Fascism Compared to Communism
Fascism Compared to CommunismAnalyze the similarities and the differences between single party rule
in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia between 1933 and 1945. Answers
should consider: methods of dealing with opposition, control of media
and education, control of the economy, and war time planning.
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Why is it that Germany's fascism lasted a relatively short
time compared to Russia's communism? The regimes established under
Hitler and Stalin were incredibly similar with respect to the rise and
control of the state. Both systems were based on entirely different
ideology and goals. Hitler's Mein Kampf established the superiority of
the German race and the need to expand as wanted by God. Hitler wanted
the world. The government in Russia established by Lenin was based on
a book called Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, a call to the
proletariate to unite and rebel against their selfish employers. It is
my belief that Lenin had entirely good reasons for doing as he did,
and felt he was helping the world as apposed to Adolf Hitler.
Immediately after Lenin's death, a man very much the same in nature as
Hitler, Stalin, came to control the Bolsheviks and throw Russia in a
civil war in a quest for power. You now have two men of equal
aspirations soon to be in control of two very similar governments.
In any rise of power, there needs to be a period of careful
planning requiring much thought. These two men had very little history
with which to work with which to model their revolutions. Times had
been changing rapidly, technological improvements in the fields of
manufacturing, transportation, and communication made this period of
time very different from any other. Hitler spent his time imprison
writing his book, Mein Kampf, filling it full of warped ideas of
conquest and superiority of one race over another. I think it is
strange that such works would go unnoticed with nobody left to watch a
man with such dangerous ideas. Lenin planned his revolution while in
exile in Switzerland. Then he made a deal with the German government
whereby he was hid on a train and passed through enemy Germany to
Russia. The conclusions with respect to methods of acquiring power and
controlling it when they did get it were very much the same.
Both rulers had full run of their respective governments.
Stalin was already dictator of Russia with his power and loyalty of
the people guaranteed by the secret police, the Cheka. This entity
provided Stalin with an easy means of destroying the opposition and
weeding out the undesirable to be sent to prison camps in Siberia, a
virtual death sentence. For Hitler to ascend to that level of power he
rammed the Enabling Act through the German Congress which gave him the
power to enact laws. Under Article 1 of his new power, Hitler decreed
the only existing party shall...
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