Compare And Contrast Mussolini And Stalin

Hitler. Stalin. Mussolini. These three names define World War II. World policy revolved around them for at least a decade or in Stalin 's case for almost fifty years. Much is generally known about each man 's role in the war, but only as it pertains to the outcome. Not many people possess extensive knowledge of these dictators as individuals or as leaders of a particular party. This paper will attempt to shed light on the differences as well as the similarities of they style of totalitarianism that the three men who shaped the middle of the twentieth century implemented in their respective countries.

Benito Mussolini (b. 29 July 1883, d. 28 April 1945) was born into a lower-middle-class family outside of Predappio, Italy, in the Romagna region. …show more content…
In Mussolini 's youth, Italy was experiencing domestic instability due to the election of new parties to Parliament. The majority left-wing socialists were so fragmented that they could come to no compromises and caused Parliament to remain stagnant. The people of Italy were fed up with a king who did nothing, a Parliament that could pass nothing, and a corrupt lower government. Mussolini started his political career as a socialist, and even wrote for a socialist newspaper (all copies of which strangely disappeared from Italian libraries upon Mussolini 's ascension to power), but soon realized that there was more popular support for a party on the right. A very few fascist groups had been formed in Italy, but no official party had yet emerged. Mussolini used his journalistic influence, and a great deal of propaganda, to bring people 's opinion into line with his own and to gain prestige in the community. Mussolini later claimed that he created the fascist party, and could therefore destroy it if he so desired. Stalin also joined the socialist party, but unlike Mussolini remained a member until his death. Socialism was already a well-established political party in Russia led by V. I. Lenin (1870-1924) himself. Stalin maneuvered himself close to Lenin and eventually gained his favor, although not without opposition. Hitler rode the wave of …show more content…
Mussolini liked to think that he was the most powerful man in the world with the best country in the world and the best army in the world and on and on and could not stand to see anyone even think they were superior to him. This was his tragic flaw which led to the abuse of propaganda. He deliberately manipulated and even invented facts to impress people both in Italy and abroad. For example, he boasted that Italy 's air strength surpassed that of Britain in the Mediterranean and that Italy had the superior navy, when he had only a few outdated air force divisions ready for duty and even fewer battleships. He also claimed to have an advanced armoured division that rivaled the Panzers when all he really had were a few heavily-armoured cars; he did not even have any tanks. Mussolini also asserted that his standing army consisted of eight million troops and then twelve million, when he had less than one million men in uniform, and could not even provide them with adequate food and weaponry. Many of these soldiers were forced to wear civilian trousers with a black shirt and may or may not have had a gun. Foreign journalists in Italy often commented on Mussolini 's "bluffing", and eventually he expelled all journalists who said anything derogatory about him from the