WORKING WITH THE IMAGINARY IN THE FASCIST AND COMMUNIST SOCIETIES AND OVERCOMING SOCIAL HETERONOMY IN THE THEORY OF C. CASTORIADIS

Abstract

The article raises the question of fundamental identification and difference between the totalitarian regimes of fascism/Nazism and com- munism, followed by a discussion of their status in the first period of the post-Soviet political transit. The main arguments in favour of identifying both types of totalitarianism and marking fundamental moments of dis- tinction were reflected in the polemic of A. Besançon and L. Kołakowski. Criticism of the totalitarianism of fascist and communist types in the works of the French philosopher of Greek origin Cornelius Castoriadis al- lows seeing the features that connect most totalitarian regimes despite the difference in their ideological programs, which can represent a cer- tain threat even for modern societies. It also highlights those points of the Russian (Soviet) project of Communist society that allow differentiating between the Nazi and Communistic types of the Imaginary. Finally, the article considers the main types of public heteronomy, characteristic of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, as well as the neoliberal model of consumption society. According to Castoriadis, they are contrary to the ideas of social emancipation, replacing it with their principles of (pseudo) rational domination, against which his own project of collective social au- tonomy stands.