Kulturowe fundamenty bolszewickiego totalitaryzmu
The Cultural Foundations of Bolshevik Totalitarianism

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the cultural and social mechanisms that fostered the development of Bolshevik totalitarianism in the Soviet Union. The research problem focuses on the question of why some societies are more susceptible to transformation into totalitarian regimes and how traditional cultural patterns influenced the acceptance of Bolshevik ideology. The research hypothesis assumes that the power of totalitarianisms results not only from the specificity of political power, but also from the unconscious readiness of societies to adopt specific attitudes towards reality. These attitudes result from patterns of culture, rooted in the foundation of culture, and manifested in language, rituals and everyday actions. They are supported by legal regulations. The research material includes legal and propaganda documents from two historical periods: tsarist Russia of the 19th century and the USSR, with particular emphasis on the Stalinist period. A content analysis method was used to identify key concepts such as collective responsibility and mir. They were considered to be “semantic centers” for other words, creating coherent semantic sets. The theoretical framework is based on four main concepts: cultural foundation, cultural pattern, Bolshevism and totalitarianism. The main findings indicate that Bolshevism—although in the ideological layer it negated the traditions of tsarist Russia and its institutional solutions—in practice built on the foundations of the bygone era. By adopting mechanisms of social control, such as the primacy of the group over the individual and collective responsibility, it made them effective tools of control. Remaining different in form, it was similar in content. The latter has been distorted and manifested in a form that proved to be destructive to human relationships. The principle of collective responsibility, inscribed in rural structures since the tsarist times, was used to strengthen the totalitarian system. The desacralization of traditional norms and their replacement with state ideology was also a key element. The totality of the traditional worldview, based on common being, has been replaced by a totalitarian form of state control. The conclusions suggest that enduring patterns of culture had a significant impact on the social institutions created and human behavior towards political systems. There was a feedback loop here: the political system was shaped by decision-makers and ideologues, but also by the passive attitudes of society, resulting from the lack of perception of itself as a separate individual. Cultural patterns did not assume the formation of independence and a sense of agency. The Soviet man, lonely and deprived of a traditional community, became susceptible to the control of the totalitarian system, unwittingly co-creating it. The results of the research create premises for further exploration of the problem of resignation from agency and identification with the group as mechanisms feeding totalitarianisms. Particularly noteworthy are the unconscious attitudes of accepting the values of the group, without confronting them with individual goals and needs.

• Details
• Contents