Tim, when Hitler first got elected to office, he ran on a conservative ticket in a very conservative Bavaria. I don't remember if he was with a party.
The comment you responded to was more about Stalin then Hitler. As for Hitler his first important office (and perhaps his first elected office at all but I am not sure) was as a member of the National Socialist party.
Any similarities between Stalin's gov't and socialism and communism, was either accidental or intended for image reasons.
To borrow one of your argument thats what communists where at the time (in Russia atleast)
Stalin was a ruthless, conservative dictator who put to death hundreds of thousands of people. He was intensely paranoid and ruled Russia with an iron fist.
You seem to define conservative in such a way that if you put to death a lot of people and are paranoid and rule with an iron fist then you are conservative. He not only spouted communist propaganda he nationalized most of what was left in private hands. Having the government control industries and agriculture is a socialist idea. Stalin pursued that idea ruthlessly, using naked brutal force instead of persuation and a peaceful political evolution, also he went further in that direction then most socialists would, but the idea behind the moves was socialist. The biggest source of death in the USSR was the "man made famine", where Stalin starved the kulaks (the so called rich peasants, most of whom where anything but rich but they owned their own land even if it was a small plot), so that he could nationalize/ socialize farming.
Much like Hitler, he built huge monuments/ buildings dedicated to Russian culture and power. In fact the two of them were very much alike...... ...and for one brief point during the late 30's and early 40's, Germany and Russia were allied.
Arguements about his simularity to Hitler will be unconvinceing in this case as I don't see Hitler as a conservative.
The same goes for the alliance, and for that matter we where allied with Stalin after Germany attacked the USSR, that alliance doesn't make Stalin conservative (even if Hitler was, and he was not) any more then our later alliance makes the US communist. As for building monuments and celebrating the culture and power of the nation they rule, that is quite common among dictators of any type. They do this to help get support and legitimize their rule (true if you didn't support Stalin you might just be killed but he couldn't kill everyone).
I am not making a whole new classification.....
Traditionally Stalin is classified as socialist/communist/leftist. If you think that this traditional classification is wrong then fine, but one of your arguments for Hitler being a conservative was how he was traditionally classified.
Tim |
