Since 1776 revolution itself has tended to be associated with popular republican or socialist movements directed against traditional aristocratic orders. The American and French Revolutions, the movements of 1848, the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and 1918 German Revolution all fit this pattern to differing degrees, mixing in more socialism as the 19th century progressed and turned to the 20th. During the interwar period this traditional order, reacting to the threat of Bolshevism and drawing popular strength from the nationalism and militarism inflamed by the Great War, acted upon their own revolutionary agendas. Thus in the right wing movements of 1918-1945 we have what would have seemed a contradiction to the conservatives of the 19th century: Revolutionary Conservatism.
Though we associate these (and other) movements of the 20's and 30's with "fascism," it is more accurate to speak about a global reaction that took different forms in different countries. How did this reaction play out in countries across the west? To answer your questions, r/askhistorians has assembled an elite band of flaired users.
/u/Bernardito is here to answer questions about the Movimiento Nacional Socialista de Chile, the Chilean National Socialist Movement, during the 1930s.
/u/callanquin Infrequent contributor to the subreddit, who is vastly out of his league in terms of the caliber of professionals around him. My interest resides in the economic and political aspects of the Third Reich and Nazi Party, mainly after 1933. That said, the economic turmoil in Germany that elevated National Socialism's popularity in Wiemar Germany can be fully examined in my book choice (see the bibliography, below).
/u/Commiespaceinvader Is a PhD candidate at a major German university specializing in the study of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and South Eastern Europe in the Second World War. The Austrian and German paramilitary right wing organizations as well as fascist movements in Europe are also particular research interests.
/u/Domini_canes I often post regarding Catholicism in the 20th century—particularly in the Spanish Civil War and the institution of the papacy. I hope to be able to shed light on Spain's right wing revolution as embodied by the 1936 rebellion that led to the formation of the Nationalists and eventually Franco's dictatorship. Stanley Payne is the among the best authors on this subject, having written a number of well-recieved works.
/u/dubstripsquads I am a historian of race, violence, and politics in American history from 1865 to the 1970s. I can discuss American Fascist movements, Nazi propaganda organs in the US, the Klans, and how these groups rose and fell.
/u/Georgy_K_Zhukov studies Nazi German and the Second World War, as well as a specific interest in the German and Italian cultures of (Fascist) Masculinity in the 1920s and '30s as it relates to the institution of dueling.
/u/G0dwinsLawyer I am an amateur historian interested in the Weimar period. Specifically, I aim to understand the causes of Nazism, so the scope of my interest really reaches back into the late 19th century. I keep a blog devoted to hashing out the real history of the many Hitler/Nazi references made in the media: Godwin's Lawyer.
Disclaimer, Mike Godwin merely tolerates my existence and has not endorsed me in any way.
/u/kaisermatias Have an MA that focuses on Russian history (well not technically yet, but it'll be done around then; also not exactly Russian history, but too specific a degree for me to disclose here). Focus was on Soviet nationality policy in Abkhazia. Also have familiarity with the early Soviet Union, particularly the Caucasus, and interwar Poland.
/u/Sunshine_Bag
Currently a slavestudying at a major American university focusing on Modern Italy since World War One. My focus thus far has been on the evolution of calcio, and it's role in Italian politics.
/u/terribletauTG Amateur historian focusing on cultural changes in 20th-century Germany. Area of interest also includes socialism in Germany.
/u/TheTeamCubed I studied history at the undergraduate and master's level at two major Midwestern United States public research universities, though I do not currently pursue history as my profession. My focus in graduate school was on the Holocaust, and my thesis was about the 1947 Dora Trial. Mittelbau-Dora was the concentration camp where Germany manufactured the V-2 rocket from late 1944 until the end of the war, so I also addressed the responsibility of the engineers and scientists who later worked for the US space program.
/u/tobbinator I'm an amateur interested in the Spanish Civil War but not majoring in a history field. I'm particularly interested in the internal politics during the war and its direct leadup, especially the anarchist movement of the era.
Your contributors have kindly provided a bibliography for those interested in continued reading on this topic. Enjoy!
The USA:
Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression- Alan Brinkley
Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front - Frances McDonnell
The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right - Daniel Levitas
Spain:
Seidman, Michael. The Victorious Counterrevolution
Ackelsberg, Martha. Free Women of Spain
Beevor, Antony The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson
Thomas, Hugh The Spanish Civil War. London: Penguin
Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge. New York: WW. Norton & Co
Sanchez, Jose M. The Spanish Civil War As a Religious Tragedy. University of Notre Dame Press
Germany:
Robert Gerwarth: The Central European counter-revolution: paramilitary violence in Germany, Austria and Hungary after the Great War. In: Past and Present (2008) 200 (1): 175-209.
Michael Wildt: An Uncompromising Generation. The Nazi Leadership of the Reich Security Main Office. 2009.
Biddle, Wayne. Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.
Neufeld, Michael J. The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Stern, Fritz. The Politics of Cultural Despair, A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961.
Weitz, Eric. Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Chile:
Mount, S. Graeme. Chile and the Nazis: From Hitler to Pinochet (2001).
In the Soviet Union:
Martin, Terry. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 (2001).
Saparov, Arsène. From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh (2015).
Italy:
Martin, Simon. Football and Fascism: The National Game under Mussolini. Oxford: Berg, 2004.
Bosworth, R. J. B. Mussolini's Italy: Life under the Dictatorship, 1915-1945. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
Is fascism an ideology or just a bunch of cobbled together ideas that shift depending on the place and time?
For example Marxism-Leninism is an ideology. You have a bunch of books written about what marxism-leninism entails and how it can be applied in different ways in different countries. It has a philosophical basis resting on dialectical materialism and has a clear final goal of what it wants to achieve and how to get there.
Did any fascists really have this? Or was there no real ideological basis beyond nationalism?
Another question: I know many American conservatives who absolutely disagree with the idea that Fascism or Nazism could be "right-wing." Instead of getting into that debate in detail, I'm actually really curious - what was the American conservative response to fascist movements in the US, or other far-right movements? Since they aren't suspicious of things like democracy like conservatives in Europe, did they just roundly condemn them?
Esteemed panelists, in The Anatomy of Fascism, Paxton identifies the first Klan as a candidate for the world's first fascist movement. They obviously didn't call themselves that, but seem to meet his criteria. What do you think of the suggestion?
Second question: The rise of European fascism is roughly contemporaneous with the second Klan in the United States. Did the Klan then have any connections or affinities with American fascist groups, or was that all too foreign for the 100% Americanism Klan? Either way, did Klansmen have any notable positions on the rise of European fascist movements?
Though we associate these (and other) movements of the 20's and 30's with "fascism," it is more accurate to speak about a global reaction that took different forms in different countries.
Given this, to what degree was there any kind of direct interaction between any of the various revolutions? More specifically, do we see the revolutions in the Hispanic world (/u/bernardito, /u/Domini_Canes, /u/tobbinator) take inspiration from figures in other movements (directly or indirectly), or did any of their participants go on to make change elsewhere?
Why were fascist movements of the english-speaking nations such as the American Bund and Mosley's British Union of Fascists either dismal failures or practically non-existent?
Did any fascist movements borrow from the organizational structures of their ideological opponents? I'm thinking particularly of the Bolshevik "cell" structures. In my own area of study it's always been intriguing to me how much the Muslim Brotherhood seemed to have been borrowing from international revolutionary movements, both left and right wing, and I'm wondering if any fascist movements did likewise or if their ideology tended to preclude that kind of emulation.
OK, I'll bite. Dear /u/georgy_k_zhukov , how did the institutions of dueling relate to the German and Italian cultures of Masculinity and Fascism?
Was the decline of dueling in any way tied into the destruction of Fascism in those cultures?
Thanks!
Did the "Right Wing Revolutions" have an impact in the Arab world?
Most Eastern European countries at this time are said to have been ruled by right-wing authoritarian dictatorships after the failure of democracies or left-wing revolutions. To what extent did these regimes interact with fascist powers? Did they view nations like Nazi Germany with suspicion (like Poland) or did they see potential allies against the Soviets? How many took policies from Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany?
edit: Did right-wing authoritarian leaders view the right-wing revolutions as problematic? I don't know much but I imagine they were a more conservative lot than Hitler or Mussolini.
Thanks to the panelists for taking the time to do this AMA!
Are there any historians who view the far right movements of the early 20th century as anti-modern? While I haven't read much on the topic, it seems that the vast majority of scholars see the movements as the quintessential expression of "high modernity" and the unquestioned faith in technology and progress.
I'm curious about the Lapua Movement and Mäntsäla coup attempt in Finland.
How widespread was their support?
How close were they to success?
Did Mannerheim really have sympathies for them?
Was there any foreign support for them (like from Germany, for instance)?
To my less-than-informed eyes, Britain seems to have avoided the possibility of a right-wing revolution, with the most likely suspects, the British Union of Fascists, being treated as a curiosity at best, a joke at worst. Is this true, and if so, why?
Second question as I'm a little greedy - how does the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and other far-right revolutionaries without a state (primarily in the Soviet Union, but happy to look at other states as well for comparative reasons) to enact their ideological and political goals in fit into this framework and the Second World War?
How important was football in Mussolini's Italy? And did it affect anything politically?
Hi! Thank you all for all the answers provided so far. I just posted my question as a main post in the sub but I will bring it over here in hopes of finding answers.
How were the Black Shirts recruited in the 1920's Italy? What was the process for a young Italian man go from living a presumably normal life to joining a para-military group that was physically attacking other political protests/groups? How did they find new members? How was what they did legally protected? Thank you in advance. Any information will be helpful.
What role did the SA play in Hitler's rise to power? Were they well known and feared by the public?
Last year I read Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies and found myself fascinated by the interwar Friekorps. So I have a couple of questions related to that.
What do modern scholars of fascism make of Theweleit's work?
In the street fighting that occurred in the Weimar Republic, did the Nazi Party ever run the risk of being outright defeated? How much of an impact did riots and violence have on politics of the time? Did the Reichsbanner paramilitary arm of the SDP ever accomplish anything or was it entirely ineffectual?
My impression of early fascists (like the Italian Futurists) is that they were aggressively anti-conservative. How was it then that the movement allied itself with conservatives, as in Italy and Spain?
I know nothing about Chilie's Movimiento Nacional Socialista de Chile so lets start simple: what's the influence of this movement on Spain and/or post WW2 Chilean history
[also any suggestions for a good overview of South America in 20th century?]
What is the different between Fascism in Japan and Fascism in Europe? Why did Hitler choose to stop cooperating with Chiang Kai-Shek and ally with Japan instead?
the liberal (in a broad sense) consensus seems to be that the rise of fascism and other extreme right wing revolutionary movements was due to the "failure of democracy". would you say this is true, or would you rather emphasise its anti-socialist nature and say it was a reaction against the socialist revolutions (succesful, failed or threat thereof) of the same era? the latter narrative seems to fit well with e.g. germany and nazism as well as other european varieties of fascism (off the top of my head e.g. france, italy and austria saw intense class struggle in the same period), but how would that fit in with e.g the US and chile?
i guess i should tag u/bernardito and /u/dubstripsquads for the last part of the question.
Were there any Russian fascist movements during this period? Were they organized inside or outside Soviet borders?
In your opinions, would a set of non-expansionist fascist nations that cooperated and traded be feasible? Say, the V4 and friends?
In how far were fascist movements in Europe consciously aping the Bolsheviks?
The Chinese Nationalist Party received aid and organisatorial lessons from Mikhail Borodin from the Komintern (because there was no CCP and they were anti-imperialists) and they would rule Taiwan as a one-party-state until 1990.
Have any of the other commie eating fascists been secretly reading Lenin's "what is to be done"?
A big part of the Nazi position was anti-communism - how was the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact 'sold' to the German people considering this?
What was the overall reaction of non-fascist (Western, if possible) countries to the rise of these extreme states in countries such as Germany & Italy? Obviously England & France were worried about an overly aggressive Germany, or an expansionist Italy, but was the average American worried about Adolf Hitler prior to the outbreak of WWII? Did they view these fascist ideologies with scorn, was it a necessary evil to combat Bolshevism, or did they really not care until Axis Powers began invading others?
To clarify, was the average citizen of a non-fascist western country worried about the implications of the rise of these governments, or what was their general thought process on them?
A question for /u/dubstripsquads
What was the view of American fascist and other right wing groups on interventionism and isolationism?
Especially in regard to the expanding Japanese Empire. Would they also have embargoed Japan or would they have let it do as it wants?
Thank you
I am not sure if someone can answer my question but I was wondering how strong was the Ação Integralista Brasileira (Brazilian Integralist Action ) in the 1930s. Was it ever strong enough to directly oppose the power of Getúlio Vargas ?
/u/tobbinator and /u/Domini_canes
How much of a say did the church have in Franco's Spain? How much did the Vatican?
I grew up reading Carlos Giménez' excellent comics series Paracuellos, about his childhood in a hellish phalangist-run orphanage (these comics were a big thing in Denmark, but bizarrely not in the Anglosphere?). Were Phalangist-run or semi-fascist institutions commonplace, or was Gimenéz particularly unfortunate?
And a very big question, sorry: Was Franco's Spain totalitarian?
After the night of the long knifes did Hilter every express any doubt that he had done the right thing?
Did Hitler ever request a report on "why they lost the last war" from the army? Did he any reading of general staff reports? Do we know if he honestly believed in the "Stab in the back" explaination after he came to power? Or was it all propaganda to create a political narrative?
whats the deal with leon trotsky being in charge of the red army. was he actually involved in tactics and strategy? seems odd to have a philosopher in that kind of position.
What methods were used by the fascists, particularly in Italy and Germany to popularize the views held by the respective fascists?
What were the main social and economic conditions that led to the various revolutions during this time period?
The population predominately in the east of Spain during the Spanish Civil War seemed very much against the fascists, what tactics were used post war to stop insurrection and rebellion against Franco's regime?
Sorry for having so many questions, and I'd like to thank so all for doing this AMA.
/u/Bernardito, sorry I am late but if you want you can answer some of my questions.
How did Nazism take ground in Chile? Why did it manage to come so far away?
Is it wrong to view it as less racially strict then the European counterpart? Is the concept of the Chilean Race (a mixture of Northern European and Mapuche) involved in it in any sense?
What was the relationship between the Nacistas and Ibañez del Campo? It always struck me as weird that del Campo managed to get backing from left wing elements while also backing Segun Obrero.
Id like to ask /u/Bernardito,
What was the influence of the short Socialist Republic of Chile in the creation of the Chilean national socialist movement?
How connected/influenced was it to the differing fascist movements in europe?
And maybe out of scope of the question, but how much can the formation of the chilean popular front be attributed to this fascist movement, or more specifically the threat of this fascist movement?
I hope im not to late, and thank you if you will take out time to answer the questions!
I'm interested in the ideological aspect of these movements - the thinking and reasoning behind this decisively new kind of politics which tried to portray itself as traditionalist and restorative.
To what extent was there a common ideological pattern thought of movement behind this politics? In particular, and I'm not sure if this could be answered, but what role did nostalgia as an emotion play in these Right Wing Revolutions, and how was that reconciled with modernity and the aspects of modern society that were protected and advanced by these right wingers?
EDIT: Just realised an ideology question is asked further up the thread - will move it there.