Why were Hitler and Stalin Popular?
How did Stalin and Hitler achieve such high levels of popularity? Was it their charisma, the brutality of their regimes, achievements of the Nazi or Communist parties, or something else?
How did Stalin and Hitler achieve such high levels of popularity? Was it their charisma, the brutality of their regimes, achievements of the Nazi or Communist parties, or something else?
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Favorite Answer
Stalin seized power, and was in a position to make the people at least pretend to like him. But they actually feared him.
Hitler was an expression of the resentment of the German people for being unfairly blamed for WWI (which they merely jumped in to take advantage of, they didn't start) and for the crushing reparations that ruined their economy. He was a charismatic orator as well. A political Pied Piper leading them to ruin.
phyco kid
In addition to being a bastard, Hitler was a great public speaker. And promised the population a stronger Germany, and a more prosperous Germany. In Stalins case his popularity derived from the Communist party. It was not that Stalin was popular it was that the idea of Communism was very intriguing to many people at the time.
Anonymous
at that time, the people were in tough times. in germany, with the millions of dollars owed to other countries as repayment for World War 1, there wasn't enough resources for the people. they were desperate, and needed help. Hitler became popular because he was determined to deal with the situation, and managed to do so.
in Russia, they had just thrown away their "monarchy" or whatever they had. Stalin helped reform the russian government in such a way that gave extreme benefits to the people.
Hitler and Stalin were liked because they helped the people.
Anonymous
Hitler came into power when Germany was in the greatest depression the country had ever seen
he promised massive reforms and he delivered with very questionable tactics
by focusing on the wealthy Jewish population he also gave his people a sense of national pride
Stallin basically eliminated all his political rivals after the death of Lenin and took controll
Sugar Pie
As I understand it, both were very charismatic and said things people liked.
Hitler never got up and said "I'm going to exterminiate Jews and Freemasons and gays." He'd have been stoned if he did that. But he got up and spoke to peoples' sense of national pride, how he would build a great Germany (by killing Jews et al, in his mind) and everyone liked how that sounded.
I have watched captioned videos of Hitler's speeches (speech class in college) and he was a very gifted public speaker. His words were carefully chosen to persuade his audience.
And I think there was a certian measure of fear of him at the inner circle level. Those that knew of his death camp plans did not dare speak up for fear of being killed (and their families, too).