Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties as well as outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state.
Two versions of the World War II U.S. propaganda poster "Your Lot in a Totalitarian State" depicting a process of compulsory sham election which took place in totalitarian states, the flags of which – Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Soviet Union – are presented below. In the version on the right, produced after Operation Barbarossa, the flag of the Soviet Union (Allied member) is replaced with that of the Empire of Japan (Axis member), which is not always regarded as totalitarian by Western scholars.
1920 Soviet propaganda poster with a complimentary cartoon of Vladimir Lenin by Viktor Deni. According to 'traditionalist' historians, Lenin was the first politician to establish a totalitarian regime; such description have been opposed by the 'revisionists' and other authors.