Global InformationEnemy of the people information
The terms enemy of the people and enemy of the nation are designations for the political opponents and for the social-class opponents of the power group within a larger social unit, who, thus identified, can be subjected to political repression.[1] In political praxis, the term enemy of the people implies that political opposition to the ruling power group renders the people in opposition into enemies acting against the interests of the greater social unit, e.g. the political party, society, the nation, etc.
In the 20th century, the politics of the Soviet Union (1922–1991) much featured the term enemy of the people to discredit any opposition, especially during the régime of Stalin (r. 1924–1953), when it was often applied to Trotsky.[2][3] In the 21st century, the former U.S. president Donald Trump (r. 2017–2021) regularly used the enemy of the people term against critical politicians and journalists.[4][5]
Like the term enemy of the state, the term enemy of the people originated and derives from the Latin: hostis publicus, a public enemy of the Roman Empire. In literature, the term enemy of the people features in the title of the stageplay An Enemy of the People (1882), by Henrik Ibsen, and is a theme in the stageplay Coriolanus (1605), by William Shakespeare.
- ^ "Enemies of the people", A Dictionary of 20th-century Communism (2010) Silvio Pons and Robert Service, Eds. pp. 307–308.
- ^ Remnick, David (1 August 2018). "Trump and the Enemies of the People". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ Remnick, David (20 August 1990). "Trotsky in Afterlife". The Washington Post.
For decades, Soviet reference books referred to him only as an anti-Soviet plotter and "enemy of the people" – if they referred to him at all. Stalin's historians air-brushed Trotsky from every official photograph.
- ^ Graham-Harrison, Emma (3 August 2018). "'Enemy of the people': Trump's phrase and its echoes of totalitarianism". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "Opinion: Calling the Press the Enemy of the People Is a Menacing Move". Retrieved 22 August 2019.