Fascism and Nazism as Systems of False Unities

Abstract. One of the transnational ideologies that were born in the twentieth century and, unfortunately, did not lose their relevance in the twenty-first century was fascism and its national manifestations. In science, there is no single generally accepted definition of this concept; from frequent use in different contexts, it is “blurred”, deprived of specific historical content. The article attempts to define this complex socio – political phenomenon (combining personal views, ideology, movement, totalitarian dictatorship) on the basis of its essential characteristics on the basis of various definitions of the concept of “fascism” and its German version – “national socialism”. The author considers fascism and its national variants (in particular, German) as a system of false artificially constructed unities, which is based on political myths – first of all, the myth of race. This myth was based on social Darwinism, the pseudoscientific theory of the biological inequality of races and eugenics. The false interests of the “Aryan (Nordic)” race were declared the highest value by fascist (Nazi) ideologists and propagandists. In order to achieve the domination of the “higher” race, the “inferior” races were subject to destruction. The myth of race, like other Nazi false unities, collapsed in May 1945, when the criminal Nazi Reich was defeated by the Soviet Union and its allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.

Keywords: fascism, nazism, ideology, system of false unities, myth of race.

For citation: Khavkin B.L. Fascism and Nazism as Systems of False Unities, in Novoe Proshloe / The New Past. 2021. No. 4. Pp. 196–212. DOI 10.18522/2500‑3224‑2021‑4-196-212.

The article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).