During the period leading up to World War II, there were two famous dictatorswho were on opposing sides, yet had similar records. These men were AdolphHitler and Joseph Stalin.
They were each triumphant in their rise to power intheir countries and they were very comparable in the ways that they succeeded. Their success was mostly attributed to their new ideas and their politics. Although Hitler and Stalin hated each other, the two leaders were similar inmany ways. Hitler and Stalin each rose to the highest position attainable intheir respective countries, and there were three main reasons that they wereable to do this. Both men were skilled users of propaganda, each was amoral, andthey both had the ambition to make their countries powerful in the world.
Sinceeach was a skilled user of propaganda, they could use their words to twist andmanipulate the minds of people into believing that what they were saying was theabsolute truth. Using this power, they would get people to do anything for them,which proves their amorality. Since their countries were still trying to recoverfrom World War I, they desired to restore the power back in to their countries. These three reasons will prove that Hitler and Stalin were similar in many ways.
The names Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are synonymous with the wordpropaganda. In order to understand how Hitler and Stalin used propaganda, anunderstanding of what the word means, is required. According to Merriam-Webster,”propaganda is the spreading of ideas to further or damage a cause; alsothe ideas or allegations spread for a purpose”. Hitler and Stalin each usedpropaganda as their tool to further their ideas and help them gain the backingof the people in their countries. The form of propaganda that Hitler used, andwas successful in using, was his words. Hitler made many speeches, but the onethat greatly stood out from the others was his final speech at his trial fortreason.
In this speech he gave his views and opinions on the events precedingthe trial. This is an excerpt from his speech: “. . . I aimed from the firstto.
. . . become the destroyer of Marxism. . .
. The army that we are building growsmore from day to day, from hour to hour. Gentlemen, not you who will be the onesthat deliver the verdict over us, but that verdict will be given by the eternaljudgment of history, which will speak out against the accusation that has beenmade against us. . .
. That court will judge us. . . . as Germans (who) wanted only thebest for their people and their Fatherland, who fought and were willing to die.
You might just as well find us guilty a thousand times, but the goddess of theeternal court of history will smile and tear up the motions of the statesattorney and the judgment of this court: for she finds us not guilty”. 1After Hitler gave this speech, the court was sympathetic towards him, and he wassentenced to only five years in prison for his crime. After nine months of hissentence had been served, he received parole. Being able to gain Nazi partycontrol and gain enough supporters, proves that he was an efficient user ofpropaganda.
Hitler also had his own minister of propaganda when he became leaderof the country. This proves that Hitler was a big user of propaganda, but JosephStalin was not as blatantly obvious with his uses of it. Stalin did, however,use propaganda in his speech to the Fifteenth Congress in 1927. Stalin said inthis speech: ” Evidently, the opposition prefers to be outside the party.
Well, let it be outside the party. There is nothing terrible, or exceptional, orsurprising in the fact that they prefer to be outside the party, that they arecutting themselves off from the party. If you study the history of our party,you will find that always, at certain serious turns taken by our party, acertain section of the old leaders fell out of the cart of the Bolshevik partyand made room for newer members. A turn is a serious thing, comrades. A turn isdangerous for those who do not sit firmly in the party cart. Not everybody cankeep his balance when a turn is made.
You turn the cart – and on looking back,you find that someone has fallen out”. 2 After Stalin said this, animmediate applause was heard. Stalin was telling the
