Though ideologically different, both Nazi Germany and Stalinists Russian created totalitarian states that were ready for war.

1
Nazi Germany vs.Stalinists Russian

• Though ideologically different, both Nazi Germany
  and Stalinists Russian created totalitarian
  states that were ready for war.

2
Evidence

• Franz von Papen
• Kurt von Schleicher
• Reichstag Fire
• Enabling Act of 1933
• Kristallnacht
• SS (Schutzstaffel)
• Gosplan
• Five Year Plans
• collectivization
• kulaks
• Stalins Purges

• authoritarianism
• totalitarianism
• Weimar Republic
• Kapp Putsch
• Nazi Party
• Adolf Hitler
• Mein Kampf
• SA (Sturmabeteilung)
• Ernst Roehm
• Gustav Stresemann
• Paul von Hindenburg
• Heinrich Bruning

3
Both were Totalitarian States

• Both totalitarian regimes were one-party states
  with the goal of thorough societal
  transformation.
• No civil liberties or freedom of the press were
  allowed
• The government relied on constant propaganda to
  mobilize the population and the arrest and
  persecution of political enemies to prevent
  opposition.
• Millions of civilians were imprisoned or murdered
  in both states.
• Both of the governments economic goal, to expand
  industry, was to be achieved by state
  intervention.
• In both states, the leader was treated as a
  godlike figure.

4
Ideological goals were profoundly different

• Communism believed it was achieving equality and
  social justice that would be a model for
  international change
• Nazism sought an unequal order with privileges
  for the racially pure elite at the expense of
  peoples like the Slavs and Jews, who were
  considered inferior.
• Nazism called for German expansion into east and
  glorified violence
• Communist ideology under Stalin focused on
  socialism in one country.

5
Differences continued

• German ideology particularly targeted Jews, while
  the Soviet Union promised equal treatment of
  peoples of all ethnic backgrounds
• Economically, although the German government
  intervened in the economy, it relied on
  capitalism and was allied with the middle and
  upper classes
• In the Soviet Union, the Communists crushed those
  classes and expropriated their property there
  was virtually no private economy.
• Stalin pursued rapid and extensive
  industrialization with Five-Year Plans and forced
  collectivization of agriculture.

6
Preparation of War

• Through their economic policies during the 1930s,
  both states were preparing for war, with strong
  industries and government planning.
• Both states had built effective propaganda
  machines and achieved notable successes that
  stirred the patriotism of their peoples.