How true is it that some western corporations and royal families secretly funded and supplied the Nazis in order to use Germany as a bulwark against the Russian Revolution spreading into western Europe?

by pepperoniroll
ParkSungJun

If you could clarify what you mean by "Western corporations and royal families" that would be highly lucidating. As it is, the idea that the West attempted to use the Nazis as a bulwark against the Russian Revolution is decidedly false. In fact this sounds like an accusation similar to those issued from fringe and conspiracy groups.

The Russian Communists certainly did harbor intentions to spread the revolution to the West in 1919. In addition to the Civil War being fought against the reactionary White Russians, they also had to contend with nationalists in Finland, the Baltics, the Ukraine, and many other places. Yet one of the more organized military threats to the Russians was the newly formed Republic of Poland, which had launched an invasion of Soviet territory-which was really loosely coordinated military advances to grab as much territory as they could. The Communists decided to counterattack and after redeploying significant amounts of troops and committing many reserves, they achieved major success and managed to penetrate almost all the way to Warsaw. British and French help was for the most part, utterly lacking. While there were some people interested in helping the Poles defend against the Soviets, there was also the feeling that the Poles had gotten themselves into this mess and were now being rightfully punished for not helping the Allies with the post-war healing process. A French military mission was dispatched but ultimately did very little to assist the Poles in the defense of their capital. Foreign aid to the Poles was also proposed but very little actually made it through, aside from a shipment and loan from the US.

The Poles were prepared, however, and managed to mobilize a large army, which combined with poor Russian logistics and communications resulted in a surprise counterattack that resulted in the destruction of one Russian field army and mauled the other two. This sweeping counterattack forced the Russians to sue for peace, which effectively ended the dream to spread the revolution into Europe. As you can see, Britain and France were extremely hesitant to aid a country who would appear to have similar geopolitical interests-suppressing Germany and Russia-and who ostenibly had a democratic government and were definitely not communists. The idea that they would arm Germany-to say nothing of the Nazis, who were a minor party at the time, with little political power or popularity, and hardly the most virulently anti-communist party-is, quite frankly absurd. This is not to say there wasn't any sympathy for the Nazis (there was) or for the fact that the German rearmament was supported by some to be oriented against the Soviet Union (which it did, but only partly), but the idea that they were funded and supported to stop the Russian Revolution is patently absurd.

Source: White Eagle, Red Star-Norman Davies

gammingthesystem

In Dark Money, Jane Mayer writes that the Koch brothers' father built a large oil refinery in Nazi Germany in 1933. Koch was a staunch anti-Communist, and he saw Nazi-style fascism as a viable alternative to Communism, as did many people at the time. This was before the worst of the Nazi regime's anti-semitism and warmongering.

I don't know if Koch's work was explicitly anti-Communist or driven largely by business interests, but he didn't do any business with Soviet Russia.

So, Koch's company did openly do business with the Nazi's, but whether it was for profit or ideological reasons is unclear.