Mir Zohair Husain & Scott Liebertz
Hitler, Stalin, and
Authoritarianism:
A Comparative
Analysis (Part 2)
Abstract: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have both been the subjects of significant research. However, virtually no attempts have been made to compare and
contrast them in light of recently developing social scientific notions of authoritarianism and authoritarian personalities. We analyze the lives of Adolf Hitler
and Joseph Stalin, using these theories to analyze their relevant characteristics and
policies. We do not enter into the debate about which theory of the authoritarian
personality is superior, but merely seek to use important insights from each of
these concepts to better understand our two subjects. In the second part of this
essay, we will analyze and discuss these leaders’ early careers, rise to power, writings, economic policies, commonalities, differences, and legacies, concluding with
a comparative chart (see page 115) that summarizes these aspects.
Introduction
In the first part of this article, which appeared in the previous issue of The
Journal of Psychohistory, we discussed several major theories pertaining to
authoritarianism and the authoritarian personality. Subsequently, we applied the theories to analyze and understand Hitler’s and Stalin’s family
background, social class, religious faith, education, and relationships with
peers, women, and children. In Part II, we will be moving beyond their
families and personal backgrounds to analyze their early careers, rise to
power, writings, economic policies, commonalities, differences, and legacies. Our paper concludes with a comparative chart that summarizes these
aspects of Hitler and Stalin at a glance.
Early Career
Hitler spent several years (1907-1914) selling postcards and his own artwork on the streets of Vienna. This period immediately follows the death of
his mother. Hitler was emotionally distraught, having lost the only person
he focused his affections on and from whom he received love in return.1
The Journal of Psychohistory 47 (2) Fall 2019
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Mir Zohair Husain & Scott Liebertz
During this time, Hitler dodged the draft to serve in the Austro-Hungarian
army due in part to its association with his father. In September 1914, however, at the outset of World War I, Hitler volunteered in the Imperial German Army and worked as a message runner throughout the war. He served
at some of the most significant battles, including the First Battle at Ypres,
the Battle of the Somme, and the Battle of Arras and was promoted to corporal. In 1917, he was hospitalized, due to temporary blindness, resulting
from a gas attack. While recovering, he received news that Germany lost
the war.
Stalin joined the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Party in 1898.
During this period, he lived purely off of the support of his comrades. He
became a member of Lenin’s Bolshevik Party in 1903, around the time the
party was founded. For over a decade, Stalin successfully organized factory and petroleum workers in the Caucasus, inciting several strikes and
disseminating propaganda. He also raised money via bank robberies and
extortion. Stalin was repeatedly arrested and sent to Siberia, from where he
escaped, only to return to the Caucasus and begin working again, garnering Lenin’s attention.2
Hitler’s experience in World War I and Stalin’s in a revolutionary movement are a reminder of Altemeyer’s reconceptualization of the F-Scale.
Both Hitler and Stalin already had certain authoritarian proclivities when
they were thrust into severe social crises, which creates an interactive effect
in the promotion of authoritarianism.3
Rise to Power
Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I greatly affected Hitler. The hyperinflation, unemployment, and poverty following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) caused many Germans to yearn for a political messiah.4
Germans were intensely indignant about Article 231, which blamed Germany for the war, and they attributed their economic woes to having to pay war
reparations. Hitler’s comments and speeches on this issue gained him initial
support and general interest.5 For a time, he worked as a spy, monitoring
various radical groups around Munich. He joined a minor right-wing party
that was nationalist, anti-Marxist, and anti-Semitic. Through his charisma,
thunderous oratory, and reputation for receiving the Iron Cross for Valor,
he quickly assumed command of this party, known as the National Socialist
German Worker’s Party in 1921. He designed their banner, which featured
a red background, a white circle in the center, and a black swastika. Eleven
years later, Hitler led this once-small party to victory in the 1932 democratic
elections. He assumed the position of Chancellor/Prime Minister on January
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
105
30, 1933. The following year, German President Paul von Hindenburg died,
leading Hitler to also assume the role of head of state.6
Prior to 1917, Stalin wielded influence in the Bolshevik Party, but after
the October Revolution, he rose quickly through the ranks, being promoted to several positions in a single year. During the October Revolution,
Stalin, with the other Bolshevik Central Committee members, voted to
overthrow Kerensky’s provisional government, and within a month, this
goal was achieved.7 Stalin impressed fellow Georgian Vladimir Lenin (the
General Secretary of the Communist Party and supreme leader of Russia
at that time) with his intelligence, loyalty, effectiveness, and diligence. As
a result, he was promoted to Commissar of Nationalities in 1919. Stalin
exploited this influential position to appoint loyal Communist Party militants to leadership roles in the Congress of Soviets, which was the assembly of local council representatives throughout Russia (the Soviet Union
from 1922). Stalin became part of a group of leaders in the Politburo that
succeeded Lenin after his 1924 death. In the five years following this, Stalin strategically undermined every major adversary (including the exiled
Leon Trotsky) and emerged as supreme ruler of Russia.8 Unlike Hitler, Stalin
exercised power informally. He eschewed the notion that he was dictator
and did not formally hold the highest state office throughout the 1930s,
nor was he officially granted any special or unique legislative authority. His
absolute power derived from the informal mix of fear, respect, and cooperation he received from other powerful politicians.9
Once Hitler and Stalin rose to power, they indisputably ruled in an authoritarian manner. Humanity still grapples with the black mark of their
authoritarian aggression shown to Jews, political dissidents, the disabled,
homosexuals, and many other vulnerable groups. They were obsessed with
power and merciless against the weak.
Writings
Hitler is famous for Mein Kampf, My Struggle, a piece of political propaganda
masquerading as an autobiography. In addition to being a lengthy treatise on his anti-Semitic theories, the book outlines his strategy for returning Germany to glory. The book also describes Hitler’s theory of political
authority, in which ideal dictatorial control derives from popularity and
knowledge of power. The book was successful when it was released, selling
240,000 copies, all before his rise to Chancellor. However, around this same
time, Hitler started distancing himself from the book, claiming if he had
known what his future held, he would have never written it. He stated that
many of the ideas he expressed were merely a dream.10
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Stalin is best known for Marxism and the National Question, a theoretical treatise on nationalism, written in 1913. Stalin defined nations as the
product of history, not biology. According to Stalin, what bound a nation
together was not race, but language, territory, culture, economics, and
attitude.11
In their writings, we see an emphasis on authoritarianism. They both
had an extremist mindset and believed that the end justifies the means.
They also believed that conflict and war were inevitable, and therefore,
their countries must be prepared for it.
Economic Policies
Hitler pursued an economic program marked by corporatism and rearmament. Under Hitler, Germany built the famous Autobahn highway system
and developed one of the most powerful militaries in history at that time.
By1942, Germany was a great international power, but was left in physical
and economic ruin after World War II.12
Stalin’s main economic legacy was ending Lenin’s New Economic Policy
(NEP), which provided for some free enterprise, particularly in agriculture.
He replaced it with several Five Year Plans marked by a tightly controlled
command economy in which the central government was responsible for
nearly all economic programs and policies.13 To accomplish this, Stalin
provoked the exaggerated fears Soviet citizens had about foreign aggression, scapegoated middle-class specialists (spetsy), and ordered mock trials
be conducted of perceived saboteurs.14
Furthermore, in 1927, Stalin began increasing the taxes and restricting
the right of the kulaks (private farmers) to lease land. The kulaks, who comprised only four percent of the peasantry and produced a significant portion of the Soviet Union’s food, had prospered under Lenin’s NEP. In 1929,
when Stalin consolidated power and became the supreme leader of the
Soviet Union, he ordered an accelerated drive to end all private farming
and collectivize agriculture. When the kulaks strenuously resisted to give
up their small, privately-owned farms and join the large, government-controlled collectives, Stalin ordered the destruction of the kulak class. By
1934, when most of the Soviet Union’s farmlands had been collectivized,
the kulaks had either suffered deportation to remote regions of the country
or ended up in Stalin’s gulags, doing hard labor.15
An inability to deal with ambiguity causes the authoritarian leader to
seek control and instill excessive fear into the populace about that which is
different. Authoritarian aggression is directed against outsiders who do not
conform and can be easily scapegoated.16
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
107
Commonalities
Psychologists might describe both Hitler and Stalin as paranoid and suffering from serious inferiority complexes, motivating each to strive for absolute power.17 Near the end of his life, Stalin became engaged in increasingly
bizarre intellectual pursuits and conjured up conspiracies all around him.18
They were both excessively ambitious workhorses in their attempts to control their political parties, countries, Europe, and ultimately the world.19
Stalin rarely went to bed before three a.m., and his daily work schedule frequently lasted 14-15 hours, particularly during World War II.20
Both Hitler and Stalin were anti-Semitic. However, Hitler became the
most reviled anti-Semite in history for his genocidal crimes against European Jews. His anti-Semitism developed in a way typical for the time. While
in Vienna, Hitler witnessed the migration of Eastern European Jews, and
resented them for taking jobs away from Austrians.21 There were also very
personal roots to his anti-Semitism. By some accounts, Hitler’s hatred for
Jews was the foundation of his politics up until 1923, and emerged from
the suffering of his mother, Klara. Hitler viewed the Jews as responsible for
her disease. Additionally, a Jewish doctor, Eduard Bloch, was unable to save
her. In some ways, Hitler’s assault on the Jewish people was a way to avenge
his mother’s death.22
Fundamental to Nazism was a pathological hatred for Jews, blaming
them for all social and economic ills that befell Europe, particularly Germany. Nazism promoted “redemptive violence,” merging anti-Semitism
with biological determinism.23 Besides anti-Semitism, Nazism also strongly
opposed Bolshevism, which the Nazis believed had Jewish origins.24 Hitler
also blamed Jews for Marxism, which helped facilitate his eventual attack
on the Soviet Union.25As defeat in the war seemed inevitable, Hitler became more committed to ridding Europe of what he called “Jewish Bolshevism” through genocide.26
Stalin’s anti-Semitism developed during the Second World War, rejecting the long Communist tradition of accepting Jews, who were instrumental in the ideology’s development. Stalin sought to sever this link as his
nationalist ideology intensified. Though he recognized the state of Israel,
because many of its founders were socialists, he reneged on this decision
once Israel turned to the United States as its ally. Just before his death, Stalin was developing a plan to persecute Soviet Jews.27
Although the movements headed by Hitler and Stalin were seen as incompatible, they both saw liberal democracy as an enemy. Both regimes
believed the stakes were profound, representing a major shift in world history.28Although they had different motivations and visions, their ideolo-
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gies were similar in many of the authoritarian aspects. They demanded
unwavering obedience to authority and responded violently to groups that
failed to adequately submit and defined those groups as outsiders.
Hitler and Stalin were also effective agitators and domineering administrators. Admiral Erich Raeder described Hitler as one “who talked a lot
and liked to ramble…but always had a concrete objective with each audience.”29 For both, their dominance was enhanced by their governments’
willingness to accept their opinions as a substitute for formal legislation or
decision-making.30
They spent large sums of money on security: the military, intelligence
services, and the police. Hitler viewed rearmament as the most essential
part of his plan to restore Germany to its former glory.31 On this front,
the country conducted several military parades each year to instill pride
and intimidate enemies. Loyal bureaucrats were frequently awarded medals and other non-material rewards, which were heavily publicized in the
mass media.
They both were egotistical, narcissistic megalomaniacs in their pursuit
of absolute power, and created cults of personality. 32 In Stalin’s case, this
glorification was something he cultivated while claiming to disparage. Publicly, he supported the Leninist principle of denouncing devotion to people over principles, but as one Soviet official remarked, “He may pretend
to be annoyed with the hallelujahs of praise. But he does nothing to stop
them.” The same official added that Stalin’s one weakness was his “vanity.”33 Eventually, Stalin’s extreme authoritarianism affected nearly every
aspect of Soviet society, particularly after World War II. Stalin was careful to
build up his image as an important figure, both in the political philosophy
of Communism and the history of the party’s development.34 For example,
Stalin instructed all historical journals to print his writing and reflect on
its relevance to different disciplines.35 His efforts also included rewriting
the historical narrative to make it appear that he was once Lenin’s “righthand man” during turning points of the Revolution.36 Not only politics
and ideology, but also the fields of science, philosophy, and the arts reflected Stalin’s doctrines and beliefs.37 A biography published shortly after the
war noted how surprised Allied visitors were to find Stalin was, at once, his
own minister of defense, supplies, foreign affairs, and even his own “chef
de protocole.”38
While some citizens hated them, the majority both loved and feared
them. Hitler and Stalin ruled with terror and the support of the overwhelming majority of their countrymen.39 They were tyrants who established absolute political control through a single political party, a powerful
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and menacing secret police,40 control over the mass media and the armed
forces, as well as government regulation of the economy.41 The testimony
of a member of the National Socialist Party indicates the degree to which
many citizens were mesmerized: “My belief is that …Hitler was given by
fate to the German nation as our savior, bringing light into darkness.”42
Beginning in 1932, Hitler held Germany under his spell. Thomas Aich stated that Hitler’s voice “speaks [to] the collective, [and] the irrational of the
mass soul.”43 To many Germans, Hitler stood above politics and “could
do no wrong.”44 Hitler himself claimed to represent the German will, stating that he only followed “the natural inner will of the people.” After the
failure at the Battle of Stalingrad, Hitler’s charisma was subject to serious
doubt. Therefore, the regime shifted gears by hiding him from the public
and increasing domestic campaigns of terror against any criticism.45
As is common with tyrants, Stalin promoted a belief accepted by many
that he had powers and virtues that were effectually superhuman.46 He not
only considered himself uniquely talented, but had a deep need for others
to acknowledge this. His fellow revolutionary Nickolai Bukharin observed
“an implacable jealousy of anyone who knows more or does things better
than he.”47 In the 1920s, Stalin spoke of his fallen comrades who opposed
parts of his plan with a seeming “glee,” and a decade later he actively exterminated his opposition.48 According to revelations from Nikita Khrushchev, 1,108 of the 1,966 delegates to the 1934 Communist Party Congress
were imprisoned or executed.49
Both Hitler and Stalin turned their respective countries into formidable
world powers that threatened world order in the last five years of their rule
(Hitler from 1940 to 1945; Stalin from 1944 to 1953).50 In fact, Hitler recognized the Soviet Union as Germany’s greatest threat, because it shared a
similar missionary zeal. His secretary recalled him saying, “Only Russia is
dangerous, because Russia fights with the same fanaticism as we do for its
worldview.”51
Hitler and Stalin were each denounced by their successors (Konrad Adenauer and Nikita Khrushchev). Khrushchev said, “Stalin used all methods
conceivable for his own self-glorification.”52 Adenauer said Hitler and his
co-conspirators were, “…responsible for this unspeakable suffering, this
indescribable misery, are those accursed men who came to power in the
fatal year 1933. It was they who dishonored the German name throughout the world.”53
In essence, both Hitler and Stalin were outsiders, which may have contributed greatly to their insecurities, in turn influencing their authoritarian
personalities. Hitler was a native of Austria and saw little of Germany until
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he moved there at twenty-four. The Munich Putsch was an attempted coup
d’état in 1923 led by the Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler—along with Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders—to seize
power in Munich, Bavaria. After the failure of the putsch, German officials
attempted to deport him, and shortly afterward, Hitler renounced his Austrian citizenship. Still, he did not become a German national until he ran
for president in 1932. This may have influenced his view that, at some level, the purpose of life is to struggle, stating, “people of this world have to
struggle for their existence. If a people no longer does so, then history takes
no further notice of it.” To Hitler, history only rewards one people at the
expense of the other.54
Stalin’s position as an outsider was evident in the tension between his adopted Russian identity and his Georgian past. He never quite rid himself of his
Georgian accent, which was a constant reminder of his otherness, for which
he was insecure.55Stalin’s spitefulness toward his son, Yakov, was likely a reflection of his own self-hatred connected to his Georgian identity of which
his son reminded him.56As part of his incessant effort to forge a Russian identity, Stalin became what George Kennan called a “consummate actor.” When
he played a role in public, it was as though he also convinced himself of its
truthfulness.57 For both Hitler and Stalin, their outsider status was a source of
insecurity, which led to a ruthlessness in how they treated other outsiders, an
authoritarian trait observed by both Adorno and Altemeyer.
Differences
Hitler was a Fascist, while Stalin was a Communist. Hitler can be described
as a Reactionary, while Stalin was more of a Revolutionary. Nevertheless,
Hitler and the Nazi Party did preach the revolutionary message of ending
socioeconomic status differences, which had kept Germany politically divided in the 1920s and early 1930s.58
Hitler was a charismatic, spell-binding orator,59 while Stalin was monotonous and lackluster. Hitler believed in the power of oratory, writing in
Mein Kampf, “the broad masses of the people can only be moved by the
power of speech…by the firebrand of the word hurled among the masses.”60 In addition, Hitler was charming on an individual level. His generals
agreed to his strategy after receiving Hitler’s personal attention.61 Stalin,
unlike Hitler, Churchill, and Roosevelt, did not use public speaking to
gain any propagandistic advantage, giving only nine significant speeches
during WWII.62
Though not religious himself, Hitler exploited Christianity, by appealing to Christian suspicions and resentments toward Jews. Hitler disdained
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111
Christian teachings, referring to them as “the cultivation of human failure,” but nevertheless respected the institutional power and endurance of
organized religion.63 Stalin was a committed atheist who made a concerted effort to modernize and secularize the Soviet Union and sought to diminish the power of the Russian Orthodox Church. Though he spent time
training to be a priest, he mocked religion after leaving the seminary. His
assault on the peasantry was largely motivated by his resentment for, what
he considered to be, their puerile religious beliefs, though he moderated
his persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church when it became pragmatic during the Nazi invasion.64
Hitler was an elitist who rejected the idea that people were created equal.
He believed that Caucasians were superior to other races and, more specifically, identified the Aryan race as the ideal. His racial theory became
the basis of law and administration.65 As an extension of this, his all-encompassing hatred for the Jews ultimately resulted in implementing the
“Final Solution” aimed at genocidal elimination of European Jews.66 Nazi
social scientists even had the category “amphibians” for Germans of uncertain ethnic background.67 Stalin, however, believed all people were created
equal and only socialism, and eventually communism, could allow them
to live in a just, classless society. Therefore, he discouraged elitism and racism. Stalin viewed the Soviet Union’s victory over Germany as the ultimate
proof that communism was superior to fascism.68 Whereas Hitler and Nazism were ultra-nationalistic a
­ nd resistant to assimilation, the Communist
goal was international in scope (at least theoretically).69
Economically, Hitler aided private landlords and capitalists through tax
breaks and subsidies, winning him their support. He promoted a corporatist system, in which the government works in close cooperation with important economic actors, like wealthy capitalists, labor leaders, and other
owners of significant resources. He fiercely opposed Marxism, Leninism,
and Stalinism, which he considered evil and dangerous. Stalin felt similarly, lumping Nazism with capitalism as systems he despised. Stalin viewed
capitalists and landlords (the kulaks) as enemies of the proletariat and the
state. Like Lenin, Stalin implemented a command economy, in which the
state owns and controls the “commanding heights” of the economy, including major natural resources and industrial output. He believed that
through technical innovation and central direction, agricultural and industrial production would be maximized, creating prosperity for all.70 Stalin, nevertheless, broke from Leninist ideology in his pursuit of economic
reform by decree and using fear to make immediate policy shifts instead of
using the more gradual tool of persuasion.71
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During World War II, Hitler’s Germany allied with Japan to oppose Britain, France, and eventually the United States. Stalin joined the “Grand Alliance” with the US and Western Europe to fight Hitler and Nazism. Upon
their victory, Stalin, along with Churchill and Roosevelt, wrote the terms
for the war’s end and made the blueprint for post-bellum Europe. Though
he would soon be the enemy of both the U.S. and U.K., Stalin had a great
affinity for Franklin Roosevelt and once toasted Churchill as “a man who is
born once in a hundred years.”72
Hitler committed suicide in defeat, and there was no memorial service
to honor him. Nor has there been a monument in Germany to celebrate
his legacy, and the Nazi Party, flag, and symbols are all banned. Stalin
on the other hand was laid to rest next to Lenin’s Tomb in Red Square
and 100,000 people attended his memorial. Although images of Stalin
went underground for several decades, his reputation was resurrected by
1995 when tens of thousands of people celebrated the 50th anniversary of
World War II’s end by holding up posters and shouting slogans in honor
of him.73
Hitler’s Legacy
In his first nine years as the Fuhrer, Hitler led Germany from the defeat,
destruction, and humiliation of World War I to become one of the world’s
most powerful countries. During that time, he developed, promoted, and
popularized Nazism, a German variant of fascism. Nevertheless, he was ultimately responsible for the ideology’s decline through his pursuit of state
terrorism, a disastrous war, and the Holocaust. The latter was the twentieth
century’s worst genocide, resulting in the murder of at least 12 million (5-6
million Jews and 6-7 million socialists, communists, gypsies, homosexuals,
handicapped persons, and political opponents).74 As a result of this and his
imperial pursuits, Hitler was directly or indirectly responsible for over 50
million deaths and many more millions of wounded, homeless, and unemployed people throughout Europe.75
The Holocaust accelerated the 1948 creation of Israel, bolstered by the
notion that Jews needed a sovereign nation-state to act as a safe haven and
bulwark against regional and global anti-Semitism.76 Part of Hitler’s legacy
is therefore the Arab-Israel conflict, which continues to this day, along with
anti-Americanism and international terrorism that it contributes to.
Indirectly, Hitler’s actions led to the creation of the United Nations as an
improvement upon the League of Nations as a means to enforce collective
security, promote human rights, end colonialism, and expand socioeconomic development.
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
113
Stalin’s Legacy
Stalin maintained absolute political control for nearly three decades and,
during that time, turned the Soviet Union into a superpower. In part, this
was accomplished by economically transforming an agrarian society into
an industrial, urban, and modern Communist state. In doing so, he destroyed the kulaks, who had produced nearly half of the Soviet Union’s
food. He did this through a massive program of collectivization, which set
crop yields back for nearly a decade, causing malnutrition and starvation.
During World War II, Stalin led the Soviet Union to victory over Hitler’s Nazi Germany.77 Still, the post-war Soviet Union was weak, compared
to the U.S., as its weapons production and Gross Domestic Product were
merely one-third of America’s size.78 As part of the ensuing competition
with the U.S., Stalin insisted on developing and testing atomic weapons
(achieved four years after the U.S.) and then building a huge and expensive
conventional and nuclear weapons arsenal.
Economically, Stalin boosted agricultural and industrial output by implementing “five-year plans,” which were emulated by many developing
countries after they gained their independence from Western colonial rule.
In fact, Stalin and his successors helped many Asian and African states
achieve their independence as a way of spreading the Soviet Union communist ideology.79
Through his absolute and brutal authoritarian rule, which included periodic purges and the relegation of political enemies to the prison system
known as the gulags, Stalin contributed to the deaths of over 20 million
people.80 By the time of his death, those banished to the gulags increased
to a peak of 2.5 million people.81 During the compulsory collectivization
of the first Five Year Plan alone, approximately five to six million people
died. This was surpassed by the deadly famine that struck Ukraine in the
1930s.82 Like Hitler, Stalin left a horrific legacy of de-humanization. He ordered despicable experiments involving torture.83 The premeditation of
Stalin’s violence is now much better understood, causing many analysts to
conclude that the crimes of the Soviet Union may be as terrifying as Hitler’s
Holocaust.84 Historian Timothy Snyder noted that “the Nazi and Soviet regimes turned people into numbers,”85 and given the enormity of suffering,
humanity lacks the capacity to represent and comprehend it.86
Conclusion
Over the course of the two parts of this essay, we have attempted to describe the lives and legacies of Stalin and Hitler through the lenses of several different theories of authoritarianism and the authoritarian personality.
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Both Hitler and Stalin were essentially outsiders to the countries and cultures that they ruled. In various ways, this eventually led to extraordinary
authoritarian aggression at the expense of the weak, unpopular, non-conformists, those others who were different and easily scapegoated. Hitler
and Stalin suffered deep insecurities as a result of their own “otherness,”
which could account for the brutality they visited upon other outsiders, an aspect of authoritarianism noted by both Adorno and Altemeyer.
Hitler and Stalin were both consumed with a desire for power. Both tyrants showed no mercy for the vulnerable, even while Stalin, for example, claimed to be leading a proletarian revolution, geared toward creating
an egalitarian society. From their early lives, Hitler and Stalin developed
authoritarian tendencies, which were dramatically intensified once they
were confronted with the tremendous social upheaval that marked World
War I and its aftermath. To varying degrees, both Hitler and Stalin exhibited the authoritarian trait of projectivity, or the inclination to conjure
secret, conspiratorial and ubiquitous machinations threatening their socalled noble intentions at all times. A tendency to shun ambiguity led
these autocrats to assert control and promote unreasonable fear and anxiety among their followers.
The nature and causes of the authoritarian personality are sources of
ongoing debate and investigation. Scholars continue to theorize more
systematically and develop ever more reliable and valid measures of the
concept. Still, there is much to admire and learn from the early theories
of authoritarianism, and so we have attempted to incorporate the many
significant iterations of this area of research. Though we provide several
ideas for how the lives of Hitler and Stalin can be interpreted with the aid
of these concepts, we hope that additional, narrower, and more refined
work will be conducted, elaborating in greater detail how particular aspects
of their lives can be explained by specific theories of authoritarianism. It
is also our hope that in better understanding two of the most infamous
authoritarian personalities of modern times, societies will develop better
intellectual defenses against future authoritarians who seek to exploit fear
and weakness for dubious, even despicable, ends.
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
115
Adolf Hitler & Joseph Stalin: A Comparative Overview, Part II
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
Early Career
• Vendor who sold postcards
and his own drawings/
paintings on the streets of
Vienna, Austria (1907-1914).
• Volunteered for service in the
Imperial German Army by
September 1914 and served
as a “message runner” in
World War I (1914-1918),
rising to the rank of corporal;
was temporarily blinded
in a gas attack at the front,
and spent several months
recovering in hospital.
• I n August 1898, he joined
the Russian Social
Democratic Party, a Marxist
party. In December 1903,
he joined Vladimir Lenin’s
Bolshevik party.
•F
or over a decade, he was
an effective organizer in the
Caucasus, where he incited
strikes among petroleum
and factory workers, spread
Marxist-Leninist propaganda,
raised money through bank
robberies, and engaged
in extortion.
Rise to Power
• After Germany’s defeat
in World War I, the
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
resulted in Germany’s
humiliation, hyper-inflation,
unemployment, and absolute
poverty. Germans yearned
for a political messiah.
• Temporarily employed by
the German Army as a spy
who watched various radical
groups in the Munich area;
Hitler eventually took over
a minor right wing party. His
powerful oratory, charisma,
and Iron Cross for Valor in
World War I helped him
become leader of the rightwing National Socialist
German Workers’ Party (the
original German words make
the acronym NAZI) in 1921.
• Hitler led his Nazi Party
to victory in the democratic
election of 1932 and became
Chancellor (Prime Minister)
of Germany on January
30, 1933. Hitler became
head of state in 1934
after President Paul von
Hindenburg’s death.
•B
ecause Stalin was an
intelligent, diligent, effective,
and loyal Georgian Bolshevik
Communist Party member,
Vladimir Lenin (General
Secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union
and supreme leader of Russia)
promoted him to Commissar
of Nationalities (1919).
• S talin used his influential
bureaucratic position to
appoint loyal Communist
Party activists to key leader­
ship positions in the
Congress of Soviets, an
assembly of representatives
of local councils all over
Russia (the Soviet Union
from 1922.)
•A
fter Lenin’s death in 1924,
Stalin was part of a collective
leadership in the Soviet
politburo; however by 1929,
he had out-maneuvered his
major adversaries (including
Leon Trotsky, who he sent
into exile) and assumed
absolute power in Russia.
(table continues on next page)
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Mir Zohair Husain & Scott Liebertz
(table, continued)
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
Writings
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
• The National Question
• Social Democracy
Death
Committed suicide in his
bunker in 1945, at age 56.
Died of a brain hemorrhage in
the Kremlin on March 5, 1953,
at age 73.
Ideological
Outlook
Fascism, known in Germany
as Nazism.
Initially adopted Marxism,
then Marxism-Leninism, and
finally created what came to be
known as Stalinism.
Economic
Policies
• Corporatism and
rearmament.
• Built the autobahn network
of highways. Made Germany
a great power by 1942.
• Germany lay in ruins at the
end of World War II, and the
country was divided into
West Germany (capitalist,
democratic, and an integral
part of Western Europe and
the American sphere of
influence) and East Germany
(communist, totalitarian,
based on a command
economy, and part of the
Soviet sphere of influence).
• Ended Lenin’s New
Economic Policy (that
allowed for some free
enterprise, especially for
farmers)
• Initiated five-year plans, with
a tightly controlled
command economy in which
the central government
decided economic policies
and programs for the entire
country.
Commonalities
Both
•w
ere born in small towns, far from their capitals and centers of
power.
•w
ere unhappy with their physical appearance.
•w
ere not born into the dominant ethnic group in their
respective countries (Hitler was Austrian and Stalin was
Georgian).
•h
ad troubled childhoods.
•w
ere anti-social loners.
•h
ad a religious upbringing and served as choir boys in their
churches.
• loved the Humanities—Hitler was an artist and painter, who
loved classical music; Stalin wrote poetry.
•w
ere very intelligent, shrewd, and opportunistic schemers.
•w
ere estranged from their abusive fathers.
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
117
(table, continued)
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Commonalities
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
Both
•w
ere born in small towns, far from their capitals and centers of
power.
•w
ere unhappy with their physical appearance.
•w
ere not born into the dominant ethnic group in their
respective countries (Hitler was Austrian and Stalin was
Georgian).
•h
ad troubled childhoods.
•w
ere anti-social loners.
•h
ad a religious upbringing and served as choir boys in their
churches.
• loved the Humanities—Hitler was an artist and painter, who
loved classical music; Stalin wrote poetry.
•w
ere very intelligent, shrewd, and opportunistic schemers.
•w
ere estranged from their abusive fathers.
•d
rifted from job to job in their youth.
•h
ad problematic relationships with women.
• s pent time in prison for their efforts to overthrow their
respective governments.
•w
ere secretive, Machiavellian, vindictive, and domineering.
• s uffered from inferiority complexes and were paranoid
schizophrenics, who strove for absolute power to completely
control their environments.
•w
ere anti-Semitic.
•w
ere effective agitators and domineering administrators.
•w
ere overly ambitious workaholics who wanted to control their
respective political parties, countries, Europe, and ultimately
the world.
• c ame to power in their respective countries because they were
prominent leaders in political parties (Hitler in the Nazi Party;
Stalin in the Bolshevik Party)
•w
ere ultra-nationalists and emphasized patriotism and
nationalism.
• s pent large sums of money on their armed forces, intelligence
services, and police.
•h
eld several military parades every year to impress the citizenry
and deter aggressors.
• r ewarded loyal and exemplary civil servants and members of
the armed forces with non-material rewards (medals, honors,
certificates, and laudatory coverage in the mass media)
• perfected
the arts of propaganda and regimentation of society.
• became egotistical and narcissistic megalomaniacs after a few
years of absolute power and created a cult of personality,
validating British historian Lord Acton’s famous dictum: “Power
seems to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”.
(table continues on next page)
118
Mir Zohair Husain & Scott Liebertz
(table, continued)
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
Commonalities
Both
•w
ere loved and feared by a majority of their countrymen, but
despised by those who suffered under their oppressive rule.
•w
ere revolutionary political figures who radically transformed
their respective countries.
•w
ere tyrants who established totalitarian states who activated
the mass mobilization of their societies by controlling the
minds and actions of their citizenry through an official and
all-encompassing ideology; a single, disciplined political party;
an extensive and feared secret police; complete mass media
control; party control of the armed forces; and government
regulation of the national economy.
•m
ade their countries into great powers. Though Hitler’s
crumbled and was divided in 1945, Stalin’s country became
a superpower.
• t hreatened world order in the last five years of their rule
(Hitler from 1940 to 1945; Stalin from 1948 to 1953).
•h
ad successors that denounced them (Konrad Adenauer in
Germany and Nikita Khrushchev in Russia)
•w
ere evil political leaders that are reviled in much of the
world because of their state terrorism and mass murder.
Differences
• Right wing fascist
• Reactionary
• Vegetarian and teetotaler,
who did not smoke cigarettes
or cigars.
• Received the Iron Cross for
his meritorious service
during World War I.
• Charismatic
• Spellbinding orator
• Exploited the dominant
religion of Germany
(Christianity) to win over
Christian voters and
enhanced the regime’s
power; referred to Jews as
“Christ killers.”
• Did not believe that people
were created equal; whites
were superior to other races.
• Promoted elitism and racism
(ethnic support of one group,
whites, over all others).
•L
eft wing communist
•R
evolutionary
•W
as not a vegetarian, he
chain-smoked, and regularly
imbibed alcohol.
•N
ever fought for Russia in
World War I, but rose rapidly
through the ranks in Lenin’s
Bolshevik Party.
•N
ot charismatic
•W
as a dull, monotonous, and
lackluster public speaker
•W
as an atheist; promoted
secularism and tried to make
the Soviet Union a secular
state.
•B
elieved that people are
created equal; only through
socialism and then
communism can the
government create a classless
and just society.
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
119
(table, continued)
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
Differences
• Private landlords and
capitalists were given tax
breaks and subsidized by the
regime, and they supported
the regime in return.
• Emphasized “corporatism”
in Germany, in which the
government worked closely
with wealthy capitalists,
labor leaders, and other large
organizations that control
significant resources.
• Considered MarxismLeninism and Stalinism evil
and dangerous.
• Fought against Britain,
France, and the U.S. in
World War II.
• Was allied with Japan in
World War II.
• No memorial service was
held when he died.
• There is no monument
to honor him.
• The Nazi Party, flag,
and swastika are banned
in Germany.
• Failed in his goal to make
Germany a superpower and
establish a 1,000-year-long
Third Reich.
• Discouraged elitism and racism.
• Private landlords (kulaks) and
capitalists were condemned as
enemies of the proletariat and
the state.
• Emphasized the “command
economy,” in which the
government owned and
controlled the entire economy.
• Considered capitalism, fascism,
and Nazism evil and dangerous.
• Over 100,000 attended his
memorial service when he died,
and he was laid to rest next to
Lenin’s tomb in Red Square
(Moscow).
• Stalin was allied with Britain,
France, and the U.S. in a
“Grand Alliance” against
Hitler and Nazism.
• Was Japan’s enemy in World War II.
• Several monuments to him
remained for a long time; the
Communist Party, Communist
Party flag, and the hammer and
sickle on it endure; however, the
Communist Party is one of several
parties in the Russian Federation.
• Succeeded in his goal to make
the Soviet Union a superpower;
however, the system he established
lasted for only another 39
years before it broke up into
15 different republics (with
Russia being one of them)
Quotes
• “Those who do not want to
live, let them fight; and those
who do not want to fight in
this world of eternal struggle,
do not deserve to live.”
• “I can fight only for
something that I love, love
only what I respect, and
respect only what I at least
know.”
• “ One death is a tragedy, a
million deaths is a statistic.”
• “Death solves all problems;
no man, no problem.”
(table continues on next page)
120
Mir Zohair Husain & Scott Liebertz
(table, continued)
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Legacy
• During his first nine years in
power, he raised Germany
from its defeat, destruction,
and humiliation in World
War I to one of the most
powerful countries in the
world
• Primarily responsible for
initiating World War II.
• His aggressive policies led to
the destruction and division
of Germany into East
Germany and West Germany
• Responsible for developing,
promoting, and popularizing
the German variant of the
ideology of fascism, namely
Nazism
• He was also ultimately
responsible for discrediting
the ideology of fascism and
Nazism when he engaged in
state terrorism, the
Holocaust, and imperialism.
He was responsible for
Germany’s sense of shame
and guilt in the aftermath of
WWII.
• He was responsible for one of
the worst holocausts of the
20th century, in which at
least 12 million
“undesirables” perished (6
million Jews and another 6
million socialists,
communists, gypsies,
homosexuals, disabled
people, and political
opponents)
• As a result of World War II,
the League of Nations
became a powerless
international organization,
and a new and greatly
improved United Nations
was established to enforce
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
• During his 27 years as
Supreme Leader, he made the
Soviet Union a respected and
feared superpower.
• Rapidly transformed his
backward agrarian country
into an industrialized,
urbanized, communized, and
modernized society.
• Destroyed the kulaks (private
farmers, who produced
nearly half of the USSR’s
food) and collectivized Soviet
farms (large governmentowned communes or
collectives), which set the
Soviet Union back in the area
of crop yields for more than
a decade.
• He led the Soviet Union to
victory against Nazi
Germany in World War II.
• He saw to it that his country
developed and exploded the
atom bomb only four years
after the U.S., making the
USSR a superpower.
• Introduced five year plans
that were emulated by many
developing countries after
they gained independence
from European colonial rule.
• He aided and abetted
national liberation
movements in Asia and
Africa as well as greatly
accelerated the plans of
Lenin and Trotsky in
promoting communist
ideology and revolution
worldwide.
• By the late 1940s, he had
brought most of Eastern
Europe into the Soviet
sphere of influence.
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
121
(table, continued)
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Legacy
• collective security, promote
human rights, and expand
socioeconomic development,
and end colonialism.
• As a result of World War II,
the U.S. and USSR emerged
as superpowers and engaged
in the Cold War that lasted
for 42 years (1947-1989) with
numerous casualties and the
waste of precious resources.
• Due to World War II, he was
responsible for the deaths of
over 60 million people; and
many more were wounded,
made homeless, and
unemployed throughout
Europe.
• As a result of WWII, Europe,
the Soviet Union, and Japan
lay in ruins.
• The Jewish Holocaust in
Europe accelerated Israel’s
creation (1948).
• Israel’s establishment, in
turn, resulted in the ArabIsraeli conflict, increased
international terrorism, led
to oil price increases, and
anti-Americanism (because of
America’s alliance with the
Jewish State).
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
• He intensified the Cold War
with the U.S.-led Western
capitalist world.
• His totalitarian rule, purges,
and gulags (extensive prison
system) resulted in the death
of millions (some scholars
say as many as 20 million).
122
Mir Zohair Husain & Scott Liebertz
Dr. Mir Zohair Husain is Professor of Political Science at the University of South
Alabama (USA). He obtained his PhD. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. During his thirty-three years at USA, Dr. Husain has taught
courses in International Relations and Comparative Politics. He has published
two editions of Global Islamic Politics with Pearson Longman and a book titled
Global Studies: Islam and the Muslim World with McGraw-Hill. He has published twenty-six articles in peer-reviewed journals and anthologies and presented
over fifty-nine research papers at academic conferences. In 2009, he received the
Fulbright Award and taught at Cairo University. That same year, he received the
Excellence in Teaching Award from USA’s National Alumni Association. In 2013,
he was recognized as one of the “Fifty Outstanding Faculty Members” in USA’s fifty year history. In 2015, he earned the College’s Teaching Excellence Award and,
in 2017, he was voted International Studies Professor of the Year.
Dr. Scott Liebertz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science
and Criminal Justice at the University of South Alabama and received his Ph.D.
from Florida State University in 2015 with concentrations in Public Policy and
Comparative Politics. He teaches courses in Comparative Politics and Research
Methods, and his primary research interests are in public policy and administration, comparative criminal justice, political elites and democratization, and Latin American politics. He has published original research in peer-reviewed journals
such as the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and Justice Quarterly.
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Endnotes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Binion, Hitler Among the Germans, 17.
“Joseph Stalin: National Hero or Cold-Blooded Murderer,” BBC iWonder
Altemeyer, Right Wing Authoritarianism
Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Catastrophe, 11.
Pauley, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini, 38.
Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Catastrophe
Jeremy Smith, “Stalin as Commissar for Nationality Affairs, 1918-1922,” Stalin: A
New History, ed. Sarah Davies and James Harris (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2005), 45.
8. Max Mark, Modern Ideologies, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2973), 136.
9. Overy, The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, 65.
10. Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Catastrophe, 121.
124
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
Mir Zohair Husain & Scott Liebertz
Overy, The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, 550.
Kershaw, Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis, 840.
Folkertsma, Ideology and Leadership, 127.
Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Catastrophe, 161.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/kulak
Adorno et al., The Authoritarian Personality
Overy, The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, xxxiii.
Folkertsma, Ideology and Leadership, 132.
Medvedev and Medvedev, The Unknown Stalin: His Life, Death, and Legacy, 15-16.
Ibid., 15-16.
Isaak, Individuals and World Politics, 150-151
Binion, Hitler Among the Germans, 35.
Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons
of the Twentieth Century (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012), 41.
Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Catastrophe, 14.
Ibid., 157
Ibid., 531.
Ibid., 593.
Tismaneanu, The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the
Twentieth Century, 21.
Werner Maser, Leyenda, Mito, and Realidad (Barcelona: Editorial Acervo, 1974), 182.
Overy, The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, 75.
Toland, Adolph Hitler, 295.
Ibid., 109.
Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power 1928-1941 (1990), 146-7.
Ibid., 149-151.
Ibid., 156.
Ibid., 160.
Ibid., 57.
Ibid., 108.
Overy, The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, xxxiv-xxxv.
Mark, Modern Ideologies, 144.
Robert C. Tucker, Political Culture and Leadership in Soviet Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987), 74.
Ann Ruth Willner, The Spellbinders (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 20.
Binion, Hitler Among the Germans, 118.
Evans, The Third Reich in Power, 217.
Laurence Rees, Hitler’s Charisma: Leading Millions into the Abyss (New York: Pantheon Books, 2012), 272.
T.H. Rigby, Great Lives Observed: Stalin (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966), 109
Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929, 423.
Ibid., 41.
Isaac Deutscher, Stalin: A Political Biography, (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1966), 637.
Hitler, Stalin, and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Analysis
125
50. Mark, Modern Ideologies.
51. Tismaneanu, The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the
Twentieth Century, 5.
52. Deutscher, Stalin: A Political Biography, 636.
53. John Simkin, “Konrad Adenauer: Primary Sources,” Spartacus Educational (2004).
54. Binion, Hitler Among the Germans, 72, 90.
55. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929,430.
56. Ibid., 434.
57. Ibid., 436.
58. George H. Stein, Great Lives Observed: Hitler (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
1968), 57.
59. Willner, The Spellbinders, 153.
60. Stein, Great Lives Observed: Hitler, 49.
61. Rees, Hitler’s Charisma: Leading Millions into the Abyss, 275.
62. Service, Stalin: A Biography, 451.
63. Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, 386.
64. Ibid., 386.
65. Mark Mazower. Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe (London: Penguin Books,
2008), 54.
66. Ibid., 386.
67. Ibid., 187.
68. Gabriel Garcia Volta, Comprender El Estalinismo (Barcelona, Spain: Edición Carena,
2012), 226.
69. Pauley, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini, 7.
70. Rigby, Great Lives Observed: Stalin, 43.
71. Tucker, Political Culture and Leadership in Soviet Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev.
72. Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, 482.
73. Edvard Radzinsky, Stalin (New York: Doubleday, 1996), 583.
74. “The Holocaust Death Toll,” The Telegraph (2005).
75. Kershaw, Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis, 841.
76. Tomer Kleinmen, “Did the Holocaust Play a Role in the Establishment of the State
of Israel?” UCSB Oral History Project (2002).
77. Pauley, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini, 267.
78. Volta, Comprender El Estalinismo, 226.
79. “Stalin’s Legacy” The Telegraph. March 5, 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2017. http://
www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/3588394/Stalins-legacy.html
80. “Joseph Stalin,” History.com, 2009.
81. Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Catastrophe, 520.
82. Folkertsma, Ideology and Leadership.
83. Tismaneanu, The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the
Twentieth Century, 2.
84. Overy, The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, xxxii.
85. Tismaneanu, The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the
Twentieth Century, 2
86. Ibid., 5.
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