Hitler v. Stalin

[Radical Activist]

Poll question: Hitler v. Stalin

Who was more evil?

[JVS]

1. Who was more cuddly?

[calico1]

2. This is one I can't answer.

Its like asking which is better: being burned alive or being drawn and quartered? They were both evil. Stalin had thousands of Russians murdered including many of the soldiers that fought in WWII.

[drumwolf]

3. Hitler had a more evil IDEOLOGY

but they were both equally evil on a personal level.

[GlenIL]

4. Really doesnt matter

They are both equally evil. I guess you could say Stalin was more evil considering he had a higher death toll under his watch.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. They were both monsters.

But Hitler was, objectively, worse. Stalin was interested in power for its own sake, and he did whatever he felt necessary to hold on to it (the brutal purges of the thirties, for instance). Hitler viewed power more as a means to an end (extermination of the Jews and Slavs, conquering the European continent, et cetera). Stalin may have the bigger body count, but Hitler's objectives were much worse than Stalin's.

[drumwolf]

8. and comparing the body count is misleading

Hitler had a lower body count only because he was in power for a shorter period of time. I'm quite sure that, given the same time frame as Stalin, he would have matched or surpassed Russia's Unka Joe.

[jmowreader]

6. Stalin was far more evil

Set the Way-Back Machine to the earliest days of the Soviet Union, Sherman. We're going to meet Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovskij.

Comrade Rokossovskij was born to be a soldier. He lied about his age to join the Tsar's Army and fought bravely, eventually attaining the rank of Major. When the Communists came to power, Comrade Rokossovskij was one of the very first to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was a dedicated and serious communist.

Then Stalin decided to purge his army of all vestiges of the old Russian Army. He collected Comrade Rokossovskij along with the others, even though Comrade Rokossovskij was a loyal communist, and beat the crap out of him every day for about six years. They placed Comrade Rokossovskij under sentence of death. Comrade Rokossovskij dug his own grave six times. He got his teeth knocked out twice, he suffered through four mock executions and was stripped of all his decorations and honors.

When the Great Patriotic War broke out they bailed Comrade Rokossovskij out of jail and sent him to command the Don Front. Still under a death sentence, Comrade Rokossovskij made it through the ranks to Army General, then to Marshal, and essentially won the war for the Soviets. His final rank was Marshal of the Soviet Union, the very highest rank a Soviet Soldier could attain, which he pinned on while still under sentence of death.

Comrade Rokossovskij was the first military governor of Poland and, as such, held dual Soviet-Polish citizenship. When Comrade Rokossovskij died, his body lay in state in the Kremlin for a week and approximately three million Soviets paid their respects.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovskij, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Marshal of Poland, Hero of the Soviet Union, did all of these things while under a sentence of death from Josef Stalin.

Hitler killed nine million people, that's true, but Hitler's atrocities were limited to his enemies. Stalin killed his friends, too, and that is why I feel Stalin was more evil than Hitler.

[FDRLincoln]

7. bad question

You can't answer a question like that. Both men were horrific monsters, examples of psychopathology in charge of a modern industrial state. Stalin killed more, maybe as many as 20 million compared to Hitler's 11 million, but it sure wasn't because of any indolence on Adolf's part. Both had monstrous ideologies. Both lacked rudimentary empathy with their fellow man. Both killed their friends, too....remember that Hitler had Ernst Rohm shot in 1934.

Read Alan Bullock's book Hitler and Stalin.

[Endangered Specie]

9. Actually, Hitler killed more...

Since he directly started WWII, his count is 55 million.