Fascism

Fascism /ˈfæʃɪzəm/ is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. Influenced by national syndicalism, fascism originated in Italy during World War I, in opposition to liberalism, Marxism, and anarchism. Fascism is usually placed on the far-right within the traditional left–right spectrum.

Fascists saw World War I as a revolution that brought massive changes in the nature of war, society, the state, and technology. The advent of total war and total mass mobilization of society had broken down the distinction between civilian and combatant. A "military citizenship" arose in which all citizens were involved with the military in some manner during the war. The war had resulted in the rise of a powerful state capable of mobilizing millions of people to serve on the front lines and providing economic production and logistics to support them, as well as having unprecedented authority to intervene in the lives of citizens. Fascists view World War I as having made liberal democracy obsolete, and regard total mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties. Such a state is led by a strong leader — such as a dictator and a martial government composed of the members of the governing fascist party — to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society. Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war, and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation.

Fascist (insult)

Since the beginning of fascism, the term fascist is frequently used as a political insult against a wide range of individuals, governments, and public institutions. It usually serves as an emotionally loaded substitute for "authoritarian", but is treated so flexibly that it is often used to describe any movement or position the user strongly disagrees with.

Soviet Union

The Bolshevik movement and later the Soviet Union made frequent use of the "fascist" epithet coming from its self-perceived opposition to the early German and Italian fascist movements. It was widely used in press and political language to describe either direct competition (such as the White movement) or even internal fractions of the socialist movement, for example social democracy which was called social fascism. Also the Nazi movement in Germany was described as "fascist" until 1939, when the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed, after which Nazi–Soviet relations started to be presented positively in Soviet propaganda.