How similar were Stalin and Hitler?
The dictatorships of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin cost many innocent people their lives and caused mass panic and paranoia. By examining evidence, it is clear the two are quite similar in some ways but also totally different. Whilst both of their family lives and their ways of controlling their regimes were very alike, their rise to power and their beliefs and ideas weren’t very similar.
Both Hitler and Stalin had difficult early lives that told a tale of absent or weak fathers. Both fathers were alcoholics and both died when Hitler and Stalin were very young. Stalin’s father died when he was 11 and Hitler lost his father with 13 years. Both young boys had no real fatherly figure to guide and inspire them, they only had a drunk who died when they were still at a young age.
The 1920s was an important point in history, Hitler rose to power in Germany while Stalin rose to power in the Soviet Union, although they rose to power during the same time, they achieved this in two different ways. Hitler became head of the Nazi party and was able to convince the German people to vote him as chancellor, when he achieved this he took the power all for himself, he banned all other parties and ensured that he couldn’t be stopped. Stalin’s rise to power wasn’t as easy, he may have been one of the top communist leaders but he wasn’t the favourite. Leon Trotsky stood in Stalin’s path to power, Stalin overcame this obstacle through using his ruthlessness and trickery. Once he was the undisputed leader he did the same as Hitler, he took ultimate control, eliminating anyone who would oppose him.
Hitler and Stalin ruled with an iron fist, they used harsh tactics to eliminate anyone who didn’t agree with their policies. They used similar tactics, for example the secret police, whilst Hitler had the feared Gestapo, Stalin had the ruthless KGB, both secret police had the right to arrest, torture and search houses without any courtly