[CaptainCrunch]

I think Stalin saw the purges of his officers as a needed thing, there were too many remnants in the Red Army of the young Junior officers of World War I. Stalin wanted a army that was bent to his will, single minded, and unable to make decisions that didn't come from Stalin.

Its amazing that Zubov (sp?) escaped the purges, but he was very much like minded to Stalin in that he was willing to commit troops to the meat grinder in order to make the enemy bend.

The interesting thing about the battle of Berlin was this. In the last 10 days of WWII the Red Army under Zubov lost 300,000 men, The remnants of the German Army lost 100,000.

That dosen't sound like victory conditions.

The other main difference that I can see is that Hitler was obsessed with race. He wanted to protect the Aryan race while weeding out what he considered to be sub human elements. In the end though, he thought he was betrayed by his race.

Stalin saw that he would have to go to war against his own people in order to industrialize his nation, and he was willing to kill millions in order to get there. So thier aims while similar were completely different.

Its strange if you look at the first half of the century, and saw the rise of these mega tyrants, who were all suffering from some form of dicernable mental condition. The fact that they all came from a similar background is even more interesting.

We might never see anything like it again, if we're fortunate