Do you think that USSR and Third Reich were very similar? I do. Hitler's ideology was called Nazional-SOCIALISM. Both goverments followed Marx's ideology of killing in the war of classes about 10% of the population. They both killed millions: Hebrews in both sides and Ukrainians in the USSR. They were allies at the start of the 2nd world war (Hitler with his crazy mind decided in 1941 to attack his allies).
The USSR and Nazi Germany weren't allies at the start of WWII. They had signed a non-aggression pact, not a full-blown, or defensive, alliance. They did divy up Poland between each other, but really, they weren't... co-operating in the invasion. Stalin waited until it was assured victory for the Germans before he invaded, so his forces wouldn't waste time or resources conquering a victorious enemy.
I understand completely what you're saying Michael. Communism and fascism are suppose to be on completely opposite ends of the political spectrum, in theory at least. But in reality, the communism of the USSR was further from true communism (I will use Marxism from now on to difference real communism and USSR communism, or Stalinism) then possibly Capitalism. Basically in Marxism, Marx though capitalism would get so big and so corrupted that the working class (the proletariat) would overthrow their capitalist rulers. They would establish the "dictatorship of the proletariat" and get rid of all classes of society and all would pitch in to help their fellow neighbors. It reminds me a lot of Utopia, the famous renaissance book. In theory, I don't really disagree with that at all. I also forgot to mention eventually the State would whiddle away, and in the end we would see a stateless, classless society. This did not, however, occur in the Soviet Union. After Stalin took over control from Trotsky, who is my favorite revolutionary, he increased huge amounts of bureaucracy and strong-armed his population, killing 20 million in a reign of terror. Trotsky also believed in using the Red Army to take out the rising fascist dictatorships in Europe. Stalin's communist policies wrecked his economy and starved his citizens. Let's look at Hitler. Fascism, in a very narrow sense, is when the State and the corporations form one huge conglomerate in which the government owns many of the so-called capitalist businesses and leads them at the top. More research should be done on this topic, in case I am wrong. But you are right that the Nazis were National Socialists. They strong-armed their population and killed 6 million Jews, millions of Russians, and terrorized Europe. Hitler's economic policies were actually very successful. (Just to be clear, I don't think millions of people are worth a good economy, and Hitler was a disgusting person) Hitler and Stalin had many similar beliefs and practices, such as being outwardly socialist. And in both fascism and Stalinistic communism a huge part of the ideology is that everything must be done for the good of the state, in a collective way, rather than individually. People like to say Hitler was far right and Stalin was far left and I disagree with that. I would say Hitler is as centrist as possible (he was anti-liberal, anti-conservative, anti-capitalist, and anti-communist) and Stalin almost seems far-right to me. But it's also very hard to put ideologies on a linear political spectrum and I like to use a square one. Those two evil men had two distinct ideologies, and they both hated each other's. But, in my opinion, their ideologies are closer together than they are far apart. **EDIT** I said that I didn't disagree with Marxism too much. That is purely in theory. In reality I don't believe people can live in a stateless, classless society. People need social classes. People have been trying to make Marxism work for a hundred years but I don't think it can. People have good hearts when they try and institute communism, but the bureaucracy and government get so big it collapses in on itself. One of the greatest quote about government comes from Thomas Paine: "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
The poster of the thread demonstrates the total ignorance that surrounds the issues of National socialism
"True" communism, involves class war, class hatred, and class extermination.
"Similarities" between the third reich and USSR, well the only similarity was that both represented a political party. NOTHING ELSE
But you can't deny that Nazism and Soviet Communism were similar in more ways then they weren't.
I deny it they had nothing in common NOTHING at all. The only persons that think that Communism had anything to do with National socialism, are those who never ever made the effort to search what is national socialism, or even some apolitical , liberal, brainwashed mass humans , that think that Nazism and Communism represent "opression" so thats their "similarities", or even those who think that all the regimes of worlds history represented "democracy" and parliamentarianism, and only the Bad Nazis and the Bolsheviks imposed totalitarian regimes....(Pluto-democracy and parliamentarianism actually represent one of the most complete totalitarianisms of all time but thats a whole issue in it self) The core of National socialism is absolutely tottaly 100% the opposite of all that Marxism is.
They are both collectivist idelogies. Evil twins as Hannah Arendt used to say. Both Communism and Nazism are revolutionary ideologies and as such: Reject the concept of individual rights;Are possible via dictatorship;Negate the concept of private property (in Nazism private property is given as a privilege, so it's a nominal right, the government has total power to use property as it sees fit in the name of the state);Political power may only be achieved through bloody revolution, be it racial or class struggle.Both ideologies are racist and have no qualms about killing undesirables;Both are enemies of capitalism as has been stated numerous times by their leaders;Both consider the fact that killing is necessary to achieve their respective political or utopian goal. As Hannah Arendt used to say, they are evil twins that keep feeding people their lies.
"individual rights" whats is an individual right? Modern capitalism prompts so called individuality but if it is for taxation then their collectivness comes forth ,and the "obligation for the community" 2, who is able to disagree in modern capitalist internationalist democracy with its political "correctness" without facing the law and the supressing measures of the democratic -capitalist internationalist anti nationalist regime? No regime on earth accepts its deniers. 3 In nazi Germany property was one of the core ideologies of the national community based on the saxon dogma, the government in capitalist regimes also has the legal right to do whatever it wants with the property of its citizens, ask modern Greeks, property is heavily taxed and who ever does not pay for its own home to the parasitic regimes, he has his property confiscated and given to world wide Jewish Banking lenders, so that "argument" is non existant, every regime does whatever the power it has allows it. 4 There was no bloody revolution during the rise of National socialism in Germany, even rocks know that. 5 To call communists "racists" is utterly ridiculous, they are the most vile denies of race and racial differences on earth, ask capitalists and the legalization of abortions, or the inforced invasion via political "correctness" and imposed "multiculturalism". 6 The Bolsheviks are pretending to be the "enemies" of capitalism while in fact they are exactly the same thing politically , the only thing that has been used historically as a pretext of "animosity" between those two are some economic stupidities, while they were collaborating historically like brothers, and had the same womb from which they sprang from, it is no accident that most of the socialdemocrats and the capitalist overlords like Barozo were Trotskyists or Maoist communists during their your and all of the Marxists 7There is not a single statement in the national socialist theory to support that quite childish claim, "killing is necessary" quite the contrary, the Fuhrer always said that his voters never came from mars or the moon, they were Germans who were voting the COMMUNISTS and they have been convinced otherwise. As i am saying, the worst liers and decievers are those who are trying firstly to convince the masses that they are free and secondly to convince the masses that if they decide otherwise from what the establishment is telling to them, they are "enslaved", the is no worst slave than the one who thinks that is free. Obviously "truth" cannot be supported by legislations, but by facts and rationality
