The Tools of the Totalitarian Power: Repression and Violence in Interwar Europe

Veliki dio 20. st. obiljeţio je rast totalitarnih reţima, poput SSSR-a i nacističke Njemačke. Vladari su tih sustava kroz razne metode kontrole populacije i manipulacija drţavnog aparata ostvarili unutar svojih granica skoro apsolutnu moć, centriranu na figuri vladara. Kako bi ostali na vlasti i ostvarili vlastite ambicije koristili su i neke od najvaţnijih oruţja u svojem arsenalu – nasilje i represiju (kao manifestaciju nasilja) te su profitirali na ljudskoj emociji straha. Represiju, politički progon specifičnih grupa unutar svojih granica – fabriciranog neprijatelja - mudro su iskoristili kako bi ujedinili narod u iščekivanju rata. Njemačka s Adolfom Hitlerom na vlasti već 1933. godine počinje graditi kompleksni aparat drţavne vlasti kroz zakonodavne odredbe, reforme i konstrukciju drţavnih instrumenata – primjerice u obliku Gestapoa – u svrhe istrebljivanja unutrašnjeg otpora Hitlerovoj vlasti, a širi se ideologija rasizma, čak i u znanstvenim sferama. Narod, manipuliran propagandom i ostalim metodama koje reţim koristi, prihvaća ideologiju koja im se sije u umove; prihvaća ideje vlastite uzvišenosti, prihvaća Hitlera kao apsolutnog vladara i spasitelja, i u konačnici prihvaća fabricirane neprijatelje kao stvarne. To čine iz straha, afirmiranja vlastitog identiteta, osobne koristi i jednostavnog konformizma. Rezultat su njihovog prihvaćanja godine rata, vatre i krvi, strahotekoja se širilasvijetom, ostavljajući iza sebe pepeo.A great portion of the 20th century was marked by the rise of totalitarian regimes, such as the USSR and Nazi Germany. The rulers of these nations employed various methods of population control and state manipulation in order to achieve within their own borders a power that bordered on the absolute, focused on and rooted in the ruling figure. To maintain power and advance their personal ambition, they used some of the crucial tools in their arsenal – violence and repression, the latter as a manifestation of violence, and profited on the base human emotion of fear. Repression, the political persecution of specific groups within one's own borders – a fabricated foe, in this case – was wisely utilized to unite the people for the sake of the war to come. Germany, ruled by Hitler, commences construction of a complex governing apparatus through law reforms and proclamations as soon as 1933, as well as the formation of indispensible state instruments – as was in the form of the Gestapo – for the purpose of eradicating any internal resistance to Hitler's rule. To this end, an ideology of Arian supermacy and racism is forged and spread, even afflicting the academic circles of the time. The people, manipulated by propaganda and other methods the regime made use of, accepted the ideology sown into their minds; they accepted the idea of their own exaltation, Hitler's role as the absolute ruler and saviour and, finally, they accepted the fabricated enemies as their true foes. This they did out of fear, self-affirmation, personal gain and simple conformity. And in their acceptence they gave birth to years of war, fire and blood, a horror that descended upon the world and left ashes in its wake