Comparison of Stalin and Hitler

Comparison of Stalin and Hitler Even though some people may argue this, its a common fact that Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler are one of the two worst villains in history. Stalin murdered millions of people and Hitler murdered millions of people. They both tortured innocent people. They both threatened violence towards the rest of the world. Hitler started the worst war in history. Stalin spread Communism to other countries. Hitler almost wiped out a human race. Stalin slaughtered his own people. Whos the most hideous person? Stalin was a more hideous person than Hitler. Hitler was born to an overprotective mother and an overbearing father. While his mother would shower him with affection, his father barely even acknowledged his existence. His love for Germany started when he was very young. His love for Germany awakened when he moved to Germany and started to play with German children. This love for Germany would never die (Ayer 16). His independence started when he was six when he walked to and from school and dealing with mischievous boys. It was around this time when Hitlers father was starting to come home drunk every day. He was abused daily by his father because Hitler refused to give in to his fathers demands. In school, he was a leader. One boy quoted We all liked him, at desk and at play. He had guts. He wasnt a hothead, he was a quiet fanatic (Ayer 19). At thirteen his father passed away suddenly and Hitler became the male head of the house. Hitler was very charismatic. His words go like an arrow to their target, he touches each private wo und on the raw, expressing [peoples] intermost [hopes], telling [them] what [they] most want to hear (Strasser 65). When at school he took a particular liking to Professor Leopold Potsch. Potsch was a follower of the Volkisch Movement. The movement was a group that believed that the German people were superior to everyone else especially the Jews (Ayer 21). Hitler saw the opera Rienzi and it changed his life forever. His friend, Kubizek, said: Now he aspired to something higher, something I could not yet fully understand. All this surprised me, because I believed that the [life] of an artist was for him the highest of all goals, the one most striving for. But now he was speaking of an [order] he would one day receive from the people, to lead them out of [slavery] to the heights of freedom. (Ayers 23) Hitler blamed his own poverty and humiliation on the Jews. It was during World War 1 when he finally did something with his life. He enlisted. War was brilliant to him. He was at home in the trenches. He received the greatest award Germany had to offer. When Germany lost he was completely devastated. It was at this time when he finally got into politics. Hitler became interested and joined the German Workers Party. Soon later he changed the name of the party to the NAZI Party. He silenced any high ranking official within the party that didnt agree with him. He blamed the Jews on all the bad problems in Germany. Hitler was eventually arrested. While he was in jail he wrote Mein Kampf. This would later be the Nazi Bible. Once out of jail he reformed the Nazi Party into something far greater than it ever was. In 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. Soon later he became the sole dictator of Germany. This was only the beginning for Hitler. Stalins childhood was marked with hate. His father would beat him savagely for no reason. This made Stalin grim and heartless. His mother on the other hand spoiled him and always gave excuses for his bad behavior. This made Stalin think at a young age that everything he did was alright. When Stalin was in school he tried to dominate his classmates in everything they did. He studied his classmates weaknesses and acted upon their weaknesses to force the other children to accept his leadership. Stalin saw the illiterate tribes of the towering Caucasus Mountains as romantic heroes. They were fierce and stopped at nothing until they got what they want. When he was thirteen he was exposed to scientific thought for the first time. These books made Stalin believe that there was no god. At the age of sixteen, Stalin went to a seminary. While at the seminary he secretly joined a new revolutionary party. He smuggles illegal books into the seminary. It was in these books that Stalin first learne d what Communism is by Marx. He was so much against the idea of god he wasnt able to fake it anymore. His grades went from best to worst in the class and four months before graduation he was expelled. Even though he hated the seminary, it did leave its mark on him. It hardened for the life of a professional revolutionary. He also applied the religious fanaticism to Communism (Archer 19). The seminarys spy system was the inspiration for his own secret police. On May 1, 1901, Stalin led two thousand railway workers into a bloody clash against the Tsars forces. He fled being arrested. He began an outlaws life taking on false names and always slipping away from the police. Stalin looked up to and inspired Lenin for having to fill his life with great purpose (Archer 23). On April 5, 1902, he was finally arrested. He viewed this setback as a positive. He began recruiting prisoners into the Social Democratic Party. On January 21, 1905, Stalin announced that the revolution has begun. In 190 7, he wife died. This made Stalin even more sarcastic, cold, and vengeful than ever before (Archer 35). It wasnt until World War I that the revolution won and took over the government of Russia. In 1924 Lenin had died and there was a struggle on who should now rule Russia. After the dust has settled it was the Man of Steel, Joseph Stalin, which began his role of being one of the best rulers in Russias history. There are many people who Hitler hated and wanted to annihilate. Hitler wanted a pure Aryan race. This means he wanted only perfect people. The people must be tall, slender, physically fit, and free of any disability, deformity, abnormality, mental illness, and homosexuality. Above all people Hitler hated he hated the Jews the most. He firmly believed that the Jews were the inferior race. He blamed the Jews for Germanys defeat in World War I. He believed that Germany would have never lost the war if it wasnt for the Jews stabbing Germany in the back. In Europe at the time, Jews were known as Communists and to some people Germany was known as a Jewish Country. This was the last thing Hitler wanted his country called. Stalin hated everyone who was against him and Communism. He always feared for his position in power and for Communism. It didnt matter if they were political enemies or just civilians who didnt like communism, Stalin hated them all. Stalin did everything in his power to instill fear into his enemies. He wanted to make sure whoever was against him know that that was a grave and deadly mistake. In 1939, Hitler started the worst war in history. Hitler wanted to make a German Empire all throughout Europe and evidentially the world. World War II had over sixty nations involved in it. He wanted superiority over everyone in the world. Hitler wanted to wipe out an entire race. He put Jews in concentration camps. In concentration camps, Jews were tortured, gassed, used as sick experiments, shot, starved, and hung. He wasnt going to stop until he wiped every single Jew off the face of the world. To Hitler, the Jewish race was nothing but little, annoying animals. What Stalin did to his own people is sickening. Stalin was a huge fanatic of being patriotic for the motherland. He killed anyone he expected to be a traitor. During World War II, if a soldier took one step backwards to retreat then an officer would shoot them on the spot declaring they were traitors even though in reality they werent really traitors. After World War II, Stalin reopened some of the concentration camps and put German civilians in them. Stalin killed anyone that disagreed with him. He executed over forty thousand polish prisoners. If Stalin had a political enemy then the enemy would be taken to a labor and be never seen from again. Conditions in the labor camps have been said are worst then some of the concentration camps Hitler put the Jews in. Stalin wasnt only ruthless to foreign people he was ruthless towards his own people making them fear him so much they were forced to love him. Hitler killed six million people. Most of those people were Jews while some were other minorities. Stalin killed over forty thousand polish prisoners and also killed two hundred thousand Georgian civilians. In all Stalin murdered roughly twenty to forty-five million people. Hitler and Stalin were both extremely evil men who stopped at nothing to achieve what they wanted. They both grew up in hateful homes. They lied and killed to make their way to the top. They both killed millions of people. In all, Stalin was the most hideous one. Even Hitler did many bad things in his life, Stalin definitely out did him. Stalin hated more people, he killed millions and millions of more people then Hitler, and he was more ruthless than the Nazi leader. Stalin was the essence of the devil himself.

Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher Essay

The Gothic tradition has played a central role in creating architecture, poetry, literature, film and even art, such as Henry Fuselis’ 1781 painting, â€Å"The Nightmare†. Oscar Wilde borrowed heavily from the gothic tradition when creating his 1890s novel, â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† and in this essay I am going to be looking at certain gothic sections of Oscar Wildes’ novel where he utilizes the fundamental aspects of the Gothic tradition. I will be looking into â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† and how Wilde plays on the horror, the horrific, the suspense and the supernatural that all contribute to a Gothic mood. The term Gothic commands a vast semantic field of varied terrain; a range of meanings, definitions and associations. It is therefore very hard to define because it covers such a broad portfolio of different aspects. Historically the Goths were one of the several Germanic tribes who were one of the peoples who freed Europe from the clutches of the Roman Empire, culminating in its collapse in 476 AD. History itself has manipulated the term Gothic to be associated with the idea of freedom. One of the reasons the Gothic genre is so arduous to define is that it is constantly evolving and so after being associated with freedom it began to be linked with dreams. The rigid hierarchy of the Victorian era meant that the only place you could explore true freedom was in your dreams. And so again the idea evolved once more to nightmares where you could explore the dark side of human nature. The Gothic novel first became popular in England during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. At the end of the eighteenth century, England found itself in the midst of a social upheaval and it was out of this that the gothic genre emerged. The Gothic novel was invented almost single handledly by Horace Walpole, whose 1764 novel â€Å"The Castle of Otranto† contains essentially all the elements that constitute the genre. Walpole’s novel was imitated not only in the 18th century and not only in novel form but also in poetry, art and even later films. Poe’s, 1839, novel â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, also possesses the innate features of the Gothic tale: a haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness and doubled personality (which will be discussed in a later paragraph). A mysterious family or past is a very popular theme throughout the Gothic genre and this is clearly evident in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, where Poe likens the house to the genetic family line of the Usher family, which he refers to as the house of Usher. In the novel the building is described as â€Å"neglected†¦crumbling†¦old†¦discoloured1† which refers not only to the mansion itself but is a potent metaphor for the Usher family itself. Furthermore in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† we see that Dorian’s past is exactly this. His typical Gothic family history includes duels to the death, suicide, young brides and romantic marriages. This also shows the obvious link between the Romantic Movement and the Gothic. One could say that the Gothic genre is Romanticism gone wrong. For example they both have castles but in the Gothic the castles tend to be derelict or haunted and, damsels in distress are seen in both genres as well. Throughout the Victorian era women were thought of as always being virtuous even though the expected behaviour of a husband was the complete opposite. The Gothic genre was an escape from reality and so in the genre emerged the controversial use of women not as pure, chaste people but as monsters and seductresses. Such examples of this could be the tragic death of Dorian Gray’s lover, Sibyl Vain: â€Å"she had swallowed something†¦some dreadful thing they use at theatres†¦either prussic acid or white lead†¦2† The girl’s death is typically gothic through the sheer horrifying nature of the death, swallowing acid, and highlights the waste of tangible life. In addition the women at the opium den is primal gothic, where she asks James Vain: â€Å"why didn’t you kill him [Dorian Gray]3†, which is a horrific question in itself. It is said that she: â€Å"hissed out† these words, which is a potent onomatopoeia, as if she is a snake; a typically frightening and monstrous creature to some. Also her face is described as â€Å"haggard4†, and is perhaps used by Wilde as if to liken her to a witch, only adds to the gothic aura. When James Vain looks back: â€Å"the women had vanished5†, making the women seem in a way, supernatural, another crucial theme in a gothic piece of literature. This was very effective to the Victoria audience as it was totally out of the normal and something that many would never dream of seeing. Furthermore writers in the Victorian era used many contempory issues as a basis of their works in order to bring the horror more to life. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde†, the horrific murder of Sir Carew was linked to the similar murders by the infamous Jack the Ripper. This theme is very common, and recurrent in many gothic art forms. In Francis Ford Coppola’s, 1992 film, â€Å"Bram Stoker’s Dracula† Lucy after being bitten by Dracula, starts to become mysteriously sick and evil. Soon after there is a scene where she is about to feed on a baby, demonstrating how the damsel in distress has became evil. Women in Dracula are made into characters to fear rather than the embodiment of purity and goodness. Damsels in distress are also in Poe’s story where Roderick’s sister, Madeline is entombed before she has actually died. This idea is evident in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† as well, where the damsel is Sibyl Vane who dies early on in the novel however one could also say that Basil, the artist who painted the portrait, is the damsel in distress too. The Gothic genre allowed you to escape from reality, to explore freedom elsewhere and in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† Dorian tries to find a freedom that takes him away from his reality and his ever-growing sins. The opium dens offer him this release from his memory which are depicted â€Å"like a horrible malady, [that] was eating his soul away6†. This is proven by the fact that Dorian Gray flees to one of these dens, after murdering Basil Hallward; to presumably forget about the awfulness of his actions by losing conciseness in a drug induced languor. The dens located in the most derelict sites of London, maybe represent the squalid state of Dorian Gray’s mind and the actual dens described with words as: â€Å"tattered†¦dulled†¦distorted†¦greasy†¦ochre-coloured saw dust†¦spilt liquor7†, perhaps reflect his mortification of his soul. Drugs seem to give a new tempry freedom for Dorian to experience. Drugs seem to give a freedom which is what the Gothic represents in its entirety. One of the elements of the Gothic is the horrific and this is very vividly brought to life in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† where Sible Vane kills herself with prussic acid and also when Alan Campbell graphically destroys Basil Hallward body in Dorian’s attic which is almost like Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel, â€Å"Frankenstein† reversed. The main idea of a Gothic novel was the frightening and so in Wilde’s novel this is used frequently. The use of far off lands terrifying to the Victorian audience, is a key effect, and one relating to the original idea of the Gothic, although the Victorian Gothic novel found little need for ruins, rugged landscapes and derelict castles, the new landscape was the city as a source for menace and the dark. For example on Dorian’s way to the opium dens one day Wilde describes the route with prime Gothic vocabulary: â€Å"dimly-lit streets, past gaunt black-shadowed archways and evil-looking houses†¦ grotesque children†¦monstrous apes8.† For the upper classes reading the book, would never have been to the dark east end of London so they were left feeling as though they were in some desolate wild place. Another effect Wilde utilizes to scare the audience is how he likens inanimate objects to living things such as when he describes shadows as if they were alive. For example the way that Wilde likens shadows to living things: â€Å"†¦fantastic shadows were silhouetted against some lamp-lit blind†¦ they moved like monstrous marionettes, and made gestures like living things9.† Wilde is also able to make shadows frightening, by personifying the darkness: â€Å"the evening darkened in the room. Noiselessly, and with silver feet, the shadows crept in from the garden. The colours faded wearily out of things10†. From these extracts Wilde creates a typical Gothic mood that is dark and scary. There are some sections of Wilde’s book that seem as though they are describing certain Gothic works of art namely Henry Fusel’s, 1781, â€Å"The Nightmare† where he exploits all the original Gothic traits into a painting showing a women lying on a bed with a grotesque creature on her chest. Also it has many shadows and an ere horse in the background. The picture has all the elements that make the Gothic genre: dark setting, full of shadows, odd creatures, a damsel in distress and the unnatural. The Gothic theme is also represented in the painting, â€Å"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters† by Goya, 1799. They both have in the paintings a person sleeping and Gothic images around them suggesting that they are in the persons’ dreams. Double personalities, or doppelganger is used a lot among Gothic writers and is demonstrated in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, with Roderick and Madeline, the mansion and the genetic Usher family and this element occurs also in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† with Dorian. In the novel the double personality is Dorian and his painting, Dorian representing the physical and the painting representing the â€Å"inside† or the soul of Dorian. However the theme is much more widely spread and is in other Gothic works such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde†. As in â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde† where one character, transforms in to another, when Dorian Gray has the idea to kill Basil Hallward, his urge is described in the book as: â€Å"the mad passions of a hunted animal [that] stirred within him11†. This particularly animalistic description, perhaps serves to highlight the gothic genre even more by making a comparison between animals, that are not restricted in society to act in a certain way, and are thus free to act as they please. By stark contrast, Dorian Gray as a human is restricted to act in a certain way, that is considered morally correct. His act of killing, in human society is considered as a sin. The supernatural is key in increasing the horror of a gothic novel, such as the fact that Dracula does not have reflection in the mirror. In addition when Harker describes how Dracula left the castle: â€Å"†¦I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and began to crawl down the castle wall†¦12† from this extract we can see that Dracula is a supernatural character as his actions are unexplainable. However the supernatural theme running through the book, reaches a dramatic zenith with Dorian’s end. His fatal error is absolutely supernatural with the description of the unrecognisable wrinkly old man where there had recently been a vibrant youth adding to both the awful moral and supernatural effect of the novel. Above all the most gothic and supernatural thing in the book is the portrait of Dorian Gray himself. The painting acts as a guidance to Dorian and almost becomes a moral barometer. After murdering Basil Hallward, the portrait reveals the sin by changing. The portrait is described as a canvas that had: â€Å"sweated blood13†, a blood that is expressed as a: â€Å"loathsome red dew that gleamed14†. Dorian grows increasingly uncomfortable over the course of novel with what the disfigured portrait signifies about himself. And as the novel progresses and the painting continues to register the effects of time and dissipation, and we start to see the degree to which Dorian is undone by the sins that his portrait reflects and the degree to which he suffers for allowing the painting to act as a â€Å"Visible emblem of conscience†. This in itself is a very gothic idea living a life without consequences and letting the portrait bear the sins and this is exactly what Dorian did until his sins caught up with him. The Victorian era was very difficult to live in because of its rigid structured social hierarchy that allowed no â€Å"impurities† or non ethnical or righteous ideas. However the Gothic genre allowed you to do all these things and to explore irrational fantasies and social taboos. This is probably why Wilde liked the genre because being a homosexual he could not explore his own freedom in his own life but instead he possibly explored this through the homoerotic theme of novel. He managed to escape and explore another freedom through the gothic genre. â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† is not an entire gothic novel but a fair amount is and I think that with the gothic sections Wilde has successfully created a primo piece of Gothic literature. 1 The Picture of Dorian Gray, By Oscar Wilde, Published by Penguin.

Critical Evalutation on Pacfic Brands Case Study

The management issue, ethical responsibility can be identified when the company Pacific Brands had announced that they were closing all seven factories in Australia and moving the manufacturing overseas due to the fact that labor would be much cheaper overseas as well as Australians would be paying less money for the same clothes. This highlight's Pacific Brand's action to take the company overseas, being negative aspect of ethical responsibility. This selfish act would give the business a bad name/reputation.A multinational company may move its manufacturing facility to a developing country to reduce costs. Practices acceptable in that country, such as child labor, poor health and safety, poverty-level wages and coerced employment, will not be tolerated by an ethical company (Lynn MacDonald, 2011). Pacific Brands has displayed no duty to follow a morally correct path with the organization in terms of ethical responsibility. Although It can be argued that this action to move overseas would increase employment opportunities overseas.Another management Issue hat can be seen by Pacific Brands Is corporate social responsibility. The public Image displayed Is not very positive as It was evident Pacific Brands portrayed no sense of care for the current 1850 employees that had been working for the company. The company Is now seen as a foreign organization displaying the disadvantages of corporate social responsibility. This Is also not good for the Australian economy as the manufacturing Is done over seas for cheaper labor. Pacific Brands has not embraced responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive Impact through their employees.

Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) 1410

After nearly two centuries of crusading on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, the Teutonic Knights had carved out a sizable state. Among their conquests was the key region of Samogitia which linked the Order with their branch to the north in Livonia. In 1409, a rebellion began in the region which was backed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In response to this support, the Teutonic Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen threatened to invade. This statement induced the Kingdom of Poland to join with Lithuania in opposing the Knights. On August 6, 1409, Jungingen declared war on both states and fighting began. After two months of fighting, a truce extending to June 24, 1410, was brokered and both sides withdrew to strengthen their forces. While the Knights sought foreign aid, King Wladislaw II Jagiello of Poland and Grand Duke Vytautus of Lithuania agreed upon a mutual strategy for the resumption of hostilities. Rather than invade separately as the Knights anticipated, they planned to unite their armies for a drive on the Knights capital at Marienburg (Malbork). They were aided in this plan when Vytautus made peace with Livonian Order. Moving to Battle Uniting at Czerwinsk in June 1410, the combined Polish-Lithuanian army moved north towards the border. To keep the Knights off balance, small attacks and raids were conducted away from the main line of advance. On July 9, the combined army crossed the border. Learning of the enemys approach, Jungingen raced east from Schwetz with his army and established a fortified line behind the Drewenz River. Reaching the Knights position, Jagiello called a council of war and elected to move east rather than make an attempt on the Knights lines. Marching towards Soldau, the combined army then attacked and burned Gligenburg. The Knights paralleled Jagiello and Vytautus advance, crossing the Drewenz near Là ¶bau and arriving between the villages of Grunwald, Tannenberg (StÄ™bark), and Ludwigsdorf. In this area on the morning of July 15, they encountered the forces of the combined army. Deploying on a northeast–southwest axis, Jagiello and Vytautus formed with the Polish heavy cavalry on the left, infantry in the center, and Lithuanian light cavalry on the right. Wishing to fight a defensive battle, Jungingen formed opposite and awaited attack. The Battle of Grunwald As the day progressed, the Polish-Lithuanian army stayed in place and made no indication that they intended to attack. Increasingly impatient, Jungingen dispatched messengers to chide the allied leaders and provoke them to action. Arriving in Jagiellos camp, they presented the two leaders with swords to aid them in the battle. Angered and insulted, Jagiello and Vytautus moved to open the battle. Pushing forward on the right, the Lithuanian cavalry, supported by Russian and Tartar auxiliaries, began an attack on the Teutonic forces. Though initially successful, they were soon pushed back by the Knights heavy cavalry. The retreat soon became a rout with the Lithuanians fleeing the field. This may have been the result of a misinterpreted false retreat conducted by the Tartars. A favored tactic, the sight of them intentionally retreating may have led to panic among the other ranks. Regardless, the Teutonic heavy cavalry broke formation and began a pursuit. As the battle flowed on the right, the remaining Polish-Lithuanian forces engaged the Teutonic Knights. Focusing their assault on the Polish right, the Knights began to gain the upper hand and forced Jagiello to commit his reserves to the fight. As the battle raged, Jagiellos headquarters was attacked and he was nearly killed. The battle began to turn in Jagiello and Vytautus favor when the Lithuanian troops that had fled rallied and began to return to the field. Striking the Knights in the flank and rear, they began to drive them back. In the course of the fighting, Jungingen was killed. Retreating, some of the Knights attempted a final defense at their camp near Grunwald. Despite using wagons as barricades, they were soon overrun and either killed or forced to surrender. Defeated, the surviving Knights fled the field. Aftermath In the fighting at Grunwald, the Teutonic Knights lost around 8,000 killed and 14,000 captured. Among the dead were many of the Orders key leaders. Polish-Lithuanian losses are estimated at around 4,000-5,000 killed and 8,000 wounded. The defeat at Grunwald effectively destroyed the Teutonic Knights field army and they were unable to oppose the enemys advance on Marienburg. While several of the Orders castles surrendered without a fight, others remained defiant. Reaching Marienburg, Jagiello and Vytautus laid siege on July 26. Lacking the necessary siege equipment and supplies, the Poles and Lithuanians were forced to break off the siege that September. Receiving foreign aid, the Knights were able to quickly recover most of their lost territory and fortresses. Defeated again that October at the Battle of Koronowo, they entered peace negotiations. These produced the Peace of Thorn in which they renounced claims to Dobrin Land and, temporarily, to Samogitia. In addition, they were saddled with a massive financial indemnity which crippled the Order. The defeat at Grunwald left a long-lasting humiliation that remained part of the Prussian identity until the German victory on the nearby ground at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914. Selected Sources Teutonic Knights: Battle of GrunwaldBattle of Grunwald 1410