IB diploma Extended Essay
Research question:
To what extent does the nature of youth organization in totalitarian regimes---------The Hitler youth and Komsomol
Sigmund Freud once said: “throughout an individual’s childhood and adolescence, external forces are shaping his or her mind.” The youth is always the backbone of any state, and a loyal youth force is the strongest reinforcement for any totalitarian government’s rule, regardless of how success their other policies were. Totalitarian government finds it an effective way to extend and solidifies their period of leadership, and the failure of youth policies will inevitably lead to crises and downfall of such regime. Although modern totalitarian governments tries their very best to make sure the youth doesn’t threaten their leadership, there are always differences on the details of how different totalitarian states takes control of the youth through state-controlled organizations. This essay will explore these differences of youth organizations in two European totalitarian governments: Nazi Germany and Bolshevik Russia. This essay will also analyze the reasons behind the differences of these two governments’ expectation on youth and methodology to train the youth, also for exploring the difference in the two governments’ ideology.
As a country with strong religious traditions and a long trace of localism and nationalism, youth movements existed long before Adolf Hitler was born, but none of such movements had the momentum and effects as the Hitler youth, nor any of them was as organized and disciplined as the Hitler Youth. German Historian H.W. Koch stated that local fraternities existed throughout the Second Reich (1871-1918), and these local organizations supported and participated the First World War with extreme enthusiasm, contribution of them were enormous. The situation came to a dramatic change as ordinary German people were devastated and haunted by the horrors of World War One and the peace...