Although carrying different names, these movements all shared several characteristics: they devalued individual political liberty, trading personal freedom for subordination to government directives; they reduced or eliminated the concept of a free market, instead requiring individuals and groups to buy and sell at certain prices.
These groups also increased taxation and brought various segments of the economy into government ownership.
These movements grew out of each other. Hitler’s Nazi Party was a socialist party: the word ‘Nazi’ means “national socialism.”
Benito Mussolini had experimented with various coalitions of socialists and communists before he formulated his own socialist movement: fascism. Mussolini was working on his political movement at the same time that Soviet Socialism was emerging from the October Revolution, as historian Dinesh D’Souza writes:
On March 23, 1919, one of the most famous socialists in Italy founded a new party, the Fasci di Combattimento, a term that means “fascist combat squad.” This was the first official fascist party and thus its founding represents the true birth of fascism. By the same token, this man was the first fascist. The term “fascism” can be traced back to 1914, when he founded the Fasci Rivoluzionari d’Azione Internazionalista, a political movement whose members called themselves fascisti or fascists.
Mussolini did not work in isolation. The socialist and communist activists of various countries constituted an informal network and were in communication with each other.
Both Hitler and Lenin worked with Mussolini. In 1930, Mussolini gave Hitler advice about how to take over the German government. Although Mussolini and Hitler had a disagreement in 1934, they soon got past the conflict and resumed working together. Lenin regarded Mussolini as a ‘rising star’ within the socialist movement, as Dinesh D’Souza reports:
In 1914, this founding father of fascism was, together with Vladimir Lenin of Russia, Rosa Luxemburg of Germany, and Antonio Gramsci of Italy, one of the best known Marxists in the world. His fellow Marxists and socialists recognized him as a great leader of socialism. His decision to become a fascist was controversial, yet he received congratulations from Lenin who continued to regard him as a faithful revolutionary socialist. And this is how he saw himself.
Competition between the different socialist groups became more intense: Hitler’s political party was the National Socialists, and he didn’t get along with other socialist parties in Germany, and ultimately didn’t get along with the Soviet Socialists.
Likewise, although Mussolini had enjoyed Lenin’s praise, fascist Italy declared war on the USSR in 1941.
These conflicts between various socialist and communist countries reflect competing ambitions and egos. These countries remained, even in war, agreed that government needed to regulate people’s lives.
