They weren't leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, or Roosevelt.

So, why is Stalin seen as relatively more acceptable than Hitler?

PRINCETON Hitler and Stalin were ruthless dictators who committed murder on a vast scale. But, while it is impossible to imagine a Hitler statue in Berlin, or anywhere else in Germany, statues of Stalin have been restored in towns across Georgia (his birthplace), and another is to be erected in Moscow as part of a commemoration of all Soviet leaders.

Heil Hitler. Heil Hitler.

Heil Hitler. Heil Hitler.

Stalin Lives

When Stalin offered Hitler his friendship in the spring of 1939 formally concluded that summer in the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact Nazi aggression was assured of not being knifed in the back from the East and so was left with free hands to do as Hitler pleased in the West.

Hitler.

A Statue for Stalin?

Long live Joseph Stalin.

Heil Hitler.

Heil Hitler.

Heil Hitler.

Heil Hitler!

Heil Hitler!

Heil Hitler!

Heil Hitler.

Heil Hitler!

Heil Hitler!

Heil, Hitler.

How about Hitler?

So did Hitler.

That's not what Joe Stalin says.

I mean, Stalin lived too long.

The Pact came after the pogroms of Kristallnacht in Germany, so its Soviet initiators knew pretty well to what destiny they were consigning the Jews of Poland and Lithuania, which, in accord with the first secret Protocol signed by Ribbentrop and Molotov on August 23, 1939, were to go to Hitler. A month later, in equal secrecy, Hitler sold Lithuania to Stalin.

But so was Hitler.

It might offend Hitler.

Heil Hitler. Colonel Ehrhardt?

Hello and Heil Hitler!

Heil Hitler, little cousin!

To hell with hitler!

It remains true that Stalin led his country to victory in war, and to a position of global power that it had not held before and from which it has since fallen. Hitler, by contrast, left his country shattered, occupied, and divided.

People identify with their country and look up to those who led it when it was at its most powerful. That may explain why Muscovites are more willing to accept a statue of Stalin than Berliners would be to have one of Hitler.

Of course, history is replete with examples of autocrats perverting justice Stalin had his Moscow Trials, and Hitler had his People s Court. But the authority of those dictators did not rest primarily on the rule of law that of their modern counterparts does.

What do you think Stalin did to Trotsky?

Hitler assumed power in 1933.

That is all. Heil Hitler.

See, I'm loyal. Heil Hitler.

Hitler was a paranoid savage.

Thank you, colonel. Heil Hitler.

During the twentieth century, we witnessed the atrocities of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Rwanda and other genocides, and even though the twenty first century is only seven years old, we have already witnessed an ongoing genocide in Darfur and the daily horrors of Iraq.

If one imagines a deviant group in some society gaining access to biological or nuclear materials, it is possible terrorists could destroy millions of lives. To kill so many people in the 20th century, a Hitler or Stalin required the apparatus of a totalitarian government.

The bottom picture is Hitler youth.

Heil Hitler. How is the Professor?

Nothing but static and Heil Hitler!