The Similarities Between Nazis and Soviets (The Literary Digest, 1933)Here is a brief glance at various observations made by a correspondent for THE LONDON OBSERVER who compared the two dominate tribes found in 1933 Moscow and Berlin.
The journalist was far more distracted by the similarities in their street hustle and their speechifying rather than their shared visions in governance and culture; for example, both the Nazis and Soviets were attracted to restrictions involving assembly, speech and gun ownership while sharing an equal enthusiasm for May Day parades and the color red. Additionally, both totalitarian governments held religion as suspect and enjoyed persecuting their respective dupes:
"Absolute ideas invariably demand victims; and the ruthless treatment which is deliberately meted out to Jews in Germany is closely paralleled by the creation in the Soviet Union of a sort of pariah caste of Lishentsi or disenfranchised persons."
Germany never celebrated May Day with public parades until 1933, when Hitler came to power.
The First Atheist Government (The Commonweal, 1930)Throughout much of the Twenties and Thirties the religious communities of the Western world looked at the recently established Soviet Union with some fascination; not only was it the first atheist government to be founded, but it was the first government to be openly hostile to all religions alike.
Click here to read about the Nazi assault on the German Protestant churches in 1935.
The Drive on Undesirables (The Literary Digest, 1933)Some were called "Lishentsi", some were called "land lords", "Romanov lackies", "the rich", "the elite" or simply "the middle class"; no matter what the ruling Soviets labeled their preferred bogeymen, they wanted them out of the way. The attached article goes into some detail as to how this was done.
Treaty Violations (U.S. Dept. of Defense, 1962)This is a carefully cataloged list of the international treaties that the Soviet Union signed and agreed to abide by during the course of their first forty years (1920 - 1960). Printed next to these agreements are listed the dates the Soviets chose to violate the treaties and the direct results that ensued.
"Promises are like pie crust, made to be broken." - V.I. Lenin
Published by the U.S. Government Printing Office for distribution within the American armed forces, this 11 page pamphlet is peppered with colorful quotes by Lenin, Stalin and G.E. Zinoviev that all illustrate the foolishness of keeping to any binding agreement with anyone.
On the last page appears a paragraph by President Kennedy's Secretary of State, Dean Rusk (1909 – 1994), that served as a tidy legal disclaimer, pointing out that the Soviets hadn't violated all their international agreements, just most of them.
Click here to read an article about American public opinion during the early Cold War years
The First Five Year Plan (The Literary Digest, 1933)A 1933 magazine article that reported on the success of the Soviet Union's first (of many) Five Year Plans.
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