Quote:
Originally posted by Agamemnon+May 2 2005, 01:52 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Agamemnon @ May 2 2005, 01:52 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-CaptainCrunch@May 2 2005, 02:53 AM
I'm currently reading "Stalin - Court of the Red Tsar", by Simon Sebag Montefior. Its a look at Stalin and his advisors from the early 1930's to his death in 1953. Its a great study of the brutality of Stalin and his key advisors, and the interaction between the families.
If you want a great personality study of the leaders of the Bolshevik revolution this is the book for you. Its a daunting read at nearly 700 pages, but the pictures are very interesting.
Out of all of the monsters of the 20th centuries, Stalin was unique because he took no pleasure out of what he did, he took no real pleasure out of his war against his own peasants. He saw everything as a statistic or a tactic, and nothing more.
Its not a justification or a statement of admiration, but his cold logical approach to leadership, while being described as very charming and human makes him even more frightening.
A great read if your interested in 20th century history.
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I've always wondered who was worse, Hitler or Stalin.
Both were directly responsible for the deaths of millions, but for seemingly wildly different reasons.
Is it worse to kill millions of Jews for no apparent reason (hatred?)?; or is it worse to kill millions to generate a few extra bucks (exporting of Ukrainian wheat while they starve)?
I'm sure most would say Hitler, but after reading about Stalin, they're definitely close. [/b][/quote]
Interesting
And I could say that they're both equally bad, but . . . and this is a long shot but, thier motivations really seperate things.
Hitler did his killing out of hate, and went to war out of greed and a misplaced sense of vengence
Stalin - did his killing out of a misplaced sense of revolution and responsibility, and went about expanding the Soviet empire out of a need for security, and a misplaced revolution.
Thier both bad, but when you look at Stalin you can definately see signs of mental illness, and while Stalin was bad early in his career, his real excesses came after his second wife died.
Its interesting if you look at the pre-cursors as well. both had fathers that were abusive and very strict, and both had mothers who doted on them. both had a christian education, and a poor upbringing, and both were raised in countries that were in turmoil.
One big difference to me though is while Hitler allowed himself to be carried by circumstance, Stalin pretty much drove the circumstances.
Stalin was evil because he didn't see the peasants and his people as anything but an equation to drive the Soviet Union and Communism into a position of dominance.
Hitler was evil because he saw the Jews and his enemies as somewhat lesser then him but still understood that they were in fact living breathing things. Vermin no less.
I don't think you can base the who was eviler argument around numbers, because as Stalin said 1 death is a tragedy, but a million is a statistic.
In my mind, Hitler was the more evil of the two. Stalin was evil, but he was also disconnected.