Totalitarian Leaders Dehumanization

Totalitarianism is defined as a system of government that attempts to control all aspects of its society (Lansford). Throughout the past two centuries, there has been an increase in this style of government around the world. From Russia to China, from Iraq to Germany, these leaders control their countries with absolute power. Because of how powerful these leaders control is, their power must be constantly maintained and in order to do so, the leaders go to great lengths to ensure their unlimited power. Through dehumanization of their population and extreme intimidation, these twentieth and twenty first century totalitarian leaders maintained complete and total control over their countries. These totalitarian leaders established their position …show more content…
By dehumanizing their people, they force them to live in fear of the government so that they may maintain their absolute control. Without this dehumanization, the people would potentially be tempted to rise against the government. An example of such dehumanization is shown through Joseph Stalin who was the leader of Russia beginning in the early twentieth century. Stalin used a variety of means to dehumanize his people, but his most notorious was the Great Purge where he sent millions of his people to the Gulag, which was a system of prison camps in the northern areas of Russia. Through this purge, all of his potential enemies were eliminated because many of the people who were sent to the Gulag died of either execution or famine (“Joseph Stalin” World History the Modern Era). This dehumanized his people because all of the population was constantly living in fear that they would be the next ones sentenced to the prison camps. Dehumanization is common for totalitarian regimes because, as shown with Stalin’s Great Purge, it allows for them to manipulate their people entirely because of the terror that was caused. Fear dehumanizes the people living under the regimes because when lives are lived where they are constantly fearing their fate, it causes them to act as less than human because they will be experiencing primal, almost animalistic, instincts in order to survive. Another example of dehumanization is through Mao Zedong who was the supreme leader of China. He executed hundreds of thousands of people for being supporters of capitalism, landlords, or even for having a privileged background (Tucker “Mao Zedong”). This dehumanized his people because they too were living in a state of total and all consuming fear. Because of the ways that dehumanization can control the people under totalitarian regimes, totalitarian