Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin came to power almost a decade apart, went from being allies to enemies during World War Two, and were on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. However, both define the first half of the 20th century. Both men effectively used the precarious situations of their countries to push for their own agendas, and needed internal and external enemies to further their own popularity and programs. Although both pushed industrial development, Hitler and Stalin were mass murders and leaders of genocides. They forced their own image on their countries and became synonymous with the state. More importantly, both became totalitarian leaders of their respective countries, crushing any opposition and using a secret police to stay in power. Nevertheless, many differences existed between these two leaders. Hitler was the founder and charismatic leader of his political party while Stalin was simply the heir to Lenin. Hitler avoided the bureaucratic banal of governments and their daily operation while Stalin immersed himself in it and was the government.

Stalin’s Programs

After he successfully maneuvered himself to the center of Soviet power and positioned himself as the heir to Lenin, Stalin changed the course of the Russian Revolution and the new Soviet State. First, Stalin moved to the right to force the more hardcore communists out of power, especially the other potential heir to Lenin-the dedicated revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Stalin then embraced views further on the left to purge the leaders on the right-those opposed to collectivization--and to eject Bukharin out of power. Thus, the New Economic Policy and encouragement of the production of small private farms ended as Stalin embraced collectivization of the farmers. This approach turned farmers into a labor force, working on state-owned and in theory more mechanized large farms.

Stalin’s plan was to industrialize the Soviet Union as quickly as possible and he embraced a five-year plan that helped solidify his position against those on the right. Through the production of steel, tractors, and other heavily manufactured goods, the Soviet economy grew at a rate of over 25% from 1929 to 1934. Ambitious targets of oil, steel, and tractors productions were met. Despite the difficulties in planning and the arrest of the most educated technicians, the economy was transformed. Stakhanovites were legendary workers who far surpassed their production goals and whose accomplishments were lauded throughout the country as a source of inspiration to others.

Figure 12: Stalin

First, Stalin was now in a position to target the kulak class that Lenin’s policies had helped grow and called for the “liquidization of the kulaks.” Hundreds of thousands were killed by state officials-in teams of three-with millions dying of famine and exposure afterwards. There was a nationalist element as many of the kulaks targeted lived in Ukraine. Even in the times of famine, the export of grain, needed to pay for the importation of materials for industrialization, continued. Over 7 million people died of hunger between 1930-33; mostly in Ukraine, but also in Central Asia where almost 10% of the population starved to death.

Secondly, Stalin went after his political enemies, dubbed “enemies of socialism” which included high ranking officials and many of whom were original revolutionaries. Any one could be deemed an enemy of the state and those who turned them in were heroes of the state that could include parents, teachers, etc. The smallest offenses-stealing a loaf of bread, owning a prohibited book, or engaging in prostitution-resulted in harsh sentences. A sentence of 10 years in the labor camp prisons began to dot the northern fringe of the country.

Thirdly, Stalin targeted high-ranking military officials. By the start of World War Two, and following a disastrous war but still victory against neighboring Finland, Stalin purged 90% of his generals and 80% of his colonels. Finally, Stalin eliminated many of the gains that the Revolution had brought to the Soviet women.He did improve health care-mostly to help the population grow-and access to education. However, he denied them the right to divorce which they needed. Stalin encouraged families and the traditional role of women; while also seeing more female engineers, doctors and bureaucrats moving into the workforce to replace those killed or imprisoned.

Minorities were forced into the Russian-dominated Soviet system, economy, and culture. While this led to more rights for women in certain areas and more women entering the workforce, it also limited the cultural autonomy and religious freedom of certain areas, especially Muslim regions. The Soviet state also encouraged the movement of people to the far eastern regions of the country to promote economic development and provide a buffer against a Japanese or Chinese invasion.

The Ukrainian genocide, known as the Holodomor, was part of the Soviet famine from 1932-1933 that witnessed the death of between 3-7 million people; although estimates are as high as 12 million. One estimate put the percentage of ethnic Ukrainian deaths at about 81.3% of the famine victims. The causes of the famine are still under debate but local causes included the forced collectivization of farms; the introduction of new and unfamiliar crops; the lack of overall planning, including the rotting of grain that went unharvested. Additionally, Stalin rejected any form of outside assistance and limited the mobility of the population during this era, all of which contributed to the rising death rate of the population. Furthermore, the region had long been targeted by the Soviet state for grain since the start of the Russian Revolution and Stalin continued to confiscate foodstuffs from the people while viewing the local population as kulaks and hoarders. People were arrested for stealing food, practiced cannibalism, and fought with each other over food.

One letter to Stalin stated: “Honorable Comrade Stalin, is there a Soviet government law stating that villagers should go hungry? Because we, collective farm workers, have not had a slice of bread in our farm since January 1… How can we build a socialist people’s economy when we are condemned to starving to death, as the harvest is still four months away? What did we die for on the battlefields? To go hungry, to see our children die in pangs of hunger?”

However, the ‘radiant’ future promised at the start of the Revolution represented more freedom for some but the loss of freedom for many.It was also characterized by the death of millions and the imprisonment of millions more. The Revolution was in the hands of Stalin and while in theory the constitution remained, Stalin was the Soviet state and continued to possess the power.

Life in the Gulag

Figure 13: Gulag prisoners at work, 1936-1937

Everyday life under Stalin was a struggle. People struggled to obtain shoes and those they obtained were often of low quality but show that clothing, shoes and textiles were in short supply and that people had to wait in long lives for them. The rationing of food continued to 1935. People’s survival and access to goods depended on connections and access to higher officials or to friends. A huge shortage of apartments existed with entire families sharing one room, others sleeping in hallways. Many joked that they would ‘inform’ on their neighbors to get access to their apartment. Still, the elite had access to goods, to better stores.

Starting in the Russian Civil War, the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka, classified unhappy workers as not truly workers and the assassination attempt on Lenin provided new motivation for the arresting and detaining of “class enemies.”

While Stalin used the NKVD to initially purge the Soviet elite, the organization expanded to target any “anti-Soviet” person or behavior before specifically targeting ethnic minorities (who allegedly were engaged in espionage) in the USSR. Reviewing and condemning over 50 people per hour in some cases, the number of arrests quickly surged beyond the initial scope and by July 1938 over 1.4 million people had been arrested. Backed by a legal system that allowed for revolutionary interpretations, authorities obtained confessions through the extensive use of torture and then forced the detainees to name additional conspirators. Those arrested were either shot or sent to the Gulag for at least 8 years. The arrested were brought to local prisons, tortured and interrogated until they confessed their crimes then sentenced to a lengthy sentence. The show trials that started in 1936 ensured the appearance of a fair trial but confessions were already obtained under torture (but seemed believable to outside observers), witnessed arranged and the outcome was predetermined.

Overall, 18 million were imprisoned in the gulag system. Between 1937 and 1938 alone, the secret police detained 1.5 million people and shot 681,692. For the 1 million prisoners that died, there was no escape or return but for everyone involved, lives were ruined. For those in the camp, leaving the camp became a distant hope. The lucky ones were prepared and able to big some supplies-hair for a mattress, a blanket and a mug-but many were not so fortunate. In some cases, intellectuals and arts were able to recreate their lives. But in other most cases, a focus on survival dominated daily life. Criminal gangs essentially ran the camps, corruption was rife so the under-supplied camps become more problematic. A prisoner’s diet was based on the work accomplished-only those who achieved 100% of their work target would receive 100% of their (albeit very poor rations) leading the weak (and women) to become even weaker and allowing starvation to set in. The food itself was suspected and often spoiled. Access to the outside, to better goods or to a better work detail all depended on payoffs. Rape was common, contact with any children was eliminated after breastfeeding ended and most children were simply ignored.Finally much of the work was essentially pointless in nature. A canal project was abandoned after the digging of 141 miles, death of thousands and committed of some state resources. While some of the camps produced timber and other raw materials, the vast gulag prison system became a drain on the Soviet economy, removed people from the workforce and used scarce resources. Only after 1945, would millions return to Soviet society and attempt to rebuild their shattered lives, struggle to obtain housing and employment and realize that their families had moved on during their absence. For families outside of the camp, many could not find jobs, most divorced and life continued as a great struggle. Overall, the number of deaths (outside of the Ukraine) due to Soviet repression exceeded one million people in the late 1930s alone. The goals of working to reform wayward Soviet workers through forced labor backfired.

The Rise of Hitler

Hitler’s rise was based on simple attacks. He went after the Treaty of Versailles, international capitalists, Marxists and Jews. After experiencing little success in the early 1920s, Hitler reaped the benefits of the economic collapse in 1930. With vague promises of future greatness, his style of campaigning was straight forward and based on nationalist but worked showed Hitler as a man of action, a new generation from the failing Weimar leadership; in short he was a modern campaigner who made use of the radio, of posters, of modern travel to hold rallies around Germany. He was also able to take advantage of rising anti-Semitism and a decade long fear of Marxism. Parties on the left spent more time fighting each other than Hitler and those on the right felt that he could be either controlled or easily discredited. Simply, many in Germany were unhappy, worried or otherwise discontent and Hitler took advantage of their angst.

In power, no one knew quite how to deal with Hitler, what was happening or what Hitler’s end goals were. In 1933, the burning of the German Parliament (the Reichstag) provided Hitler the opportunity to attack people’s freedoms, as the rights of assembly and freedom of the press were quickly limited. Additionally, the police could detain people for an indefinite time. At the same time, Hitler worked to create a stronger Germany and worked to develop the Germany economy. Through increased state spending on infrastructure projects and defense, forcing Jews and women out of the workforce and drafting young men, he was able to achieve almost full employment in Germany. . He pushed for a reinvigoration of German life and culture. In 1934, the “Night of the Long Knives” purged the party of its troublesome and more extremist SA wing; brought the party more firmly under Hitler’s control and demonstrated the paramilitary organizations were no longer needed. Hitler now controlled the state, party and military. In 1935, Hitler announced his new rearmament program, had German troops re-enter the Rhineland for which they had been barred and became more and more involved in the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, a rigged election returned Hitler to power with more than 99% of the vote in every district. Labor unions, the church and nearly any organization came under the command of the Nazis.

As Hitler took power, restrictions occurred in waves. Daily life was influenced by the secret police, the Gestapo, with most of the investigations begun by informers and enforced by block warders. A 1933 program allowed for sterilization of the deaf and physically disabled followed by the murder of the mentally disabled. Jazz music was condemned for encouraging interracial relationships, sex and drinking. Nazi officials targeted education-math questions reinforced Nazi propaganda, teachers needed to attend political educational classes and would be judged by their students. History was rewritten to highlight German successes and rework blame; it was now the fault of Jews for Germany’s defeat in 1918. In 1935, all German young men (between 18 and 25) needed to spend six months working on communal programs, mostly in rural areas. Still, non-Jewish Germans needed to actually do something wrong to be arrested but the population was scared into silence.

Figure 14: Hitler Speaks

The Nazis and their supporters blamed Jewish people for problems everywhere and connected them to the themes (if contradictory) of international capitalism and Bolshevism/communism while working to undermine the race. The Nazis worked to connect Jewish people to ideas of modernity and the problems of the 1920s and 1930s while also attempting to justify any solution with reference to modern science.

The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of many basic rights. The state pushed a program of Aryanization in all aspects of life-teachers, professors, business owners were all pushed out in favor of “Germans.” The night of the Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) witnesses Nazi and popular attacks against Jewish own businesses, the burning of synagogues before forcing the Jewish businesses owners to repair the damage. Finally, the businesses were seized by Nazi officials. The German people saw the damage but either ignored it, thought the victims deserved it or silently condemned the actions.

Figure 15: Unemployment in Germany

However, by the late 1930s, Hitler’s state was beginning to run out of money. More extreme actions were needed. Austria was incorporated into the German state (known as the Anschluss) and those suffering from unemployment and inflation welcomed in the new Hitler. Many argued that he had transformed Germany and would do the same with Austria. This was soon followed by demands for the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakian territory with a large German population. In October, 1938, it too was made part of Germany.

Conclusion

The chaos of the 1920s, made worse by the Great Depression, created a turbulent situation in many European countries that allowed for extremist politicians to either come to power, hold on to power or enjoy greater support throughout Europe. Life under the authoritarian ruler of Hitler and Stalin witnessed the denial of human rights to many, especially ethnic minorities, in both states along with the rise of prison camps, a state presence in nearly every aspect of life and a sense of fear among many. Still, others praised the strong leadership of each and the economic miracles they performed while the rest of the world suffered during the Great Depression.