Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

Comparing Fascism and
Communism: Approaches
and Implications
129
Constantin Iordachi
The two decades that passed since the collapse of the communist
system have witnessed an academic rejuvenation of the scholarly
interest in the history of the totalitarian movements and regimes of
the twentieth century, due to a combination of factors. First, the collapse
of the communist system brought a historical period to a
close, making possible comparative historical retrospectives of totalitarian
fascist and communist regimes during the “short twentieth
century” (1917-1991), with a focus on the triad Fascist Italy,
Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Second, freed from political
taboos, scholars in Central and Eastern Europe have applied the totalitarian
approach to the study of their countries’ recent communist
past, giving birth to a rich (even if uneven and at times uncritical)
literature. Third, and most importantly, in the post-communist political
context, the concept of totalitarianism served as a major propaganda
tool of delegitimizing the communist past and of creating
consensus for the consolidation of a new democratic order, being
therefore placed at the centre of charged political debates. This
paper briefly discusses various comparative approaches to fascism
and communism, in an effort to evaluate some of their political
implications.
The Totalitarian Thesis: Fascism and Communism
as (Uni-)Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is an “essentially contested concept,” with a long
and highly politicized history. 1 Etymologically, the word derives its
meaning from the stem “total” and its derivates, such as “totality.”
The word was coined in Italy in early 1920s by the Italian journalist
1 Domenico Losurdo, “Towards a Critique of the Category of Totalitarianism,”
Historical Materialism, 12 (2004) 2, 25–55.
Constantin Iordachi is Assistant Professor of History at the Central
European University in Budapest. One of his research interests is Fascism
and Communism in Eastern Europe. He holds a doctorate in
Comparative History.