Hitler was a Communist and Stalin a Fascist - effect of Cold War on Western Politics?

If the democracies of the West had fought and defeated a 'Communist' (I use the term loosely) Germany and ended up in a Cold War against a Fascist Russia (basically swap the ideologies over, with ASBs if you must - the point is a Cold War against fascists), what would be the effect on the politics and media of the West?

Would Joe McCarthy have led anti-fascist witch hunts against business leaders and far right Republicans? In Britain, would Harold Wilson have regularly accused Ted Heath of being 'in the pay of Moscow'? In short, would the major ad hominem argument against left wing politicians of the 1945-present period ('you're a Communist, like the Russians') have been reversed and applied to the right? If it was, what would today's politics be like?
 
A Communist hitler isn't that hard, make him come into contact with Marxist in his homeless years. Stalin on the other hand will be harder, the Revolution was an effort of the people. However while Stalin was in power you could have called the Soviet-Union a facist nation (racism is not per definition a part of facism). You need a PoD early in Stalins life making him a high political or military figure and have him lead the Whites (or something like it). later he takes over Russia with the Czar as a puppit (like Italy).
 
I'm not talking about what would need to happen to make this possible, I'm asking about the speculating effects of the USA, UK and France etc being in a Cold War against Fascists rather than Communists.
 
I'm not talking about what would need to happen to make this possible, I'm asking about the speculating effects of the USA, UK and France etc being in a Cold War against Fascists rather than Communists.


Now that is an interesting question.

Would the US in the interest of opposing their cold war enemy, a fascist Russia, support Communist movements around the world?
Hard to say. Communist, and leftist movements in general, do not lend themselves to the type of manipulation favoured by the American Interventionist crowd. They tend to be for things like land reform and unions, these are antithetical to the US business interests, who exert a tremendous influence on their foreign policy (e.g. interventions in
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile etc...)
In OTL the US typically supported dictators with quasi-fascist tendencies in order to supress soviet sponsored international communism, this happened to mesh quite nicely with the interests of the large businesses (i.e. United Fruit, and others).
But if the TTL Nazis were actually communists the movement as a whole would be discredited worldwide as genocidal psychopaths. I doubt you would have any kind of groundswell socialist movements as in OTL. I don't know what would replace it on the left, maybe some form of liberation theology?

Of course this would all depend if Neo-Czarist, fascist Russia is intent on spreading their "glorious revolution" worldwide. Fascist movements are almost by definition extremely nationalistic and fascist Russia would have to be heavily entwined with the Orthodox Church.

Hmmm...
We could see a crusading czarist russia wanting to expand into Anatolia and actively interfering with any country that has even the smallest orthodox minority. Persecutions of muslims in the Russian-controlled 'stans would be rampant. Perhaps a tacit agreement with other christian churches in Eastern Europe as long as the population is sufficiently devout.
We might see the U.S. subtly encouraging underground syndicalists and other leftists in both these regions.

This would be a very interesting TL indeed...
 
I think Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism would become what paternalistic Conservatism and authoritarian right wing movements became in OTL - 'the acceptable face of the left/right'. Just as Labour, the SPD and some Democratic Party politicians had to push away allegations that they were Communists IOTL, I think the ever-present threat of Fascism would mean figures like Nixon, Thatcher or even Reagan might face genuine trouble getting to the level of success that they got in OTL, for the simple reason that in this world, accusations of being a 'fascist' would stick and wouldn't be a meaningless brush to tar one's enemies with.

On the other hand, just as the (small d) democratic right has managed to break all association with the Nazis (thanks in part to being the rallying cry and unequivocally anti-Left group against Communism) I can see the democratic left in this world being much more popular as the populations of Western Europe (and to an extent the US) flock to vote against whatever Hugh Gaitskell, Willy Brandt or Michael Dukakis has labelled 'the latest fascist threat to our democracy'.
 
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