Secondly, they were at first underestimated by others, and difficult circumstances didn’t help for their rise to power. Stalin had to face the 1917th revolution followed by Lennins death in 1924. Moreover, the future of communism was uncertain, which split the party between Trotsky and Bukharin. Hitler had to face the failure of democracy in Germany, after 1929. Furthermore, Hitler became chancellor because of a deal between the President and Von Papen.
Hitler and Stalin were especially similar by the way they managed to control their countries. They both used fear, secret police (the Gestapo and the NKVD) to be able to settle their dictatorships and ensure total power, concentration camps and propaganda. In USSR, Stalin purged intellectuals as well as dissidents within the communist party, and ensured the murder of 1/3 of the officer class. An important difference between those two men is that, although both used government to control and exercise power, Hitler was legalising his actions, while Stalin used force. Moreover, before war, communism was considered as a much more powerful and dangerous threat than fascism. They essentially succeeded in their rise to power for three reasons ; they were very skilled users of propaganda, they both were amoral, and had the ambition to make their countries powerful in the world. Indeed, they were capable of using their own words to twist and manipulate people’s minds so as to make them believe that what they were saying was the only truth. And with this, they would get people to do anything for them, what clearly proves their amorality. Propaganda was a way for them to further their ideas and so to gain the backing of the people in their countries. Hitler was a man who did many speeches. He has also been described as the world’s greatest propagandist, saying that he was nearly able to brainwash people with his words. Stalin and Hitler’s complete lack of morals is also an essential element they had in common ; Hitler had no grief to send millions of Jews to concentration camps, while Stalin never felt anguish killing thousands of his fellow countrymen.
Finally, the everyday life under Stalin and Hitler was somehow similar as well, for the women, the workers, the religion and the education. Indeed, youngsters were moulded, while literacy rates improved in USSR. The religion point of view has a few differences under Hitler and under Stalin ; in USSR religion was banned, and in Germany Nazis began by working with churches, while priests were threatened to be persecuted if outspoken.
So Hitler and Stalin have many similarities, whether the use of similar methods to acquire what they wanted (as fear to control their power and position for example), that they had totalitarianism, a secret police, or that they were majorly relied to propaganda. But the main similarity between those two men stays the amorality and the utter disregard they had for anyone other than themselves. These men had extreme pride in their countries and would literally do anything to make their country stronger, although not necessarily a nicer place to live.
