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I would like to think that this is not a history question. The function of historians is to gather and offer up the objective data, which moralists can then use to resolve questions such as this. Any historian who goes into the the research with such a question in the back of his mind is not looking for history, but for justification for an agenda..
Am I wrong?
I think that the above conforms well with what are supposed to be the standards for professional historians. This question would be slumming, something belonging to a class which featured "Who was the better Enterprise Captain, Kirk or Picard?"
If such a question was taken seriously by the profession. they would first have to stage an argument over the definition of "worse." What would be the prevailing rules? Most dead? Most murdered? Most repressive? Least humane? Fewest redeeming qualities? Least justified? Most feared?
And if there was an agreement, then some sort of values ranking system would be assigned to the resolutions of the above argument, creating a misery index of sorts. Then the most qualified historians would be surveyed and polled, asked if they think that Hitler or Stalin best fits the agreed upon standards. Following the snout count, either Hitler or Stalin would emerge as the worst.
That of course would be absurd, but it suggests that if even using the most scientific possible approach, you cannot actually make such a determination, then shooting from the hip on an internet message board is less promising still.
The only difference I see between Hitler and Stalin is the former's atrocities were well documented--------by the Nazi's themselves. Good ol' Uncle Joe left less of a paper trail--------besides, the USSR was on the winning side of WWII hence not being investigated.
The only difference I see between Hitler and Stalin is the former's atrocities were well documented--------by the Nazi's themselves. Good ol' Uncle Joe left less of a paper trail--------besides, the USSR was on the winning side of WWII hence not being investigated.
Russia still holds many documents about its crimes.
In numerical terms, Joseph Stalins regime murdered far more people than Adolf Hitlers regime.
So in statistical terms, Stalin was worse.
In terms of Stalin, he was more than happy to send many citizens of the USSR, to their certain death in WWII.
However as well as sending his citizens to fight as cannon fodder, he also executed/imprisoned his fellow citizens during that same war.
Unlike Hitler, many of Stalins actions were committed out of paranoia.
I think Hitler knew exactly what he was dealing with and decided that USSR under Stalin proved a major threat to the Reich.
It matters because we (Americans) were lured into a war against Hitler that mainly redounded to the benefit of Stalin, a war that it is still considered a type of heresy to oppose. 400,000 Americans died in part to make the world safe for Stalin and his allies, but the myth of the "good war" still lingers.
You know, one could make a strong argument that the Anglo-American war policy of burning entire cities off the map was as evil as Hitler's acts. It might not be an absolutely compelling argument, but it would be an interesting after-dinner debate. But count the USSR and Mao's Communists in as part of the Allies--which they were--and the debate is closed as to whether the Allies were as bad as the Axis: of course they were.
Hitler believed in a worldwide Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy. I think that counts as "paranoia."
Indeed it is paranoia.
And not trying to justify what Hitler did, but he at least had an explanation for his actions/policies.(as misdirected as that reasoning was).
Stalin on the other hand would wipe out people based on a whim.
Hitler believed in a worldwide Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy. I think that counts as "paranoia."
Jews comprised a significant ten percent of the population of Northern Europe, and the Bolsheviks were feared by even the Americans. So it is hardly Paranoia for Hitler to recognize them, together or separately, as threatening to his goal, which, not uncommendably, was a greater Germany. The idea that there might be a conspiracy was widely held, and if true (we can't be sure today that it wasn't), a genuine threat to Germany. At the time, Germany was in disorder, and certainly vulnerable to non-German influences.
It matters because we (Americans) were lured into a war against Hitler that mainly redounded to the benefit of Stalin, a war that it is still considered a type of heresy to oppose. 400,000 Americans died in part to make the world safe for Stalin and his allies, but the myth of the "good war" still lingers.
You know, one could make a strong argument that the Anglo-American war policy of burning entire cities off the map was as evil as Hitler's acts. It might not be an absolutely compelling argument, but it would be an interesting after-dinner debate. But count the USSR and Mao's Communists in as part of the Allies--which they were--and the debate is closed as to whether the Allies were as bad as the Axis: of course they were.
Excellent point. It's good to see that there are some thinking people at there who aren't just blind patriots.
I dont understand were you guys take this numbers murdered by Stalin from? As far as I know there were about 1 mln victims. And "golodomor" is a myth. And not only ukrainians died in that starvation, but many russians too. In my country many people arrived saving themselves from this disaster and most of them were russians not ukranians.
I think all this fake about Stalin started cause Germany is not a threat anymore, but Russia can still return to iron-fist government. Did't you think about it?
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