WALTER LAQUEUR
393
Democrats, not to the Communists.
There is, in fact, no evidence that Hitler and the other Nazi leaders
spent sleepless nights because of a fear of Communism, and the ease with
which they destroyed the KPD in 1933 justified their appraisal. In a few
weeks, nothing was left of the strongest and most faithful Communist
party outside of the Soviet Union. As for Mussolini, he repeatedly
ridiculed the idea that there had been a danger of a Communist takeover
at the time of the "March on Rome." Up to the outbreak of World
War II, the Italian radio magazines featured the programs of Radio
Moscow, which also tends to show that the fascists cannot have been
very concerned about Soviet propaganda. There were, of course, anti–
Communist speeches by Hitler and Goebbels, and much anti-Soviet
literature was published, but this has never been in doubt. The decisive
issue is that Hitler went to war in 1939 not against the alleged
Welifeind
(global enemy) but against Britain and France, and he declared war in
1941 against the United States without any good reason from his point
of view, instead of concentrating all efforts against the Soviet Union.
Nolte's sources are curious. His star witness is Zinoviev, the Bolshe–
vik leader who allegedly wrote on September 17, 1918 that "we must
attract to our ranks ninety million Russians out of one hundred million
citizens; the rest should be destroyed." An hysterical loudmouth, Zi–
noviev was never taken very seriously as a politician. His statement, which
allegedly appeared in a provincial newspaper,
Severnaya Kommuna ,
has
been quoted endlessly for many years by the Russian extreme right. I have
never met anyone who actually saw the original text. But even if one
assumes for argument's sake that it did appear, what would it prove?
Outrageous and bloodthirsty statements have been made at all times by
individuals. Another favorite Nolte source is Alexandra (Alia) Rach–
manova, a Russian emigre of 1917 vintage. As a boy in Germany, I used
to read her enormously popular documentary novels, published in in–
stallments in illustrated weeklies with titles such as
Als MilchJrau in Ot–
takring (A Milkwoman in Working-class Vienna)
and
Tragodie einer Liebe
(Tragedy oj a Love).
There is nothing essentially wrong with
Trivial Liter–
atur
as historical source material, but one should not regard doubtful
Zinoviev quotations and the likes of Mrs. Rachmanova as sufficient fac–
tual base for sweeping generalizations.
In brief, Hitler and Mussolini were not the disciples of Lenin and
Stalin. They showed not the slightest interest in either Communist ide–
ology or Soviet practice. They realized much earlier than Stalin did the
uses of nationalism to mobilize the masses. To understand that all politi–
cal parties but their own should be dissolved, they did not need Stalin.
