There's a good deal of truth in this. If one disregards ideology and looks at the functional systems of National Socialist Germany and Stalinist Russia, they had a lot in common. It's no coincidence, for instance, that both Hitler and Stalin distrusted and feared their military leaders. Both correctly judged that in a totalitarian state,…
There's a good deal of truth in this. If one disregards ideology and looks at the functional systems of National Socialist Germany and Stalinist Russia, they had a lot in common. It's no coincidence, for instance, that both Hitler and Stalin distrusted and feared their military leaders. Both correctly judged that in a totalitarian state, the military was one of two institutions—the other was the security services—that possessed the power to overthrow the regime. Thus both dictators conducted purges of the military leadership and took measures severely to limit the autonomy of the armed forces.
Of course, the two regimes came to power by different means and superficially there appeared to be many differences between them. One lasted seven decades, the other a mere twelve years. I believe, however, that if Nazi Germany had not been defeated, it would have developed in such a way as to greatly resemble the post-Stalinist USSR, with a collective leadership replacing one-man dictatorship, a more or less centralized economy, and a great conspiracy of silence regarding certain parts of the past.
Unfathomable to imagine, but if Hitler had stopped at Poland in 1939, carving it up with Stalin, and cut a deal with both France and Britain not to fight (who didn't want a war anyway) - Nazi Germany would have turned into a military behemoth (probably with nuclear weapons), and lasting far longer than twelve years. Hitler was only 56 when he committed suicide in 1945. Without WW2 he might have been in power for another twenty years. A very frightening what if.
There's a good deal of truth in this. If one disregards ideology and looks at the functional systems of National Socialist Germany and Stalinist Russia, they had a lot in common. It's no coincidence, for instance, that both Hitler and Stalin distrusted and feared their military leaders. Both correctly judged that in a totalitarian state, the military was one of two institutions—the other was the security services—that possessed the power to overthrow the regime. Thus both dictators conducted purges of the military leadership and took measures severely to limit the autonomy of the armed forces.
Of course, the two regimes came to power by different means and superficially there appeared to be many differences between them. One lasted seven decades, the other a mere twelve years. I believe, however, that if Nazi Germany had not been defeated, it would have developed in such a way as to greatly resemble the post-Stalinist USSR, with a collective leadership replacing one-man dictatorship, a more or less centralized economy, and a great conspiracy of silence regarding certain parts of the past.
Unfathomable to imagine, but if Hitler had stopped at Poland in 1939, carving it up with Stalin, and cut a deal with both France and Britain not to fight (who didn't want a war anyway) - Nazi Germany would have turned into a military behemoth (probably with nuclear weapons), and lasting far longer than twelve years. Hitler was only 56 when he committed suicide in 1945. Without WW2 he might have been in power for another twenty years. A very frightening what if.