"Government control was a key aspect in the regimes of both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union."
Not really.
"The economy nevertheless was highly planned and very much controlled by the government."
I guess you've broken out your special dictionary again. The economy was controlled in the sense the government gave general directions. But, it is hard to wank a definition of "highly planned" and apply it to Nazi Germany. Before the war, there weren't any 5 year plans. Or a boot committee to determine production goals. After the invasion of Russia, things started to change. But that was true of every country. Even then, Nazi Germany was probably no more highly planned than the US was when it entered the war. WWII extended the idea of harnessing the entire industrial output of a country in a war effort that WWI started. Which is why Germany lost WWI, they were maxed out and couldn't keep up. Ditto for WWII. Germany could not match the industrial output of the US in either conflict. With the Soviet Union and Britain in the mix in WWII, they didn't have a chance.
It was close, though. The Wehrmacht fielded the most effective fighting force since the Romans. Man for man, they outfought everyone. But, they just didn't have enough men. Especially after the US entered the war. But the Soviets were the rock that broke them. Stalin had no compunction about spending men. I don't know if you ever played Call of Duty. But, the first one has a cut scene that illustrates the Soviet approach in fine detail. The first one in the Russian campaign has you on what appears to be some sort of pleasure boat with a striped canopy, crossing what I guess it the Volga. Planes and artillery are blowing the shit out of the boats, but there are hundreds of them. Some KGB dimwit is yelling at you about how you are supposed to give all for Mother Russia. You make it to the bank, and then queue up to get weapons which are being handed out. You, you lucky devil, get a clip of 4 rounds. In other words, you are expected to pick up a rifle from someone who didn't make it. Considering that the bombed out buildings are stuffed, wall to wall with Nazis with MG-42s, this isn't all that hard...
Nazi Germany was not the Soviet Union, Part Deux. Germany, for all its faults, was a major, industrialized country with a history of industrial achievements, although little in the way of democracy or even unity. Heck, Platt Deutsch and Hoch Deutsch coexisted until recently. Hoch Deutsch didn't clean win until after WWII. I mean, how much commonality can two dialects have when one has the concept of 'tw' and the other doesn't? And we won't even explore the difference between 'w' and 'v'...
Russia, on the other hand, had to borrow words for anything more complicated than turnip farming. Despite attempts by monarchs like Catherine The Great(who didn't manage to put Descartes before the horse), Russia stuck to its roots as a backwater.
Oh, yeah, "who didn't manage to put Descartes before the horse" was a joke. |
