Discussion Response - Essay Example

Response to Laura’s Post Hi Laura. Your post interestingly and truly summarizes the Nazi and Communist Soviet regimes. I share your view that the similarities of the two regimes far outweigh their differences. The very mention of the Holocaust is associated with the Nazi movement just like the Great Purge is associated with Communist Soviet. Hitler and Stalin had big egos and felt that they were entitled to be worshipped. Their sense of righteousness was so intense that they seemed never to be troubled by the deaths of their nationals (the minorities especially).

Both regimes actually saw the killing of millions of individuals; Jews and other minorities in Nazi Germany and the Kulaks in Communist Soviet. Government machinery was deployed in both cases to ensure that the leaders’ ideologies were implemented. This took the form of mass violence, the establishment of concentration camps, and strict control of every aspect of the people’s lives as you rightly state. I have learnt from you one main difference between Hitler and Stalin that never was on my mind; the façades they presented in public.

I like the way you put it; Stalin’s speech and presentation in public light was positive while the actions he did or oversaw were quite the opposite, unlike Hitler who never minded what others thought of him. That said, I will like to add a point to your post in relation to the differences of the two regimes. While both regimes were oriented toward the good of the state as opposed to the individual, they were different in the sense that the Nazi movement focused on eliminating inferior races and people from the country while the Soviet regime was focused on eliminating class differences as noted by Kershaw and Moshé (1997).

In some sense, therefore, the two regimes used the same means (violence and strict controls) to meet different ends (establishing a pure Aryan state versus eliminating class differences). ReferenceKershaw, I & Moshé L. (1997). Stalinism and Nazism: dictatorships in comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.