Compare Hitler And Stalin

“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic” (Joseph Stalin). Both Stalin and Hitler are responsible for millions of deaths of innocent people; however, they are also both responsible for the revolutionizing of their territory. “To be great, of course, does not mean to be good”. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are both examples of great leaders.(1) While they are both horrible humans who did disastrous acts against humanity they were arguably the most influential and impactful leaders of the twentieth century. Hitler was able to revolutionize Germany and take over most of Europe and Stalin was able to take peasant the Soviet Union from a peasant society to a superpower. These are both incredible accomplishments; however,

He was able to rise through the ranks and become the Dictator of the Soviet Union.(2) Once in power Stalin put into place many plans, the most well known being collectivization. In this plan Stalin “create[ed] thousands of huge collective farms in the country. Stalin abolished private ownership of land for building communism in the countryside by forcibly sending millions of landlords and even middle peasants who dared to resist his policy to Siberia and the Far East” (2). Stalin ruled and maintained power by inflicting terror into the hearts of his people. If someone spoke out against Stalin or his rein he would have them sent to the Gulag. Gulag is an acronym for the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps, in Russian, Glavnoe Upravlenie Ispravitel’no—trudovykh LaGerei. These camps were not death camps like the ones that Hitler created; however, they were intense work camps located in extreme climates with high levels of violence, small food rations, hard labor and horrendous living conditions leading to high death rates. These camps were used as the main penal system for the Soviet Union, they would hold people who had spoken against Stalin, people who raped or stole or murdered. Additionally political prisoners were placed in the Gulag. Depending on the crime of the person their sentence would vary; however, it would often be extended either because they did not

He was a very successful orator. His speeches were how he gained the beginning of his party. His ability to speak and get people to envision his dream as theirs is how he was able to gain such a following that he was able to become Dictator of Germany and be able to take over most of Europe. Additionally he was a visionary, he was able to sit in prison and write Mein Kampf and plan out how he was going to use propaganda to create the nation based on one race. He was able to see what he wanted and set things in motions to get them accomplished. Lastly the main characteristic that made him such an impactful leader was that he was an amazing strategist. If you look at his rise to power you can see how he was able to predict how each decision he made would affect the next and was able to plan his ultimate take over of the German