When did politics take the (in hindsight inevitable) turn for sadism? Not in 1933 or ’39 (both Hitler), and most definitely not in 2016 (orange-haired Hitler). A more likely candidate would be 1917.
You might find this explanation too cynical:
The white czars (Romanovs) were old-fashioned extractive rulers, mostly in it for personal enrichment/leaching on the work of les fortunates. And only a little bit for being the lord and master of so many in a vast expanse of territory.
The red Czars (Soviets) were mostly in it for the joy of imposing their will. Anyone who threatened the pleasures of Lenin and Stalin, they merrily destroyed lives, bodies and economies. Even when they found that they didn’t even have tooth-paste for themselves, they did nothing to stop the tide into misery. Their own slight suffering was worth it for the pain they caused others.$ Perhaps a bit less cynical:
Lenin and Stalin wanted to impose their will on the entire world, because they knew best how other people wanted to live. starting with Russia. Mental Masturbation, despotic and egotistical, self-interested, extractive, yet more toward the sociopathic end of the spectrum. According to the definition that says that
psychpaths are planners,
sociopaths are opportunists.
Ludwig van El 