associated with Stalin and Hitler. I will be studying Peter the Great's reign and whether or not his reign shares any similarities with those of Hitler and Napoleon.

The definition of totalitarianism that Danielle found, as "a political system whereby a state regulates every aspect of public and private life", completely applies to the reign of Peter the Great. I think that a factor that might differentiate Hitler's reign and that of Peter the Great is perhaps the reason WHY they implemented such structures. To me, it seems as if Hitler wasn't necessarily acting to prove himself as the greatest power, instead, he was acting to expedite proving the power of the German state. Hitler wanted to create a pure world, one exclusive to the Aryan race, and he also wanted to demonstrate the power of the German peoples. Consequently, Hitler's regulation of the German state seems to be very dependent on using the German state as an example for the rest of the world. The Russian reforms implemented by Peter the Great, such as the reformation of the Russian Orthodox Church as well as the switch to have the state control the economy, were all attempts to modernize Russia to make it a great world power.

In both cases, that of Hitler and that of Peter the Great, the rulers were acting on behalf of their state in an attempt to prove the power, not necessarily of themselves, but of their country to the rest of Europe, which I believe to be a defining characteristic of a totalitarian leader.