Editing Totalitarianism (section)

=== "Totalitarians" and "Revisionists" ===
The Western [[historiography]] of the USSR and of the Soviet period of Russian history and is in two schools of research and interpretation: (i) the traditionalist school of historiography and (ii) the revisionist school of historiography;<ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003, pp. 11–57"/> the traditionalists and neo-traditionalists, or anti-revisionists, are also known as 'totalitarian school' or 'totalitarian approach' and 'Cold War' historians,<ref name="mawdsley"/><ref name="suny">[[Ronald Suny]]. ''Red Flag Unfurled: History, Historians and the Russian Revolution'' ([[Verso Books]], 2017).</ref> for relying on concepts and interpretations rooted in the early years of the Cold War and even in the sphere Russian [[White émigré]]s of the 1920s.<ref name="mawdsley"/>

Traditionalist-school historians characterise themselves as objective reporters of the claimed totalitarianism allegedly inherent to [[Marxism]], to [[Communism]], and to the political nature of [[Communist states]], such as the USSR, while the Cold War revisionists criticized the politically liberal and anti-communist bias they perceived in the predominance of the traditionalists and describe their approach as emotional and oversimplifying.<ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003, pp. 11–57"/> Revisionist-school historians criticise the traditionalist school's concentration upon the police-state aspects of Cold War history which they say leads it to{{failed verification|date=January 2025}} anti-communist interpretation of history biased towards a right-wing interpretation of the documentary facts. The revisionists also oppose the equation of Nazism and Communism and Stalinism and stress such their ideological differences as the humanist and egalitarian origins of Communist ideology.<ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003, pp. 11–57">{{cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=John Earl |author-link1=John Earl Haynes |last2=Klehr |first2=Harvey |author-link2=Harvey Klehr |date=2003 |chapter=Revising History |title=In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage |location=San Francisco |publisher=Encounter |pages=11–57 |isbn=1893554724}}</ref> In the 1960s, revisionists studying the Cold War and the Communist movement in the U.S. criticized the dominant ideas that American Communists were an actual threat to the United States<ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003, pp. 11–57"/> and that the Cold War was the fault of Stalin's territorial and political ambitions and that Soviet expansionism and its alleged strife to conquer the world forced the U.S. to turn from isolationism to a global containment policy.<ref name="suny"/>

The difference between these two historiographic directions is not only political, but also as methodological: the 'traditionalists' focus on politics, ideology and personalities of the Bolshevik and Communist leaders, putting the latter in the centre of history while largely ignoring social processes,<ref name="suny"/> and traditionalists present "history from above", directed by the leaders, while the revisionists put emphasis on "history from below"<ref name="mawdsley">{{Cite book |last=Mawdsley |first=Evan |author-link=Evan Mawdsley |title=The Russian Civil War|year=2011|publisher=Birlinn |isbn=9780857901231}}</ref> and social history of the Soviet regime,<ref name="suny"/> and they describe the traditionalists as '(right-wing) [[Romanticism|romantics]].'<ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003, pp. 11–57"/> In their turn, the traditionalists defend their approach and methodology, dismiss focus on social history and accuse their opponents of Marxism and of rationalizing the actions of the Bolsheviks and failing to recognize the primary role of "one man" leading a movement ([[Vladimir Lenin]] or [[Adolf Hitler]]). Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, revisionist approaches became largely accepted in academic circles, and the term "revisionism" migrated to characterize a group of social historians focusing on the working class and the upheavals of the Stalin years. At the same time, traditionalist historians retained popularity and influence outside academic circles, especially in politics and public spheres of the United States, where they supported harder policies towards the USSR: for example, [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] served as National Security Advisor to President [[Jimmy Carter]], while [[Richard Pipes]], a prominent historian of 'totalitarian school', headed the CIA group [[Team B]]; after 1991, their views have found popularity not only in the West, but also in the former USSR.<ref name="suny"/>
[[File:Dyadya lenin.jpg|thumb|upright|1920 Soviet propaganda poster with a complimentary cartoon of [[Vladimir Lenin]] by [[Viktor Deni]]. According to 'traditionalist' historians, Lenin was the first politician to establish a totalitarian regime; such description have been opposed by the 'revisionists' and other authors.]]