The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

335 Pages·2012·3.27 MB·English

by  Vladimir Tismaneanu

The Dev il in History
Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons
of the Twentieth Century

Vladimir Tismaneanu
university of california press
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
The Dev il in History
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support
of the Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund
of the University of California Press Foundation.
The Dev il in History
Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons
of the Twentieth Century

Vladimir Tismaneanu
university of california press
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
University of California Press, one of the most
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University of California Press
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University of California Press, Ltd.
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© 2012 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Tismaneanu, Vladimir.
The devil in history : communism, fascism, and
some lessons of the twentieth century / Vladimir
Tismaneanu.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-23972-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Communist state—History. 2. Communism—
History—20th century. 3. Fascism—History—
20th century. 4. Totalitarianism—History—20th
century. I. Title.
JC474.T497 2012
335.43—dc23
2012012796
Manufactured in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmen-
tally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC
Press has printed this book on Rolland Enviro100, a 100
percent postconsumer fi ber paper that is FSC certifi ed,
deinked, pro cessed chlorine- free, and manufactured with
renewable biogas energy. It is acid- free and EcoLogo
certifi ed.
In memory of Tony Judt, Leszek Kołakowski,
and Robert C. Tucker, great scholars and noble
intellectuals, whose writings inspired many
refl ections in this book.

Contents

Foreword ix
Prologue: Totalitarian Dictators and Ideological Hubris 1
1. Utopian Radicalism and Dehumanization 18
2. Diabolical Pedagogy and the (Il)logic of Stalinism 53
3. Lenin’s Century: Bolshevism, Marxism,
and the Rus sian Tradition 87
4. Dialectics of Disenchantment: Marxism
and Ideological Decay in Leninist Regimes 123
5. Ideology, Utopia, and Truth: Lessons
from Eastern Europe 161
6. Malaise and Resentment: Threats to Democracy
in Post- Communist Societies 193
Conclusions 224
Notes 235
Index 297

Foreword

This is a book about pol iti cal passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and
their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century’s experiments
in massive social engineering. More precisely, it is an attempt to map
and explain what Hannah Arendt called “the ideological storms” of a
century second to none in violence, hubris, ruthlessness, and human sac-
rifi ces. I began thinking about these issues as a teenager in Communist
Romania, when I had the chance to read a clandestinely circulated copy
of Arthur Koestler’s novel Darkness at Noon. I was born after World
War II to revolutionary parents who had embraced anti-F ascist Com-
munist values before the war. They had fought with the International
Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, where my father lost his right arm at
the age of twenty- four at the battle of river Ebro; my mother—a medi-
cal school student—w orked as a nurse. I grew up listening to countless
conversations about major fi gures of world Communism, as well as the
Stalinist atrocities. Names like Palmiro Togliatti, Rudolf Slánský, Mau-
rice Thorez, Josip Broz Tito, Ana Pauker, or Dolores Ibarruri w ere fre-
quently whispered during dinner table conversations.
Later, as a sociology student at the University of Bucharest, I ignored
the offi cial calls to distrust “bourgeois ideology” and did my utmost to
get hold of forbidden books by Milovan Djilas, Karl Jaspers, Hannah
Arendt, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Leszek Kołakowski,
and other antitotalitarian thinkers. Confronted with the grotesque fol-
lies of Nicolae Ceausescu’s dynastic Communism, I realized that I was
ix