Some Repercussions of the Russian Revolution
| Author | H. L. Stewart |
| Published date | 01 July 1946 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070204600100303 |
| Date | 01 July 1946 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Some
Repercussions
of
the
Russian
Revolution
H.
L.
Stewart
"The
droves
of American
liberals
and
middle-
class
muddleheads
who
supported
Bolshe-
vism
in
its Third
Period-the
period
which
gave
the
right
of
way
to
Fascism-must
share
the
guilt
for
the
rise
of
Hitlerism.
I
am
not
pretending
to
indict
them
as
indivi-
duals,
but
"objectively,"
as
Marxists
say,
and
as
a
class.
They
were
victims
of
the
Depres-
sion and
their
emotional
and mental
panic."
-EUGENE
LYONS
0
ne
of
the
determining
influences
conditioning
the
attitude
of
the
average
middle-class
German
towards
the
Nazi
movement
during the
thirties
was
unquestionably
his
persistent
fear
of
the
perils
which he
believed
the
Russian Revolution
held
for
his
countrymen.
Occasionally
exiles,
desirous
of
saying
the
worst
about
the
Nazi
system from
which
they
fled,
report
that
the
talk
about danger from
Russia
was
destined
for
foreign
consumption,
a
pretext
under
which
terrorist
measures
inside
the
Reich
might
be
at
least
partially
justified to the
over-sensitive
British,
French,
or
American
critic.
One
may
be
sure
that
"the
Bolshevist
menace"
was
exploited
in
this manner
by many
a
Nazi
orator
or
writer
for
purely
political purposes.
Indeed,
Hitler,
who was
from
the
first
Musso-
lini's
understudy,
copied
this
trick
which
had
served
Fascist
purpose
so
well. But,
as
the
successful
imposter must
have
a
public
susceptible
to
his special
method
of
deception,
it
is
clear
that
no
mere
handful
of
reactionary
fanatics,
-but rather
a
multi-
tude
of
intelligent
and
by
no
means ill-designing
Germans
firmly
believed in
the
imminence
some
twelve
years
-ago
of
a
Bolshevist
attack,
and
regarded
the
Brown
Shirt
movement
under
Hitler
as
their
chief
hope
of
frustrating
it.
Canadian
visitors
to
Germany
as
late
as
1937
reported
Protestant
pastors
incessantly
talking
about
a
Communist plot,
and professors
in
Berlin
University
speaking
with
apparent
alarm
about
the
fortification
of
the
Czech
218
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