Jessen & Richter (Eds.)

Voting for Hitler and Stalin

Ralph Jessen
is professor of modern history at the University of Cologne, Germany.
Hedwig Richter
is a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Greifswald, Germany.

Ralph Jessen, Hedwig Richter (eds.)

Voting for Hitler and Stalin

Elections Under 20th Century Dictatorships

Campus Verlag

Frankfurt/New York

Printed with a subsidy by the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur

and the Fritz Tyssen Foundation

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de

ISBN 978-3-593-39489-3

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Cover illustration:
For the people’s happiness!
Poster by Viktor Semyonovich Ivanov, Soviet political agitation art, 1950, Russian State Library, Moscow. © culture-images/fai

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Contents

Introduction

Non-Competitive Elections in 20th Century Dictatorships:

Some Questions and General Considerations.................................................. 9

Ralph Jessen and Hedwig Richter

I Legitimacy

The Self-Staging of a Plebiscitary Dictatorship: The NS-Regime

Between “Uniformed
Reichstag
”, Referendum and
Reichsparteitag
................39

Markus Urban

Popular Sovereignty and Constitutional Rights in the USSR’s

Supreme Soviet Elections of February 1946 ...................................................59

Mark B. Smith

Integration, Celebration, and Challenge: Soviet Youth and Elections,

1953–1968 ............................................................................................................81

Gleb Tsipursky

Mass Obedience: Practices and Functions of Elections

in the German Democratic Republic..............................................................103

Hedwig Richter

Elections in Modern Dictatorships: Some Analytical Considerations ......126

Werner J. Patzelt

6

CONTENTS

II Discipline

The Great Soviet Paradox: Elections and Terror in the Unions,

1937–1938 ............................................................................................................. 147

Wendy Z. Goldman

Plebiscites in Fascist Italy: National Unity and the Importance

of the Appearance of Unity ............................................................................173

Paul Corner

Works Council Elections in Czechoslovakia, 1948–1968 ..........................186

Peter Heumos

Faking It: Neo-Soviet Electoral Politics in Central Asia ............................204

Donnacha Ó Beacháin

III Dissent and Loyalty

Elections, Plebiscitary Elections, and Plebiscites in Fascist Italy

and Nazi-Germany: Comparative Perspectives ...........................................231

Enzo Fimiani

“Germany Totally National Socialist”—National Socialist

Reichstag
Elections and Plebiscites, 1933–1938: The Example

of Schleswig-Holstein .......................................................................................254

Frank Omland

Elections in the Soviet Union, 1937–1989: A View into

a Paternalistic World from Below ..................................................................276

Stephan Merl

“The People’s Voice”: The Elections to the Supreme Soviet

of the USSR in 1958 in the Belarusian Capital Minsk .................................309

Thomas M. Bohn

Contributors ........................................................................................................337

Index.....................................................................................................................341

Introduction