The article is devoted to the analysis of socio-historical prerequisites for the emergence of a totalitarian political regime. The article describes the political, economic and social factors that contributed to the formation of totalitarian regimes in Europe after the end of the First World War. In particular, the loss of the identity of the people and the individual is considered, attempts to compensate for this loss by forming an ideology where the central place is given to the state and the nation as unifying factors. The article also examines the main characteristics of the “totalitarian personality” and the concept of “mass” as the main driving force of totalitarianism. Attention is paid to the formation of this type of personality, as well as the relationship between external factors and internal moral and ethical principles that develop under the influence of these factors. The psychological mechanisms and attitudes that make it possible to establish totalitarian regimes and their functioning are investigated. The article examines the connection of totalitarianism with such socio-political phenomena characteristic of the historical period of the formation of the main totalitarian regimes of Europe as imperialism, nationalism, solidarism.