Throughout the 20th century, there have been many dictators who have committed terrible atrocities against their people. Two dictators that are popular for comparison are Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler because they were known to be very ruthless 20th-century dictators. Both dictators are well-known for having a strong presence in World War Two, and also to have treated their people terribly.  Adolf Hitler was notorious for speaking out against how Jewish people were inferior and therefore needed to be killed. On the other hand, Stalin was infamous for having very widespread famines, especially the Holodomor, in which millions of Ukrainians died because of starvation. There has been a debate regarding whether Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler was worse as a dictator. Many who believe that Stalin was worse than Hitler point to the death count under Stalin's regime, which was higher than the death count under Hitler’s regime. On the other hand, people who believe that Hitler was worse than Stalin mention that the dictators had a different motive for having so many of their people die. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, was not as worse as Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany. Hitler did organized genocide, nothing that Stalin did compares to Hitlers Holocaust, and Hitler’s foreign policy was worse than Stalin’s.

First of all, the Holocaust was deliberate genocide, meant to eliminate Jewish people. History.com states that “To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community.” The Holocaust was one of the most infamous events in history which was highlighted because of the deliberate killing of Jewish people. Nazi Germany described Jewish people as inferior and included the mass killing of Jewish people by unethical methods such as gas chambers solely for being Jewish. For the Soviet Union, however, many historians do not consider the Great Famine a genocide. “Mark B. Tauger, associate professor of history at the University of West Virginia, writes that the perspective of the famine as genocide: "is wrong. The famine...was not limited to Ukraine or even to the rural areas of the U.S.S.R...and it was far from the intention of Stalin and others in the Soviet leadership to create such a disaster."” The famine in Ukraine was not the only famine that was going on in the Soviet Union at that time. People all across the Soviet Union were starving, which indicates that it was a nationwide disaster affecting all people rather than just individual ethnic groups such as Ukrainians. Also, the goal of the Holodomor was to make Ukrainians conform to Soviet influence, not to have them deliberately murdered. Holodomor.ca states, “The Holodomor can be seen as the culmination of an assault by the Communist Party and Soviet state on the Ukrainian peasantry, who resisted Soviet policies.” Unlike Nazi Germany regarding Jewish people, the Soviet Union did not simply see the Ukrainians as genetically inferior. Instead, the Soviet Union wanted Ukraine to conform to the totalitarianism that was imposed by Stalin and his regime. In other words, Stalin did not have Ukrainians killed simply because they were Ukranian.
Second of all, nothing that Stalin did compared to Hitler’s Holocaust. Hitler intentionally killed people who he thought were inferior. The BBC mentions that “For him, the state was not an economic entity but racial. He declared the superiority of a white Aryan race, with particular vitriol reserved for the Jews he viewed as "parasites". Their elimination, he said, "must necessarily be a bloody process”. One of Hitler’s main motives for doing a mass genocide against the Jewish people was because he visualized Jewish people as being inferior to the white Aryan race. Besides, he viewed the Jewish people as parasites as another reason for them to be killed off. Nazi Germany’s identity revolved around the extermination of people who were a different ethnicity than them. However, Stalin’s main focus was on rapid industrialisation. History.com mentions that “Millions of farmers refused to cooperate with Stalin’s orders and were shot or exiled as punishment. The forced collectivization also led to widespread famine across the Soviet Union that killed millions.” Many of the deaths and atrocities attributed to Stalin were because many farmers refused to cooperate with him. This shows that they died as a result of not conforming to what the state wanted, as Stalin saw the state as thriving more when people who did not conform were eliminated. The farmers that refused to accept Soviet demands served as a roadblock to economic success to Stalin, which is why Stalin wanted them to be killed. Also, Most of Stalin’s atrocities were because of an unwillingness to conform which makes the deaths under Stalin have a different motive. History.com states “The first group of prisoners at the Gulag mostly included common criminals and prosperous peasants, known as kulaks. Many kulaks were arrested when they revolted against collectivization, a policy enforced by the Soviet government that demanded peasant farmers give up their individual farms and join collective farming.” Unlike Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s regime did not have as big of an emphasis on the extermination of minority groups for having inferior genetics. Instead, many individuals died in the Soviet Union because they refused to give up the land that they had. In addition, if the workers in the gulag worked hard enough, they were able to be released. In the same article, History.com also mentions that “If they worked extremely hard and surpassed their quotas, some prisoners qualified for early release.” However, in Hitler’s Holocaust, people were in concentration camps because they were to be exterminated and killed. Gulags were Stalin’s way of showing that he has the ultimate authority.

Third of all, Hitler’s foreign policy was worse than Stalin’s. For one, Hitler violates the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (Also known as the German-Soviet non-aggression pact). This is because “The Nonaggression Pact became a dead letter on June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany, after having invaded much of western and central Europe, attacked the Soviet Union without warning in Operation Barbarossa.” After Operation Barbarossa where Nazi Germany surprised attacked the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany showcased that they could violate the treaties that they have signed. This shows that Hitler cannot keep his promises with other nations, lowering his diplomatic reputation, as countries do not know whether or not Hitler would abide by treaties that Nazi Germany would sign in the future. Hitler also violated the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after World War I. History.com mentions “Germany violated many disarmament provisions of Part V during the 1920s, and Hitler denounced the treaty altogether in 1935.” In addition to violating the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles as well. Although it could be argued that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair, Hitler did not offer any negotiations with the Allies. Instead, this further decreased his trust amongst other nations, as they are aware that Hitler could violate treaties any time if he wants to. However, Joseph Stalin cooperated with the Allies. Biography.com states “As the tide of war slowly turned in the Allies' favor, Roosevelt and Churchill met with Joseph Stalin to discuss postwar arrangements. At the first of these meetings, in Tehran, Iran, in late 1943, the recent victory in Stalingrad put Stalin in a solid bargaining position. He demanded the Allies open a second front against Germany, which they agreed to in the spring of 1944.” Even though Joseph Stalin did not like the allies very much, he and the Allies both had a distaste for Nazi Germany. As a result, Joseph Stalin was quite diplomatic with the Allies, and there were often meetings that discussed what the Soviet Union and the Allied powers should do about Nazi Germany. This shows that although Joseph Stalin committed many atrocities, he was cooperative with the countries that were Democratic. Despite them being different politically, they recognized the threat that Nazi Germany posed to both of them.

In conclusion, Hitler was worse than Stalin because Hitler did organized genocide, the atrocities that Hitler committed did not compare to the atrocities during Stalin's reign, and Hitler's foreign policy was worse than Stalin's. Organized genocide is what Hitler is infamous for, as the Holocaust was the deliberate attempt of killing off the Jewish population. However, the Great Famine is not considered a genocide by all historians as Ukraine was not the only affected place, and the Holodomor occurred because people resisted Soviet policies. Furthermore, one of Hitler’s main intentions was killing people he thought were inferior to the Aryan race, but Stalin was focused on killing people who he saw as a roadblock to achieving rapid industrialization, and because they were not willing to conform to the Soviet Union. In addition, Hitler’s foreign policy was worse, as he violated the Treaty of Versailles and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. However, Stalin’s foreign policy includes compromising with the Allies in order to have the Germans surrender. Although Hitler was worse than Stalin, both were ruthless dictators who were infamous in the 20th century for committing major atrocities. The lesson that should be learned from these two dictators is that history should not repeat itself, and have millions of civilians dying again as a result of the dictatorial policy.