THERE IS SOMETHING
STRANGE AND FAS- CINATING in the relation-" ship of Hitler and Stalin. They were until recently at opposite poles of policy. Then the two extremes met and people began to dis- cover that there was much similarity between the Nazi and Bolshevist regimes if not between the personali ties of the two dictators. By a sudden turn of the wheel they have become enemies again, which makes it all, the more interesting to survey them in compara- tive analysis.
Stalin and Hitler have this in common--that they both rose from the hum- blest origin to supreme power in their respective countries. That statement requires a qualification, be- cause Stalin, ruler of Rus- sia, was not a Russian but a Georgian, and Hitler, Fuehrer of Germany, was an Austrian by birth. Both men rose by their own efforts, by the inner force which drove them. But there is the fundamental ·
Saturday,
"Hard, tenacious, he represents the Asiatic face of the Russian Janus.”
TERE H COMES
AN IN- Lion, TERESTING POINT,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
August 9, 1941.
THE
TWO
MEN
"He embodies to a fantastic degrée the fears and desires of Germany:"
U.B.BEER
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difference that Stalin was the railroad station. Most with shining eyes and tense, rally and unite. If that is true, DO THE DEFECTS AND the inheritor of a position accounts deny Stalin's direct enger muscles, as if they felt as it may be, it would almost THEIR CONSEQUENCES which Lenin had created, participation, but there hero, not the little man whom logical viewpoint,
that this was Siegfried, their seem to indicate, from a psycho- balance the qualities? It is hard whereas Hitler made his
that the lo seems no doubt of his per- I saw.
say, and people may look position for himself.
That seems, by the way, aforesaid Russian people might askance at methods by which sonal courage in strikes and to be true about Hitler when he still hanker, after that "rubbish loyalty and unity have always That Hitler stole much of labour difficulties all over speaks. His passion and rant of an outworn past.”
been obtained in Asia. Yet his thunder from the Bol- Russia.
ing leave foreigners cold, but There is, one cannot forget, Tamerlane died in his bed, after sheviks, as Mussolini had
rouse Germans to frantic emo- another parallel between the conquests greater than Alexan- done before him, can hardly
careers of Stalin and Hitler, der's, and he was ruthless, too. those who be denied, and it is also breach, which NG POLN heated thriller once said of himself Both of them were hit hard in believe in the sanctity of care" take probable that he muy have between Stalin and the "Wes- Icon, but the drum-major of the still tender and not to be life and in generosity and pity. profited by Bolshevist errors tern Exiles," the small group of German band. He may not say crushed by adversity. Stalin Hitler, too, cares for none of and endeavoured to avoid Bolshevist leaders who fled to that to-day, may be dreaming bad no ambitious notions in these things, but has been thus them. Yet as fate would land after the failure of the poleon, the peerless Alexander, just went rolling along, foment he and Stalin are well matched. France, England and Switzer- indeed of one greater than Na- that period of his life, he far successful. In this respect have it, there was one in- abortive revolution in 1905-06. who conquered the utter-most ing trouble in factories, and cident in the lives of both Stalin stayed in Russia and East and died in his youthful causing strikes and annoyances men which they did not avoid. Both found it ex- pedient to kill their former comrades.
The world knows Stalin's history. Education at an Orthodox Church seminary,
A comparison of the Austrian who is dictator over the Germans and the Georgian who rules the Russians
By WALTER DURANTY
In the eyes of the world, I suppose, the two men differ greally. · Hitler is sometimes picturert as a gambler staking ↓ everything on each throw and Stalin as a cunning plotter. I don't believe it is true. Hitler took only. one grent risk, like Napoleon at the Bridge of Lodi. Outstanding leaders don't really take risks and Napoleon once
She was a most religious me how Stalin sat like a watch fears
dog in the early days at Lenin's German people, ቢዲ if he way off in the heart of the danger his person. He enid
then won the most brilliant plece of military chesswork that and fished and kept fit in body at Cannac.
Ile stayed there and hunted Europe had seen since Hannibal
which this son of a poor stuck it out and ever afterward prime with no more worlds to the gendarmes, and getting wrote before his most smashing Georgian cobbler won by despised the "Westerners" as to conquer. Hitler seems to himself arrested, and escaping victory, the Battle of Austerlitz, his own diligence and the runaways and cowards. Ex- embody and personify to an and making trouble again. Then that his troops would be glad to kindness of an old priest cept their leader Lenin.
almost fantastic degree the one day they caught him to hear that their leader on this whom Stalin's mother knew. Raymond Robbins once told hopes and aspirations, the rights and sent him off to the occasion was going to sit behind and desires of the top of the Urals somewhere, and pull the strings and not en- woman and once told an door in Petrograd watching were not man. but some phan- "tundra," from which there was that in an "order of the day," American correspondent every one who came in. Des- tom, the incarnation of German- no escape. somewhat sadly, know pite the assertions of Trotsky, ism, the creature of a legend -- my son rules in the Krem- believe that Stalin's devotion in short, the Pied Piper of lin, but if he had not been which he has always tried to rats to destruction).
to Lenin. was the compass by Hamelin (who, remember, led
and mind. It's likely that he fitler took such a chance in naughty and turned away steer. Whereas Hitler "walked Stalin has nothing like that, planned in his crafty Georgian of his little band of fanatics read books and plotted and Munich in 1923, when a score from God and been forced by himself," a strange, rather I know, if you read "Pravda" way-and-managed-through-the were cut by the scythe of bullets to leave his school he might comic-looking figure, not just or any Bolshevist newspaper, "underground railroad" of.revo- and he escaped by only a mira by now be a Bishop." because of his resemblance to you will find terms of adoration utionary communications to cle.
Like Hitler, Stalin fought Charlie Chaplin, but because he that only an Oriental polentate keep in touch with the world his coups: he is not reckless- Since then he has planned would permit and only Oriental and his friends in Russia, the keynote of his success is in his younger days, but not
minds would conceive. against foreign foes. On
Whereas Hitler sat in prison minute and exact preparation. and wrote a book. one occasion he plotted the I SAW HIM ONCE WALK
with Goering and the King I'VE BEEN TOLD MORE seizure by violence of the of Siam through the lobby of
HITLER is Germany, which THAN ONCE in Moscow TALIN'S RISE TO means that he expresses the treasure of the State Bank the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. Most that Stalin doesn't like it but LEADERSHIP is due to soul-if they have one of the of Tiflis, and perhaps took unimpressive, not much better allows it to go on because he perseverance, to lack of pity or German people, I am certain part in the bloody scuffle than the upstart little "gutter- Ceels himself a symbol, a Cen- scruple, to his skill in playing this is true and that, moreover, when the treasure was cap- him. But-and this
snipe" which Churchill called trul Something, round which the nan against man or both ends here is the secret of Hitler's ns- wns a primitive Russian people, ac against the middle and, as well, tonishing avatar. There's a tured from its guardians on point to be noted-every Ger- customed to think in terms of to a sense of timing, which any Russian folktale about the In- the way from the bank to man in the lobby watched him Czars and saints and ikons, can athlete knows is all important. vincible Giant who never could He had also Lenin to follow as be killed because his life was
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a model, who was no insignif not in his body but somewhere cant model, or example, or
else. And none of his op- guiding star (though Lenin ponents ever found it and so he knew Stalin's weakness and
could not be killed. Until one once said of him, as Stalin him- day the hero of the legend found self declared, "This
out where the giant's life was man is harsh and ambitious. Ho-may I think, as the story went, that and was able to kill the giant. split the party by his harshness the giant's life was hidden in and ambition"). As Stalin did
indeed that is, not split the the egg of a duck and the boy party but liquidate" intra- quashed the egg and thus de- what I party opposition (to himself) feated the ginnt. But
so thoroughly that about three- am saying is that Hitler's life quarters of the Central Com- also is an egg in the body of the mittee of the Communist party life is their life, that he is not German engle. I mean that his of the Presidium of Congress, of the Army and Navy leaders, incarnate projection of German- a man like the rest of us but the
of the Foreign Service diplo ism. mais, of the Commissars and heads of government depart- ments, and managers of factor-I
Is Stalin the Man of Russia?' think we should pause before
ics and leaders in every branch negative answer. The Rus- of national life, were numbered sinna have more tenacity than among the missing, or anyway hov may suppose. If you want readers of Dostoevsky or Chek- censed to function for their own to know Russin read Pushkin or and their country's bonefit..
Tolstoy's "War and Peace," As There is a French proverb a nation they are cunning and which says that men have the crafty, behind a musk of exu- defects of their qualities. In berance; they are not over- Stalin's case at least, they have stanch In friendship, but they the quality of their defects. never forgot an enmity. That This hard, tenacious man, mis- seems to accord with Stalin, but trustful, and self-centred, has when one tries to estimate him never for one moment lost sight in relationship to Russia ono is of the two cardinal factors in immediately thrown back to the Russin's international relations, old question. Is Russia European Eternal vigliance against pa or Asiatic? The answer is sault from without and the "both.". So, let me put it like atrálning of every nerve at any this: Stalin represents the Asia- cost of suffering to coulp Rurala tic face of the Russian Janus, internally, economically, Indus- but he is not the essence of trially, for the neods of modern Rusala as Hitler is essence of
Germany (MV.I) ·
war.
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