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|title=Conservative Opposition to Totalitarianism
|description=An overview of conservative arguments against totalitarianism, examining anti-communism, anti-fascism, Cold War thought, religious resistance, dissident movements, and the defense of constitutional government, civil society, and individual liberty.
|keywords=conservatism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, anti-fascism, Cold War, Whittaker Chambers, James Burnham, Russell Kirk, Ronald Reagan, Frank Meyer, fusionism, communism, fascism, Nazism, Soviet Union, China, authoritarianism, democracy, constitutional government, Western civilization, religious liberty, civil society, dissidents, Václav Havel, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Roger Scruton, anti-totalitarianism, political philosophy
|image=File:Placeholder.png
|image_width=300
|image_height=200
|type=article}}
[[Category:Conservatism]]
[[Category:Political Philosophy]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Fascism]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Political Ideologies]]
[[Category:Western Civilization]]
__NOTOC__
== Conservative Opposition to Totalitarianism ==
Conservative writers have long argued that totalitarian regimes—whether communist or fascist—seek to eliminate the independence of individuals, families, religious institutions, markets, and civil society by concentrating power within an all-encompassing ideological state. The collected articles explore how conservative thinkers interpreted twentieth-century totalitarian movements, defended constitutional government and moral order, and developed intellectual traditions that resisted political systems claiming unlimited authority over society.
=== Conservative Definitions of Totalitarianism ===
The articles distinguish totalitarian governments from ordinary authoritarian regimes by emphasizing their comprehensive ambitions. Rather than merely exercising political control, totalitarian systems attempt to reshape every aspect of society through ideology, centralized administration, propaganda, censorship, surveillance, education, and state-directed economic and cultural life. Many authors argue that both communist and fascist regimes shared these characteristics despite their ideological differences.
=== Anti-Communism and the Conservative Movement ===
A recurring theme is that opposition to Soviet communism became one of the principal forces uniting postwar American conservatism. Traditionalists, libertarians, religious conservatives, and anti-communist liberals frequently cooperated despite philosophical differences because they viewed communist expansion as both a geopolitical and moral threat. The development of fusionism, the influence of National Review, and debates over Cold War strategy receive significant attention.
=== Fascism, Nazism, and the Totalitarian State ===
Many contributors compare fascism and communism as related forms of ideological dictatorship while also discussing important differences between them. The articles examine Nazism, Italian Fascism, revolutionary collectivism, political religion, racial ideology, and centralized state power. Several authors challenge simplistic political classifications and instead focus on common totalitarian characteristics shared by twentieth-century dictatorships.
=== Conservative Thinkers and Intellectual Traditions ===
The collection highlights numerous conservative intellectuals whose work shaped anti-totalitarian thought, including:
* Whittaker Chambers
* James Burnham
* Russell Kirk
* Frank Meyer
* Roger Scruton
* Jeane Kirkpatrick
* Raymond Aron
* Václav Benda
* Ronald Reagan
* Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
* Leo Strauss
* Eric Voegelin
* Christopher Dawson
* Gerhart Niemeyer
Their writings emphasize constitutional government, moral responsibility, religious belief, natural law, limited government, and skepticism toward utopian political projects.
=== Religion, Morality, and Political Order ===
Many articles argue that totalitarian movements function as secular religions that promise earthly salvation while rejecting transcendent moral limits. Conservative writers frequently maintain that religious institutions, family life, local communities, and inherited traditions provide essential barriers against ideological politics. Christianity, natural law, and human dignity are presented as important foundations for resisting unlimited political authority.
=== Cold War Strategy and Anti-Communist Policy ===
Numerous articles examine Cold War history, including:
* containment
* rollback
* Reagan's foreign policy
* NATO and the Atlantic alliance
* captive nations
* Soviet expansion
* anti-communist dissidents
* democratic internationalism
Several contributors argue that military strength alone was insufficient and that ideological, cultural, economic, and religious resistance also contributed to the eventual collapse of Soviet communism.
=== Dissidents and Resistance Under Communist Rule ===
The collection pays considerable attention to individuals and movements that resisted communist regimes, including:
* Václav Havel
* Václav Benda
* Whittaker Chambers
* Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
* Alexei Navalny
* North Korean human-rights advocates
* Hungarian and Czech dissidents
* Eastern European democratic movements
These accounts emphasize truth-telling, civic courage, religious communities, independent institutions, and moral resistance.
=== China and Contemporary Authoritarianism ===
Several modern articles extend conservative critiques of totalitarianism to contemporary China, arguing that surveillance technology, censorship, ideological campaigns, and centralized Communist Party control represent modern expressions of totalitarian governance. Other articles examine Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Laos, and remaining communist governments.
=== Totalitarianism and Modern Ideological Politics ===
Some contributors argue that contemporary ideological movements can exhibit features resembling earlier totalitarian systems, particularly through ideological conformity, political polarization, restrictions on free expression, and efforts to reshape institutions. These discussions generally draw historical comparisons rather than claiming direct equivalence with twentieth-century dictatorships.
=== Historical Memory and Communist Crimes ===
A substantial portion of the collection argues for preserving public memory of communist repression through museums, memorials, education, historical scholarship, and recognition of victims. Authors contend that understanding communist history remains important for evaluating modern ideological movements and defending democratic institutions.
=== Western Civilization and Constitutional Liberty ===
Many articles frame the struggle against totalitarianism as a defense of Western civilization, constitutional government, pluralism, religious liberty, private property, free association, and the rule of law. The preservation of intermediary institutions between individuals and the state is presented as essential for maintaining free societies.
=== Conclusion ===
Taken together, these sources present conservative anti-totalitarian thought as an intellectual tradition centered on limiting political power, defending constitutional institutions, preserving civil society, protecting religious and personal freedom, and resisting ideological movements that seek comprehensive control over human life. Although contributors differ in their interpretations of history and contemporary politics, the collection consistently portrays communism and fascism as major twentieth-century examples of totalitarian rule and argues that historical memory, moral conviction, and constitutional government remain essential safeguards against future forms of political absolutism.
__TOC__
=== Anti-Communism and the American Conservative Movement ===
=====Whittaker Chambers' Warning to America About Totalitarian Ideologies=====
[https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/whittaker-chambers-warning-america-about-totalitarian-ideologies | Lee Edwards | The Heritage Foundation | April 1, 2021]
Edwards presents Chambers as a central conservative witness against communism who understood totalitarianism as a spiritual revolt rather than merely an alternative economic system.
=====The False Appeal of Socialism=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/false-appeal-socialism | David R. Henderson | Hoover Institution | September 21, 2020]
Henderson argues that comprehensive economic planning requires political coercion because individuals must be compelled to obey decisions imposed by central authorities.
=====Is China Totalitarian?=====
[https://www.heritage.org/china/commentary/china-totalitarian | Mike Gonzalez | The Heritage Foundation | February 26, 2020]
The article argues that the Chinese Communist Party is reviving Maoist methods of ideological control, surveillance, censorship, and political repression.
=====The Berlin Wall: Its Rise, Fall, and Legacy=====
[https://fee.org/articles/the-berlin-wall-its-rise-fall-and-legacy/ | Doug Bandow | Foundation for Economic Education | November 5, 2019]
Bandow describes the fall of the Berlin Wall as a triumph of human liberty over a system maintained by censorship, imprisonment, border controls, and political violence.
=====Three Nations That Tried Socialism and Rejected It=====
[https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/three-nations-tried-socialism-and-rejected-it | Lee Edwards | The Heritage Foundation | October 16, 2019]
Edwards contrasts democratic experiments with state planning in Britain, India, and Israel with the much more repressive and totalitarian Soviet model.
=====What Willmoore Kendall Can Teach Us About America=====
[https://blog.acton.org/archives/109852-what-willmoore-kendall-can-teach-us-about-america.html | Daniel J. Mahoney | Acton Institute PowerBlog | June 28, 2019]
The article recounts Kendall’s early encounter with the Spanish left and his growing revulsion toward the violence, censorship, and antidemocratic character of Stalinist communism.
=====A How-to Guide for Opposing Totalitarianism=====
[https://blog.acton.org/archives/108594-a-how-to-guide-for-opposing-totalitarianism-a-review-of-on-tyranny.html | Rev. Ben Johnson | Acton Institute PowerBlog | May 10, 2019]
This review considers practical lessons for resisting tyranny while emphasizing the importance of remembering communist institutions and atrocities.
=====Foundation for Victory=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/foundation-for-victory/ | Patrick J. Garrity | Claremont Review of Books | March 18, 2019]
This examination of James Burnham describes his strategy of supporting dissidents, religious communities, and captive nations to undermine communist power from within.
=====Conservatism and the People=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/conservatism-and-the-people | Peter Berkowitz | City Journal | March 6, 2019]
Berkowitz explains how traditionalists and classical liberals formed a conservative coalition against centralized domestic government and expansionist communist totalitarianism.
=====Collectivism's Progress: From Marxism to Race and Gender Warfare=====
[https://fee.org/articles/collectivism-s-progress-from-marxism-to-race-and-gender-warfare/ | Richard M. Ebeling | Foundation for Economic Education | March 20, 2018]
Ebeling argues that collectivist doctrines subordinate individuals to politically defined groups and can provide intellectual foundations for centralized and authoritarian government.
=====Western Values: The Key to Defeating Russian Propaganda=====
[https://www.acton.org/publications/transatlantic/2017/08/25/western-values-key-defeating-russian-propaganda | Mihail Neamțu | Acton Institute | August 25, 2017]
The author argues that the peoples of Eastern Europe drew on national identity, Christianity, and personal experience of communist rule to resist Russian authoritarian influence.
=====Would-Be Tyrants Capture Language to Control Thought=====
[https://fee.org/articles/would-be-tyrants-capture-language-to-control-thought/ | Richard M. Ebeling | Foundation for Economic Education | August 11, 2017]
Ebeling examines how ideological movements redefine language and restrict acceptable thought, comparing such efforts with propaganda techniques associated with twentieth-century totalitarianism.
=====Fighting for Totalitarianism's Victims=====
[https://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-27-number-1/fighting-for-totalitarianisms-victims-interview-suzanne-scholte | Suzanne Scholte | Acton Institute | February 20, 2017]
Scholte discusses activism on behalf of North Koreans and other victims of communist regimes while criticizing international support for totalitarian governments.
=====3 Reasons We Must Remember Communist Crimes=====
[https://fee.org/articles/3-reasons-we-must-remember-communist-crimes/ | Ilya Somin | Foundation for Economic Education | May 17, 2016]
Somin argues that historical memory, justice for victims, and prevention of future abuses require serious public recognition of communist repression.
=====The Savior of French Liberalism=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-savior-of-french-liberalism | Daniel J. Mahoney | City Journal | February 3, 2016]
This appreciation of Raymond Aron describes his democratic conservatism, rejection of historical determinism, and defense of personal autonomy against totalitarian ideology.
=====Krystal Not Clear on Orwell=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/05/krystal-not-clear-orwell-charles-c-w-cooke/ | Charles C. W. Cooke | National Review | May 7, 2014]
Cooke discusses George Orwell’s opposition to both fascism and communism and challenges attempts to appropriate Orwell while ignoring his hostility to totalitarian politics.
=====The First Principles of Ronald Reagan's Foreign Policy=====
[https://static.heritage.org/2011/pdf/fp0040.pdf | Robert G. Kaufman | The Heritage Foundation | November 1, 2011]
Kaufman argues that Reagan combined military strength, ideological confrontation, support for dissidents, and confidence in democratic capitalism to challenge the Soviet Union.
=====The Conservative Consensus: Frank Meyer, Barry Goldwater, and the Politics of Fusionism=====
[https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/the-conservative-consensus-frank-meyer-barry-goldwater-and-the-politics | Lee Edwards | The Heritage Foundation | November 19, 2010]
Edwards describes how traditionalism, libertarianism, and anti-communism were united within postwar American conservatism through the fusionist ideas of Frank Meyer.
=====The Never-Ending Journey=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/d-g-myers-2/the-never-ending-journey/ | D. G. Myers | Commentary | October 1, 2009]
This essay examines Lionel Trilling’s insistence that intellectuals had a moral duty to oppose Soviet totalitarianism and defend human freedom.
=====The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America=====
[https://fee.org/articles/the-conservative-intellectual-movement-in-america-since-1945-2nd-edition-by-george-h-nash/ | Bettina Bien Greaves | Foundation for Economic Education | May 1, 2008]
This review of George H. Nash’s history explains how libertarians, traditionalists, and militant anti-communists created the modern American conservative coalition.
=== Cold War Policy, Captive Nations, and Resistance ===
=====The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism=====
[https://www.hoover.org/events/broken-china-dream-how-reform-revived-totalitarianism | Hoover Institution | Hoover Institution | November 2, 2023]
Scholars discuss how Communist Party control, ideological campaigns, surveillance, repression, and Xi Jinping’s leadership have renewed totalitarian features in China.
=====How Cultural Marxism Threatens the United States—and How Americans Can Fight It=====
[https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/report/how-cultural-marxism-threatens-the-united-states-and-how-americans-can-fight | Mike Gonzalez and Katharine Gorka | The Heritage Foundation | November 14, 2022]
The report argues that Marxist-derived cultural theories threaten constitutional principles, individual equality, and the inherited institutions of American society.
=====Memory, Justice and Moral Cleansing=====
[https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-27-number-2/memory-justice-and-moral-cleansing | Vladimir Tismăneanu | Acton Institute | 2017]
Tismăneanu discusses the importance of memorials, museums, historical investigation, and moral accountability in societies recovering from communist dictatorship.
=====Repressions=====
[https://www.acton.org/repressions | Nikolai Berdyaev | Acton Institute | July 20, 2010]
Berdyaev explains how communism demanded adherence to a comprehensive worldview and treated independent religious belief as a threat to total political control.
=====My Kingdom for a Safe Zone=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2009/01/my-kingdom-safe-zone-jay-nordlinger/ | Jay Nordlinger | National Review | January 5, 2009]
Nordlinger argues that genuine conservatism begins with recognizing the moral limits of government and the dangers posed by fascism, communism, and other forms of unlimited power.
=====War-Torn Democrats=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/war-torn-democrats | Peter Berkowitz | Hoover Institution | August 1, 2006]
Berkowitz reviews Cold War liberalism and its relationship with conservative anti-communism, democratic internationalism, and the domestic defense of constitutional government.
=====American Conservatism and F. A. Hayek=====
[https://fee.org/wp-content/uploads/ebooks/hayekconservative.pdf | Ronald Hamowy | Foundation for Economic Education | 2005]
This study examines Hayek’s relationship to American conservatism, including shared opposition to central planning and communist threats to free societies.
=====How We Won in Vietnam=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/how-we-won-vietnam | Michael A. Ledeen | Hoover Institution | February 1, 2005]
Ledeen argues that economic development, legal reform, and contact with free societies continued the contest between democratic capitalism and Vietnamese communist rule.
=====The Congress of Prague: Revitalizing the Atlantic Alliance=====
[https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20040311_book735text.pdf | Various Authors | American Enterprise Institute | 2004]
Contributors defend the Atlantic democratic alliance and argue that fascism, Nazism, and communism cannot compete morally or institutionally with free government.
=====Winning the War on Terror=====
[https://www.aei.org/articles/winning-the-war-on-terror/ | Joshua Muravchik | American Enterprise Institute | November 1, 2001]
Muravchik considers whether strategic and ideological lessons from anti-communism could be applied to another movement seeking to overturn liberal and democratic societies.
=====How Liberals Funked It=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/how-liberals-funked-it | Robert Conquest | Hoover Institution | October 1, 2000]
Conquest criticizes intellectuals who minimized communist crimes while recognizing that principled liberals and social democrats were also important opponents of Soviet despotism.
=====News Coverage of the Sandinista Revolution=====
[https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/News-Coverage-of-the-Sandinista-Revolution-text.pdf | Mark Falcoff | American Enterprise Institute | 1981]
The report examines how American media interpreted the Sandinista movement and whether journalists adequately addressed evidence of communist influence and authoritarian development.
=====The Rise and Fall of England: The Fall of England=====
[https://fee.org/articles/the-rise-and-fall-of-england-17-the-fall-of-england-conclusion/ | Clarence B. Carson | Foundation for Economic Education | December 1, 1979]
Carson argues that declining confidence in private property, national independence, and limited government weakened Western resistance to international communism.
=====Eurocommunism: The Italian Case=====
[https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eurocommunism.pdf | Frederic L. Pryor | American Enterprise Institute | 1979]
The study evaluates whether Western European communist parties had genuinely accepted democratic pluralism or remained committed to revolutionary and potentially totalitarian objectives.
=====Policy Review, Issue 4=====
[https://static.heritage.org/1978/pdf/pr_4.pdf | Various Authors | Policy Review | 1978]
This early conservative-policy collection discusses Western European anti-communism, Soviet strategy, national defense, and political resistance to totalitarian expansion.
=====Liberal Anti-Communism Revisited=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/reader-letters/liberal-anti-communism-revisited/ | Various Authors | Commentary | January 1, 1968]
This exchange distinguishes conservative, liberal, and social-democratic forms of anti-communism while debating their motives, methods, and attitudes toward reform.
=====The Cold War Perspective Without Stalin=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/george-lichtheim/the-cold-war-perspective-without-stalinwhy-soviet-expansion-may-now-accelerate/ | George Lichtheim | Commentary | April 1, 1953]
Lichtheim assesses whether Soviet expansionism depended primarily on Stalin’s personality or emerged from the structure and ideological objectives of the communist system.
=== Cold War Strategy and Democratic Resistance ===
=====On NATO and Captive Nations=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/on-nato-and-captive-nations/ | Eric Patterson | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | April 4, 2024]
The article links NATO’s founding to the defense of European nations threatened by Soviet expansion and emphasizes the continuing legacy of communist imperialism.
=====Illiberalism’s True Colors=====
[https://www.aei.org/commentary/illiberalisms-true-colors | Daniel A. Bell | American Enterprise Institute | March 28, 2022]
Bell argues that opposition to Soviet communism once disciplined conservative politics and warns against substituting authoritarian nationalism for constitutional democracy.
=====Willmoore Kendall and the Intellectual Roots of the Populist Right=====
[https://www.aei.org/articles/willmoore-kendall-and-the-intellectual-roots-of-the-populist-right/ | Geoffrey Kabaservice | American Enterprise Institute | October 29, 2021]
The article explains that Kendall opposed communist totalitarianism because he regarded rule by ideological experts as incompatible with democratic self-government.
=====Four Most Important Lessons of the Cold War=====
[https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/4-most-important-lessons-cold-war-and-why-they-are-important-today | Lee Edwards | The Heritage Foundation | December 30, 2019]
Edwards argues that communist ideology, Western military strength, dissident courage, and confidence in freedom were central to understanding the Soviet collapse.
=====Reflections on the Revolution of 1989=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/revolution-of-1989-fall-berlin-wall-reflections/ | Daniel J. Mahoney | National Review | December 9, 2019]
Mahoney portrays communism as a secular faith that could not tolerate independent spiritual authority and eventually collapsed when people withdrew their belief.
=====Dictatorships and Democracy: Kagan Contra Kirkpatrick=====
[https://providencemag.com/2019/05/dictatorships-democracy-kagan-contra-kirkpatrick/ | Keith Pavlischek | Providence | May 10, 2019]
The article revisits Kirkpatrick’s argument that revolutionary Marxist regimes represented a more comprehensive and enduring threat than conventional authoritarian governments.
=====Communism’s Bloody Century=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/communisms-bloody-century | David Satter | Hoover Institution | November 6, 2017]
Satter reflects on the violence, dictatorship, social control, and human destruction associated with communist attempts to reorganize society.
=====Communism and the Russian Revolution’s Terrible Cost=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/10/communism-russian-revolution-terrible-cost/ | Jay Nordlinger | National Review | October 25, 2017]
Nordlinger criticizes romantic treatments of the Russian Revolution and emphasizes the coercion, famine, imprisonment, and political killing produced by Bolshevik rule.
=====A Pope and a President=====
[https://providencemag.com/2017/09/pope-president-john-paul-ii-ronald-reagan-collapse-communism/ | Paul Kengor | Providence | September 20, 2017]
Kengor describes how John Paul II and Ronald Reagan used religious conviction, political pressure, and support for Polish resistance to weaken Soviet communism.
=====Reagan, the Soviets, and the Ash-Heap of History=====
[https://providencemag.com/2016/12/reagan-soviets-ash-heap-history/ | Joseph Loconte | Providence | December 19, 2016]
Loconte examines Reagan’s confidence that democratic capitalism would outlast Soviet totalitarianism despite widespread acceptance of permanent Cold War coexistence.
=====France’s 1968 Chaos and Democracy’s Fragility=====
[https://providencemag.com/2016/06/frances-1968-chaos-democracys-fragility/ | Mark Tooley | Providence | June 21, 2016]
The essay recalls Charles de Gaulle’s warning that revolutionary disorder could enable a communist dictatorship to seize power while concealing its intentions.
=====Conservative Internationalism=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/conservative-internationalism | Henry R. Nau | Hoover Institution | August 1, 2013]
Nau outlines a conservative foreign-policy tradition that combines military strength, national sovereignty, and the expansion of constitutional freedom.
=====Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong=====
[https://www.aei.org/commentary/everything-you-think-you-know-about-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-is-wrong/ | Leon Aron | American Enterprise Institute | June 20, 2011]
Aron examines the moral, political, economic, and national forces that unexpectedly produced the collapse of Soviet communism.
=====1989 and All That=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2009/11/1989-and-all-duncan-currie/ | Duncan Currie | National Review | November 13, 2009]
Currie reflects on the unexpected collapse of communist governments and the mixture of political courage, economic failure, and international pressure that brought it about.
=====A Different Dance=====
[https://www.aei.org/commentary/a-different-dance/ | Leon Aron | American Enterprise Institute | January 1, 2008]
Aron examines the relationship between Russian democracy, anti-communism, nationalism, and the authoritarian political developments that followed the Soviet collapse.
=====Improving the National Endowment for Democracy=====
[https://www.heritage.org/political-process/commentary/improving-the-ned | Kim R. Holmes | The Heritage Foundation | August 26, 1996]
Holmes describes democracy promotion as an antidote to Soviet totalitarianism while arguing that post-Cold War programs should focus more clearly on political freedom.
=====McCarthyism: The Last Refuge of the Left=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/david-horowitz/mccarthyism-the-last-refuge-of-the-left/ | David Horowitz | Commentary | January 1, 1988]
Horowitz argues that accusations of McCarthyism were frequently used to discredit legitimate investigation of communist influence and espionage.
=====Is Communism Dead?=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/george-lichtheim/is-communism-dead/ | George Lichtheim | Commentary | September 1, 1967]
Lichtheim examines how Bolshevik modernization created a totalitarian terror regime resembling fascism despite its different ideological rhetoric.
=== Conservative Anti-Totalitarian Thought ===
=====Defining Ideology=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2026/04/defining-ideology-bradley-birzer.html | Bradley J. Birzer | The Imaginative Conservative | April 29, 2026]
Birzer argues that ideology distorts partial truths into rigid political systems, contrasting conservative prudence with the absolutism found in communism, fascism, and other totalizing doctrines.
=====After 30 Years, 5 Things I Learned from My Students About Why They Like Socialism=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/after-30-years-5-things-i-learned-from-my-students-why-they-like-socialism/ | Elizabeth Spalding | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | December 8, 2025]
The author argues that inadequate knowledge of communist crimes and dissident resistance has made younger Americans more receptive to collectivist political promises.
=====An Evil, Anti-Human Ideology=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/an-evil-anti-human-ideology/ | Elizabeth Spalding | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | November 19, 2025]
Spalding presents communism as an ideology that promises equality while producing one-party rule, persecution, economic ruin, and the systematic destruction of human freedom.
=====Strauss and Meyer Rediscovered=====
[https://lawliberty.org/strauss-and-meyer-rediscovered/ | Daniel J. Flynn | Law & Liberty | October 29, 2025]
The article revisits Frank Meyer and Leo Strauss as influential opponents of communism whose disagreements nevertheless shaped the philosophical foundations of postwar American conservatism.
=====Laos Under the Shadow of Communism=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/laos-under-the-shadow-of-communism/ | Bounleuang Kern Kataviravong | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | July 16, 2025]
This account describes continuing political repression, economic failure, educational decline, and restrictions on freedom under communist government in Laos.
=====In the Rubble of Totalitarianism=====
[https://lawliberty.org/podcast/in-the-rubble-of-totalitarianism/ | Law & Liberty | Law & Liberty | April 8, 2025]
The discussion examines Marxism, ideological politics, human nature, and the political and moral devastation left behind by communist regimes.
=====Socialism: Science or Cyanide?=====
[https://fee.org/articles/socialism-science-or-cyanide/ | Lawrence W. Reed | Foundation for Economic Education | November 26, 2024]
Reed reviews the historical record of communist governments and argues that violence and coercion were inherent consequences of their ideological objectives.
=====Russell Kirk: The Father of the Conservative Intellectual Movement=====
[https://isi.org/russell-kirk-the-father-of-the-conservatism/ | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | November 8, 2024]
The article describes Kirk’s traditionalist conservatism as a defense of moral order, individual dignity, free institutions, and inherited culture against communist totalitarianism.
=====Remembering Black Ribbon Day=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/remembering-black-ribbon-day/ | Eric Patterson and Karl Altau | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | August 23, 2024]
The authors commemorate victims of Nazi and communist regimes while calling attention to continuing totalitarian repression in China, North Korea, and other states.
=====The Borderlands of the West=====
[https://providencemag.com/2024/05/borderlands-of-the-west-challenge-and-opportunity-in-politics-and-culture/ | Michael O. C. Kassab | Providence | May 23, 2024]
The essay argues that the experience of fascism and communism in East-Central Europe can help renew Western commitments to moral truth, national independence, and political liberty.
=====Liberal Ideology Is Not Enough to Save the West=====
[https://providencemag.com/2024/05/liberal-ideology-is-not-enough-to-save-the-west/ | Daniel Strand | Providence | May 15, 2024]
Strand argues that opposition to tyranny requires cultural, religious, and communal loyalties stronger than abstract political ideology alone.
=====A Return to Ideological Competition=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/a-return-to-ideological-competition-western-liberal-values-or-totalitarianism/ | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | March 18, 2024]
The article frames contemporary international rivalry as a renewed contest between constitutional freedom and authoritarian systems influenced by communist totalitarianism.
=====Enduring Truths and Progressivist Illusions=====
[https://lawliberty.org/forum/enduring-truths-and-progressivist-illusions/ | Daniel J. Mahoney | Law & Liberty | December 29, 2023]
Mahoney examines Solzhenitsyn’s criticism of ideological progressivism and his respect for conservatives and classical liberals who confronted communist totalitarianism honestly.
=====Totalitarianism: History, Legacy, and Lessons=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/event/totalitarianism-history-and-resurgence/ | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | May 24, 2023]
This seminar explores the historical meaning of totalitarianism, its educational legacy, and its relevance to contemporary Russian aggression and authoritarian politics.
=====Reagan, Religion, and the Evil Empire=====
[https://providencemag.com/2023/03/reagan-religion-and-the-evil-empire/ | Paul Kengor | Providence | March 6, 2023]
Kengor explains how Reagan’s religious convictions informed his description of Soviet communism as an evil system grounded in persecution, atheism, forced conformity, and political terror.
=====What Whittaker Chambers Can Teach About the Meaning of Freedom=====
[https://providencemag.com/2023/02/what-whittaker-chambers-can-teach-the-biden-administration-about-the-true-meaning-of-freedom/ | Jacob Heilbrunn | Providence | February 15, 2023]
Chambers’s journey from Soviet espionage to Christian anti-communism is used to illuminate a conception of freedom rooted in moral responsibility rather than political power alone.
=====There’s No Escaping the Enlightenment=====
[https://lawliberty.org/theres-no-escaping-the-enlightenment/ | Kim R. Holmes | Law & Liberty | October 10, 2022]
Holmes discusses the intellectual origins of modern politics and argues that both communism and fascism developed ideological hostility toward constitutional liberalism.
=====When a Joke Is the Difference Between Freedom and Tyranny=====
[https://blog.acton.org/archives/123771-when-a-joke-is-the-difference-between-freedom-and-tyranny.html | Titus Techera | Acton Institute PowerBlog | August 24, 2022]
The essay uses a Czech film to examine humor, conformity, and personal resistance under communist dictatorship.
=====The Truth Option=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-truth-option/ | William Voegeli | Claremont Review of Books | Spring 2021]
This review of Rod Dreher’s work considers testimony from former communist subjects about surveillance, ideological pressure, social conformity, and resistance through truth-telling.
=====Soft Totalitarianism, Coming or Going?=====
[https://lawliberty.org/book-review/soft-totalitarianism-coming-or-going/ | James M. Patterson | Law & Liberty | October 2, 2020]
Patterson evaluates claims that cultural coercion and institutional conformity could produce a softer form of totalitarian control within modern democratic societies.
=== Conservative Leaders, Strategists, and Witnesses ===
=====Heritage Expert Wins Award for Boldly Fighting Communism=====
[https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/impact/heritage-expert-wins-award-boldly-fighting-communism | The Heritage Foundation | The Heritage Foundation | June 17, 2022]
The article profiles Lee Edwards and his work documenting communist crimes, preserving the history of anti-communism, and honoring victims of totalitarian regimes.
=====John Foster Dulles, the Cold War Architect=====
[https://www.acton.org/publications/transatlantic/2020/03/10/john-foster-dulles-cold-war-architect | Mihail Neamțu | Acton Institute | March 10, 2020]
This portrait describes Dulles’s effort to construct alliances that contained Soviet expansion and treated communism as a militant political faith.
=====Roger Scruton Under Fire for Comparing National Front to Mass Murderers=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/roger-scruton-criticized-for-column-comparing-national-front-to-mass-murderers/ | Jack Crowe | National Review | November 12, 2018]
The article recounts Scruton’s argument that fascism and communism share revolutionary, collectivist, and totalitarian features despite their apparent placement on opposite political extremes.
=====Prague's Philosopher-King=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/pragues-philosopher-king | Daniel J. Mahoney | City Journal | June 26, 2015]
This essay presents Václav Havel as a critic of ideological politics whose defense of personal responsibility, truth, and civil society often overlapped with conservative thought.
=====Herbert Hoover's Lessons=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2012/09/herbert-hoovers-lessons-clifford-d-may/ | Clifford D. May | National Review | September 6, 2012]
May discusses Herbert Hoover’s humanitarianism and his opposition to Nazism, fascism, and communism during a century in which the survival of free institutions was uncertain.
=====Whittaker Chambers=====
[https://www.acton.org/whittaker-chambers | Acton Institute | Acton Institute | March 10, 2011]
This profile presents Chambers as a former communist who became one of the twentieth century’s most influential witnesses for freedom, religious belief, and anti-totalitarian conservatism.
=====The Ghost of Herbert Hoover=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-ghost-of-herbert-hoover/ | Patrick J. Garrity | Claremont Review of Books | Spring 2007]
Garrity analyzes conservative foreign-policy debates and Hoover’s belief that communism was an ideological threat requiring a defense of democracy and free enterprise.
=====Living in Truth=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/living-in-truth | Brian C. Anderson | City Journal | July 6, 2007]
Anderson reviews Havel’s account of peaceful resistance to communism and the difficult reconstruction of a democratic nation after decades of ideological rule.
=====Neoconservatism's Liberal Legacy=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/neoconservatisms-liberal-legacy | Peter Berkowitz | Hoover Institution | October 1, 2004]
Berkowitz explains how neoconservatives distinguished totalitarian governments, which seek comprehensive control, from traditional authoritarian regimes with more limited ambitions.
=====Democratic Realism=====
[https://www.aei.org/research-products/speech/democratic-realism/ | Charles Krauthammer | American Enterprise Institute | February 10, 2004]
Krauthammer presents the promotion of liberty and democratic government as legitimate objectives of American power in a world threatened by tyranny.
=====The Liberty Doctrine=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/liberty-doctrine | Michael A. Ledeen | Hoover Institution | April 1, 2002]
Ledeen argues that American policy should actively support democratic movements and oppressed peoples rather than merely preserve geopolitical stability after the Cold War.
=====Democracy Against Itself=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/patrick-glynn/democracy-against-itself-by-jean-francois-revel/ | Patrick Glynn | Commentary | November 1, 1993]
This review examines Jean-François Revel’s warnings about democratic weakness, intellectual complacency, and the difficult transition from communist rule to free institutions.
=====Gorbachev's Russia: Breakdown or Crackdown?=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/richard-pipes-2/gorbachevs-russia-breakdown-or-crackdown/ | Richard Pipes | Commentary | March 1, 1990]
Pipes assesses the instability of the Soviet multinational empire and conservative attitudes toward Russia, communist rule, and the aspirations of captive nationalities.
=====Totalitarian Foreign Policy=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/totalitarian-foreign-policy/ | Charles R. Kesler | Claremont Review of Books | Summer 1985]
This review of Jean-François Revel argues that communist totalitarianism was an expansionist system requiring moral clarity and sustained democratic resistance.
=====A Tribute to Whittaker Chambers=====
[https://static.heritage.org/1984/pdf/hl31.pdf | William F. Buckley Jr. | The Heritage Foundation | November 8, 1984]
Buckley honors Chambers as a courageous witness who exposed Soviet espionage and gave the emerging conservative movement a morally serious understanding of communist totalitarianism.
=====Making the World Safe for Communism=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/norman-podhoretz/making-the-world-safe-for-communism/ | Norman Podhoretz | Commentary | April 1, 1976]
Podhoretz contrasts conservative demands for resistance and rollback with policies that he believed accommodated Soviet expansion and weakened Western confidence.
=====How Democracies Survive=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/how-democracies-survive/ | Claremont Review of Books | Claremont Review of Books | n.d.]
The article emphasizes Lenin’s role in creating the institutions of political terror, one-party control, and forced labor that Stalin later expanded.
=====Up from Bolshevism=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/up-from-bolshevism/ | Claremont Review of Books | Claremont Review of Books | n.d.]
This essay explores the recovery of Russian religious, historical, and cultural traditions as Soviet Marxism lost legitimacy during the final decades of communist rule.
=====The Great Dismantler=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-great-dismantler/ | Claremont Review of Books | Claremont Review of Books | n.d.]
The review considers Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms while stressing that Lenin, rather than Stalin alone, established the foundations of Soviet totalitarianism.
=== Conservative Movement and Anti-Communism ===
=====A Uniquely American Conservatism=====
[https://www.aei.org/articles/a-uniquely-american-conservatism/ | Gary J. Schmitt | American Enterprise Institute | December 4, 2020]
Schmitt explains how anti-communism served as a unifying force among traditionalists, libertarians, religious conservatives, and advocates of American constitutionalism.
=====Lee Edwards’ Just Right and the Lessons of Movement Politics=====
[https://lawliberty.org/lee-edwards-just-right-and-the-lessons-of-movement-politics/ | Paul Matzko | Law & Liberty | April 16, 2018]
The review considers how anti-communism motivated conservative activists while sometimes creating strategic disagreements within the movement.
=====Communism and Conservatism: The Twisted Tree of Liberty=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/01/communism-conservatism-twisted-tree-liberty/ | Whittaker Chambers | National Review | January 28, 2017]
Chambers warns that communism must be understood as an international revolutionary movement rather than merely a domestic political faction.
=====The Conservative Reformation=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/09/conservative-reformation-mark-henrie.html | Mark C. Henrie | The Imaginative Conservative | September 13, 2016]
Henrie argues that opposition to Soviet communism provided the shared political and intellectual purpose that held Cold War conservatism together.
=====Conservative Intellectuals: George Nash Traces the History=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/04/conservative-intellectuals-george-nash/ | Matthew Continetti | National Review | April 26, 2016]
Continetti discusses George Nash’s history of the conservative movement and the central role played by anti-communism in reconciling its competing schools.
=====James Burnham: A Visionary Like No Other=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/03/james-burnham-visionary-no-other-matthew-continetti/ | Matthew Continetti | National Review | March 26, 2015]
The article portrays Burnham as a strategist who rejected Marxism and devoted his later career to confronting Soviet expansion and defending Western civilization.
=====Rethinking American Conservatism in the 1990s=====
[https://isi.org/rethinking-american-conservatism-in-the-1990s-the-struggle-against-homogenization/ | George W. Carey | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | October 8, 2014]
Carey describes the uneasy coalition of traditionalists, libertarians, and anti-communists that formed the postwar conservative movement.
=====Stranger Than Fiction=====
[https://isi.org/stranger-than-fiction-a-review-ofbrpaul-edward-gottfried-ithe-strange-death-of-marxism-the-european-left-in-the-new-millennium-i/ | Mark G. Malvasi | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | October 8, 2014]
The review criticizes intellectual double standards that condemn fascism while minimizing communist crimes and excluding democratic conservatism from legitimate politics.
=====Christopher Dawson on Conservatism=====
[https://isi.org/christopher-dawson-on-conservatism-1932/ | Christopher Dawson | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | October 8, 2014]
Dawson argues that eliminating independent economic and social authority strengthens political elites and helps create systems dominated by an unrestricted ruling class.
=====Defining Socialism Down=====
[https://lawliberty.org/defining-socialism-down/ | James R. Rogers | Law & Liberty | November 10, 2013]
Rogers distinguishes democratic socialism from communism while emphasizing that communist rule historically involved collectivization, famine, mass killing, and totalitarian control.
=====The Politics of Fear and Hatred=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/09/the-politics-of-fear-and-hatred.html | John P. East | The Imaginative Conservative | September 11, 2013]
This discussion of John Lukacs explores tensions within conservative anti-communism and the danger that nationalism and political hatred can also undermine humane order.
=====Jeane Kirkpatrick’s War=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2012/08/jeane-kirkpatricks-war-clifford-d-may/ | Clifford D. May | National Review | August 9, 2012]
May discusses Kirkpatrick’s distinction between authoritarian governments and revolutionary totalitarian movements that seek to transform society completely.
=====Ronald Reagan, Whittaker Chambers, and the Dialogue of Liberty=====
[https://lawliberty.org/ronald-reagan-whittaker-chambers-and-the-dialogue-of-liberty/ | Richard Reinsch | Law & Liberty | March 13, 2012]
The article compares Chambers’s pessimistic anti-communism with Reagan’s confidence that moral and religious renewal could help defeat Soviet tyranny.
=====The Fusionist=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2007/01/fusionist-williumrex/ | William F. Buckley Jr. | National Review | January 23, 2007]
The article explains Frank Meyer’s effort to unite traditionalists and libertarians through their shared defense of freedom and opposition to communism.
=====An American Original=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2006/06/american-original-williumrex/ | William F. Buckley Jr. | National Review | June 19, 2006]
Buckley reflects on neoconservatism and the role that resistance to communism and domestic radicalism played in its emergence.
=====Neoconservatism=====
[https://www.aei.org/research-products/speech/neoconservatism/ | Irving Kristol | American Enterprise Institute | August 25, 2003]
Kristol explains how hostility to communism united neoconservative intellectuals with labor leaders, social democrats, and traditional anti-totalitarian liberals.
=====The Liberals Who Haven’t Learned=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/granville-hicks/the-liberals-who-havent-learned-why-the-soviet-illusion-still-lingers/ | Granville Hicks | Commentary | February 1, 1951]
Hicks criticizes Western intellectuals who continued defending the Soviet Union despite mounting evidence of dictatorship, repression, and ideological deception.
=====Building a Society Where Freedom and Opportunity Flourish=====
[https://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-8-number-5/building-society-where-freedom-and-opportunity-flo | Edwin J. Feulner | Acton Institute | n.d.]
Feulner describes Reagan’s decision to seek the transcendence rather than permanent containment of communism as an important achievement of modern conservatism.
=====Reagan’s Place=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/reagans-place | David T. Beito and Ralph Raico | Hoover Institution | n.d.]
The essay examines how Reagan’s morally explicit anti-communism prevailed within the Republican Party and reshaped conservative foreign policy.
=== Conservative Thought and the Meaning of Totalitarianism ===
=====Totalitarianism=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/totalitarianism/244534/ | Daniel J. Mahoney | Modern Age | March 31, 2026]
This essay contrasts interpretations that treated fascism alone as reactionary with the conservative argument that Nazism and communism belonged to a common totalitarian assault on political liberty and Western civilization.
=====Rescuing Souls from the Totalitarian Temptation=====
[https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-36-number-2/rescuing-souls-totalitarian-temptation | Daniel J. Mahoney | Acton Institute | March 30, 2026]
The author examines Whittaker Chambers and Eric Voegelin’s belief that totalitarian movements function as political religions promising earthly salvation while rejecting spiritual limits, inherited wisdom, and the dignity of the human person.
=====The West=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/the-west-conservatism/248774/ | Modern Age | Modern Age | February 25, 2026]
The article explains how opposition to Soviet communism united traditionalists, classical liberals, and religious conservatives around a defense of Western civilization during the Cold War.
=====The State of Conservatism: A Symposium=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/the-state-of-conservatism-a-symposium/249014/ | Various Authors | Modern Age | January 20, 2026]
Contributors debate the future of conservatism while considering how anti-communism, liberal constitutionalism, religious tradition, and opposition to ideological politics shaped the postwar conservative movement.
=====The Grifters Behind the Nazis=====
[https://lawliberty.org/the-grifters-behind-the-nazis/ | Rachel Lu | Law & Liberty | December 18, 2025]
Rachel Lu analyzes the social and cultural conditions that enabled fascism while warning that future political religions may combine elements of both fascist and communist systems.
=====How to Be a Nonliberal, Antisocialist Conservative=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/how-to-be-a-nonliberal-antisocialist-conservative/245493/ | Modern Age | Modern Age | September 3, 2025]
The essay rejects simplistic left-right classifications and argues for a conservative opposition to ideological systems that reduce political life to absolute categories and revolutionary struggle.
=====Lippmann Revived=====
[https://lawliberty.org/book-review/lippmann-revived/ | Jay Nordlinger | Law & Liberty | August 20, 2025]
A review of Walter Lippmann’s political development shows how the experience of fascism and communism led him toward constitutional government, institutional restraint, and the defense of liberty.
=====Whittaker Chambers and the Crisis of the Modern Soul=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/whittaker-chambers-witness-to-the-crisis-of-the-modern-soul/248945/ | Daniel J. Mahoney | Modern Age | May 30, 2025]
The article presents Chambers’s opposition to communism as a spiritual and philosophical rejection of attempts to remake humanity through revolutionary ideology.
=====James Burnham=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/james-burnham/243464/ | Modern Age | Modern Age | August 12, 2024]
This intellectual portrait describes Burnham’s evolution from Marxism to militant anti-communism and his influential role at National Review in developing conservative Cold War strategy.
=====Dictatorships and Double Standards Revisited=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/dictatorships-and-double-standards-revisited-jeane-kirkpatrick/229061/ | Jeane J. Kirkpatrick | Modern Age | May 15, 2024]
Kirkpatrick distinguishes traditional authoritarian governments from revolutionary totalitarian regimes and argues that the latter seek to politicize and transform every sphere of human life.
=====Alexei Navalny, Martyr for Democracy=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/alexei-navalny-martyr-for-democracy | Theodore Dalrymple | City Journal | February 18, 2024]
The article reflects on Navalny’s resistance to Russian despotism and distinguishes contemporary authoritarianism from the more ideologically comprehensive totalitarian system of the Soviet Union.
=====Three Conservative Minds=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/three-conservative-minds/235785/ | Modern Age | Modern Age | December 18, 2023]
This discussion of major conservative thinkers emphasizes their defense of natural right, permanent moral truths, and constitutional order against relativism and totalitarian ideology.
=====Defenders of the West=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/defenders-of-the-west | Daniel J. Mahoney | City Journal | December 28, 2022]
The article examines Roger Scruton and Pierre Manent as conservative defenders of national culture, political liberty, human dignity, and Western civilization against communism.
=====The Totalitarian Temptation Remains=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/10/the-totalitarian-temptation-remains/ | George Weigel | National Review | October 28, 2022]
Weigel warns that the political temptation to subordinate individuals, civil society, religion, and culture to an all-encompassing state did not disappear with the fall of fascism and Soviet communism.
=====Why and How to Revive American Anti-Communism=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/gary-dreyer/revive-american-anti-communism/ | Gary Dreyer | Commentary | September 15, 2022]
Dreyer argues that Americans should recover the moral clarity of earlier anti-communists and confront both historical communist crimes and surviving communist regimes.
=====The Descent into Tyranny=====
[https://lawliberty.org/descending-into-tyranny/ | Daniel B. Klein and Michael C. Munger | Law & Liberty | September 8, 2022]
The authors trace the twentieth-century struggle against fascism and communism and defend constitutional freedom, pluralism, and limits on political power.
=====Illiberalism's True Colors=====
[https://ctse.aei.org/illiberalisms-true-colors/ | Daniel Bell | American Enterprise Institute | March 28, 2022]
The essay argues that Cold War conservatism was stabilized by opposition to Soviet communism and cautions contemporary conservatives against embracing authoritarian nationalism as an alternative to liberal democracy.
=====The Right After Fusionism: Whittaker Chambers and the Economic Temptation=====
[https://lawliberty.org/the-right-after-fusionism-part-2-whittaker-chambers-and-the-economic-temptation/ | Greg Forster | Law & Liberty | November 28, 2018]
The essay explores Chambers’s belief that conservatism must answer humanity’s spiritual needs rather than relying exclusively on economic freedom to resist totalitarian ideologies.
=====Standing Up to Tyranny=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/standing-up-to-tyranny | Daniel J. Mahoney | City Journal | September 13, 2018]
The article profiles Czech conservative dissident Václav Benda and his defense of family, religion, civic responsibility, and moral truth against communist totalitarianism.
=====Whittaker Chambers and the Crisis of American Conservatism=====
[https://lawliberty.org/whittaker-chambers-and-the-crisis-of-american-conservatism/ | Greg Forster | Law & Liberty | August 8, 2018]
Forster explains Chambers’s view that communism and fascism attract people by offering comprehensive answers to moral, social, and spiritual crises.
=== Dissidents and Life Under Communist Rule ===
=====Mikhail Gorbachev’s Undoing Was His Devotion to Soviet Ideas=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/mikhail-gorbachevs-undoing-was-his-devotion-to-soviet-ideas/ | Elizabeth Spalding | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | August 31, 2022]
Spalding argues that Gorbachev unintentionally destroyed Soviet communism because he believed the system could be reformed without abandoning its ideological foundations.
=====Father Kolaković and the “Terrorists”=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/father-kolakovic-live-not-by-lies-terrorists-soft-totalitarianism/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | February 9, 2022]
Dreher describes how Father Tomislav Kolaković prepared Slovak Catholics for communist persecution by organizing small communities of religious discipline and resistance.
=====Remembering Hungary 1956=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/remembering-hungary-budapest-1956/ | Stephen Sholl | The American Conservative | October 23, 2021]
The article commemorates Hungarians who rebelled against Soviet domination and examines the political machinery used by communists to seize and retain power.
=====Live Not by Lies: A Discussion of Dissent Past and Present=====
[https://victimsofcommunism.org/event/the-navalny-phenomenon-duplicate-1/ | Rod Dreher and F. Flagg Taylor IV | Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation | April 1, 2021]
The discussion draws lessons from Christian clergy, dissidents, martyrs, and ordinary citizens who resisted communist totalitarianism in Central and Eastern Europe.
=====Learning from Crazy Jerry Hanel=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/learning-from-crazy-jerry-hanel/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | March 1, 2021]
Dreher urges Americans to listen carefully to people who experienced communism, socialism, and political totalitarianism firsthand.
=====This Lady Inspired Live Not by Lies=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/this-lady-inspired-live-not-by-lies/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | October 2, 2020]
Dreher recounts the testimony of an immigrant who warned that the social and psychological mechanisms of totalitarianism can reappear after formal communist rule disappears.
=====America Is on the Road to Revolution=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/america-is-on-the-road-to-revolution/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | October 1, 2020]
The essay draws on Hannah Arendt and communist show trials to examine ideological loyalty, false confession, revolutionary commitment, and submission to collective movements.
=====She Beat Two Totalitarianisms=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/heda-margolius-kovaly-nazism-communism-totalitarianism/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | April 28, 2020]
The article tells the story of Heda Margolius Kovály, who survived Nazi persecution and later endured Stalinist repression in communist Czechoslovakia.
=====Maria Wittner Fears Nothing=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/maria-wittner-fears-nothing/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | September 8, 2019]
Wittner’s experience as a participant in the Hungarian Revolution and prisoner of the communist regime is presented as an example of courageous resistance to official lies.
=====Beating the Cultural Revolution=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/beating-the-cultural-revolution/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | March 8, 2019]
Dreher argues that people who survived communist persecution possess practical wisdom about preserving families, faith, culture, and personal integrity under ideological pressure.
=====Georgi Markov Refused to Be Silent About Communism=====
[https://fee.org/articles/georgi-markov-refused-to-be-silent-about-communism-and-paid-with-his-life/ | Krassen Stanchev | Foundation for Economic Education | March 8, 2018]
The article recounts Markov’s exposure of Bulgarian communist life and his assassination after refusing to remain silent about repression and official corruption.
=====Václav Benda, Man of Conscience=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/vaclav-benda-dissident-man-of-conscience/ | Rod Dreher | The American Conservative | March 6, 2018]
The article examines Benda’s dissident activity, Catholic conservatism, family life, and participation in Czechoslovakia’s resistance to communist rule.
=====Blood-Soaked Monster=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/blood-soaked-monster/ | Christopher Caldwell | Claremont Review of Books | Spring 2015]
This review of Stephen Kotkin’s biography examines how communist ideology and near-absolute power shaped Stalin’s purges, terror, and mass political violence.
=====Captive Nations=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/captive-nations/ | Algis Valiunas | Claremont Review of Books | Winter 2012–2013]
This review of Anne Applebaum’s Iron Curtain describes how Soviet authorities dismantled civil society, subordinated religion, indoctrinated youth, and imposed communist institutions across Eastern Europe.
=====Iron Curtain: Rust or Rupture?=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/iron-curtain-rust-or-rupture/ | Patrick J. Garrity | Claremont Review of Books | February 19, 2013]
Garrity examines the Sovietization of Eastern Europe and the institutions required to rebuild independent media, enterprise, education, and civil government after totalitarian rule.
=====The Problematic Pages=====
[https://www.aei.org/articles/the-problematic-pages/ | Leon Aron | American Enterprise Institute | November 1, 2012]
Aron discusses Stalin’s effort to create a belt of communist-controlled states between the Soviet Union and democratic Western Europe.
=====Eric Hobsbawm and the Totalitarian Double Standard=====
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/eric-hobsbawm-and-the-totalitarian-double-standard/ | Daniel McCarthy | The American Conservative | October 2, 2012]
McCarthy criticizes the tolerance often extended to intellectual defenders of Stalinism despite the documented crimes of communist governments.
=====Eric the Red=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/eric-the-red/ | Michael Gove | Claremont Review of Books | Spring 2003]
The article criticizes historian Eric Hobsbawm’s continuing attachment to communism despite the Gulag, engineered famine, political murder, and one-party dictatorship.
=====Ascent from Exile=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/ascent-from-exile/ | John B. Dunlop | Claremont Review of Books | Fall 2001]
The review credits Solzhenitsyn with demonstrating how Marxist ideology produced totalitarian government and undermining Western intellectual support for communism.
=====The Long and Short of Gulliver’s Grand Strategy=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-long-and-short-of-gullivers-grand-strategy/ | Patrick J. Garrity | Claremont Review of Books | n.d.]
The essay considers the Cold War strategy of containing Soviet power while allowing the economic and political superiority of free societies to erode communist legitimacy.
=== Fascism, Nazism, and the Totalitarian Right ===
=====Ayn Rand's Italian Debut=====
[https://lawliberty.org/ayn-rands-italian-debut/ | Robert Steven Mack | Law & Liberty | June 5, 2026]
The article recounts how an early Ayn Rand story adapted in fascist Italy conveyed a critique of dictatorship and the subordination of individuals to the state.
=====The Cold War of John Lukacs=====
[https://modernagejournal.com/the-cold-war-of-john-lukacs-2/229191/ | Modern Age | Modern Age | May 2026]
This essay evaluates historian John Lukacs’s distinctive conservative interpretation of fascism, Nazism, communism, nationalism, and the Cold War.
=====Who's the Fascist?=====
[https://www.city-journal.org/article/whos-the-fascist | John Tierney | City Journal | November 3, 2024]
Tierney examines the careless use of the term fascism and argues that historically meaningful definitions should include censorship, centralized power, economic direction, and suppression of opposition.
=====Fascism—an “Ism” of the Left, Not the Right=====
[https://www.hoover.org/research/fascism-ism-left-not-right | Bruce Thornton | Hoover Institution | October 22, 2021]
Thornton argues that fascism and communism share collectivist, revolutionary, and statist assumptions that distinguish them from constitutional conservatism.
=====Was George Orwell a Socialist or a Libertarian? It's Complicated=====
[https://fee.org/articles/was-george-orwell-a-socialist-or-a-libertarian-its-complicated/ | Lawrence W. Reed | Foundation for Economic Education | August 17, 2021]
Reed explores Orwell’s democratic socialism, sympathy for Hayek’s warnings about planning, and uncompromising literary opposition to totalitarianism.
=====The Battle Isn't Right Versus Left—It's Statism Versus Individualism=====
[https://fee.org/articles/the-battle-isnt-right-vs-left-it-s-statism-vs-individualism/ | Dan Sanchez | Foundation for Economic Education | March 24, 2017]
Sanchez argues that Nazism and communism both subordinated individual persons to state-directed collective purposes despite their different ideological rhetoric.
=====The Rise of Political Correctness=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-rise-of-political-correctness/ | Angelo M. Codevilla | Claremont Review of Books | Fall 2016]
Codevilla traces modern ideological conformity to intellectual traditions that seek to transform society through political control, institutional power, and enforced language.
=====The Politically Correct University=====
[https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/-politically-correct-university_100224248924.pdf | Robert Maranto, Richard E. Redding and Frederick M. Hess | American Enterprise Institute | 2009]
Contributors examine ideological uniformity in universities and debate how academic freedom should distinguish legitimate political diversity from totalitarian doctrines.
=====Clumsy Critique=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2008/03/clumsy-critique-jonah-goldberg/ | Jonah Goldberg | National Review | March 13, 2008]
Goldberg responds to critics of his analysis of fascism and reiterates that fascist and communist systems share important totalitarian characteristics.
=====Who's Fascist Now?=====
[https://www.aei.org/articles/whos-fascist-now/ | Jonah Goldberg | American Enterprise Institute | February 5, 2008]
Goldberg disputes portrayals of fascism as a form of traditional conservatism and emphasizes its revolutionary socialism, mass politics, and totalitarian ambitions.
=====Hayward Reviews Liberal Fascism=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/liberal-fascism/hayward-reviews-lf-jonah-goldberg/ | Steven F. Hayward | National Review | January 20, 2008]
Hayward reviews arguments concerning the ideological relationship among progressivism, fascism, socialism, and the expansion of centralized government.
=====The Two Totalitarianisms=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/two-totalitarianisms-jonah-goldberg/ | Jonah Goldberg | National Review | May 24, 2004]
Goldberg considers philosophical distinctions between communism and fascism while maintaining that both created systems of dictatorship, ideological conformity, and mass coercion.
=====Nazis Versus Conservatives=====
[https://www.nationalreview.com/2001/01/nazis-vs-conservatives-jonah-goldberg/ | Jonah Goldberg | National Review | January 12, 2001]
Goldberg argues that Nazism’s revolutionary racial collectivism and centralized state power were fundamentally incompatible with conservative commitments to tradition and limited government.
=====A Reviewer's Notebook: The Totalitarian Temptation=====
[https://fee.org/articles/a-reviewers-notebook-19787/ | John Chamberlain | Foundation for Economic Education | July 1, 1978]
Chamberlain reviews Jean-François Revel’s criticism of communist sympathizers and his defense of pluralist democracy against the totalitarian temptation.
=====Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/william-barrett-2/capitalism-socialism-and-democracy/ | William Barrett | Commentary | April 1, 1978]
Barrett discusses how neoconservatives and democratic socialists increasingly recognized communism as a totalitarian threat rather than simply an alternative economic arrangement.
=====Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy=====
[https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AEI-STUDIES-PublicPolicy-004-1.pdf | Gottfried Haberler | American Enterprise Institute | 1977]
The study compares economic systems and argues that both fascist and communist movements prioritized capturing political power before restructuring economic and social institutions.
=====The American Left and Cuba=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/dennis-wrong-2/the-american-left-and-cuba/ | Dennis H. Wrong | Commentary | June 1, 1962]
Wrong analyzes the reluctance of some American intellectuals to confront evidence that Castro’s revolution was developing into a communist totalitarian regime.
=====Economic Democracy Without Statism=====
[https://www.commentary.org/articles/lewis-corey/economic-democracy-without-statismplanning-in-the-framework-of-liberty/ | Lewis Corey | Commentary | January 1, 1945]
Corey argues that both fascism and communism destroy individual liberty by placing economic and political life under the control of a totalitarian state.
=====Impious Cruelty=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/impious-cruelty/ | Daniel J. Mahoney | Claremont Review of Books | n.d.]
Mahoney argues that conservatives and liberal democrats must recover moral and religious resources capable of rejecting ideological violence against both bodies and souls.
=====The Roosevelt Revolution=====
[https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-roosevelt-revolution/ | Claremont Review of Books | Claremont Review of Books | n.d.]
This essay examines twentieth-century political divisions commonly framed as capitalism against communism and freedom against totalitarianism.
=== Philosophical and Religious Resistance ===
=====Escaping Political Kitsch=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/05/escaping-political-kitsch-adam-de-gree.html | Adam De Gree | The Imaginative Conservative | May 7, 2021]
The essay uses Milan Kundera’s fiction to portray the emotional conformity, mass symbolism, and collective rituals common to both communist and fascist politics.
=====Tocqueville and Totalitarian Democracy in America=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/02/tocqueville-totalitarian-democracy-america-habi-zhang.html | Habi Zhang | The Imaginative Conservative | February 24, 2021]
Drawing on experience under Chinese communism, Zhang warns that democratic societies can also develop ideological conformity, centralized administration, and social coercion.
=====Moving Toward Dread Conformity=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/04/moving-toward-dread-conformity-bradley-birzer.html | Bradley J. Birzer | The Imaginative Conservative | April 21, 2020]
Birzer draws on Robert Nisbet to argue that totalitarian systems destroy natural communities and replace them with politically manufactured forms of belonging.
=====The Revival of Socialism=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/03/revival-socialism-bradley-birzer.html | Bradley J. Birzer | The Imaginative Conservative | March 10, 2020]
Birzer asks why socialist and communist ideas regained respectability after the Cold War despite the extensive record of repression under collectivist governments.
=====Discerning the Spirits: Gerhart Niemeyer as Culture Critic=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/03/discerning-spirits-gerhart-niemeyer-culture-critic-gregory-wolfe.html | Gregory Wolfe | The Imaginative Conservative | March 5, 2020]
The essay examines Niemeyer’s transition from analyzing communist ideology to diagnosing the cultural and spiritual weaknesses of the West.
=====Socialism Leads to Tyranny=====
[https://fee.org/articles/why-socialism-often-leads-to-tyranny/ | Barry Brownstein | Foundation for Economic Education | February 3, 2020]
Brownstein connects government ownership and central planning with political privilege, religious persecution, economic stagnation, and restrictions on individual opportunity.
=====Totalitarian Planning Dangers, Past and Present=====
[https://fee.org/articles/totalitarian-planning-dangers-past-and-present/ | Richard M. Ebeling | Foundation for Economic Education | August 11, 2018]
Ebeling argues that comprehensive economic planning threatens freedom because government must impose one political hierarchy of goals on an entire society.
=====Socialism’s Prescient Critics=====
[https://fee.org/articles/socialisms-prescient-critics/ | Gary M. Galles | Foundation for Economic Education | January 22, 2018]
The article summarizes thinkers who warned that genuine democratic pluralism could not survive the concentration of economic and political authority required by socialism.
=====The Three Reasons Martin Luther King Jr. Rejected Communism=====
[https://www.acton.org/publications/transatlantic/2018/01/15/3-reasons-martin-luther-king-jr-rejected-communism | Rev. Ben Johnson | Acton Institute | January 15, 2018]
The article explains King’s objections to communist materialism, ethical relativism, political violence, and denial of individual human dignity.
=====The Conservatism of Jorge Luis Borges=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/12/the-conservatism-of-jorge-luis-borges.html | Andrew Seeley | The Imaginative Conservative | December 31, 2015]
Borges is portrayed as a skeptical conservative who rejected Nazism, fascism, communism, racism, and political systems promising utopian transformation.
=====From 1944 to Nineteen Eighty-Four=====
[https://fee.org/articles/from-1944-to-nineteen-eighty-four/ | Sheldon Richman | Foundation for Economic Education | July 17, 2015]
Richman compares Hayek and Orwell as critics of centralized planning, bureaucratic power, propaganda, and the totalitarian destruction of individual liberty.
=====Religion and the Foundation of Liberalism=====
[https://isi.org/religion-and-the-foundation-of-liberalismbr-the-case-of-the-mont-pelerin-society/ | Kenneth R. Craycraft Jr. | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | June 10, 2015]
The article examines the Mont Pelerin Society’s belief that resistance to totalitarianism required moral and philosophical renewal as well as economic liberty.
=====Strauss, Voegelin, and Burke: A Tale of Three Conservatives=====
[https://isi.org/strauss-voegelin-and-burkebr-a-tale-of-three-conservatives/ | Michael P. Federici | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | June 5, 2015]
The essay explains how Strauss, Voegelin, and Burke inspired opposition to nihilism, ideological politics, and totalitarian distortions of constitutional government.
=====Conservatism and the Culture=====
[https://isi.org/conservatism-and-the-culture/ | Claes G. Ryn | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | October 8, 2014]
Ryn describes totalitarianism as the absorption of civil society into the state and defends independent cultural institutions against centralized political control.
=====Whittaker Chambers: Witness to the Crisis of the Modern Soul=====
[https://isi.org/whittaker-chambers-witness-to-the-crisis-of-the-modern-soul/ | Daniel J. Mahoney | Intercollegiate Studies Institute | October 8, 2014]
Mahoney presents Chambers as a religious and conservative critic of communism who believed free societies must address the spiritual needs that revolutionary movements exploit.
=====Charles Malik=====
[https://www.acton.org/charles-malik | Acton Institute | Acton Institute | July 22, 2014]
This profile describes Malik’s Christian anti-communism and his belief that the West should oppose communist parties while offering humane political and spiritual alternatives.
=====Judgment of the Nations: Christopher Dawson=====
[https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2012/11/judgment-day-christopher-dawson-in-1942.html | Bradley J. Birzer | The Imaginative Conservative | November 24, 2012]
Dawson argues that modern bureaucracy, mass education, military organization, and technology enable states to achieve a degree of total control unknown to earlier absolutist rulers.
=====Historian Paul Johnson on American Liberty=====
[https://fee.org/articles/historian-paul-johnson-on-american-liberty/ | Jim Powell | Foundation for Economic Education | June 1, 1996]
Powell praises Johnson for condemning the crimes of fascism, Nazism, socialism, and communism without applying ideological double standards.
=====The Preservation of Liberty=====
[https://fee.org/articles/the-preservation-of-liberty/ | Roscoe Pound | Foundation for Economic Education | August 1, 1961]
Pound argues that defeating Soviet expansion would be meaningless if Western countries adopted the centralized and coercive institutions of their totalitarian adversary.

Latest revision as of 13:46, 2 August 2026

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