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Totalitarianism: Gallows Humor In Soviet Russia

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Totalitarianism means that individuals live and die for their country, no matter the cost of their freedom. Furthermore, individuals lose their free will and are under constant persecution by the state and fellow citizens. According to Fiero, “Soviet communists persecuted those whose activities they deemed threatening to the state” (Fiero, 407). The definition is fitting since individuals in Soviet Russia had no free will, therefore, their only purpose in life is to serve the state and only the state. Additionally, they are under constant persecution, since at the time anyone could claim that an individual's actions have been detrimental to the state regardless of whether there is any substance to the argument.

Gallows Humor is humor that emphasizes how ridiculous a certain situation really is, in order to make light of a terrible situation. Additionally Gallows humor uses irony in order to convey the joke. As an example Fiero states, “Modern war, according to these humorists, is the greatest of all hate jokes: dominated by bureaucratic capriciousness and mechanized destruction, it is an enterprise that has no victors, only victims” (Fiero, 414). The statement points how how ironic it is that the individuals fighting for power in order to help the citizens of their country only make the lives of the citizens in other countries miserable. …show more content…

The painting shows individuals gathering around the body of an individual who was killed during the bombing of Guernica. The individuals portrayed in the image are frustrated, sad, and terrified due to the gestures Picasso emphasizes in the

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