Hitler Vs. Stalin

1. By Liz Kraft and Ryan McCallum Hitler Vs. Stalin

2. The Nazi rise to power in Germany brought an end to the quasi-democratic system of presidential rule into which the leaders of the Weimar Republic slipped in response to the economic crisis of the Great Depression. Following his appointment as chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler began laying the foundations of the Nazi state. Guided by racist and authoritarian principles, the Nazis eliminated individual freedoms and pronounced the creation of a Volk Community (Volksgemeinschaft)—a society which would, in theory, transcend class and religious differences.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005204 There were several characteristics which Germany possessed after the First World War which made them vulnerable to being manipulated by someone like Adolf Hitler. As in most nations, the economic factors of the time play a significant role in determining how a society will behave. Germany was economically devastated after a draining defeat in World War I. Due to the Versailles treaty, Germany was forced to pay incredibly sizeable reparations to France and Great Britain. In addition, the Versailles treaty, which many agreed was far too harsh, forced Germany to give up thirteen percent of its land.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/naziregime.html At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense, I tell you that the Nazi movement will go on for 1,000 years! ”Adolf Hitler to a British Journalist At the beginning of the 1930s, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party exploited widespread and deep-seated discontent in Germany to attract popular and political support. There was resentment at the crippling territorial, military and economic terms of the Versailles Treaty, which Hitler blamed on treacherous politicians and promised to overturn. The democratic post-World War I Weimar Republic was marked by a weak coalition government and political crisis, in answer to which the Nazi party offered strong leadership and national rebirth. From 1929 onwards, the worldwide economic depression provoked hyperinflation, social unrest and mass unemployment, to which Hitler offered scapegoats such as the Jews. Nazi Germany, also known as the Third Reich, is the common name for Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, when its government was controlled by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party). Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed from a republic into a dictatorship using the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination). The country was a totalitarian state after August 1934. Nazi Germany ceased to exist at the end of World War II after the Allied Forces defeated the Wehrmacht in May 1945.[4]RussiaThe Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Russian SFSR. The Emperor was forced to abdicate and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917 (March in the Gregorian calendar; the older Julian calendar was in use in Russia at the time). In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) governmentJoseph Stalin. Born the son of a Georgian cobbler, he was named IosebDzhugashvilli (Georgian) or Josef Vissarionovich (Russian). He studied in a church school in Gori, but was expelled for Marxist activity. He continued with his activities, writing Marxist essays in a Georgian newspaper. He was an enthusiastic defender of Lenin and the Marxist exiles who published the socialist paper Iskrahttp://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/stalinsrussia.html

3. Both Hitler and Stalin came into power during a period of time where their country was in hardship. Envisioned their countries as becoming world powers. Comparison

7. Hitler Stalin • Formed a Dictatorship, by harnessing the general discontent among the Germany People, and pushing the Jewish People as “scapegoats1” for the problems within the country. • offered • Marxist Communist Contrast

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