WHICH IS THE DIFFERENCE?
INFLUENTIAL CHARACTERS
HITLER vs MUSSOLINI vs FRANCO
You will think that recognising these three characters is an easy task. Well, everyone knows the facts that link them together and their different nationalities, but what happens with the rest? Can you remember more aspects?
Then you can find basic information that will help you relate them.
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ADOLF HITLER
Birth: April 20, 1889 (Braunau)
Death: April 30, 1945 (Berlin). Suicide after having ingested cyanide in the Chancery's bunker
Fundamental role: He was the top leader of Nazi Germany since 1933, the year he was appointed chancellor.
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BENITO MUSSOLINI
Birth: July 29, 1883 (Predappio)
Death: April 28, 1945. He was captured by the Italian resistance trying to flee from Italy. Once executed, his body was hung on the roof of a gas station in the Plaza de Loreto (Milan), where he was subjected to all kinds of special outrages.
Fundamental role: creator of fascism. Head of State of Italy between 1922 and 1943 (dictatorship).
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FRANCISCO FRANCO
Birth: December 4, 1892 (Ferrol)
Death: November 20, 1975 (Madrid). Natural death at age 83.
Fundamental role: Head of Government between 1938 and 1973 (dictatorship) member of the senior military group that gave the coup d'etat of 1936 against the government of the Second Republic, giving rise to the Spanish civil war.
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Relationship between them
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Hitler and Mussolini relate primarily through the signing of the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War (1918). It is the drastic consequences, mainly economic and social, that causes the rise of these charismatic political leaders in their respective nations. Later, anti-communism would incorporate General Franco into the fascist group par excellence, whose main enemy was undoubtedly Marxism-Communism.
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Something that unites the three leaders is undoubtedly the totalitarian regime they implanted by which all powers are retained in the hands of the leader to whom the people owe obedience and respect. So, freedoms are restricted as long as the actions of citizens do not alter order. However, we should notice the difference between totalitarian regime and dictatorship.
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As for militarism, Franco, General of the Army of Earth, stands out as Caudillo. On the other hand, Hitler reached the rank of corporal, and Mussolini got rid of the obligatory military service fleeing from Italy.
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On the other hand, xenophobia was a characteristic aspect, especially of Nazism, since the rejection of certain ethnic minorities such as Jews, Gypsies or Moors was not taken to such an extreme with Franco and Mussolini.
Adolf Hitler
1889-1945
Benito Mussolini
1883-1945
Francisco Franco
1892-1975
MARX vs LENIN vs STALIN vs TROTSKY vs BAKUNIN
While trying to discover communism and left-wing characters we could confuse these four leaders. Despite you already know them, it is easy to forget interesting aspects of their lives that we should always remember. Here you will find a brief summary of the main aspects that characterize their role during contemporaneous history.
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KARL MARX
Birth: May 5th, 1818 (Trier, Prussia)
Death: March 14th, 1883 (London). Bronchitis and pleurisy.
Fundamental role: He is the father of scientific socialism, modern communism, Marxism and historical materialism, along with Friedrich Engels.
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VLADIMIR LENIN
Birth: April 10th, 1870 (Simbirsk, Russian Empire)
Death: January 21st, 1924
(Gorky, RSFSR, Soviet Union). Cerebral haemorrhage.
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Fundamental role: Leader of the Bolshevik sector of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. He became the main leader of the October Revolution of 1917. He became the first and top leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922.
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IÓSIF STALIN
Birth: December 6th, 1878 (Gori, Russian Empire)
Death: March 5th, 1953 (Moscou, Soviet Union).
Fundamental role: Soviet politician and dictator, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1952.
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LEON TROTSKY
Birth: October 26th, 1879 (Yanovka, Ukraine)
Death: August 21st, 1940 (Mexico) Murdered.
Fundamental role: He was the first President of the Military Revolutionary Soviet (1918-1925)
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MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
Birth: May 30th, 1814 (Torzhok, Russian Empire)
Death: July 1st, 1876 (Bern Switzerland)
Fundamental role: He was the first great promoter of anarchism as a political and popular movement.
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Relationship between them
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Marx and Engels wanted to develop a "scientific socialism", based on the systematic critique of the established order. He advocated the use of force during the revolution, instead of peaceful conviction or gradual reforms in order to end with the bourgeois class. These ideas were embodied in the so-called Communist Manifesto of 1848.
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Vladimir Lenin was the author of a theoretical and practical set based on Marxism known as Leninism, and later called Marxism-Leninism.
Basically it was the application of Marxist theory to the time and conditions of the USSR at that historical moment. The theory was applied to agricultural workers or peasants instead of proletarians since this social class was non-existent due to the low level of industrialization in the country.
Therefore, we can speak of a Marxism-Leninism.
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Iósif Stalin was among the revolutionary Bolsheviks who launched the October Revolution in Russia in 1917. Later on, he rose to "secretary-general" and managed to use his power to gain more after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. Therefore, he gradually stifled all opposition groups within the Communist Party. Among the people assassinated, we find Leon Trotsky.
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Despite Leon Trotsky initially sympathized with the Mensheviks and he had ideological and personal disputes with the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Trotsky was one of the key organizers of the October Revolution, which allowed the Bolsheviks to seize power in November 1917 in Russia.
He was assassinated in Mexico by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish agent of the Soviet NKVD, by order of Stalin.
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Finally, we can find Mikhail Bakunin as one of the fathers of anarchism which is based on the lack of authority. Thus, his school of thought is very different from Communism and the authors we have seen previously.
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Karl Mrax
1818-1883
Vladimir Lenin
1870-1924
Iósif Stalin
1878-1953
Leon Trotsky
1879-1940
Mikhail Bakunin
1814-1876