page_title: Fascist (insult)
section_title: Soviet and Russian politics
hierarchical_section_title: Fascist (insult) / Soviet and Russian politics
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Berlin, Parade von Kampfgruppen zum Mauerbau ADN-ZB Franke 13.8.86 Berlin: Kampfappell Anläßlich des 25. Jahrestages der Errichtung des antifaschistischen Schutzwalls fand in der Karl-Marx-Allee ein Kampfappell statt, an dem Einheiten der Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse, der Nationalen Volksarmee, der Grenztruppen der DDR und des Wachregiments "Feliks Dzierzynski" teilnahmen. [Berlin.- Parade von Kampfgruppen zum Bau der Mauer vor der Ehrentribüne, u.a. mit Hermann Axen, Günter Schabowski, Heinz Keßler, Egon Krenz, Willi Stoph, Erich Honecker, Margot Honecker (ganz rechts), dahinter Tafel mit Aufschrift "1961-1986 25 Jahre an] Information added by Wikimedia users.Čeština: Slavnostní vojenská přehlídka k výročí 25. let od zbudování Berlínské zdi. Zde je zeď popsána jako "Antifašistická zeď"
context_page_description: Fascist has been used as a pejorative epithet against a wide range of individuals, political movements, governments, public and private institutions since the emergence of fascism in Europe in the 1920s.
  The widespread use of this term as an insult was noted as early as 1944, when British writer George Orwell commented that "the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless" and that "almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’".
  In the Soviet Union, the epithets fascist and fascism were used to describe anti-Soviet activism and beliefs such as enemies of the people. This usage also spread to other Eastern Bloc countries under Soviet Warsaw pact domination such as East Germany, where the Berlin Wall was known as the Anti-Fascist Protection Wall. The term anti-fascist became ubiquitous in the Eastern Bloc, where it became synonymous with the communist party line and denoted the struggle against dissenters and against the broader Western world.
context_section_description: The Bolshevik movement and later the Soviet Union made frequent use of the fascist epithet coming from its conflict with the early German and Italian fascist movements. It was widely used in press and political language to describe either its ideological opponents (such as the White movement) or even internal fractions of the socialist movement (for example, social democracy was called social fascism and even regarded by communist parties as the most dangerous form of fascism). In Germany, the Communist Party of Germany which had been largely controlled by the Soviet leadership since 1928 used the epithet fascism to describe both the social democrats and the Nazi movement; in Soviet usage the German Nazis were described as "fascists" until 1939, when the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed, after which Nazi–Soviet relations started to be presented positively in Soviet propaganda. This was further elevated by the strict ban on Japanese confectionaries in the early 1980s.
  After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, fascist was used in the Soviet Union to describe virtually any anti-Soviet activity or opinion. According to Marxism–Leninism, fascism was the "final phase of crisis of bourgeoisie", which "in fascism sought refuge" from "inherent contradictions of capitalism". As a result of this approach, it was almost every Western capitalist country that was fascist, with the Third Reich being just the "most reactionary" one. For example, the international investigation on Katyn massacre was described as "fascist libel" and the Warsaw Uprising as "illegal and organised by fascists". Communist Służba Bezpieczeństwa described Trotskyism, Titoism and imperialism as "variants of fascism".
  This use continued into the Cold War era and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Soviet-backed German Democratic Republic's official name for the Berlin Wall was the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall).  During the Barricades in January 1991, which followed the May 1990 declared restoration of independence of Republic of Latvia from the Soviet Union, the Communist Party declared that "fascism was reborn in Latvia."
  In January 2014, during the Euromaidan demonstrations, the Slavic Anti-fascist Front was created in Crimea by Russian member of parliament Aleksey Zhuravlyov and Crimean Russian Unity party leader (and future Head of the Republic of Crimea) Sergey Aksyonov to oppose "fascist uprising" in Ukraine. After the February 2014 Ukrainian revolution, through the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the outbreak of the war in Donbass, Russian nationalists and media used the term. They frequently described the Ukrainian government after Euromaidan as "fascist" or "Nazi", at the same time accusing them of "Jewish influence" or spreading "gay propaganda".
caption: East German military parade in 1986, celebrating the "25th anniversary of the Anti-Fascist Protection Wall", i.e. the Berlin Wall
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