The Dy namics of Fascism^1003

An enthusiastic crowd, which includes many youths, greets Hitler at a rally at the

Nuremberg stadium in 1937.

had become a state dictatorship, like the fascist regimes, but one organized

at least on Communist rhetoric about creating a workers’ paradise. Stalin,

casting aside the claims of the many non-Russian nationalities, and for that

matter, of the workers themselves, tolerated no opposition to or within the

Communist Party. The Soviet Union was also a totalitarian state, with cen­

tralized control of all political functions by a dictator ruling through terror

in the name of a single party.

Hatred of parliamentary and democratic rule, Socialists, Communists,

and Jews helped give fascism an international character. In 1935, there was

even a short-lived attempt to create a fascist international, similar to the

Communist International (Comintern) on the other end of the political

spectrum. Mussolini contributed funds to the Belgian, Austrian, and British

fascist movements. But the stridently nationalist aspect of fascism worked

against fascist internationalism. Yet fascist and right-wing authoritarian

states found ready allies among similar regimes, as joint Cerman and Ital­

ian assistance to the nationalist rebellion during the Spanish Civil War

(1936—1939) solidified the alliance between Hitler and Mussolini.

Middle-class economic frustration, anti-parliamentarianism, upper-class

fears of socialism, anti-Semitism, aggressive nationalism, and the belief

that a dictator could bring order and national fulfillment were all present

in European society before the Great War. But the cataclysmic experience