Adolf Hitler vs. Joseph Stalin

Adolf Hitler vs. Joseph Stalin

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are two individuals that most people think about when they come across terms like genocide, warfare, and absurd cruelty. These people demonstrated that it is actually possible for a human being in the twentieth century to influence millions of others into adopting hostile attitudes in regard to morality. Although the two fought against each-other and influenced many others in doing so, they are not as different as one might be inclined to consider that they are. Their character and their obsession with power made it possible for both of them to enter the pages of history as the cruelest individuals of all times.

Hitler and Stalin were raised in critical conditions and they witnessed events that influenced them in employing extremist attitudes. Stalin emerged during the Russian Revolution while Hitler came into the public's attention as he started to express lack of support regarding his country's leaders and the reasons why Germany was suffering greatly after the First World War. The fact that the masses were confused and determined to do something with the purpose of improving their conditions made it possible for people in Russia and in Germany to support individuals like Hitler and Stalin, as their oratory powers and their ability to induce strong feelings into their audiences were very important in making their thinking attractive to publics.

One of the most important similarities between Stalin and Hitler regards their obsession with lying and oppressing others with the purpose of imposing their point-of-view and their power. People in Germany and Russia alike were tricked into thinking that their leaders had the ability and the motivation to help them and their countries as a whole. Some actually came to blindly trust these military leaders as a result of the propaganda that dominated political systems in the two countries. "So great was the leader's influence that historians often find it difficult to separate the system from the man, referring simply to Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia"(Thatcher).

In spite of the fact that Stalin probably held more power in Russia (as a result of the fact that he instilled fear in whoever dared to oppose him), Hitler managed to draw a great deal of supporters as a consequence of his oratorical abilities. Hitler was also inclined to remove his adversaries through any means possible, but this did not stop the majority of Germans from seeing him as the perfect leader and as the person responsible for saving the country after the war. Hitler practically came to be associated with Nazism and most people even believed that he was largely accountable for having created the system. In contrast, Stalin simply continued Lenin's thinking and Russians did not really consider that they needed to support him for his contribution to the ideology's creation. Hitler was virtually the same thing as Nazism while Stalin simply represented Soviet Communism.

While Stalin and Hitler are generally remembered for their participation in the Second World War, they also need to be recognized for the terror that they instilled in individuals in their own countries. Even with this, while Stalin struggled to have the state control everything in Russia, Hitler did not hesitate to accept capitalist ideas and promoted large-scale privatisation because of the profits that the industry brought to Germany.