The American Debate Over Totalitarianism: Terror
The American Debate Over Totalitarianism: Terror

Summary/Abstract: Terror was identified by many Western authors as an essential feature of totalitarian systems, communist or fascist. Ever since 1970s, however, a new interpretation suggested that belief rather than terror motivated the Soviet population even during the years of the so-called "Great Purge" (1935-1939). In an article published in 1986. based on new memoirs literature and the Smolensk Archives, Robert Thurston challenged the conventional view prevalent among sovietologists, arguing that the "Great Purge" was not a purge; it was not even great. Moreover, since not even the "Great Purge" was a total terror, totalitarianism as a political concept is misleading and does not capture the essence of the Soviet-type system and, more generally, of the communist systems. This article presents the Thurston - Conquest debate (that is the "revisionist" - "totalitarian" debate), and the way in which "revisionists" have challenged terror as the essence of totalitarianism. It is further suggested that any analysis of the role of terror in a totalitarian system should take into account Hannah Arendt’s description of the "banality of evil".

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