Our world has had some powerful leaders who have developed their countries as well as having had major impact on the world. Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler were three of these leaders. All these three leaders were the most powerful and influential leaders of their time. Each one of them made a significant impact on their country as well as on world’s history. Although they received similar success, all of them reached their success quite differently .Even though they assumed power legally, they where totalitarian leaders. They had positive and negative reflects during their rule.
Even though all three of them lived in the same era they all had quite similar childhood. Their childhood might have influenced some of their decisions when they became dictators. Hitler had a rough childhood as his father Alois was an alcoholic and would often abuse Hitler. Hitler’s childhood was a precedent to his actions later in life which was his cruelty to other people like his father did to him. As a child Mussolini faced ruthless parenting and frequent beatings from his violent and often drunken father, Alessandro. It resulted in a disruptive and unstable upbringing; he was expelled from schools and often engaged in violence with other children. But his later years saw his ruthlessness and fighting spirit as an advantage. It helped him climb the political ladder through violence and a steely determination to succeed. As a child Stalin was often abused by both his parents which is one of the reasons why when Stalin rose to power he often used violence or abused people.
All three of them achieved success differently. Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union in the early twentieth century. Stalin received a job as the government secretary in the Communist Party. He aggressively worked his way up to the head of the Communist Party. After receiving the high job, he forced his competitor Leon Trotsky and all of his followers to leave the Soviet Union. Stalin rose in power because of his cunning and manipulative personality. He used propaganda to manipulate the images he created for himself and Trotsky as he wanted to get more popularity and support from the people because he wanted to portray himself as the legitimate successor and destroy Trotsky’s positive image .This made people fear him because they knew that they would be arrested and even killed if they didn't. Benito Mussolini was another madman in this era. Once a socialist, he joined the fascist party. He later became head of the Italian government. After World War I, Mussolini and other veterans started a movement that attracted frustrated lower class citizens. The movement was very anti-liberal and anti-socialist. It was called the fascist movement.
By 1926, Mussolini managed to transform Italy into a, totalitarian country. Another Tyrant was Adolf Hitler. He was a German political leader, military leader, and very successful dictator. Hitler was a rejected artist from Vienna who wanted to be a political figure. After World War One, he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which is also known as the Nazi Party. This party focused on violent racial nationalism. He quickly became the spokesman for the party. He gave powerful and convincing speeches that attracted many people to join the Nazi Party.Only one month after he joined, Hitler became the leader of the entire Nazi Party. In 1932, Nazism became the main practice in Germany and Hitler became the chancellor (Prime minister) of Germany. When it comes to political beliefs it’s worth noting that Hitler and Mussolini share almost the same ideologies where as Stalin being a communist belongs to another school of thought. Hitler was a Nazi. Nazism is very close to Fascism. Benito Mussolini was Fascist. His political beliefs were similar to the Nazism ideologies.
It was anti Communist, it was also intensely nationalist and anti-democratic. Hitler was also racist. Both Mussolini and Hitler wanted their countries to be the ultimate super power of the power. Stalin ,on the other hand, was a communist and his ideology was to create a ‘’ classless, moneyless and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order.’’
All three dictators changed the education system of their countries. Hitler and Mussolini both used the same approach they both removed much of what they felt was 'unnecessary curriculum' and replaced it with propaganda. These are some of the examples of things which Hitler did to change the German school’s system .He made sure to emphasise on Physical Education to maintain the children's health fitness. Children were taught History from the Nazi's perspective, such as the unfairness or the TOV and the glory of the German people. Mainly, they were taught to believe that the communists and Jews were bad. Biology lessons taught German pupils to divide the human races into two groups, namely superior and inferior. Geography lessons advised the pupils why the lands that were formerly Germany's had to be retaken.
Mussolini took a particular interest in the education system of Italy as the children were the Fascists of the future. Mussolini had the same approach as Hitler .Stalin, however, changed the education system of his country in a different way. Education was at the heart of Soviet attempts to create a new society. He gave priority to the peasant and the working class. This extreme child centred system failed and the country returned to the more traditional, organised, disciplined mode of education.
There are a lot of similarities between Hitler and Stalin, and between Hitler and Mussolini. However there are a lot less similarities between Stalin and Mussolini. Even though Stalin and Hitler despised and envied each other, the two leaders were similar in many ways. Both rose to the highest positions in their country and there were three main reasons they were able to do that. Hitler and Stalin both were skilled users of propaganda and they both wanted to make their countries the superior power of the world and both these tyrants were well versed at propaganda; they used words to twist and manipulate the minds of the citizens into believing that what they were saying was the truth. They both wanted to restore their countries’ power as both their countries were still trying to recover from the loss of World War I. Mussolini, on the other hand is not known for his cunning speeches. However he is very similar to Hitler.
He obtained power by using the Black Shirts SA and SS which is similar to Hitler, a group of fascist thugs who did his dirty work. When he obtained power he appealed to the conservative party by promoting big business which is similar to Hitler, but different to Stalin, both Mussolini and Hitler presented themselves as alternatives to Communism. He also made an agreement with the Pope and Hitler did called the Concordat, called the Lateran agreement that made the Vatican an independent state, thereby creating strong Catholic support for him.
Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini had a lot of differences for examples: Mussolini was different from Hitler in the sense that Mussolini didn’t kill Jews for the Holocaust. Although Stalin and Hitler both are very similar, they both were responsible for deaths of millions of people, they were responsible for the Holocaust in which millions of Slaves, Communists, Feminists, Jews, Socilaists, Anarchists, Handicapped died or were sent to concentration camps. They were both different as Hitler and Mussolini were both trying to introduce a form of society without training or belief but which will help them preserve their power. Stalin on the other hand was working feverishly to turn Russia into a super power from a third world country.
To conclude these three dictators literally hijacked humanity in that bleak era of world’s history. No wonder they have become synonym of terror and fear. If I would compare them with my chosen dictator, in my opinion Pol Pot would be more similar to Stalin and Hitler rather than Mussolini. Polpot is known for killing scores of people and so are Stalin and Hitler. However they all killed for different reasons for example Pot Pot killed intelligent, educated, and professional people while Hitler killed genocides. Stalin is more similar to Pol Pot in this respect. Out of the three dictators I have compared I believe Hitler was the worst. The most important similarity between these dictators is that they define the word dictator and the effect that they had on their people.
