How could a large land empire thrive and dominate in the modern world without reliable access to world markets and without much recourse to naval power? Stalin and Hitler had arrived at the same basic answer to this fundamental question. The state must be large in territory and self-sufficient in economics, with a balance between industry and agriculture that supported a hardily conformist and ideologically motivated citizenry capable of fulfilling historical prophecies - either Stalinist internal industrialization or Nazi colonial agrarianism. Both Hitler and Stalin aimed at imperial autarky, within a large land empire well supplies in food, raw materials, and mineral resources. Both understood the flash appeal of modern materials: Stalin had named himself after steel, and Hitler paid special attention to is production. Yet both Stalin and Hitler understood agriculture as a key element in the completion of their revolutions. Both believed that their systems would prove their superiority to decadent capitalism, and guarantee independence from the rest of the world, by the production of food.p. 158. Timothy Snyder
Some Similar Quotes
  1. Anymore, no one's mind is their own. - Chuck Palahniuk

  2. A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading. - Unknown

  3. Women's liberation is one thing, but the permeation of anti-male sentiment in post-modern popular culture - from our mocking sitcom plots to degrading commercial story lines - stands testament to the ignorance of society. Fair or not, as the lead gender that never requested such... - Tiffany Madison

  4. Anya looked upon Nin admirably. Having him as a partner-in-crime–if only on this one occasion, which she hoped would only be the start of something more–was more revitalizing than the cheap thrills of a cookie-cutter shallow, superficial romance, where the top priority was how beautiful... - Jess C. Scott

  5. Nin knew how much humans loved money, riches, and material things–though he never really could understand why. The more technologically advanced the human species got, the more isolated they seemed to become, at the same time. It was alarming, how humans could spend entire lifetimes... - Jess C. Scott

More Quotes By Timothy Snyder
  1. Politicians in our times feed their clichés to television, where even those who wish to disagree repeat them. Television purports to challenge political language by conveying images, but the succession from one frame to another can hinder a sense of resolution. Everything happens fast, but...

  2. No major war or act of mass killing in the twentieth century began without the aggressors or perpetrators first claiming innocence and victimhood.

  3. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.

  4. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most...

  5. Most the power of authoritarianism is freely given.

Related Topics