The reasons for the coup remain the subject of debate. The domestic situation was definitely troubled; historians have pointed to specific European precedents in the 1920s that may have had an influence, including the 1922 March on Rome by Benito Mussolini in Italy and the May 1926 Coup of Józef Piłsudski in Poland. Other historians have cited more general trends in Europe that resulted in more or less undemocratic governments in almost all Central and Eastern European nations by the end of the 1930s. Democratic immaturity was displayed by an unwillingness to compromise, and the frequent shifts of government created a chronic perception of crisis. Historians have also discussed an exaggerated fear of communism as a factor, along with the lack of a stable center that could reach out to parties on the left and right; these parties accused each other of Bolshevism and fascism. According to historian Anatol Lieven, Smetona and Voldemaras saw themselves as the dispossessed true heroes of the independence movement, who despaired of returning to power by democratic means.