Where would you rather live in the 1930s: Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia?

[Alben Barkley]

Obviously whether you are Jewish or something might influence your answer here. But let’s just assume you were an average citizen of both countries, which would you live in if forced to?

[Alcibiades]

Easily Nazi Germany. The economic standard of living was higher, and ‘ordinary’ citizens had much less to fear from the state or security forces than in Stalin’s USSR.

[Donerail]

But let’s just assume you were an average citizen of both countries?

So, a kulak? Not good.

[Cokeland Saxton]

Nazi Germany

[TheReckoning]

I’m not Jewish or a communist, so Germany.

[Progressive Pessimist]

As a Jew I have to pick Stalinist Russia by default.

Thankfully in real-life my Jewish ancestors from the Central Europe and the Russian Empire made it to the United States and managed to avoid both of these moments in history. I did apparently have some distant relatives who didn't make it out of concentration camps though, sadly.

[RINO Tom]

Easily Nazi Germany. The economic standard of living was higher, and ‘ordinary’ citizens had much less to fear from the state or security forces than in Stalin’s USSR.

Pretty much this.  I’d be fine saying Nazi Germany was “worse” in many ways, but my family and I easily would have fared better there and it has to be my answer.

[John Dule]

Germany (white, blonde, blue-eyed).

[Crane]

Stalinist Russia.

Been away so long I hardly knew the place. Gee, it's good to be back home.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Easily Nazi Germany. The economic standard of living was higher, and ‘ordinary’ citizens had much less to fear from the state or security forces than in Stalin’s USSR.

In soldiers letters home, the Germans were fine with them complaining or cracking jokes about Hitler or other leaders. In the Soviet Union, any soldier writing a letter home complaining or cracking a Stalin joke would get a bullet to the back of the head or be sent to a gulag.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I guess if you were the right race, and religion, and sexual orientation, and not a political opponent, and a few others things, then Nazi Germany was safer since things were a little more random in Stalinist Russia.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Germany, Stalin sent the people in jail to Siberia including Jewish people, people died of frostbite

[Meclazine for Israel]

Nazi Germany.

Geologists got kidnapped in Russia and sent to Norilsk.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Stalinist Russia.

Been away so long I hardly knew the place. Gee, it's good to be back home.

Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case; honey, disconnect the phone.

Though I suppose the song is set in Kruščëvian or Brežnevian Russia.

[KaiserDave]

I'm Jewish so Stalin's USSR is a very easy answer.

[Sir Mohamed]

Ugh, I'm not sure. Did Nazi Germany also hunt Muslims? The USSR had a significant Muslim population in a number of republics, but otherwise, Germany had a higher standard of living and not all citizens were threatened to "disappear".

All that said, wasn't Stalin antisemetic as well? For sure he didn't carry out a Holocaust and the USSR was a lot safer for Jews, but I know that shortly before his death he accused Jewish doctors of a conspiracy against him. That was entirely bogus, but they would have been killed if Stalin didn't die just in time.

[KaiserDave]

Ugh, I'm not sure. Did Nazi Germany also hunt Muslims? The USSR had a significant Muslim population in a number of republics, but otherwise, Germany had a higher standard of living and not all citizens were threatened to "disappear".

All that said, wasn't Stalin antisemetic as well? For sure he didn't carry out a Holocaust and the USSR was a lot safer for Jews, but I know that shortly before his death he accused Jewish doctors of a conspiracy against him. That was entirely bogus, but they would have been killed if Stalin didn't die just in time.

Stalin was indeed anti-semitic, but yeah he wasn't genociding them, even if he may have been planning to.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Not sure, but as someone who identifies as a democratic socialist and has ASD, i think Stalin's USSR.

But...

there's a chance and it's even likely my ASD would be undetected so if i was able to function well in society and hide my sympathies, perhaps it would be Nazi-Germany after all. I likely would have opposed Stalin, so as an anti-Stalinist leftist, i could have been sent to the gulags or be purged.

With hindsight, life was much better in post-Nazi Germany than in the USSR post-WW2 as well, not being able to experience western music, films and so on...

There's basically no good answer, as there's a decent chance I simply would have been dead by 1945 in both countries, if not being purged, than during the war effort.

[Astatine]

Both of my grandmas still vividly remember their respective childhood - one grew up in Nazi Germany (Berlin, to be precise, born in 1927), the other in Stalinist Soviet Union (Tbilisi, Georgia, born in 1933).

According to anecdotes, the general living standard in Berlin was way better than in Tbilisi. But then again, my German grandma did not have to risk persecution (blonde hair, blue eyes lol, and her parents weren't actively resisting against the Nazi regime - My grandma was part of the Hitler youth of course, but once, she told me that she proudly arrived from a summer camp and had a Nazi flag and didn't understand back then why her dad would take it away and hide it), while my Georgian grandma had a Caucasus German migration background (but that wouldn't really play a role until the 1940's).

I think it depends on a lot on the respective circumstances. As a Jew, one might definitely prefer the Soviet Union, same as a gay (homosexuality was widely a taboo in the Soviet Union, but that had been like that for some time, while e.g. Berlin had an active gay scene in the 1920s, but persecution and discrimination grew rapidly with the Nazis assuming power). But if you were a farmer central Ukraine in 1933, living in Nazi Germany would've definitely been preferable (due to Holodomor).

[Astatine]

Ugh, I'm not sure. Did Nazi Germany also hunt Muslims? The USSR had a significant Muslim population in a number of republics, but otherwise, Germany had a higher standard of living and not all citizens were threatened to "disappear".

All that said, wasn't Stalin antisemetic as well? For sure he didn't carry out a Holocaust and the USSR was a lot safer for Jews, but I know that shortly before his death he accused Jewish doctors of a conspiracy against him. That was entirely bogus, but they would have been killed if Stalin didn't die just in time.

No, but there were hardly Muslims in Germany. Most Muslims who didn't convert from another religion were either from what's India/Pakistan now or were Osmans/Bosniaks, I think.

The first Mosque in Germany was opened in 1924 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, and Muslims didn't face any persecutions. The first Muslim marriage in that Mosque happened in 1934 (so one year after the Nazis gained power), and there were actually many people of other religions who converted to Islam, especially Jews, who did it to avoid persecution.
The Nazis even used the local Muslim community to spread its antisemitism. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, spread antisemitic propaganda in that Mosque and actively recruited Muslims from occupied territories into the SS. The first German translation of the Quran was published in 1939 - six years after the "Machtergreifung" and one year after the Night of Broken Glass.

Still, it should be noted that the Islamic community in Berlin secretly helped Jews to escape into exile - especially since there was a relatively good relationship between the Islamic and Jewish community in the 1920s.

[1978 New Wave skinny trousers]

I'm half-Jewish so Stalin's USSR is a very easy answer.

[Donerail]

The Nazis even used the local Muslim community to spread its antisemitism. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, spread antisemitic propaganda in that Mosque and actively recruited Muslims from occupied territories into the SS.

Oh, we know.