Different political leaders have shaped the history of different countries; some were dictators, while others were democratic; yet, all of them have had a significant impact on the history of their own countries.
Hitler and Stalin are the two renowned names in the history of politics. Both have different ideas and philosophies for government and tried to shape the country in their way.
Key Takeaways
- Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, while Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union.
- Hitler was known for his extreme nationalism and anti-Semitic beliefs, while Stalin was known for his ruthless tactics and human rights abuses.
- Hitler’s regime was responsible for the genocide of six million Jews during the Holocaust. In contrast, Stalin’s regime was responsible for the deaths of millions of people through forced labor camps, purges, and famines.
Hitler vs Stalin
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party. He rose to power in 1933 and became Chancellor of Germany, then later consolidated his control as Führer. Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was a Soviet politician and dictator who led the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Stalin was a key figure in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
Hitler established the dictatorship in Germany from 1933 to 1945. He was the leader of the party who hated Jews and wanted to remove all the Jews from the countries, due to which he led many associations and parties to get rid of them.
He was involved in all the military operations, and he was the one who started World War II by defeating Poland on 1-September 1939.
Stalin was the leader of Soviet political and Georgian revolutionary and, from 1922 to 1953, he was in charge of the Soviet Union. By 1930, he united the power and became the Dictator of the Soviet’s Union.
Stalin, a communist loyal to Lenin’s understanding of Marxism, formalized these principles as Marxism–Leninism, while his policies became known as Stalinism.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Hitler | Stalin |
|---|---|---|
| Born | Hitler was born and brought up in a middle-class family. | Stalin was born in a poor family. |
| Education | Hitler studied fine art and applied to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but due to a lack of skills, he did not finish his secondary school education. . | In September 1888, Stalin entered the Gori church school, and from there, he started his education and completed in the Orthodox Spiritual Seminary. |
| Type of Politician | German Dictator Politician | Dictator Soviet Union Leader. |
| Ideology | Hitler practiced the beliefs of Nazism. | Communism belief was rooted in Stalin. |
| Rise of Power | Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Hitler rose to prominence. He rose to notoriety as a member of the right-wing German Workers’ Party, which changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Party, in 1920. | The leaders of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided to increase the party’s Central Committee during the 11th Congress in 1922. A secretariat was required as a result of this increase. On April 3rd, Stalin was named the head of this new office. |
Who was Hitler?
Adolf Hitler was born in Australia on April 20, 1889. He controlled Germany as a tyrant until he died in 1945. In 1939, he became the Fuhrer and Reichskanzler of the party.
He was the one who started World war II in Europe by defeating Poland on 1 September 1939. Hitler referred to the war as “the greatest of all experiences,” and his senior commanders commended him for his gallantry.
His wartime experiences solidified his German patriotism, and the capitulation of Germany in November 1918 stunned him. His dissatisfaction with the war effort’s failure shaped his ideology.
Then Hitler gained more power, and from the 1920s and 1930s, there was the rise of his power and get the right-wing German Worker’s Party, and he changed this name to National Socialist German Workers’ Party, commonly known as the Party.
The main aim of Hitler was to establish a European country dominant with radical order in Germany under him. This was the driving force behind the foreign policy, due to which, he wanted to break free from the Treaty of Versailles’ limits and include regions with ethnic German populations into the Reich.
He denied that his army was undefeated by anyone, claiming instead that some communities, like Jews and Marxists, would stab his country and defeat him, prompting him to expel and kill all Jews and install control throughout the country.
Who was Stalin?
Joseph Stalin was born and brought up in Gori and, he was the Georgian revolutionary leader. Instead of studying, he started reading about Kral Marx and joined the socialist group at a very early stage.
He spend most of the time in the revolutionary movement against Russian due to which he stopped his study and joined the political movements and parties.
In 1899, when he failed his exams, the priest threw out him of the seminary, and from there he started his political revolution. After much hard work, he joined the army.
Then he finally became the Soviet Union leader in 1922 and handled the leadership till his death. He transformed the country from a peasant society into a global superpower. He was a greater dictator than any other leader in the figure of history.
As long as he started gaining various power, he started changing the history of the Soviet Union and various European countries.
Firstly he industrialized the Union of Soviet Republics and forcefully collectivized the agricultural area with the help of intense terror. In 1941-1945, he defeated Germany and extended his powers to the belt of eastern European states.
He was responsible for the death of millions of citizens but, apart from this, he was constantly moving forward to gain control over more states and wanted to establish his rule all over the country.
Main Differences Between Hitler and Stalin
- Hitler was born in a middle-class family in a town named Braunau, while Stalin was born in Gori in a poor family.
- Hitler preached racial and national intolerance and tried to kill all the Jews from the country. On other hand, Stalin never supported racial differences and national intolerance openly. He used to speak the word of friendship among people.
- Hitler was the senior leader, due to which he enjoyed the loyalty of his subordinates and tried to dominate his radical ideas on them. On the other hand, Stalin used arbitrary terror to gain popularity.
- Hitler never brought Germany to the point of autocracy, while Stalin wanted that position, and he steed working for that also in Russia.
- Hitler’s dream was to build a huge empire based on his radical beliefs, while for the majority of his tenure in office, Stalin was focused on repression within Soviet territory.
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BjDrszaNTygC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=hitler&ots=Thw2LhRZer&sig=1gzNkbQ0JtaOptr6m_aSzB6tImE
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lsKClpnX8qwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=joseph+stalin&ots=Zzx71wyaG2&sig=troLUNlklf6h0NHurQC5sGKxeOI
Last Updated : 23 July, 2023
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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
