GCE History Specification for AS exams 2009 onwards and A2 exams 2010 onwards (version 2.2)
Unit 1:
Totalitarian Ideology in Theory and in Practice, c1848–c1941
HIS1N
This unit cannot be combined with HIS2K, HIS2L, HIS2M or HIS2N To what extent were totalitarian states influenced by ideology? Introduction This unit provides an overview of the development of totalitarian ideologies as they developed from the mid-nineteenth century and an opportunity to investigate three totalitarian regimes and the extent to which ideology shaped them. Candidates will study Marxism as it developed from the mid-nineteenth century and its application in the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1941. This study of a communist regime will be complemented by a study of non-communist totalitarian ideologies as developed from the late nineteenth century: the establishment and development of Fascism in Italy from 1919 to 1940 and the development of Nazism in Germany from 1928 to 1939. It is not intended that students will study all aspects of totalitarian regimes; rather there will be a focus on the key themes of the establishment of the regime and the extent to which the regime that developed was consistent with totalitarian ideology, with reference to the intolerance of diversity and the Cult of Personality. Content
3
The USSR and Marxism • Marxist stage theory, including the dictatorship of the proletariat and how it was adapted by Lenin and Stalin • The power struggle to replace Lenin, 1924–1929: strengths and weaknesses of Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin; the role of ideology as it relates to the future of the revolution and the Soviet economy • The intolerance of diversity in the 1930s, with reference to economic, political, religious and cultural diversity, including the purges • Marxist theories of leadership and the Cult of Stalin Fascist Italy • Fascist ideology, with reference to militarism, nationalism, corporatism, anti-communism and racism • The rise of Fascism: the attraction of Fascist ideology, the role of Mussolini, the weakness of liberal Italy post-war, the fear of communism; the establishment of the one party state • The intolerance of diversity with reference to political, economic, religious and cultural diversity • Il Duce and the Cult of Mussolini in relation to Fascist ideology Nazi Germany • Nazi ideology, with reference to nationalism, socialism, race and anti-semitism and Volksgemeinschaft • The rise to power of Hitler from 1928 to January 1933: the economic crisis in agriculture and industry, the attraction and strengths of the Nazis and Nazism, the failures of democracy and the role of the elite • The establishment of dictatorship from January 1933 to the Army Oath of Loyalty • The intolerance of diversity with reference to anti-semitism, the Roma, asocials and competing political ideologies • The Fuhrer Myth and Nazi ideology, including the Fuhrerprinzip
22