I doubt much of the younger generations even have inkling of post-1929 social unrests, whether it be America or Europe today.  (Though, on hindsight, I think the Americans suffered less compared to Europe.)  As a matter fact, the current generation has not even faced a major economic downturn until the end of 2008.  (Three big http://www.strategypage.com/CuteSoft_Client/CuteEditor/Images/emcry.gif" align="absmiddle" border="0" alt="" /> economic events ... 1929, 1982 [after a decade of inflation, then oil shock, then stagflation which only ended by the Fed juicing up the interest rate to somewhere like 13%!!!], and 2008.) 

 

 I don't know that I would agree with that. While there certainly were differences in style, the end result was pretty much the same. As you say, they were both totalitarian. Once that sort of government is in place, the economy is centrally managed because there is too much power in the economy or it not to be under tight reigns. Now if you allow people to 'own' businesses rather than outright taking them over with the power of the state, that might seem like a difference, but the fact was, every move they made was under tight scrutiny and every action was subject to supervisors appointed by the state. Economic power became fully a matter of political power, and was completely subject to the whims of the rulers. Also, every economic decision was subject to central planning.

 

Functionally Nazism and Communism were the same, they just wore slightly different costumes. 

I think the 'difference' between the (German) Nazis and the (Russian) Communists has more to do with how they had risen from their respective turfs, and especially their respective local situations.  Let me see ....

 

1.  The Nazis:  WW1 ended with the flight of Kaiser Wilhelm II (definitely not a Kaiser material).  Social Democrats dominated the Reichstag in the '20s.  Other than these two sudden changes, the rest of the German power structure remained intact:  The military, the industrialists and the aristocracy.

 

2.  The Communists:  Unlike their Nazi counterparts, they were not as burned by the establishment.  The Tsar had abdicated, the people and the army were exhausted from WW1, and there were no significant industrialist clouts as Russia still had many more years to go before full-scale industrialization.  The result:  A much bigger political vacuum for the Communists to play in.

 

The fact that the Nazis allowed private ownership, while the Communists did not had a lot to do with their respective local situations (as mentioned above), but little to do with their respective ideologies.