From the very first day of Hitlerite Germany’s attack on the USSR, German soldiers and officers were surprised to note that local residents, partisans and soldiers of the Red Army call them fascists. “Are they mistaking us for Italians?” - Wondered employees of the Wehrmacht. And in fact, the Germans have been the dominant ideological system since 1933, National Socialism, the ruling party - the NSDAP, that is, the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. At that time, for every citizen of the Third Reich, a fascist is an Italian, though not everyone, but a bearer of views close to the Nazis.
What is fascia?
Since ancient times, proper irrigation has been one of the main components of agricultural science. Showers washed away the fertile soil layer, which is extremely thin in many countries, and there were problems with productivity, which entailed such a disaster as hunger. Water had to be removed from the surface, but in such a way as not to overdo it, otherwise drought is inevitable - another scourge of farmers. Then someone thought of conducting underground channels, from which the moisture flowing at a shallow depth can gradually impregnate the soil. The easiest way to realize this idea technologically included the process of digging a ditch, laying bundles of brushwood or reeds in it and burying this irrigation system. These bundles of twigs are called fascines. A bunch of dried stems is hard to break, but one at a time is easy. Fashina became a symbol of the power of cohesion, and it was for this that the Italian nationalists chose it as one of the symbols of their movement. Fascist ideology assumes the maximum degree of unity of society around the idea and the leader. The hatchet was also depicted on the emblem, but he had nothing to do with peaceful work ...
Under the gentle Italian sun
Benito Mussolini was preoccupied with the fate of the Italian people in the 10s of the XX century, and in 1922 he became the leader of the country. He came to power using democratic means, but gradually suppressed all social organizations that impeded the forward movement, at least in his understanding. Dreaming of great Italy, he conducted military campaigns in Libya, and Abyssinia, campaigns of dubious success, which brought the country more problems than benefits, but the dictator's popularity remained high for a long time. In the economy, things generally went well, industry worked properly, warships were built (even for the USSR), cars and planes, sometimes very good. Hunger people did not know.
My Granada ...
When a civil war broke out in Spain, Mussolini helped his friend and like-minded general, Franco, who held the same ultra-nationalist positions. Italian fascists fought with international brigades, consisting of adherents of different political views, from anarchists to communists. External assistance was also provided by Nazi Germany, and transport with weapons, fuel, lubricants, equipment and military specialists from the USSR arrived at republican ports. In the thirties, “full of enthusiasm and accomplishments,” Soviet people learned about what crimes the Italian fascists committed: photos of those destroyed by brutal bombing (the Condor German air squadron took part in them) Guernica, Guadalajara and other cities regularly published Pravda and all other periodicals in the USSR. Reports from the fronts worried everyone, they were discussed at the factory breaks and at festive tables. There were many volunteers wishing to fight for the brotherly people, but they were carefully selected, and then only high-class officers. Officially, the Soviet Union did not participate in the conflict, although friends and enemies knew about the military nature of the assistance.
The Spanish phalanxists, Germans, and Mussolini's black shirts mixed up in the mass consciousness, but Soviet citizens realized that the fascist was an enemy.
Pre-doubt
There was a moment in our history that led a significant part of the population of the USSR to some confusion. Before the war itself, in 1939, some even thought that a fascist was not an enemy at all, but perhaps also a friend, especially after Comrade Stalin himself raised a glass for the health of the “leader of the German people”. There was some kind of logic in this act, the Soviet people were inspired for a long time by the thought of the viciousness of European democracies, and when a decisive leader was found who began to crush them, many saw nothing wrong with that. In addition, socialism was Hitler's motto, and the Germans' flag was also red, though without a hammer and sickle, but with a Nazi symbol, a swastika. However, people were in no hurry to express their opinion on this matter, just recently they were lucidly explained that the Soviet people should trust their leadership, they know better who to put up with, and who to quarrel with, and when to do it. And dull could be reminded.
Tyrants and nazis
Despite the joint military parade in Brest, the famous Stalinist toast and numerous assurances about the inviolability of Soviet-German friendship, according to the recollections of contemporaries of events, the war was still expected, and soon. And she suddenly happened. The two regimes, outwardly very similar due to many common attributes of totalitarianism, suddenly became hostile to the extreme extent expressed in armed conflict.
From this we can conclude that not every dictator is a fascist. This concept provides for the highest degree of nationalism, propaganda of racial superiority and exclusive rights of the “chosen” people to a leading role in world history. The right to dominate by virtue of ethnic origin alone came into logical contradiction with the idea of the international hegemony of the proletariat. The truce was temporary and solved tactical tasks (according to some historians, Stalin tried to postpone the war, others accuse him of creating a common border with Germany on the spot where Poland was before). Strategically, war was inevitable.
Fascist - German Nazi
During the war in the occupied territories, the Nazi forces and their allies committed crimes against humanity, which even the judges of the international tribunal in Nuremberg could not reduce. The fact that other belligerents showed cruelty, which was not always justified (it is enough to recall the double atomic bombing of Japanese cities and the destruction of Dresden), in those years they preferred not to remember, as well as the repressive methods of the Communists. An abstract American, English or Soviet soldier was still perceived as a liberator and a winner, to whom all the sins were attributed to the result - the defeat of countries that became carriers of absolute evil. The shades of brown did not matter, people of the world soon forgot about who the Hungarian Hortists, adherents of "great Romania", supporters of Salazar in Portugal and even Italian black shirts were. But everyone perfectly remembers today who such a fascist is. It was the worst of all nationalists, the German Nazi. He outshone everyone else for a long time.
Again a bunch and hatchet
The world is full of cruelty today. After 1945, wars practically did not stop in all corners of the planet, sometimes large, and often local. When they talk about some particularly terrible case of reprisals against civilians, they often use the expression "fascist atrocities." They occurred in Vietnam, Korea, Yugoslavia, Cambodia and many other countries. Something similar happens almost daily very close to the borders of Russia. Moreover, today no one thinks about what the word fascist means and what is the ideological content of this political term. And it is clearly demonstrated by the same black-shirt emblem from the distant twenties - a bundle symbolizing the unity of the nation in the fight against those whom the nationalists consider strangers. And do not forget about the hatchet.