The French Revolution was an effort to transform France from an unequal regime of monarchy to an ideal republican form of government based on Enlightenment concepts such as rights natural and legal egalitarianism. In his ambitious attempt to achieve this, he disregarded his promise of freedom and eliminated all voices of opposition, arguing that such radical and authoritarian actions were necessary to achieve his ideal goal: forming a society perfect. The use of radical means to achieve an ideal goal is characteristic of the many totalitarian governments the world has seen since the French Revolution, such as Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The leaders of these regimes, in order to realize their vision of an ideal society, employed many of the radical methods used by French revolutionaries to eliminate dissent, such as the use of terror, government propaganda, and undemocratic rule. of a single party. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay The French Revolution was very much inspired by the philosophy of Rousseau who believed that to achieve the general will, personal needs and desires citizens must be taken into account. neglected and, more importantly, all forms of dissent must be eliminated. This philosophy was in full force during the Terror during which, for the general will, Robespierre seized power and initiated the Terror, thus causing "a politicization of all aspects of the lives of citizens", since 'they had to always be in accordance with the general order. will. To ensure citizens' loyalty to the state, disagreement with the new revolutionary government "appeared as a crime and perversion" and was therefore punishable by death. As a result, thousands of citizens during this brief period were sentenced to death by guillotine, even though the government was suspicious of their dissent, even though it had no real evidence to prove it. Similarly, in both Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, those who opposed or criticized the state were considered its enemies and were inhumanely punished (instead of being killed, they were often sent to concentration camps). Such harsh punishments for simple differences of opinion sowed widespread fear among the citizens of France, Russia, and Germany under their respective totalitarian regimes, and because of this fear, the overthrow of the regime became virtually impossible. Therefore, like the leaders of the French Revolution, such as Maximilien Robespierre, the leaders of modern totalitarian regimes have used fear to eliminate dissent. An additional measure used by modern totalitarian governments to prevent dissent was the indoctrination of their citizens about government benevolence. through the use of propaganda. Propaganda was not as prevalent in France during the revolution as in modern totalitarian governments, but it was present. For example, the Jacobins – who formed in the aftermath of the French Revolution, were the most radical political group during the revolution, and played a key role in the establishment of the Terror – “used propaganda to manipulate the uneducated masses.” A similar trend has been observed in recent totalitarian governments such as Nazi Germany. Under Hitler's Third Reich, education was a mechanism by which young people could be effectively.