Red fascism is a concept equatingStalinism and other variants ofMarxism–Leninism withfascism. As a term, it dates back to the 1920s and was originally used byleft-wing individuals who were critics ofBolshevism; by the 1940s and theCold War era, particularly in the United States, it was adapted as ananti-communist slogan within the framework oftotalitarianism. Since the 1990s, the concept of red fascism began to overlap with that ofred–brownism. Others associated it withred–green–brown alliances, "left-wing fascism" and theregressive left, andIslamofascism.
In the early 20th century, the originalItalian fascists initially claimed to be "neither left-wing nor right-wing"; by 1921, they began to identify themselves as the "extreme right", and their founderBenito Mussolini explicitly affirmed that fascism is opposed tosocialism and other left-wing ideologies. Accusations that the leaders of theSoviet Union during theStalin era acted as "red fascists" have come from left-wing figures who identified asanarchists,left communists,social democrats, and otherdemocratic socialists, as well asliberals and amongright-wing circles both closer to and further from thepolitical centre. Thecomparison of Nazism and Stalinism is controversial in academia.
Use of the term "red fascist" was first recorded in the early 1920s, in the aftermath of both theRussian Revolution and theMarch on Rome. For instance, the Italian anarchistLuigi Fabbri wrote in 1922 that "red fascists" is "the name that had been given to thoseBolshevik communists who are most inclined to espouse fascism's methods for use against their adversaries".[1] In the following years, other socialists began to believe and argue that the Soviet government was becoming a red fascist state.Bruno Rizzi, an ItalianMarxist and a founder of theCommunist Party of Italy who became ananti-Stalinist, argued in 1938 that "Stalinism [took on] a regressive course, generating a species of red fascism identical in itssuperstructural and choreographic features [with its fascist model]."[2]
While primarily focused on critiquingNazism, the Austrian Freudo-Marxist psychoanalystWilhelm Reich considered the Soviet Union underJoseph Stalin to have developed into red fascism.[3] The term is often attributed to the Austrian historian and sociologistFranz Borkenau, another Freudo-Marxist, former communist, and anti-Stalinist socialist who was a key proponent of the theory of totalitarianism, which posits that there are certain essential similarities between fascism and Stalinism. Borkenau used the term in 1939.[4]
Otto Rühle, a German Marxist and left communist in thecouncil communist tradition who also came close to anarchist positions, wrote that "the struggle against fascism must begin with the struggle against Bolshevism", adding that he believed the Soviets had influence on fascist states by serving as a model. In 1939, Rühle further professed: "Russia was the example for fascism. ... Whether party 'communists' like it or not, the fact remains that the state order and rule in Russia are indistinguishable from those inItaly andGermany. Essentially they are alike. One may speak of a red, black, or brown 'soviet state', as well as of red, black or brown fascism."[5][6]
Kurt Schumacher, a member of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who was imprisoned inNazi concentration camps but survived World War II to become the first post-war SPD opposition leader inWest Germany, described pro-Soviet communists as "red-painted fascists" or "red-lacquered Nazis".[7][8] Similarly, the exiled Russian anarchistVolin, who saw the Soviet state as totalitarian and as an "example of integralstate capitalism",[6] used the term "red fascism" to describe it.[9] In the United States,Norman Thomas (a democratic socialist who ran forpresident numerous times under theSocialist Party of America banner), accused the Soviet Union in the 1940s of decaying into red fascism by writing: "Such is the logic of totalitarianism ... [that] communism, whatever it was originally, is today red fascism."[10][11] In the same period, the term was used by theNew York Intellectuals, who were left-wing but sided against the Soviet Union in the developing Cold War.[12]
In the United States during and leading up to the Cold War, "red fascism" was used as an anti-communist slogan juxtaposing that Nazism and Stalinism were almost identical totalitarian systems.[13][14] In a 18 September 1939 editorial,The New York Times reacted to the signing of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact by declaring that "Hitlerism is brown communism, Stalinism is red fascism."[15] The editorial further opined: "The world will now understand that the only real 'ideological' issue is one between democracy, liberty and peace on the one hand anddespotism, terror and war on the other."[15]
In 1946,J. Edgar Hoover, the director of theFBI, gave a speech in which he said: "Hitler,Tojo, and Mussolini brands of Fascism were met and defeated on the battle fıeld. All those who stand for the American way of life must arise and defeat Red Fascism in America by focusing upon it the spotlight of public opinion and by building up barriers of common decency through which it cannot penetrate."[16] The speech was reprinted in December 1946 in theWashington News Digest, and Hoover also entitled an article "Red Fascism in the United States Today" inThe American Magazine in February 1947.[16]
Also in 1946, Ukrainian writerIvan Bahrianyi publishedWhy I Am Not Going Back to the Soviet Union. In the pamphlet, he wrote about theHolodomor,repressions of Ukrainian intelligentsia, Soviet policy ofRussification, and conception of theSoviet people. During the World War II years, he had worked in theOrganisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) propaganda sector and later in 1948 would found theUkrainian Revolutionary Democratic Party. Just like theOUN-M spoke of "millions of victims who perished at the criminal hands of the red and black totalisms", Bahrianyi argued that Ukrainians had fought "the two last totalitarian antidemocratic systems", and wrote: "A characteristic feature of the entire population of Ukraine is a colossal, repressed, but implacable hatred for the Bolshevik totalitarian regime, on the one hand, and for fascism in all its manifestation, even the memory of it, on the other."[17]
—Ivan Bahrianyi, 1946
Jack Tenney, an anti-communist politician who chaired theCalifornia Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities, published in 1947 a report entitledRed Fascism: Boring from Within, by the Subversive Forces of Communism, which drew on the popularanti-fascism of the war years to portray the Soviet Union andCommunism as similar to the Nazis; he also associated progressives with fascism and Communism, claiming the progressive policies supported by theAmerican Left to be fascist. Although they did not share this latter point,Cold War liberals identified fascism as a totalitarianism that was common to both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This new definition of fascism replaced the notable one given byCarey McWilliams where fascism was defined by political repression, class inequalities, and racism.[19]
Also in 1947, at the beginning of theSecond Red Scare, politicians across the two main political parties like SenatorEverett Dirksen (a moderate Republican who supported much of theNew Deal before becoming more conservative and isolationist but supported American involvement in World War II) and RepresentativeHenderson L. Lanham (a Southern Democrat and staunch segregationist) used the term.[20] Dirksen's speech was reprinted inVital Speeches of the Day in April 1947 under the title "Red Fascism: Freedom Is in Jeopardy". In the speech, like Tenney did in his report, Dirksen warned of widespread Communist infıltration, including into the federal government, the fılm industry, labor unions, and educational systems; he also praised the work of theHouse Un-American Activities Committee.[21] Lanham stated that theGreek and Turkish Assistance Act of 1947 (the first of many foreign policy initiatives created through theTruman Doctrine) was useful in fighting the spread of "Red fascism".[22]
Bernard-Henri Lévy, a French philosopher and journalist, used "red fascism" in arguing that some European intellectuals have been infatuated withanti-Enlightenment theories and embraced a new absolutist ideology, one that isanti-liberal,anti-American,anti-imperialist,antisemitic, and pro-Islamofascist.[23][24] In academic terms, "red–brownism" refers to the ideological convergence, emerging in the post-Soviet era and continuing to develop into the 21st century, among thinkers from Europeannationalist movements, Russian Marxist–Leninism, and theNew Right. This movement has established red–brownism as a political opposition to capitalism, liberal democracy, the American way of life, and Western unipolarity, with strongEurasianist undertones. In contemporary discourse, it is increasingly taking shape as a hub of dissent.[25][26]
Bolshevism, in the sense of absolute civil and military authority, the power of the mailed fist awarded to a single class, or to a single party or to the handful who lead a party – the dictatorship of the proletariat being a meaningless expression that may as well signify dictatorship over the proletariat – would certainly be an evil, the direst expression of the working class revolution; but much more likely, the established ruling classes are spiritually and materially paving its path to success. The Royal Guards and the fascists of today may well give way to future Red Guards and future red fascists. ... [Footnote No. 32] 'Red fascists' is the name that has recently been given to those Bolshevik communists who are most inclined to espouse fascism's methods for use against their adversaries.
The Austrian historian and sociologist Franz Borkenau, himself a former Communist, publishedThe Totalitarian Enemy on December 1, 1939 (London, Faber & Faber, 1940), writing the work after the shock of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the start of the war ... For Borkenau, the pact clarified the situation and the parties present brought out the underlying similarities between the German and Russian systems, which he described as 'Brown Bolshevism' and 'Red Fascism,' thereby increasing the war's legitimacy in defending freedom.
... the prevailing anti-Stalinism of most of the New York writers overwhelmed their other concerns ... they consciously chose to ally with the 'West' as the lesser of two evils locked in struggle in the 'Cold War.' The 'West', of course, was their euphemism for imperialism, which had now become an acceptable ally against what they called 'Red Fascism'.
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