Why are German soldiers of WWII commonly referred to in the Russian language as fascists (фашисты)?

Question

I read quite a few Russian materials about WWII and noticed that Russians commonly refer to German soldiers of WWII as фашисты (fascists). Here are some typical examples:

(1) Фашисты заняли правобережье Наро-Фоминска и форсировали реку Нара. (Source)

(2) Он завещал: «Сынок, я бил фашистов под Сталинградом, а ты добей гада в его берлоге!». ... С 14 лет воевал в партизанском отряде, когда фашисты заняли Украину. (Source)

(3) В Краснодаре покажут бой за освобождение города от фашистов. (Source)

This seems very weird because fascists are actually what the pro-Mussolini Italians called themselves at that time, whilst the pro-Hitler Germans called themselves Nazi or national socialists, and there were significant differences between the Italian Fascism and the German Nazism. In particular, the pro-Hitler Germans were focused on purity of their race and made a genocide of European Jews, whilst the focus of Mussolini's ideology was the state rather than the nation. The word Fascism originated from the Italian word fascio (a bundle), which came to symbolize strength through unity, the point being that whilst each independent rod was fragile, as a bundle they were strong.

In the English-speaking world, Nazi is a far more common term to refer to the pro-Hitler Germans of that epoch than fascist is, whilst the opposite seems to be true in the Russian-speaking world. I understand that there were some similarities between the German Nazism and the Italian Fascism, but I am puzzled as to why Russians preferred and still prefer to call the pro-Hitler Germans of that time not what those Germans called themselves, but what Italians called themselves, especially given the differences between the ideologies of the German and Italian states of that time.

Curious, I looked in the transcript of the famous speech of 22 June 1941, the date of the German attack on the USSR, by Molotov, the then-current foreign minister of the USSR, and found that in that speech, he had used the term fascist three times, and the terms Nazi and national socialists - exactly zero times. Based on that speech, my impression is that it was the preference of the Soviet government from the very first day of the Soviet-German war to refer to the German leadership as fascists rather than as Nazi or national-socialists, but I am puzzled as to why the Soviet government had such a preference.

I guess that ordinary Russians of that time simply copied the terminology of their leaders and started to refer to all German invaders, including privates, as fascists, and this tradition seems to have been retained in the Russian language. My impression is that the first associations that come to mind of almost every modern Russian in response to the word фашисты are men equipped with Schmeisser submachine guns and helmets with a "coal scuttle" shape and wearing swastikas on their greenish grey uniforms as well as riding BMW motobikes.

My question: What was the very root cause of preferring the term фашисты (fascists) over нацисты (Nazi) in referring to the German aggressors of WWII in the Russian language? In particular, why did the Soviet leadership have that preference?

Answer 1

First of all, people call those they don't like "bastard" and "son of a bitch", even if they were not actually born out of wedlock and their mother was a woman rather than a female dog.

"Fascist" is as good a label as any.

If someone calls another person a bastard, the other people could agree or disagree with them, but this would be either "yes he's a bastard all right" or "no, he's a decent man".

It would hardly be "he's a bad person but his mother was married to his father, so you're wrong".

It's not in any way unique to Russian language. You can hear people these days call "fascists" pretty much anyone they don't like in any language (at least in any European language).

That said, there is no universally accepted definition of fascism and many scholars share the view that German Nazi ideology was indeed a variation of fascism (whatever the latter would mean).

I emphatically don't want to discuss whether or not it is true, but this point of view does exist and is (and had been) shared by many people, including those outside the Soviet leadership circles.

As for the term нацист or its equivalents: they were just not a thing in Russian language back then.

The official name of the ruling party in Germany was Национал-социалистическая немецкая рабочая партия. Every single word in this name was devoid of negative connotations in Russian back then so neither of them would work as a negative label.

If the word нацист would make it into Russian earlier it would probably have gained traction, but it didn't happen.

So the Soviet leadership didn't call the Nazi нацисты because they didn't know this word.

They called them фашисты ("fascists") or, if they wanted to be more specific, немецкие фашисты ("German fascists") because they, first, believed that the state ideology in those days' Germany was a fascist one, and, second, they needed a good label.

The word нацист didn't make it into Russian until after the WWII.

Answer 2

Как возник термин "фашисты".

"Правда" от 21 июня 1941 года не называет никого ни фашистами, ни нацистами, а всегда использует нейтральные термины вроде "германское командование", "германское министерство иностранных дел" и т. д. (Слово "немцы" в "Правде" тоже не встречается.)

В речи Молотова от 22 июня 1941 года руководство Германии названо "германскими фашистскими правителями", "германским фашистским правительством" и "кликой кровожадных фашистских правителей Германии", а страна - фашистской Германией (дважды). Термин "нацисты" не употребляется ни разу. Речь Молотова была написана коллективно, в том числе принимал участие в её написании и Сталин.

После этого в печати и в публичных выступлениях использовались только слова "фашисты", "фашистский" и никогда "нацистский" (кроме цитирования международных документов).

Сталин в своей речи от 3 июля 20 раз использовал слова "фашисты", "фашистский" и никогда - нацистский (ещё назвал Германию гитлеровской). Вот почему Германию в СССР в течение всей войны и после неё называли фашистской, а не нацистской.

Answer 3

"Fascism" is a strong label in Russian language. It is stronger than "Nazism" or "Racism". It is much stronger in Russian than in English, for example. But how come this label came into widespread use?

I think it is mostly related to anti-communism crackdown in Italy, Spain and Germany in 1920s and 30s. While communism was viewed mostly negatively in the West, it also enjoyed a good degree of public sympathy. Communist parties proliferated in Western Europe - until fascist governments put an abrupt and often violent end on this development. Germany, in particular, which is a birthplace of communism, had virtually exterminated it by mid 1930s.

In Soviet Union, this anti-communism development was viewed with great concern and dismay. It should be noted that for Germany, crackdown on communism was associated with fascist aspect of Nazi ideology rather than Nazism. By mid 1930s anti-Semitic crackdown was not as strong yet.

So, in 1930s Soviet Union fascism was already viewed as an enemy #1. For Germany's NSDAP, its Nazi stance was considered an extension of its fascist ideology rather than vice versa. Fascism had become a "sticky label", and by 1941, when Germany had attacked USSR, Germans were commonly regarded as "fascists". The great war had only cemented the very negative connotation of this word.

Even today, publicly labeling someone as "fascist" has an extreme gravity to it. Most other labels can be shrugged off, but every politician or social group has to make necessary effort to clear him/her/itself of such label.

Answer 4

Классическим марксистским определением фашизма считается определение, представленное в резолюции XIII пленума Исполнительного комитета коммунистического интернационала (1934 г.) и повторенное на VII Конгрессе Коминтерна (1935 г.) - Георгием Димитровым, докладчиком по этому вопросу.

«Фашизм — это открытая террористическая диктатура наиболее реакционных, наиболее шовинистических, наиболее империалистических элементов финансового капитала…
Фашизм — это не надклассовая власть и не власть мелкой буржуазии или люмпен-пролетариата над финансовым капиталом.
Фашизм — это власть самого финансового капитала. Это организация террористической расправы с рабочим классом и революционной частью крестьянства и интеллигенции.
Фашизм во внешней политике — это шовинизм в самой грубейшей форме, культивирующий зоологическую ненависть против других народов».

Это определение и послужило основой для обозначения среди коммунистов всех подобных движений: нацистов в Германии, франкистов в Испании, "Новое государство в Португалии и пр.

В этой парадигме итальянские фашисты лишь первый случай проявления фашизма.

Answer 5

Just to add to the answers above. I understand that "nazi" was avoided because of the "socialist" connotations. Another common term in use was "hitlerites," followers of Hitler, in Russian, of course. See for example Stalin's speech https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1941/11/06.htm in which the term appears 28 times.

Answer 6

Because the fascism is dictatorship of bourgeoisie, in general; and the communists adhere to this point of view... here no realistic, essential difference between "fascists" and "nazy".

These soldiers (if they didn’t even belong to the Nazi party too) all the same inevitably served the interests of this regime in all senses and defended its goals.

By this reason Russians, Soviet named IT as 'fascists', they didn’t care about this pseudo-difference absolutely; (and this obvious thing actually doesn't have much to do with Russian linguistics...)

in the same way and for this reason you can come across such a naming for the Franco(against which some Soviet communists fought in Spain), Pinochet regime, the Greek "black colonels", etc.

"фашисты (fascists) over нацисты (Nazi) " - and this terms was first in politics, for ultra rightwinged; in addition, the Nazis weren't only allies (natural and by the fact) for the fascist's ideology and Mussolini regime , but Hitler himself also took a lot from Mussolini ideologically.

Answer 7

Because Germans were national-socialists.



Russians are socialists too. E.g. Russian "РСДРП"(Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) it is practically German "NSDAP"(National Socialist German Workers' Party)!

In fact Soviet Union was an fascistic "corporate state". E.g. soviet "trade unions" was nothing wore than fascistic "corporations": «профсоюзы – приводные ремни партии к массам»

So because during Soviet-Nazi war Soviets became national-socialists too: they completely forgot that Germans "are proletarians too", and explicitly stated "Kill a German not "a capitalist" -- Russians call Germans "fascists". As well as everyone they want to murder... E.g. if you are using latin alphabet you are "fascists": https://lenta.ru/articles/2004/11/16/language/