All totalitarian regimes, regardless of their form of government, have followed the same path. From populist slogans that lure people into their ranks and to rallies, to mass repression and killings. From sweet promises to cruel deprivations. From proclamations of the exceptionalism of their nation to aggressive wars of conquest. It doesn't matter under which banners the leaders of these regimes stood – whether it was the horse tails on the spears of Genghis Khan's warriors, the standards with the outstretched wings of the black eagle of Hitler's National Socialists, or the hammer and sickle of Stalin's red flags.
Systemic human rights violations in their own countries led to one thing – governance under the motto "the end justifies the means." What followed were only terror and repression.
The absence of natural economic mechanisms led to a centrally planned economy. This, in turn, resulted in a wartime economy and widespread poverty.
The insatiable desire for power, a sense of one's own exceptionalism, led the leaders of totalitarian regimes down the same path to the same endpoint – aggressive wars, in an attempt to become rulers of the world.
History is unforgiving – all dictatorial regimes have led to colossal human sacrifices and the most extreme suffering of people, confirming the same thesis: totalitarianism is a threat to international security. If Nazism, which led to tremendous disruptions in the way of life of all of Europe and horrifying human casualties, received its judgment at the Nuremberg Trials, then another totalitarian regime escaped this fate. By joining the ranks of the victors over Nazism, its close friend and ally, Stalinism, changed its beastly face to that of a victorious hero. Diligently covering up the facts of mutual support and economic assistance, scientific-technical and military cooperation with the Hitler regime, denying obvious facts of joint aggressive actions on the international stage, and denying the fact of signing the famous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Stalinism avoided international condemnation.
All of this led it down the familiar path to the hell of totalitarian regimes – the hell of war. Unpunished evil returned. It returned in the form of Russia's aggressive policies and a series of aggressive wars unleashed by faithful followers of Stalin. No dictator, perhaps with very rare exceptions, has escaped punishment. Sooner or later, totalitarian regimes faded into oblivion under the pressure of popular anger, leaving behind indelible scars of loss and disillusionment. History knows no examples of a society flourishing under the pressure of dictatorship and totalitarianism. Civilized society must take every possible measure to curb such manifestations.
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