Stalin v. Hitler
Stalin and Hitler ruled over regimes considered totalitarian by the definition that they maintained extreme control on political, social, and economic aspects of life in their respective countries with the purpose of pursuing their own ideological ends. Although these two regimes are very similar in many respects they, like red apples and green apples, are clearly in-exchangeable.The Soviet Union, under Stalin, was ruled with an iron fist. Death was the punishment exacted for being useless to the ends of the government. Stalin was the government, and the government was Stalin. Zero factionalism could be expressed, else one would meet death. He maintained complete control over everything. Stalin's goal was to bring Russia up to par with the standards of the western world. In lieu of this ideology, Stalin actively took over the economy. With the express intent of making industry a staple of the economy in Russia, Stalin sold all grain produced by Russia, and injected that money into the industry of the country (at the cost of his people having grain to consume). He then set up Gosplan, a central economic planning agency, whose duty was to create broad goals for all sections of business in Russia. Thus, Gosplan became the
While not maintaining as stringent control over the economy as Stalin, Hitler's economy still fits under the definition of totalitarianism because he completely controlled the direction that the economy took. Stalin implemented economic controls as a way to further his ends, while Hitler implemented economic controls as a means to his end - to create war supplies in order to fight for a better Germany. Gosplan determined where one would live and work, and a belief in the ideology that Stalin preached caused citizens to report any insubordination to Stalin and his ideals. Finally, propaganda was employed extensively with the express purpose of blinding the citizens to a reality which might have caused insubordination to Stalin's ideology, or even a revolution among the people. Hitler's regime was held together through success by the regime and by a common ideology made strong among his followers. The separate ideologies of each leader creates too many differences to make their regimes interchangeable; the ideologies create different types of totalitarianism. This was achieved, dually through the use of propaganda and a secret police organization to terrify and eliminate much of the opposition to the Nazis. The propaganda included pseudoscience reports about the superiority of the Aryan race as well as promises of a better future under the Nazi regime. The KGB, the Russian secret police, were Stalin's agent that was responsible for carrying out most of Stalin's ordered death in the Soviet Union. A foremost difference that makes the regimes not interchangeable is the fact that Stalin traded his peoples' well-being for the advancement of the ideology while Hitler traded opposing people for the advancement of his ideology. The Soviet Union was held together under Stalin because the people had a constant (justifiable) fear of death for being useless to the ends of the government as well as with a belief that the future was bright for the Soviet Union, if they only followed instructions. Hitler brought his followers together under the nationalistic pretense that Aryans were the premier race, that most who were different as well as those currently in power, were the causes for the current economical and political weaknesses of the state at that time, and that a return to a more glorious time in Germany's past is the solution for a better life. Through this intense control of the economic and political aspects of life, Stalin, too, controlled the social lives of his people. With this goal accomplished, Hitler used his authoritarian base of control to direct the economy and politics of the country, as he saw fit.
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