Why Did Joseph Stalin Gain Absolute Power

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There were two dictators arose in the early 20th century - Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. They were absolute, ambitious, brutal and ruthless. They sought after strong power and absolute loyalty. Stalin ruled the biggest country crossing Eurasia, the Soviet Union, and contributed greatly to the victory of the Allies in the World War II. Hitler reconstructed Germany from its defeat in the World War I. But simultaneously, because of them, at least 50 million people died between 1930 and 1950 and millions of people suffered in great pains.

The ways Hitler and Stalin gained absolute power were different. Hitler gained power in a more democratic way. Benefited from Hitler’s extraordinary oratorical skill, he gained more and more support from the public taking advantages of German people’s nationalism even racialism after the WWI, and the Great Depression from 1929. Under the banner of National Socialism and seeking goods for the public, his National Socialist German Worker’s Party was selected to be the largest party in the Reichstag in 1932. Meanwhile, his political …show more content…

Germans benefited a lot from it. Differently, Stalin collectivized agriculture and spared no efforts to develop industrialization through Five Year Plans. USSR caught up with Western counties eventually, but with the cost of famines and death of many millions of people.

Hitler’s brutality was mainly reflected in the slaughter of Jews and the provoked of the WWII. He deemed the Aryans were the most superior race in the world and the Jews as “cultural destroyers”. He put Jews into jails and concentration camps and implemented ethnic cleansing. As a comparison, Stalin’s brutality was mainly reflected domestically, such as the Great Purge and oppression on peasants during the Five Year Plans. As well, externally, he executed more than 20 thousands of Polish officers in