The twentieth century’s totalitarian movements outwardly manifested an aggressive and all-pervading cult of heroism, masking the violent processes of harmonization that were transforming every sphere of life within. From the anonymous labouring masses that were being refashioned into a new Soviet people or an AryanAryanism master race, individuals emerged, only to be epitomized, mythologized and canonized into a secular pantheon of latter-day saints. The Aleksei Stakhanovs, the Horst Wessels and the Magda Goebbelses—these men and women were immortalized in word and image for their quasi-legendary sense of duty to the regime and for the supposedly Homeric scale of their feats and sacrifices.