Compare and contrast Hitler and Stalin's use of terror as a method of control

Totalitarian states often rely on terror to control their country.  Hitler and Stalin were no exception to the rule.  Indeed, these two dictators extensively used terror in order to consolidate their power, be it through purges, deportations or local control. However, their methods were sensibly different.  Where Hitler only purged and deported his political opponents and what he called the enemies of the state, Stalin would purge all individuals that had some power and were not completely loyal to him.  Furthermore, Hitler had surveillance that reported any suspicious activity while Stalin had quotas of people to deport and execute.  Therefore, it can be argued that while Hitler used terror to prevent opposition to act, Stalin aimed to create a climate of generalized terror. 
Both Hitler and Stalin purged their parties to increase their power.  However, Stalin’s aim was to eliminate anyone who could disagree with him while Hitler just reacted to threat.  Indeed, in the thirties, Stalin eliminated all the former members of the Politburo as well as most of the state workers that had not been appointed by him.  Not only did he purge the state but also his army, with a death toll reaching 1 million.  His aim was to purify all the country in order to unify it behind him. In comparison, Hitler, during the night of the long knives, eliminated the leadership of the SA because they represented a threat, and it was Hitler’s only major purge.  These two elements show that Stalin had a proactive use of purge to increase his control of the society while Hitler only started purges to react to threats.
Another method of terror used by both Hitler and Stalin is the use of deportation and concentration camps.  Indeed, Stalin’s gulags are undoubtedly one of his main terror instrument and concentration camps such as Dachau were key for Hitler’s control of Germany.  However, the aims of the two deportation systems were not the same.  Stalin sent around an eight of the population, targeting Kulaks and specific ethnicities, but also using quotas to create a climate of fear.  Hitler firstly used the concentration camps for political opponents and then for the Jews, gipsies and homosexuals.  The aim was not to create a climate of fear but to unite the country against common enemies as well as keeping some political opponents under control. Therefore, although both dictators established a system of camps to increase their control, their aims were radically different.  Stalin wanted to terrorize the population as a whole while Hitler used terror against defined targets to create a feeling of unity in the rest of the population. 
Finally, the two dictators’ means used to control the masses through terror were sensibly different.  Himmler, the head of the German policing system, had established a system where each block would be attributed a blockleiter that was responsible for informing the police of any suspect activity.  Although Hitler use the terror created by the fact the police knew everything to control the population, he also relied a lot on persuasion and propaganda, which meant terror was not the main factor of population control. Stalin, on the other hand also used other means of control such as propaganda and culture, but terror was arguably the main component of his control of the masses.  Indeed, the NKVD, the secret police, was given targets of arrests and deportations to reach every day, with the aim of weakening any possible opposition through random arrests.  Indeed, as mentioned above, one Russian out of eight was sent to the Gulag at least once.  Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that terror was key in Stalin strategy to Control the USSR while Hitler relied on it far less.
In conclusion, the use of terror is often defining in totalitarian states as a mean of control, it ensures that any political opposition is either crushed or discouraged and that no mass insurrection occurs within the population.  These two targets might be considered as achieved given that Stalin lost power when he died, and that Hitler lost power when he committed suicide when he was defeated militarily, both unchallenged at home.  However, Stalin’s use of terror went far further than Hitler.  Indeed, Hitler killed between 150 and 200 of potential enemies, a high number, but insignificant compared to the million of military and state servants that Stalin executed between 1936 and 1938. Furthermore, Stalin’s use of quotas demonstrates his will to bring terror into the citizens’ everyday lives. Hitler had a more restrictive use of terror, only targeting enemy groups within the population in order to unite the rest and collecting information massively.  Therefore, Stalin was arguably relying on terror for control while Hitler only considered it as a tool among others and more useful against his enemies such as the Jews and the political opponents than against the masses.