Still, I find it odd that none of the minorities, like say, African Americans ever really reached out to the Communists. I mean.... They do offer a lot for them.
"Our Struggle": What If Hitler Had Been a Communist?
- Thread starter The Red
- Start date
I believe the reason most minorities didn't reach out to communism is because even before the age of McCarthyism, they knew they would be branded as traitors and this would just give rise to more hatred and abuse of said minorities.
Some did. There is a lot of interesting history in regard to the USSR's outreach to the African Americans, but it was not successful for a number of reasons.
Indeed, the factors you've mentioned, plus a few others, make it very difficult to bring about a communist America despite it seeming like a rather plausible scenario for much of the early twentieth century. During the great depression there were some who were so certain of an American revolution that they would refer to when it would come rather than if.
Already near page 60 and Hitler didn't take power yet.
Turning Hitler into a communist is relatively easy when compared to getting the KPD into power.
Redcoat
Banned
Tbh I thought you just needed to prevent the spartacist rebellion so that the stab in the back theory didn't include them.
Whilst communists as a whole were considered part of the “stab in the back” the Spartacist rebellion took place after the German defeat. It’s important to remember that the far-right weren’t really looking for rationality in their conspiracy theory, they just wanted to blame every group and everyone they were opposed to regardless of their impact on the war effort.
They did have some off-shoots who renounced socialism entirely, the New Black Panther Party in particular. They went so far the other way that they would occasionally work with neo-Nazis.
This is partly true, especially because Southern racists were very quick to brand the civil rights movement as a “Communist conspiracy”. Of course there were communists involved in the civil rights movement but they were encouraged to keep their heads down.
Bulldoggus
Banned
I've been powering through this, and it is tremendous work. You should be proud, @The Red.
Chapter XLI
"The people's sufferings are chiefly caused by lack of food, fuel and clothing. This is not the fault of the Government. The Soviet system does not do it to spite them, or because it enjoys their discomfiture. Only peace with the world can ameliorate their sufferings, and Russia is not at war with the world, the world is at war with Russia. Why am I happy here, shut off from all I belong to? What is there about this country that has always made everyone fall under its spell?"
~ Clare Sheridan
~ Clare Sheridan
Even before the train had pulled into Nikolayevsky station, Adolf felt a sense of foreboding in this trip. The sights he’d seen on his revolutionary rail journey from Berlin to the Soviet capital had been anything but promising, towns lay in ruins whilst villages appeared to be covered. It was understandable of course, the country was still recovering from civil war, and Russian winters were notorious, but he had presumed that Moscow, being the centre of the international revolution, might at least have had a promising display of what the future might look like.
If Moscow was the showcase city of the worker’s paradise, he wasn’t impressed. The city certainly had a somewhat magical feel to it, he supposed the the thick layer of snow helped, but it was also sombre. The people on the train had seemed anxious and gaunt, and he had felt common cause with him as it had stopped in the middle of nowhere time and time again. It soon became clear to him that the the Russian people were more admirable than anything the revolution had yet achieved.
As the stations had came and gone, people who had been crouched on the uncomfortable benches a moment beforehand jumped off the train with a startling energy, only for someone else to jump on and take their place before assuming the same position and drifting off into their own daydreams. His two “guides” that had gotten on the train with him at the Polish border had sat either side of him to prevent anyone from joining them on their own bench, keeping him at arm’s length from the people that could instead only observe. Russia was a country shaken by war and tyranny that was only just past, but amongst the deprivation and the neglect there was a grim confidence in the eyes of the Russian people, and Hitler was consoled by that notion. The people’s will was the most important part of any revolution. They might have been standing in broken country, but it was one that was finally theirs to rebuild. The Kremlin continued to tower over the vast city as it had done in the days of the Tsar, and as it was so inescapable Adolf wondered what secrets might lie within it. The key to unlocking the potential strength of a Germany that belonged to the workers, a revolution that would inspire even greater fear amongst the capitalist world than the one that had succeeded in the ashes of the feudal state that he was now walking through on the way to his new residence.
The Hotel Lux was a squat four storey building that had become a sort of boarding house for foreign communists in Moscow, containing everything from exiles to agents to individuals simply in Moscow on party business. Adolf wasn’t quite sure where he fit in that equation, but he felt at being held in such high esteem. If the letter from Lenin hadn’t been enough of a clue, this underlined that he was being welcomed into the inner sanctum of international socialism.
His minders took him through the old imperialist lobby with a nod to the woman at the reception desk and soon they were in the elevator headed towards the top floor. Adolf wasn’t much for extravagance but the entire building reminded him of the Kursalon and Franz. It had been a long time since he had been shown such regard. He didn’t even mind that there was a problem with his room.
It became clear the previous tenant had not yet left, and he began to make excuses in what Adolf could discern was Italian as cluttering noises emanated from the room. Eventually a small man with a large mop of hair dragged a large suitcase out of the door and made his apologies in Italian, before disappearing down the hall without another word. Adolf couldn’t help but wonder if he’d caused the man to be thrown out, or whether his bizarre comrade now had a mission of his own. Either way, the large room was now his to dwell in as his minders told him to wait for further instruction.
Adolf hadn’t been given orders since the war, and although he realised the context was much more different in Moscow, the waiting made him uneasy as he questioned whether the Red Front could achieve anything whilst he conversed with Lenin. Finally there was a knock at the door. The same men were back to escort him to his car and as they drove off again, Adolf could not help but wonder whether they were party officials or members of the Cheka, or whether there was even a distinction, as they drove past a yellow building that his hosts referred to as ‘Lubyanka’. The car began to move closer to the spires of the Kremlin, and Adolf’s anticipation grew.
The Kremlin itself was heavily guarded, as the halls of workers power might have been expected to be, there remained counter-revolutionaries. Hitler noted the functional if rather bourgeoisie uniforms of the guards and wondered if they’d seen combat during the revolution. Would the Red Front require uniforms like that one day? The corridors inside remained full of imperial finery, albeit faded, though the standards had been changed, much of the old regime was still to be torn out and burned. Adolf presumed that these things were a work in progress, he was here to talk to Comrade Lenin about architecture after all. To his dismay, it turned out that he was not there to talk to Lenin at all.
Three men were waiting to greet him, and whilst they appeared to be of esteem, Adolf had never heard of him, although he tried to smile graciously as they took his hand and clapped him on the back and introduced themselves as Kamenev, Stalin, and Zinoviev. Although all of them could speak German to various degrees, it quickly became clear to Adolf that this Austrian accent seemed to causing them some trouble. As they sat down in the large meeting room, he tried to speak as neutrally as possible.
“Will Comrade Lenin be joining us?”
The three looked to one another sombrely, before the one named Stalin spoke. “I am afraid it is not as simple as that, Comrade Hitler. Comrade Lenin is very ill at the moment.”
Adolf couldn’t help but wonder if this was recent news, although he did his best to hide his frustration in trying to convey a worried demeanour. After all, these men were clearly influential in their own right.
“That truly is terrible news,” Adolf murmured, before looking up hopefully. “Will he recover?” Kamenev and Zionviev seemed almost embarrassed into silence, Adolf wasn’t even sure if his accent had gotten in the way until Kamenev replied cordially.
“We can only hope so Comrade, but at the moment he is in no state to see you. It is a great shame, and we trust you to keep it to yourself. It is so important for our movement that we do not appear...weak.” For a moment there was a sadness in the man’s eyes which didn’t match the tone of his voice. Adolf wondered how serious the revolutionary’s condition was, before Zionviev spoke and Kamenev had shifted his glance away.
“Despite Comrade Lenin’s illness there is much work to be done in the Soviet Union, and indeed in Germany. This insurrection of yours in the Ruhr, I fear it is doing more harm than good.”
Adolf was taken aback, he had not expected this from the founders of the first proletarian revolution. “Are you saying that it is harmful for the workers of the Ruhr to defend themselves against capitalist exploitation?” Hitler almost growled in response, it seemed Zinoviev had noticed.
“I am not disparaging your efforts, and we all admire your enthusiasm, but this uprising, as professional as it might be, is isolated only to one region of Germany. It has caused the Weimar regime to stifle revolutionaries across the rest of Germany, and its specific focus on the French has threatened to stir up a divide between French and German communists! If we all return to each other’s throats then we will have learned nothing from the last imperialist slaughter, you wouldn’t want to be responsible for that would you?” It was clear that Zinoviev was trying to placate him, and given that the man was responsible for organising the spread of communism around the world Adolf could understand the stress, but he remain unflinching.
“The Red Front will welcome any French or German comrades who wish to help us but if they are not willing to fight against the oppression we jointly suffer then they have no right to complain the Red Front doing , and neither do any of you for that matter.” Adolf pulled back his chair, and for a moment motioned as if we was going to leave. He wasn’t even sure where he would go, he wasn’t used to storming out of the Kremlin. What exactly he was about to do was still going through his head, when that cold voice spoke again.
“You’re correct.”
It was the third man, Stalin, who had spoken. It seemed that the outburst had impressed him somehow.
“You seem to be suffering from the same infantile disease that got Liebknecht and Luxemburg killed, but you’ve shown enough organisation to give the French a bloody nose and make yourself a hero. That shows promise. In time, you will be a great asset to the international revolution...” Stalin leaned forward until he was almost intolerably close, his heavily accented German almost a whisper “but first you’ll listen to what we have to say.”
Hitler stayed silent as Stalin leaned back in his seat and Zinoviev began to speak again, “Conditions in Germany are ripe for revolution, this crisis is arguably even greater than the one in 1923, but another opportunity will be wasted if you squander the anger of the proletariat on small scale insurrection. The time has come to properly organise the Communist party in Germany behind someone who the people will turn to, someone who the workers will listen to when they are told that the Social Democrats are traitors, and that the trade unionists must side with us and only us. Can you be that man?”
“I have been told I am rather good at public speaking yes,”
“Then we will make sure that you will have a leadership role in the KPD when you have returned to Germany. That is, once you have ended this fruitless insurrection against the French.” Hitler wasn’t sure whether to thank Zinoviev or move to leave again. These Russians really did talk in riddles.
“Do you really believe that the KPD will make me their leader just like that?”
“Not at first, but Lenin’s name was enough to get you here.” The men all began to smile. It seemed that Adolf’s earlier suspicions had been confirmed. He was never going to have met Lenin, though an opportunity to greater help the revolution had revealed itself.
“And what makes you think that the fighting in the Ruhr will stop just because I call for it?”
“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t,” Stalin bluntly replied. Now Hitler smiled, there was something refreshing about the man’s clarity. He thought back to hammering the walls of the Bavarian jail cell and what he would do to his captors if he could decide what their fate would be after the revolution.
It was an attractive offer.
Adolf Hitler returned to the Hotel Lux shortly after, he had been in high spirits contemplated what the future might bring. Unbeknownst to the German revolutionary, the troika were discussing the same topic.
“I think we’ve gotten through to him...” Stalin said in a almost questioning tone, Kamenev and Zinoviev both nodded knowingly,
“That party has been suffering from its own incompetence for too long now.” Zinoviev noted, “If we can turn Hitler from a leftist saboteur into a man who can follow the Comintern line then we can sort out the rest of the rabble as well, those who can adapt will have to be removed altogether but in the end Germany will have a proper Marxist party ready to take power.”
“A proper ally,”, Kamenev sounded almost relieved, “One that doesn’t need to destroy our relationship with the Germans in the meantime like Trotsky would have us do.”
The three men had been in charge of the Soviet Union for several months. Together they had all agreed that the German matter would be dealt with in a way that would keep the German capitalists happy for the meantime, if only to destroy them when the moment was ripe. In this regard, they were already conspiring to worsen the Hitler problem the Reichswehr had asked them to help rid them of.
At the heart of it all, Joseph Stalin noted how his two allies could embrace such betrayal so easily, and whether or not they were planning the same fate for him.
---
The still is from The Girl with a Hatbox
So Stalin and company are thinking they will be able to use Hitler for their own ends. This isn't going to end well for them.