Hitler or Stalin ?

[Karpatsky]

The problem with saying the Nazis and the USSR were ‘just as bad’ as each other is the implicit argument that the world would be no worse a place if WW2 ended in axis victory on the eastern front.

This. People forget that Stalin "killed more people" because Hitler lost the War.

Generalplan Ost would've the Holocaust as we know it look like nothing.

Yeah, the people voting Hitler really scare me.

[Grassroots]

Both are despicable and should be burning in hell eternally.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Stalin was a power-hungry, paranoid, delusional monster.

Hitler was a power-hungry, paranoid, delusional monster who sought to systematically exterminate entire ethnic groups.

This is not, and should not be, a hard choice.

[catographer]

Stalin because my family is Jewish.

[King Lear]

Stalin hands down, yes he was an extremely flawed person who purged many of his political opponents, but as others have already stated, he took Russia from being a backwards, agrarian country, stuck in a feudal society to being an industrial superpower with just as many Nuclear weapons as the United States (Russia still has the same Nuclear capabilities as the United States), and he also didn’t Put human beings in gas chambers because of their Race or Religion. I really don’t understand why this is depicted as such a difficult choice, and honestly the people that are choosing Hitler are probably doing so for reasons other then what their saying (hint: they secretly like his ideology).

[Goldwater]

I mean, I think WWII showed us which one was, quite literally, the lesser of two evils...

[Cory]

Stalin hands down, yes he was an extremely flawed person who purged many of his political opponents, but as others have already stated, he took Russia from being a backwards, agrarian country, stuck in a feudal society to being an industrial superpower with just as many Nuclear weapons as the United States (Russia still has the same Nuclear capabilities as the United States), and he also didn’t Put human beings in gas chambers because of their Race or Religion. I really don’t understand why this is depicted as such a difficult choice, and honestly the people that are choosing Hitler are probably doing so for reasons other then what their saying (hint: they secretly like his ideology).

The USSR did not have anywhere near the nuclear capability of the United states in 1953. MAD wasn't a real thing until maybe the late 60's.

There was a reason the Soviets were so desperate to put IRBM's in Cuba in 1962. Their ICBM arsenal consisted of about 25(!) or so so total missiles. The USA had hundreds. I wasn't until Brezhnev that they achieved parity in both numbers of warheads and delivery systems IIRC.

But honestly I'm just being pedantic.

[fhtagn]

I have a higher likelihood of surviving under Stalin, so we'll go with that.

[buritobr]

Stalin eliminated political opponents, this is very bad. Hitler eliminated races, this is worse. You can choose your political views, but you can not choose your race.
The Gulag camps were prisons, they were not killing factories like the nazi camps.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I always went with Stalin because he "killed more people" without really thinking through the question when it has been presented to me. Hitler was indeed far worse, for reasons Tony, Cory, Buritobr, and others described. I can't believe that perspective has never really resonated with me until now.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Stalin eliminated political opponents, this is very bad. Hitler eliminated races, this is worse. You can choose your political views, but you can not choose your race.
The Gulag camps were prisons, they were not killing factories like the nazi camps.

How does this take into account those who died as the result of his other policies?

[Lord Halifax]

Stalin eliminated political opponents, this is very bad. Hitler eliminated races, this is worse. You can choose your political views, but you can not choose your race.
The Gulag camps were prisons, they were not killing factories like the nazi camps.

Stalin did eliminate people based on ethnicity (including forced relocations with huge collateral casualties) and engineered the Ukrainian famine (an actual genocide), class (= the social background of your parents, which you can not choose), and people were killed randomly for ill founded suspicions or being accused by others. It all created a situation with a higher degree of uncertainty, paranoia, fear and terror in the general population than Nazi-Germany, which was a more predictable regime.

Its not so much who is worse (a meaningless question), but under which of these horrible regimes you would have had the greatest chance of survival, and if you aren't Jewish that would generally have been Nazi-Germany.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I think if Stalin had survived a decade or so, he would have usurped Hitler in the evil stakes; look at the Doctor's Plot, for one.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Stalin eliminated political opponents, this is very bad. Hitler eliminated races, this is worse. You can choose your political views, but you can not choose your race.
The Gulag camps were prisons, they were not killing factories like the nazi camps.

being a "political opponent" of the regime under Stalin was at least as correlated to one's ethnicity as it was to one's actual views.

[wxtransit]

I'm Polish, so take your guess.

Are you split between them?

I'm also Polish, and I hate both. Write-in.

[Kingpoleon]

I think I have a greater chance of survival under Hitler, but that doesn’t speak to his leadership ability so much as his targets.

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

I think I have a greater chance of survival under Hitler, but that doesn’t speak to his leadership ability so much as his targets.

I would have absolutely zero chance of surviving under Hitler, and most of my friends and my own girlfriend would probably be sent to concentration camps, so...

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'm Polish, so take your guess.

Are you split between them?

This is legitimately hilarious. So much historical context.

[dead0man]

I mean, I think WWII showed us which one was, quite literally, the lesser of two evils...

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I mean, I think WWII showed us which one was, quite literally, the lesser of two evils...

Stalin was certainly less of a threat to the West.