20th Century – an interstice of the extremes?

Abstract

The paper focuses on both fascism and communism in an attempt to analyze them as politics „pioneering” phenomena. My goal is to see the way fascism and communism as historical realities, ideal-types, and as tropes were perceived, understood, and defined. The multiple nature of the two concepts when used by opponents and proponents comes under scrutiny and helps me understand the legacy of the recent past, including stereotypes, prejudgments, stigmas, a metaphoric and polemic type of discourse and so on, over post war historical writing.

Keywords

• fascism
• communism
• totalitarianism
• revolutions
• political religion