Comparative Essay USSR and Nazi Germany

« Firstly, both regimes were forged on a strong sense of ideology in order to build a ‘perfect world’.

Nazism based its regime on the idea of a racial or biological hierarchy, where the Aryan race (blond and blue-eyed Germans) were considered the ‘superior race’ and Communists, Jews, people of color and homosexuals were referred to as the ‘undesirables’ and were viewed as ‘impure’.

This was based on 19th century Ssocial Darwinism.

In the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour, one of the articles states that ‘purity of German blood is the essential condition for the continued existence of the German people’, which is a perfect illustration of Hitler’s ideology.

In addition, the Nazis based their politics on expansionism, particularly of the East in order to gain more territory and spread their ideology as much as possible.

Hitler’s success was due mainly to Germany’s socio-economic condition because of World War IW1.

The German population was desperate and in-debt due to their loss in the war and the Treaty of Versailles, which made it easier for Hitler to insert his power by blaming the Jews, Communism, Capitalism and the Treaty of Versailles for the country's condition.

He also gave German’s hope by promising a ‘quick fix’ for all the country’s issues and promised to restore Germany’s economy.

Consequently, a majority of the population sided with him which made the Nnazi party, by 1933, the most popular party in Germany.

Stalinism, on the other hand, was based on Communism, particularly Marxism and his thesis: ‘Socialism in one country’.

He believed that his ideology should be strengthened within the country and not be expanded around the world.

His ideas also revolved around state-planned centralised economy, meaning the collectivization of agriculture and rapid industrialization.

In addition, Stalin was already in power since 1922, due to the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and the elimination of all opposing parties, facilitating the spread of his ideas within the country.

Therefore, similarly to Nazism, Stalin came to power due to a socio-economic despair in the country, making the population more vulnerable to the agreement with his ideas.

Both Nazi Germany and Stalin’s USSR were authoritarian regimes and used terror to consolidate their power and impose their ideologies.

Terror was used in order to make the population obey through fear of consequences, rather than giving an actual choice to approve or not of their reforms.

In Germany, this was done mainly by creating a police state.

Hitler, to do so, created different forms of police, all used to install mass control of the population.

The SS was the most prominent one as it was used to enforce the ideology and was very present in concentration camps.

Secondly, the Gestapo, or secret police state, was put in place to eliminate any spies, sabotages and criminal acts against the government.They were allowed to directly intervene in people’s private lives by listening to phone conversations. »