How did Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin use indoctrination and economic control?

Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini used similar but not identical means to indoctrinate their citizens and institute economic control. For all three men, a cult of personality was key to the indoctrination of adults and children. Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin commissioned artwork and literature promoting their ideologies. The leaders themselves were held up as father figures. Some of the artwork from the time suggests that these men wanted to be seen as religious saviors rather than...

Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini used similar but not identical means to indoctrinate their citizens and institute economic control. For all three men, a cult of personality was key to the indoctrination of adults and children. Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin commissioned artwork and literature promoting their ideologies. The leaders themselves were held up as father figures. Some of the artwork from the time suggests that these men wanted to be seen as religious saviors rather than just leaders.

In the Soviet Union, Stalin used a series of five year plans to industrialize the Soviet economy. The first five year plan (1928-1932) focused on improving Soviet agriculture at the expense of the kulaks, landowners in the Ukraine who had opposed Stalin. Due to Stalin's polices, millions of kulaks starved to death during this period.

Though Hitler and Mussolini did not control their economies to the extent found in Stalin's Soviet Union, it was not difficult for them to wield their economies towards war. The reason goes back to the Russian Revolution in 1917. Countries in Europe feared that Communist revolutions would spread. Fascism and Nazism were anti-Communist parties that advocated the preservation of capitalism. Once Hitler and Mussolini took power, military spending combined with public works project similar to the US's New Deal programs led to an increase of support from the business sector.