Why was communism seen as the devil by so much of the US & Western Europe, long before the Cold War? I'm aware of the first Red Scare, but why did that happen specifically? Did it have to do with the terrorist tactics used by Russian Marxists?
It seems ironic that a place like the US, founded by Enlightenment liberals, would be so allergic to a political framework sharing many of the same ideals. Marxism wasn't always equivalent to Leninism—was there ever a time when a communist transition was seen as something other than a radical/dangerous/fringe proposal?
"Communism" was a revolutionary ideology aimed at overthrowing the existing order of 19th/20th-century western capitalism. Anti-communism didn't need to "come" from anywhere, communism was anti-establishment so the establishment was anti-communist.
The Catholic Church, in particular the Vatican, has had a long history of opposition to communism.
In May of 1891, Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum. This document is noted as the beginning of the crystallization of modern Catholic social justice thought. In it, the pope affirms the need for assistance for the working poor. However, he also rejects communism as an ideology. At the same time, he also rejects unrestricted capitalism, but affirms the right to private property.
This encyclical has been commemorated and updated by other pontiffs. Pius XI issued Quadragesimo Anno in 1931, John XXIII followed with Mater et Magistra in 1961, and John Paul II marked the centennial with Centesimus Annus in 1991. Each pontiff built on the last in delineating Catholic positions on social justice and economics, all of which were unfavorable to communism. This is speculation, but 2016 will mark the 125th anniversary of the encyclical, and I would be surprised if we don't see another economic and social justice encyclical on that date.
In March of 1937, Pius XI issued the most important document regarding Catholicism and communism--Divini Redemptoris. In it, the basic incompatibilities between the two ideologies are outlined. From section 3:
- This all too imminent danger, Venerable Brethren, as you have already surmised, is bolshevistic and atheistic Communism, which aims at upsetting the social order and at undermining the very foundations of Christian civilization.
Then we have the outright rejection in sections 12 and 14.
- What would be the condition of a human society based on such materialistic tenets? It would be a collectivity with no other hierarchy than that of the economic system. It would have only one mission: the production of material things by means of collective labor, so that the goods of this world might be enjoyed in a paradise where each would "give according to his powers" and would "receive according to his needs." Communism recognizes in the collectivity the right, or rather, unlimited discretion, to draft individuals for the labor of the collectivity with no regard for their personal welfare; so that even violence could be legitimately exercised to dragoon the recalcitrant against their wills. In the Communistic commonwealth morality and law would be nothing but a derivation of the existing economic order, purely earthly in origin and unstable in character. In a word. the Communists claim to inaugurate a new era and a new civilization which is the result of blind evolutionary forces culminating in a humanity without God.
- Such, Venerable Brethren, is the new gospel which bolshevistic and atheistic Communism offers the world as the glad tidings of deliverance and salvation! It is a system full of errors and sophisms. It is in opposition both to reason and to Divine Revelation. It subverts the social order, because it means the destruction of its foundations; because it ignores the true origin and purpose of the State; because it denies the rights, dignity and liberty of human personality.
This of course is only one piece of anticommunism in the West. With Das Kapital coming out in 1867 and Rerum Novarum coming out in 1891, this is a mere 24 years. For the Catholic Church, this is an incredibly rapid response to an ideological opponent. The consistency of the response--concern for the poor but a rejection of communism's methods to alleviate the suffering of the poor--are also noteworthy.
As always, followup questions from OP and others are encouraged.
Communists usually see their movement as beginning in the late 1790s, but there were laws against proposing communism before that. The law of March 18 1793, decreed by the French National Convention, made suggesting an "agrarian law" (meaning anything that redistributes land, or in this case any other properties) punishable by death. There was no communist movement at this time that could have influenced this.
If you read the opening paragraph of the Communist Manifesto, it becomes clear that people were afraid of communism at the time it was written, in 1848.