It depends on whom you ask…

• What’s the difference between the two?

• Which one is better?

• Which would you choose?

• What’s the difference between the two?

• Which one is better?

• Which would you choose?

• What’s the difference between the two?

• Which one is better?

• Which would you choose?

• What’s the difference between the two?

• Which one is better?

• Which would you choose?

• What’s the difference between the two?

• Which one is better?

• Which would you choose?

STALIN VS. HITLER
• What is the difference between the two?

• Which one was better?

• Which one would you choose?

Fascism vs. Communism
Do you recognize these symbols?
What do they stand for?

Which one of these symbols do you dislike

the most? Why?
• Nazism is a form of fascism.

• Fascism is a radical, authoritarian, nationalist political ideology.

• Fascists seek to eliminate forces deemed to cause

degeneration to (breakdown of) the state. They seek to build
national community where individuals are bound by ancestry,
culture, and race.

• Fascists believe a nation requires strong leadership and a

singular collective identity and forbid opposition to the state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
• Hitler believed Germany had been weakened by groups that lived
within its borders.

• He proposed strengthening the nation’s military and expanding its

borders to include Germans living in other nations.

• He called for the purification of the Aryan race (blonde, blue-eyed

Germans) by removing groups he considered undesirable.

• Hitler and the Nazi party promised to stabilize the country and restore
the empire that had been lost in WWI.
• Stalinism refers to the policies and governmental philosophy of
Joseph Stalin, leader and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1924 to
1953.

• A totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian

party controls state-owned means of production.

• A system whereby all goods are owned in common and are available
to all as needed.

• In a communist society there is no private property.

• The goal of communism was a state-less, class-less society.

• How’d that work out?

• By the late 1920s, after Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin was effectively the
dictator of the Soviet Union.

• His forced collectivization of agriculture cost millions of lives, while his

program of rapid industrialization achieved huge increases in Soviet
productivity and economic growth, but at great cost.

• The population suffered immensely during the Great Terror of the 1930s,
during which Stalin purged the party of “enemies of the people”, resulting in
the execution of thousands and the exile of millions to the gulag system of
slave labor camps. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stalin_joseph.shtml

• While some claim that Stalin hijacked communism, the practice of

communism has always led to dictatorial government and repressive control
of individuals.
• Government has unrestrained power.
• Government controlled all foreign trade, wages, and prices.
• Government domination of money and the economy.
• Militarization created jobs.

• Fascism allowed private enterprise (but controlled it); communism does not
allow private property.
• Fascism is said to be “right-wing”; communism is said to be “left-wing”.

• Fascism told people they had to sacrifice for their country; communism told
people they had to sacrifice for their fellow citizens.
• Stalin purged the communist party of those that were
considered enemies. Thousands were executed.

• Hitler called for the purification of the Aryan race by

removing groups he considered undesirable. Included in
those groups were Jews, handicapped people,
homosexuals, political prisoners, gypsies, and Soviet
prisoners of war.

• They both sought to eliminate the “undesirables.”

• Fascists believed a nation requires strong leadership and a
singular collective identity, and forbade opposition to the state.

• Communism represented a totalitarian system of government

in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned
means of production.

• Each ideology had no room for dissent or varying points of

view. Each held strict beliefs in terms of who would make
decisions for the “greater good” of the society.
• These forms of government highlight the reality of a minority
rule.

• In each instance, the unelected few make and enforce the rules
and dictate policy to the majority of the citizens who have no
say in what the government does.

• These types of governments cannot last as they must spend

valuable resources controlling the population.

• In short, the supporters of each ideology must create a police

state to survive.
• Millions of people suffered and died as a result of these two
ideologies.

• There are two schools of thought when attempting to calculate the

number of deaths that resulted from Nazism and Stalinism.

• The “Big Numbers” school, associated with the right wing, have
made estimates on the high end while the “Lower Numbers”
school, members of the liberal wing, have made estimates on the
low end.

• Estimates are based on a compilation of data from various

sources.
• It is estimated that Hitler and the Nazis were responsible for…

Low Estimate: 10 million deaths

High Estimate: 25 million deaths

Median Estimate: 15.5 million deaths

http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#Hitler
• It is estimated that the Stalinist regime was responsible for…

Low Estimate: 9 million deaths

High Estimate: 66 million deaths

Median Estimate: 20 million deaths

http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#Stalin
These stories will reinforce the lesson

• Enn Sarv: Survivor Nazi Concentration Camp & Soviet Gulag 6:11 (entire clip)

• Tiia-Ester Loitme: Conductor, Deported at Age 14 (view the first 4:11 of this
clip)

• Introduction: Mari-Ann Kelam 1:30 (entire clip)

• Each system of government was responsible for millions of
deaths.

• Do the number of deaths resulting from these governments

and the ideologies matter in any meaningful sense?

• What matters more, what their goals were or what they

actually did?

• Do their goals really matter at all?

How different were Hitler’s Nazism
and Stalin’s communism?
• Should fascism or communism be considered a legitimate
form of government? Why / Why not?

• In a free society, should the public decide for themselves

how they want to be governed? And what if they choose
a form of government that has been proven historically to
be oppressive?

• Do you think people prefer to have their government

regulate society or do you think people would prefer to
self-regulate?

• What is the proper role of government?

1. Research the terms “totalitarian” and
“totalitarianism.”
2. Write an essay in which you compare and
contrast fascism and communism.
3. Relate each of the two systems of
government to the term “totalitarianism.”