During the period leading up to World War II, there were two men who were on opposing sides; these men were Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

These men were each triumphant in their rise to power in their countries and they were very comparable in the ways that they succeeded. Their success was mostly attributed to their new ideas and their politics.

Hitler and Stalin were born 10 years apart, Stalin on December 21, 1879, at Gori Georgia and Hitler on April 20, 1889 at Braunau on the River Inn.

Neither belonged to the traditional ruling class and it is difficult to imagine either coming to power in the world into which they were both born. Their careers were possible only in the new world created by the breakdown of the old order in Europe, as a result of the First World War which was the defeat of tsarist Russia, then of the central powers, then the revolutions which soon followed.

Although Hitler and Stalin hated each other the two leaders were similar in many ways. Yet, their ideas and beliefs were formed and remained set in the mould of the world in which they grew up. Stalin s Marxism and Hitler s combination of Social Darwinism and racism were nineteenth-century systems that reached the peak of their influence in Europe at the turn of the century.

They also had the same tastes in literature, art, music and subjects in which they.. (According to Bollock A. 1991..) both claimed to lay down the law and in which

neither showed the least sympathy with the experimental modernism that flowered in Russia in during their lifetimes.

They both rose to the highest position attainable in their countries, and there were many ways that they were able to do this.

In my oral, I ll be focusing on the three main reasons on how they were able to achieve their goals.

Both men were skilled users of propaganda, each was amoral, and they both had the ambition to make their countries powerful in the world. Since each was a skilled user of propaganda, they were able to use their words to twist and manipulate the minds of people into believing that what they were saying was the absolute truth.

Using this power, they would get people to do anything for them, which proves their amorality.

Since both their countries were still trying to recover from World War 1, they desired to

restore the power back into their countries. These three reasons will prove that Hitler and Stalin were similar in many ways.

The names Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are synonymous with the word propaganda. They both used it as a tool to further their ideas and help them gain the backing of the people in their countries.

The form of propaganda that Hitler used, and was successful in using, were his words. He made many speeches but the one speech that many people believed to be his most famous, was his final speech at his trial for treason on the 10th of November, 1923.

Here, he gave his views and opinions on the events preceding the trial. This is an excerpt from his speech taken from the book, Inside Adolf written by F.C McKenzie: .. I aimed to become the destroyer of Marxism. The army that we are building grows more from day to day, from hour to hour. Gentlemen, not you who will be the ones that deliver the verdict over us, but that verdict will be given by the eternal judgement of history, which will speak out against the accusation that has been made against us.. That court will judge us.. as Germans who wanted only the best for their people and their Fatherland, who fought and were willing to die. You might as well find us guilty a thousand times, but the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear up the motions of the states attorney and the judgement of this court: for she finds us not guilty.

After Hitler gave this speech, the court was sympathetic towards him and he was sentenced to only five years in prison, in which after serving nine months, was granted parole.

Being able to gain Nazi party control and gain enough supporters, proves that he was an

efficient user of propaganda.

Stalin however, was not as blatantly obvious with his uses of propaganda, though he did use it in his speech to the fifteenth congress in 1927. This is an except from his speech, which was taken from the book, Stalin Breaker of Nations, written by Robert Conquest: ..Evidently, the opposition prefers to be outside the party... There is nothing terrible, or exceptional, or surprising in the fact that they prefer to me outside and that they are cutting themselves off from the rest of us.. If you study the history of our party, you will find that always, at certain serious turns take by our party, a certain section of the old leaders fell out of the cart of the Bolshevik party and made room for newer members. A turn is a serious thing, comrades. A turn is dangerous for those who do not sit firmly in the party cart. Not everybody can keep his balance when a turn is made. You turn the cart - and on looking back, you find that someone has fallen out.

After Stalin said this, an immediate applause was heard. Stalin was telling people what they wanted to hear and he used his speech to further his cause by gaining support from the people, and by justifying why Trotsky was not the choice for the leader. Stalin was also demonstrating with this speech that he was the bandwagon and that he was taking people in the right direction.

Since Hitler and Stalin were masters of using propaganda, they not only used spoken forms but many others, such as the use of photographs. These photos promoted their nice personalities. In these photos they would be depicted as a hero, they would be helping poor families, or be holding a small child. It was these photos that these men became appealing to the public. These photos gave them the idea that they were caring, loving and just completely concerned for the well being of the people.

The use of propaganda was a big contributor to the success of both men.

Since Hitler and Stalin were able to manipulate people with their propaganda, they could convince people of just about anything, and they did whenever possible. This proves both of them to be amoral. Both would do whatever they thought was necessary to further their cause, with no remorse about what they had done.

In 1922 Lenin, the leader of the communist party had a stroke. Overtime, his condition got worse and he became less involved with the party s affairs. When Lenin died in January 1924, it left two men in contention for the party s leadership. These two men were Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky.

The men had opposing sides in how the party should be run. Stalin being a more aggressive candidate, therefore had one of his supporters kill Trotsky while he was exiled in Mexico.

This assured Stalin full control over the communist party.

Hitler was the other example of an amoral person. He demonstrated this after he got into power with the holocaust, but he didn t display his amorality very much before he got into power.

One incidence of his amorality was when he killed all of his opposition. The first major victim of the Nazis was the powerful German Trade Union movement. It was a possible breeding ground for Socialism and Communism, and therefore opposition to Hitler. In May 2, 1933 many Trade Union offices were looted and their funds and property seized. A Nazi led labour front was established to control the workers and ensure the peace in factories and workshops. Anyone who disobeyed orders were shot.

After Hitler became Chancellor Hitler, he passed a law that prohibited there being any other party in Germany other than the Nazis. By doing all of these things it was giving the people a glimpse of what he was really going to be like when he got into power. These examples show that both Hitler and Stalin were amoral and would do what was necessary to further themselves, whatever the cost.

With Hitler and Stalin being such amoral people and willing to do anything, they would do what they could to benefit their countries.

Each of their countries had suffered great losses in World War 1 and were still trying to recover when they came into power.

Restoring the power back into their countries was of great importance to both men.

After World War 1, Russia had 9,150,000 casualties and Germany had 7,142,558 casualties. These losses were immense. Stalin believed that if he forced industrialization upon Russia, that it would help the country to rebuild. Collective farms were another one of Stalin s plans. This showed that Stalin s dream was to make his country strong, and that he had some ways of going about it.

Hitler s Germany also had a lot to recover from. So Hitler planned to destroy the power of France and hoped to take Great Britain into partnership. This demonstrated to us that Hitler wanted to make Germany strong and feared. He wanted to reunite the German people. Hitler and Stalin both succeeded in making their countries strong once again, at least for a while..

In conclusion, Hitler and Stalin were similar in many ways in their rise to power, however three reasons stand out the most. They were gifted in the ability to use propaganda and brainwash people, which in turn proves that they were both unethical, and they desired to make their countries better and stronger. Both of these men succeeded in doing all of these things.