Hitler, like Stalin believed in dictatorship as the right way of reigning a country and therefore based his principles and propaganda on that believe. Stalin had a constant revolution going on in the country by setting the five Years Plans. He wanted them to make the Soviet Union a new and reformed country that could compete with the west. Industrialisation was seen as very important by both leaders. Hitler and Stalin were both preparing their countries for a war .They were very objected on their own countries. Hitler was very much opposed to the communist Soviet Union as he was a nationalist Right-Wing politician. The aspect of purity of race Hitler was gaining for is a difference in this two regimes . A pure race and Arians were no significant aspects in the Soviet Union. Stalin a communist and Hitler a fascist both had running their dictatorial reigns under the very significant support of secret polices. No speaking out of opposition was accepted in this regimes. Though fundamental difference in the beliefs of this two men their regimes were hauntingly similar.
Unemployment was a great problem in Germany Soviet and Union. Hitler cleverly used preparation for war in order to decrease unemployment. So called work schemes were created , Autobahns were built, economy was focused on heavy industry and Germany started militarising. The German army, navy and air force expanded immensely. Unemployment decreased just as Hitler had promised.. Militarising was an direct revolt against the Treaty of Versailles but was not Germany still was not taken serious by other powers at that time. To avoid rubber and cotton having to be imported into Germany, investment were made into the nylon and plastic country. This was part of Hitler’s plan to make Germany self-sufficient as swiftly as possible in order to be independent during wartime. Stalin did not use Militarising that much to industrialise the Soviet Union. There was the tactic of establishing 5-Year Plans and Collectivisation. Targets were set for each industry, for each factory each shift and each worker. Except of the oil industry no target was met , but still an enormous improvement was made and industrialisation was going on steadily. Collectivisation was very much an aspect of the communist beliefs of Stalin. Collectivisation was the combination of small farms to one large unit. Collectivisation was meant for a more efficient agriculture. Collective farms were called Kolkhozes; land, animals and labour were shared and outputs collected. An essential issue for Everyone on the farm received an equal amount of profit. A Kolkhoz just as for communism, after Marx, that nothing would belong to an individual. Industrialisation focused more on hard industry. Consuming goods and consumers were to go second in both countries. Industrialisation was achieved in different way but was a very important issue for both countries. Hitler saw private business as vitalising for economy and therefore allowed it to happen while in the Soviet Union there was only the New Economic Policy that allowed to sell very basic goods in certain amounts. These two different strategies, though with the same aim, were working surprisingly well and especially the German living standard rose.
Further similarities between Hitler and Stalin can be found in the way they their opposition. Both Hitler and Stalin made extensive use of their respective armies, used concentration camps to intimidate members of the opposition, and had vast networks of the secret stretched across their countries. The main difference between the two was that Hitler trusted his inner circle, whereas Stalin trusted no one and had all high officials in his party replaced within a year. Purges was used by both these dictators as a method to clear their countries of anyone whom they felt threatened by.
As an example of these two men’s treatment of their opposition Stalin went to great lengths to have Trotsky assassinated, and Hitler killed all SA leaders in the night of the long Knives in June 1934. In both regimes show trials were used in order to make the public sympathise with their leaders.
Stalin, unlike Hitler who simply wanted to strengthen an already superior race, wanted to create an entirely new society and personality to fill that society. Both in Germany and the Soviet Union life was led under a constant stream of propaganda and indoctrination. Both Hitler and Stalin created an entire new syllabus for schools and forced all teachers to follow it as well as restricting the religious freedom of the people. The mass media in both countries was censured and controlled to prevent the people from finding out the truth about the regimes in which they lived. No information except of those checked by the regime was available.
I conclude that these two regimes were very similar in many ways. These regimes shaped the entire history of 20th century Europe and still have a great influence on our world today. There are certainly differences in between Hitler and Stalin and their regimes although I think that the regimes were very similar in many ways, such as home front live, treatment of the opposition and the use industrialisation. In addition I must say that though Hitler had exterminated millions of Jews, had millions of fanatic supporters, a huge empire and many great successes , now 50 years later Stalin’s regime and the communism believes are of a greater significance to our time than Hitler is, as there are still communist countries like China and North Korea that still have great influence on the political situation we are experiencing today.
