Similarities Between 20th Century Russia And Germany

Comparing 20th Century Russia and Germany. The 20th century was a time of tremendous change, upheaval, and revolution. The existence of modern day Russia and Germany are a testament to that, and the development of communism and fascism in those countries respectively are what shaped them the most. In Russia, communism took hold during the 1920’s, and faced incredible opposition both internally, from royalists, and externally, from the hostile international community. Germany embraced fascism a bit later in the century, during the 1930’s. However, fascism in Germany faced none of the hurdles that communism in Russia did, as the Nazi party was democratically brought to power rather than through revolution. These forms of government seem polarizing …show more content…
This was certainly the case in Russia where an unprecedented cult of personality was fostered around Joseph Stalin- Vladimir Lenin’s successor. Stalin was presented as a paternal figure, guarding Russia and her people from the hostile world and its corrupting capitalism. He was truly idolized and close to divine. Consider the following quotation, “ Everything is Stalin, Stalin, Stalin. You only have to listen to a radio program about our achievements, and every fifth or tenth word will be the name of comrade Stalin.” (Strayer, 1075) Soviet Russia, like Nazi Germany, did not allow free press, critical opinions of the government were simply not published-this constant stream of propaganda resulted in Stalin becoming something of a national deity, “The portraits of party leaders are now displayed the same way icons used to be…” (Strayer, 1075) The reverence that the Russians held for Stalin was more than comparable to the adulation of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany. Hitler-though he too was seen as a paternal and nearly divine savior of the nation - preferred to focus the brunt of the public idolization on the Nazi party rather than himself. He accomplished this in some of the same ways as the Russians- through massive rallies, political propaganda, and also through uniquely German state sponsored …show more content…
Once in power the Russian communists immediately set in motion massive land reform and redistribution, and shortly thereafter initiated forced collectivization; which was a very bloody process as the peasants were unwilling to relinquish their new land and slaughtered their livestock in droves rather than surrender them to the communal farms. This, along with other factors such as underperforming farms, resulted in famine. Another thing that the communist regime focused on from the very beginning was industrialization and modernization, which they defined as fundamental tasks- necessary to provide both the economic basis for communism and the army. This industrialization led not only to immeasurable economic growth, but also to many social outcomes such as improved standards of living, increased literacy, and the growth of a privileged elite. The first two outcomes are very positive; the third however, is rather problematic as when one lives in a communist society there should not be any form of elitism. The government did nothing to combat the development of this elite, straying once again from their Marxist roots. Stalin himself endorsed patriotism, traditional family values, individual competition, and wage inequality-all of which are very non-communist values, in fact, they are rather fascist. But by far the most