The Transition from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism in Russia
The Transition from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism in Russia

Author(s): Lev Gudkov
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, History
Published by: Central European University Press
Keywords: Authoritarianism;Authoritarianism;Russia
Summary/Abstract: It is an acknowledged fact that most research on totalitarian systems focuses on the period between the 1930s and the 1960s. During this time, “typical” totalitarian systems—which may be described in an entirely satisfactory way with the “totalitarian syndrome” theoretical framework put forward by Friedrich and Brzezinski in the mid-1950s—hit their stride.1 Authors usually deal with the formation and with the institutional features of the fascist state in Italy, of Nazism in Germany, and of the Soviet system in the USSR. For the most part, such research is conducted by historians, who insert ready-made structures and concepts from political and sociological studies into their system, in order to combine or systematize the vast empirical material at their disposal.

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