A Comparison of Hitler and Stalin
Angelica Calvillo
HIS 306: Twentieth-Century Europe

April 26, 2010

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union are two controversial regimes. Hitler and Stalin were both Dictators of the countries they ruled. When Hitler and Stalin are compared, we can clearly see that each one of them were cold blooded killers. They are both responsible for an absurd amount of innocent deaths. Hitler is believed to be responsible for killing at least six million Jewish people during the Holocaust; Stalin is responsible for the killings of millions of people (many of them Jews).
An interesting similarity between Hitler and Stalin is their childhood. Both Hitler and Stalin grew up with abusive
Stalin was from Georgia, his real name Jozef Jughashvili, and not a Russian as his name implies, Stalin being a variation on the Russian word for steel. Hitler was born in Austria, and while an ethnic German, he was not a citizen of Germany at birth (“Hitler”, 2009).
Even though Hitler and Stalin had many things in common, they of course had differences too. The most obvious differences are that Hitler was from Germany whereas Stalin was from Russia. They also spoke different languages: Hitler spoke German and Stalin spoke Russian. Another difference between the two is how they cam into power.
Hitler rose to power legally, although very shortly thereafter, with the burning down of the German Parliament building, the Reichstag, he imposed a sort of martial law and his reign of terror could then begin in earnest. His National Socialist Party had by then the majority in the legislature, so he could easily pass these measures that would soon begin to destroy his "1000 year Reich." (“Hitler”, 2009).In contrast, Stalin assumed power in a different way.
He was a leading member of the Bolshevik movement based on Karl Marx and headed by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. When Lenin fell ill in the early 1920's Stalin used his position in the Bolshevik Party to isolate Lenin in his sickbed. He soon controlled all access to the failing Lenin, and if Lenin wanted him to be successor to the helm of the Bolshevik