Between Fear and Fascination: The Soviet Union in the Modern Age

Abstract

The article deals with the formation of Soviet power, the Soviet Union, the influence of the ideology of Marxism, Leninism and Stalinism on the processes associated with industrialization, national socialism, nationalism, war and peace, humanism and fascism, which were a response to the economic and political domination of the United States and Europe. In the context of comparative analysis, special attention is paid to the phenomenon of Bolshevism as a real challenge of the 20th century. Considering that without the October Revolution and the Civil War in Russia there would be no war ideologies in Europe, without the experience of a multinational empire there would be no ethnic cleansing, without the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II there would be no communist rule in Eastern Europe and etc. The article also examines the prerequisites for the formation and transformation of the totalitarian political system and regime of the USSR, against which the revival of democracy and market economy began in Europe.