Comparing Hitler and Stalin in their rise to power

During the period leading up to World War II, there were two men who

were on opposing sides, the men were Adolph 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.

Although Hitler and Stalin hated each other, the two leaders were similar

in many ways. Hitler and Stalin each rose to the highest position attainable in

their respective countries, and there were three main reasons that they were able

to do this. 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 could 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 their countries were still trying to recover from

World War I, they desired to restore the power back in to 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. In order to understand how Hitler and Stalin used propaganda, an

understanding of what the word means, is required. propaganda is the

spreading of ideas to further or damage a cause; also the ideas or allegations

spread for a purpose" (Childers Thomas 76). Hitler and Stalin each used

propaganda as their 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, was his words. Hitler made many speeches, but the one

speech that was a famous one, was his final speech at his trial for treason. In this

speech he gave his views and opinions on the events preceding the trial. This is

an excerpt from his speech: "...I aimed from the first 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 just 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" (Abel Theodore 147). After Hitler gave this speech, the

court was sympathetic towards him, he was sentenced to only five years in

prison for his crime. After nine months of his sentence had been served, he

received parole. Being able to gain Nazi party control and gain enough

supporters, proves that he was an efficient user of propaganda. Hitler also had

his own minister of propaganda when he became leader of the country. This

proves that Hitler was an user of propaganda, but Joseph Stalin was not as

blatantly obvious with his uses of propaganda. Stalin did however use

propaganda in his speech to the Fifteenth Congress in 1927. Stalin said in this

speech: " Evidently, the opposition prefers to be outside the party. Well, let it be

outside the party. There is nothing terrible, or exceptional, or surprising in the fact

that they prefer to be outside the party, that they are cutting themselves off from

the party. If you study the history of our party, you will find that always, at certain

serious turns taken 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" (Payne

Robert 65). After Stalin said this, an immediate applause was heard. Stalin was

telling people what they wanted to hear and he used this speech to further his

cause. This speech helped to further his cause by gaining support from the

people, and by justifying why Trotsky was not the choice for leader. Stalin was

also demonstrating with this speech that he was taking people in the right

direction. Everyone who became a supporter of him, would be getting into the

right cart and would be heading in the right direction. At least, what he believed

to be the right direction. Hitler and Stalin did not only use spoken propaganda,

they were masters of using propaganda, so they would use many forms of it.

Another form of propaganda that they used was through photographs. These

photographs promoted their "nice" personality. In these photos they would be

depicted as being a hero, they would be helping the poor families, or be holding a

small child. It was these photos that these men became appealing to the public.

These photos give you the idea that they are 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. This proves 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 in 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 ideas on how the party should

be run. Stalin was a more aggressive candidate, and therefore had one of his

supporters kill Trotsky. This happened after Trotsky was exiled, but while in exile

he continued to preach world revolution. Stalin sent one of his agents to kill

Trotsky, who was in exile in Mexico. Stalin felt that if he eliminated his only

threat, that it would mean less opposition to his ideas. 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

did not foreshadow his amorality much before he got into power. One incidence

of his amorality was when he killed all of his opposition. It was a possible

breeding ground for Socialism and Communism, and therefore opposition to

Hitler. On May 2, 1933 many Trade Union leaders were arrested and beaten up.

Their 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. A week after the destruction of the Trade Unions the Social

Democratic Party suffered a similar fate, soon to be followed by the Communists.

All of their property, possessions and funds were seized and both parties were

banned. The Center Party, which had supported Hitler in return for vague

promises, collapsed in July 1933, along with the few others still remaining. After

Hitler became Chancellor Hitler 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 us a glimpse of what he was 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.

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 I 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 I, 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. This shows that Stalin's aspiration was to make his country strong, and

that he had some ideas of how to go about it. Hitler's Germany also had a lot to

recover from. "Hitler had plans for Germanic unity and German living space.

German unity meant the gathering together of all Germans in Europe, one people

into one empire, ruled by one leader. This involved people living in Austria,

Czechoslovakia, Danzig, Memel and other isolated pockets. Germany did not

have enough farmland to feed her population of enough raw materials to supply

her factories. New lands to the east would then have to be taken over. Hitler

intended to destroy the power of France forever. He hoped to take Great Britain

into partnership after settling the question of the former German

colonies" (Carlyle Thomas 126). This demonstrates to us that Hitler aspired 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 way 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.

List of Works Cited

Abel, Theodore, Why Hitler Came into Power, Cambridge, Mass. (1938) 1996.

Bullock, Alan, Hitler. A Study in Tyranny, rev. edn, Harmonsdworth, 1982.

Carlyle, Thomas, Hitler and Stalin. Parrallel Lives, London, 1994.

Childers, Thomas, The Nazi Voter. The social foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933, Chaple Hill, London, 1983.

Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps. New York, Viking, 1978.

Khrushchev, Nikita S. The Crimes of the Stalin Era. New York, The New Leader, 1962.

Payne, Robert. The Life and Death of Stalin. New York, Harper & Row, 1995.