Battles and wars are an inseparable part of the human nature and one of the most deadly ones was WWI. After the War, the seeming picture was that countries had democratic governments but this was only a topical view. There were many factors that were internal and unique to each country involved.
One reason for the collapse of democracies was that the historical period was the beginning of a new era, technology was developing and countries and their governments wanted to dominate more land. A nation that wants to take over other people cannot be guided by democratic standards, as it is tyrannical in nature.
After World War I, several European nations were competing for power in the region and were focused only on own interests. The major parties in the war were Germany, England and Russia, and there was much political conflict that was unresolved. A democratic solution was meant to offer everyone a fair chance and the decision that was targeted by the governments would be lost.
A democratic vote would divide and reinstate lands and colonies according to the highest moral principles, giving them back to the original owners, but the for dominance and wealth was much more powerful than democracy, it was greed. There was much spying and counter actions by several nations, even a race for the dominance of outer space. Satellites were placed into orbit to spy on enemy bases. German u-boats were common place in neutral and off shore waters of several nations, adding to the provocations.
For some time, large and small European countries have been trying to work out a deal in a peaceful way but that brought no results. Democracy became outdated and could not bring a solution.
As democracy is based on the ruling of masses—majority of nation’s population, it would not represent the selfish urges of a few members of the government. In a democratic nation, the leader is appointed by the people through a fair vote, the public is considered to be the center of the government and the common goals and interests are based on the greater good.
The rights of a person, equality and freedom cannot go together with a world domination, war and overpowering of other nations. Historically, Germany is cited as the “most evil” country that started the war and was the only one to blame. In reality, the surrounding countries did not mind the war and felt it was needed for the division of European lands. If democracy was the regime in place, the majority of people would decide against the minority and the change of government would have to peaceful.
Democracy looked good on paper but it could not be practically applied because of people’s greedy nature. It is clear that the basis of democracy lie in morality and absence of division. In all instances, European countries failed to reach a unified decision and democracy between the nations failed.
Each country wanted more than fairness would allow, thus the only choice to resolve the matter was an open conflict. From the very start, democracy had little chance to change the future and prevent another violent outbreak, as is evident from the regimes that took over and another World War.
The victims of the Great Terror were people of several countries and nations who were politically repressed by the government. This sort of occurrence took place in many countries, but it was particularly horrific for the people of USSR, from 1937 to 1938. The company of mass terror was organized by Joseph Stalin who was the ruler and absolute leader.
Even though people were brainwashed to believe that he was a proper tyrant, what went on beneath the surface was terrible. At the time of Stalin’s death, the nation was in mourning and people were unaware of what was really taking place. This proves how secret and cruel the actions of the government really were.
One of the reasons for the Great Terror was Stalin’s paranoia, which led him to believe that he was being followed and someone wanted to kill him. It is possible that it was true, but he gave a preposterous order to catch a specific amount of “public enemies” within a specific amount of time. There was a “quota” of people who had to be killed in the name of public and national safety. The constitutional rights of people were never taken into consideration and there was never a proper investigation.
It is known that any form of evidence was taken to be true, even if it was as small as an anonymous letter scribbled on a piece of paper with child’s handwriting. People were arrested, tortured and killed. There is much evidence that consists of documents written by Stalin himself, stating that more and more people must be murdered. In some cases, numbers of people to be executed without a reason, at a single time, were in hundreds and even thousands.
There were lists that were given to Stalin and he was using only his own judgment to decide people’s fate. Some people he would choose to torture for longer periods of time, others were ordered to be executed by the firing squad. Another sad fact is that people who were instrumental in catching innocent public were later killed themselves, so their trials or any form of justice became impossible.
This sort of treatment of the nation had a major effect on the well being of the USSR. By some counts, more than one million people were killed within a year. There were also numerous concentration camps where people spent years working and dying in the process. Even the families of those politically repressed were considered “public enemies”, without exception of women or little children. Such families had no choice but to move from place to place, without any legal work, education or a place to live.
The organization that was carrying out Stalin’s orders was called NKVD which was an underground uniform system not unlike KGB. It had a full authority over the lives of people and connections in all institutions. Stalin was so possessed with his idea to kill off as many intelligent and “dangerous” to his own shortcomings people as he could, that even those within NKVD were victims of the regime.
A large part of the world is unaware that Stalin was much worse than Hitler and other tyrants, as he was killing people in his own nation, in great numbers and for the most immoral reasons. Later, after the regime changed and Stalin was gone, there were many archives that were still kept secret. KGB came into being and some form of similar activity was still taking place.
National Socialism is a form of a public system or regime which united socialism with significant amount of nationalism and racism. It is built on an ideology that it is the only true order and should be supported at all cost. One of the examples of National Socialism is the Third Reich where it was the major and official ideology.
Internally, there were several divisions, such as socialism, nationalism, racism, Fascism and anti-Semitism. The major goal of National Socialism was to create and ensure that a large territory of a nation was cleaned out of all people who were not of Arian race.
National Socialism is often thought to be one of the versions of totalitarianism which would exist for long periods of time. Adolf Hitler was the one who started the movement of National Socialism which later evolved into Nazism. The reason why Hitler was able to gain support from so many people was because he offered unity and strength to the nation. He made the public feel as if Germany was being mistreated by the rest of the world and the population must rise against such unfair treatment.
When National Socialism appeared, it was closely connected to communism. In the end, the two regimes were both part of a two-poled system of the development of human society. It was a capitalist world where the collective common good of society was trying to reach a similar end—to build a utopian world.
Communism was promising to make all people on the planet equal and destroy all differences between classes and the powerful, whereas National Socialism would only create utopia for the selected ones, according to the race and at the price of the lives of others.
Fascism is a unified term that entails most right wing political movements and ideologies. It is characterized by a dictator-like type of ruling where nationalism, militarism and totalitarianism are its major directions. It originated in Italy with Mussolini who wanted to unite the nation using violence.
Fascism does not accept any form of thinking or morality different from that, reflected in its own ideologies. Fascism was Hitler’s way of ruling and became the moving force in the Second World War and the Holocaust. His idea was not to reinforce and better the nation but to create it all over again from scratch.
One of the reasons for Fascism is the economical crisis, which is used by the person in power to unite the masses with a seemingly noble cause. The military and orderly nature of Fascism gave it even more strength, as well as a sense of belonging.
This led much of the young population of Germany to want to be a part of a large movement, united by the “honorable” cause. The difference between National Socialism and Fascism is that Fascism uses extremely militant and violent ways, and it does not accept any socialism or capitalism, basing everything on one ideology.
The similarity is based on the dominance of one race and the totality of the regime. Unfortunately, National Socialism leads to Nazism which eventually, leads to Fascism, so the connection is obvious. In all instances, people’s and nation’s critical state is used to unify public masses against all other nations and even the whole world.