Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin
Hitler and Stalin will probably go down in history as two of the greatest known evil leaders of the 20th Century. What could bring two men to become the menaces they were? What kind of upbringing would cause someone to turnout the way they did? This report will compare the two through their adolescence till the end of their teenage years.
December 21, 1879 at Gori in Georgia, Joseph Stalin is born. Ten years later on April 20, 1889, Adolph Hitler is given birth to at Braunanu on the River Inn. This difference in age grew ever wider until death when Hitler died in 1945 at age 56 and Stalin lived to be 73 till 1953. Separated by 1,500 miles of land between Georgia and Upper Austria., an even greater distance separated their historical and social development. Yet these two men had common features in their backgrounds.
Both were born just outside the borders of the countries they were to some day rule. While Hitler was a German, he was born a subject of the Hadsburg Empire. German’s had played the leading role for centuries, but with Bismark’s formation of a German Empire based on Prussia, from which the Austrian Germans were excluded in 1860’s. They found themselves forced to defend their historic claim against the growing demands for the Czechs equality and the equality of the other “subject peoples.” This had an intense impact on Hitler’s attitudes and led to his becoming a rabid German nationalist, however unlike most, he gained an anxiety-ridden, pessimistic outlook of a minority group within their own state. Knowing of their great past, he saw their future threatened by the growing numbers and inferior races (Slavs, Polish, Russian Jews).
Stalin’s origins were also important, though they worked in different ways. The reappearance of figures from his Georgian past, such as Ordzhonikidze and Beria, his attitude toward whom was affected by the complex relationships and feuds of Georgian politics. Though his key decision was turning down his Georgian inheritance and identifying with the Georgians’ Russian conquerors instead of the Russians’ Georgian victims. The result was to produce a Great Russian chauvinist, who worked to overthrow the tsarist state but not to break up the Russian Empire.
Around the time of Stalin’s birth Georgia was not the best place to be. They were at a miserable leve...
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... his mother’s sacrifices once he had become involved in revolutionary activity. In fact, he shocked Georgian opinion by not attending her funeral in 1936. On the other hand, upon hearing of his mother’s illness, Hitler immediately returned to Linz and devoted himself to nursing and looking after her. Her death, on top of his failure came as the deepest shock to him.
Such backgrounds can help understand what brought these men to become what they did. It shows that not one upbringing can account for someone’s outcome. Whether you grow up in the slums or riding the lap of luxury, you shape your own destiny. While much more was necessary to bring them to do what they did, this was a definitely a starting point.
Notes
1. Quoted by Robert C. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary (New York: 1973), p. 73.
2. Sigmund Freud, Collected Papers, vol. IV (London: 1952). Quoted by Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, p. 76.
Bibliography
Bullok, Alan. Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (New York: 1992).
Kershaw, Ian and Laurence Rees. War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin (France: 1999).
Volkogonov, Dmitri. Stalin: Triumph & Tragedy (New York:1991).
Around the early 1920’s, Stalin took power and became leader of Russia. As a result Russians either became fond of Stalin’s policies or absolutely despised them. Stalin’s five-year plans lured many into focusing on the thriving economy rather than the fact that the five year plan hurt the military. The experience of many lives lost, forced labor camps, little supply of food, influenced the Russians negative opinion about Stalin. Having different classes in society, many Russians had different points of views. For the Peasants, times were rough mainly because of the famine, so they were not in favor of Stalin and his policies; where as the upper classes had a more optimistic view of everything that was occurring. Stalin’s policies affected the Russian people and the Soviet Union positively and also had a negative affect causing famine for the Russian people.
As a dictator Stalin was very strict about his policies, especially working. For instance. Stalin had set quotas very high , as they were very unrealistic. The workers had very long days, and under the rule of Stalin most people worked many hours in overtime, and resulting in no pay. Stalin treated workers very, very harshly. Those who did not work were exiled to Siberia or killed. Some may say you got what you deserved in Stalin’s time. Those who worked very hard for Stalin sometimes got bonuses such as trips, or goods likes televisions and refrigerators. The workers had to conform to Stalin’s policies . Stalin’s harsh treatment of workers received a very unwelcoming response, but in fact the liberal amount of goods that the workers had made, had in fact
was backward and would need to change in order for it to remain being a
Stalin’s hunger for power and paranoia impacted the Soviet society severely, having devastating effects on the Communist Party, leaving it weak and shattering the framework of the party, the people of Russia, by stunting the growth of technology and progress through the purges of many educated civilians, as well as affecting The Red Army, a powerful military depleted of it’s force. The impact of the purges, ‘show trials’ and the Terror on Soviet society were rigorously negative. By purging all his challengers and opponents, Stalin created a blanket of fear over the whole society, and therefore, was able to stay in power, creating an empire that he could find more dependable.
"Stalin, Joseph." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 8. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 86-87. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
One of the worst nations to suffer from Stalin’s great purges in the Soviet Union was not the Russians. Fascist sought to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity which individuals are bound together by ancestry, culture, and blood which are all super personal connections. However, even though Stalin did enforce Russia of the Soviet Union the main enemies of his were the political opponents and their followers. His most ferocious acts of terror “The Great Purges” took place between 1934 and 1939.
Mohandas Gandhi and Mao Zedong were two great leaders who succeeded in many ways by their actions and decisions. Gandhi was an Indian leader and Mao a Chinese leader. However, their approach to success, peace, and ultimately, a revolution, was very different. Mao favored peace through violence, and Gandhi favored peace through non-cooperation and standing up for what is right. He also believed that these changes will be accomplished by “conscious suffering”, was the way he put it. However, despite their differences, these two leaders were similar too. They were both very charismatic leaders who successfully made it through their revolutions. Mao’s revolution led to change in class structure while Gandhi’s revolution involved India as a country, and he wanted people to realize that working together is a great way to gain independence. While Mao and Gandhi both believed that each of their countries have the need of independence, their views differed when it came to the use of violence, development towards the revolution, and their thoughts on a caste system.
You all are political prisoners- imprisoned for your political beliefs, or imprisoned because you were supposedly part of a giant conspiracy to overthrow the ‘People’s Government’ and sell the country to the greedy and exploitive capitalists. For Ekaterina Olitskaia, this story would be similar to her experiences shared in “My Reminiscences,” and for millions of others in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, this story would be similar. How did this situation come to be? Why are people jailed for their political beliefs? One has to look back to the situation of Russia from 1900 to the 1930s to trace the path and beliefs of Olitskaia and others to determine why they were jailed during the Great Purges in the 1930s....
Stalin continued even once he was successful in accomplishing those goals, as he did not stop hurting people, but if anything it gave him more power to hurt people even more. But, at the end of the day, although Lenin ruled for only a very short time, he did raise the standard of living, though there maintained a large amount of hardship. Stalin, however, transformed the USSR from a peasantry to an industrialized nation in less than a decade, he did it on the backs of his millions of victims, who died because of his harsh policies and many purges. Lenin made a series of policies throughout the beginning of the Revolution and through his short time in public office that came to be collectively known as ‘Leninism’. There were many things that influenced Leninism, such as Karl Marx.
Adolf Hitler “brainwashed” the youth of Germany, and sadly the youth of Germany did not know any better. Hitler’s childhood affected how he wanted the
Stalin was originally from Georgia, was very nationalistic towards Russia. Stalin was head of the communist party and the Soviet government for twenty-nine years. Although he did not truly believe in their ideology and took part of it only for the power he was given. In 1923, he named himself the dictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin used propaganda to convince the people that he was the “Father of Germany”; one of his most famous images was of him and a little girl hugging and smiling.
Son of a poverty-stricken shoemaker, raised in a backward province, Joseph Stalin had only a minimum of education. However, he had a burning faith in the destiny of social revolution and an iron determination to play a prominent role in it. His rise to power was bloody and bold, yet under his leadership, in an unexplainable twenty-nine years, Russia because a highly industrialized nation. Stalin was a despotic ruler who more than any other individual molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of Europe after World War II ended in 1945. From a young revolutionist to an absolute master of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin cast his shadow over the entire globe through his provocative affair in Domestic and Foreign policy.
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th 1889 in a small town called Braunau in Austria, close to the German border. His father Alois was 51 when Adolf was born, he was known for being short-tempered and brutal to Adolf. It was because of Adolf’s stepbrother who went to jail for a theft. Alois was determined to prevent it with his second child. Hitler’s dad’s past was potential embarrassment for the future nazi leader because his mother was a cook that worked for a Jewish family. Alois was a civil servant which was a respected job at that time.
Stalins rise as a dictator over the USSR in 1929, was a struggle for power. It was set by Lenin, in his testament, that Stalin was not to takeover control as the party leader, and to be removed from his position as General Secretary, as Stalin in Lenins eyes had lack of loyalty, tolerance, and politeness. However, different factors, such as Lenins funeral, Stalins position as General Secretary and the rise of bureaucracy, and Stalins relationship to Kamenev and Zinoviev, made it possible for Stalin to become the undisputed leader over the USSR in 1929. This essay will discuss the methods and the conditions, which helped Joseph Stalin rise to power.
Joseph Stalin is a polarizing figure. Decades after his death his legacy still continues to create debate about his tumultuous years as the leader of the Soviet Union. This is evident throughout the four documents while some praise Stalin as impeccable others criticize his policies and lack of political, economic, and social progress during his regime. Even though Stalin was behind various violations of human rights he was able to maintain the Soviet Union during a time of turmoil both domestically and internationally as a result he has earned notoriety as a great leader and advocate for Marxist ideology.