Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin are

probably two of the most well known single party states in 20th century history.
Both parties were the phoenixes rising from the ashes of the aftermath of World
War 1. Single party states believe in one central government based on only one
party controlled by one person. The country is then stripped from democratic
governments into nationalistic or socialistic governments. There are many
similarities and differences between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in terms
of the ways the two leaders operate the nation, their ideologies and their use of
propaganda.

One thing that both leaders have in common is their sense of nationalism for a
country which is not their homeland. Hitler was an Austrian bohemian artist
turned charismatic authoritarian leader. Perhaps it was his artistic skills to
portray his words to touch the hearts of the Germans. Hitler was very “hands-on”
at the beginning to push the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
(NSDAP) into the seats of the cabinet. With examples from the Munich Beer Hall
Putsch in 1923 when Hitler, along with SA men invaded the Beer Hall which von
Kahr was addressing his government officials. Hitler’s purpose of the Munich
Beer Hall Putsch was to ask members inside to support the NSDAP party but he
failed. Although Hitler’s fail at the beer hall was an epic one, he never gave up
which led to the full power of the Nazi Party in the Third Reich. Unlike Hitler who
had fought through World War I with extreme patriotism to enter NSDAP, Stalin
was already a part of the Communist Party under Lenin. When Lenin passed
away in 1924, there was no clear successor which is how Stalin stood up and
took the chair. Stalin had great political strategies; with a certain amount of
power in his hands before becoming the ultimate leader of the Soviet Union, he
shifted his people strategically to different important positions in the cabinet
making him more popular amongst the people of the Soviet Union.

The ideologies of both nations could not have been more different; Stalin
believes in equality in every aspect of the nation and therefore calls himself
“Comrade”. There was no sense of capitalism and bourgeoisie and all land and
money were then all gathered and redistributed equally to all the peasants.
Stalin believed in developing the economy of the Soviet Union by not relying on
other nations and was very fond of collectivism as well. In contrast to Hitler’s
superior views of himself and the Aryan race. Whilst Stalin believes in everyone
being equal and people calling him “comrade Stalin”, Hitler rose as the Führer of
the new Germany, the Third Reich. Hitler’s intentions were to look after the all
the German people both in Germany and overseas, to bring all Germans to the
same place, and lead the strongest and purest race of mankind. Hitler believed
in creating a popular folk community (Volkgemeinschaft), going back to basics
and creating more land for the great Aryan race with his theory of
Lebensraumpolitik. Unlike Stalin’s method of collectivism, Hitler believes that
after the nightmare that was the Weimar Republic, everyone gets to start on a
clean slate with Hitler. Everyone gets an equal amount of opportunity therefore
there would still be capitalism in the country because people will be using their
money differently and there will be different classes of people but they would all
believe and follow Hitler.
In terms of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels propaganda chief of Nazi Germany
created the image of Hitler as a man who heroically sacrificed himself to rebuild
and restore Germany to its former glory. The extremely convincing and powerful
propaganda speeches by Hitler resembled achievements the German nation will
achieve when they followed Hitler as their Führer. Even to people who disagree
with the regime believed in Hitler and his ability to abolish other big-shot
politicians just as how Hitler did to Röhm in 1934.Hitler also believed in the
concept that children are the future of the nation and had developed ‘Hitler
Youth’ an academic programme that teaches young civilians Hitler’s ideology
and the Nazi cult. Similar to The Nazis’ Hitler Youth programme, the Soviet Union
also has “Soviet Pioneers”, a programme which teaches children to leave the cult
of the bourgeoisies and focus on collectivism, under Marxist-Leninist beliefs.
Propaganda posters are probably the most popular type of propaganda used in
the Soviet Union with cartoons for easier understanding and it also emphasizes
the “bad guys” to the “good guys”. The difference between the Soviet Union’s
propaganda and the Nazis’ propaganda is that, the Soviet Union also spend
billions of dollars on propaganda abroad to promote the Soviet Union as a
worker’s paradise; a place where people are the same.

In conclusion, both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany are very different
although they both have similar leaders who both believed that a single party
state would be the best way to operate a nation. Both countries also targeted the
youth of the nation to be an efficient media to use as propaganda, to let the little
minds of the children to soak up their ideologies and ways. However it could be
seen that their ideologies are completely different although they are both fascist
parties Hitler believed in capitalism whilst Stalin strongly believes in collectivism
and that the two nations although operating as a single party state, could never
be the same.