What if instead of the Nazis popularizing the Roman stiff arm salute, it was instead the Soviets? Would it still be in use today and how would people react to it?
What if instead of the Nazis popularizing the Roman stiff arm salute, it was instead the Soviets? Would it still be in use today and how would people react to it?
It was also the salute used by American schoolchildren for the Pledge of Allegiance until 1942:IIRC the Roman salute was already used by a number of organisations before the rise of Fascism. The Boy Scout salute was originally a Roman salute, for example. It's not that the Nazis popularised it- it's that after WW2 it, like the swastika, became almost toally linked with Fascism in the popular conciousness.
It probably would still be in use today. China is a big place.What if instead of the Nazis popularizing the Roman stiff arm salute, it was instead the Soviets? Would it still be in use today and how would people react to it?
It probably would still be in use today. China is a big place.
The Chinese don't really do it last I checked...
Back to the OP. Yes, if the Soviets came up with it and the fascist decided to do a little copy work, the Roman salute would definitely be associated with totalitarian regimes.
However, knowing the Nazis, they wouldn't want to steal ideas from someone they viewed as inferior and as such, another salute would have been used instead. Maybe they would have stole the current Boy Scouts salute and told them to screw off.
Back to the OP. Yes, if the Soviets came up with it and the fascist decided to do a little copy work, the Roman salute would definitely be associated with totalitarian regimes.
However, knowing the Nazis, they wouldn't want to steal ideas from someone they viewed as inferior and as such, another salute would have been used instead. Maybe they would have stole the current Boy Scouts salute and told them to screw off.
My God that's a scary picture...It was also the salute used by American schoolchildren for the Pledge of Allegiance until 1942:
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Though Stalin did ban displays of military hierarchy, only reversing that ban just before the Great Patriotic War. He might do the same with a communist Roman salute.
My God that's a scary picture...