Hello,

I have heard some anecdotal reports from comrades stating that if the Red Front had received more support from other sources, most notably if the capitalists hadn't chosen to support fascism in order to maintain their privilege and had instead supported the Red Front's efforts to oust Nazis in the 1930s, that the fascists might have been stopped there. I'm curious what everyone knows about this, and if anyone has links to some facts regarding the issue.

I also was reading about a man named Ernst Thalmann, who apparently lead the KPD (German Communist Party) during the 1920s and 1930s and was put to death by Hitler in 1944. Two things from his Wikipedia article stand out:

and this:

The second part is simply anecdotal references to some of his ideas and his personality.

The first quote, though, is intruiging. The first thing that came to my mind was "so you mean to tell me that while the NAZIS were coming to power these guys [Thalmann, the KPD, and Comintern] were fighting the Social Democrats and Socialists?!?!" The differences between Communists and Nazis juxtaposed with the differences between Communists and Social Democrats/Socialists are well... astronomically huge in comparison. I thought to myself, "save that shit for when there aren't any fascist mass-murderers coming to power!"

Everything I've heard says that the Nazis were a known threat in the latter part of the 1920s.. Thalmann and his party were following the Soviet line which at that time must not have involved fighting the Nazis in Germany. I can only think that if the Red Front hadn't delayed organizing itself until 1935, that the Nazis could have been stopped even without the support of the bourgeois and capitalists. Am I dreaming here?

Also, was the controlling nature of Comintern and the Soviets towards other world Communist Parties such that those who broke with their line would face replacement and/or death? Sounds farfetched, but I can find no other reason why so many CPs throughout the world at that time would have been so subservient towards the Comintern.

Anyway, I'm hoping my illustrious comrades at Revleft can offer some insight here.

Redfront cannot have received any type of support from the capitalists. It will be against the class intrest of Capitalists to support red front. That is why the majority supported the Nazis.

Unfortunately KPD,Stalin and the Comintern took an ultra left stance during this time which indirectly helped the Nazis.Another part of the blame lies in SPD too. Instead of working together with KPD they trusted Liberals more and supported them who in turn trusted Naziz more than KPD and SPD.

This Chronology of events from Marxixts Internet Archive gives us a clear picture.


We cannot predict what would have happened instead of what had happened in real history. But Nazis never grew in strength after 1927. So if the KPD and SPD had worked together Nazi would have never gained have gained the power like they did in 1933 without firing a shot.The link I gave above explains this fact in detail.


Because of Stalin's Socialism in one country line. Communists all over the world dedicated themselves in defending the worlds first and only workers state so they obeyed Comintern and Stalin without questioning much. It is the degeneration of the USSR that screwed workers every where. Of course anyone who deviated from the official line were purged.

This subject have discussed here before

Link

The support of the mainstream right was certainly crucial to Hitler's rise to power. Indeed the first enabling laws were passed by Bruning, while oter figures of the right acquiesced in the de-normalisation and de- constitutionalistion o the office of the chancellor and hence hitler's power.

The thing to understand about the Social democrats and the communists in this period of the german history is that their relationship was crucially conditioned by the fratricide of the attempted german revolution when the SDP had supported the Weimar govenrment in repressing the revolution.

Short answer: No. The window of opportunity for the German Revolution was 1918-1919. By the '30s the German Left was too marginalised to possibly stage a revolution or gain mass support.

g. ram you are completly wrong and have no understanding of socialism in one country. The reason why the KPD didn't want to align with the SPD and other elements was because of what the SPD had a history of doing to the KPD. The SPD had attacked, killed, and arrested mayday communists! Allying with the SPD at that point would be the same as if I decided to join Wal-Mart in a fight against the Republican party (yes stupid analogy but it should work). Both are completly reactionary and anti-worker. By the 30s however, it became apparent that anything and everything must be thrown in to stop hitler. That's what they did, but it was too late. Point is, you can hardly blame the KPD, they didn't what anyone would do, even if it was a terrible mistake.

On the otherhand though,

when the Communist Party of China forced the KMT to fight with them to kick out the Japanese imperialists, it was a double edged sword. The KMT did significantly less to defeat the fascists than the CPC despite the fact that they held state power and an army. On some occasions, the KMT attacked the CPC. Something similiar could've definatly have happened to the KPD in Germany.

In the end, I think that there were a shitload of mistakes, however it wasn't irrational, especially without hindsight and that both courses would've had drastic consequences

My knowledge of it is based on facts not on some official Stalinist/Maoist propaganda machine.

In short KPD took an ultra left stance. The reasons behind its actions is not because SPD hated them but because of Stalin's stance. The blame equally lies with SPD too.They supported Hidenburg who in turn invited Hitler to the post of Chancellor. The rest is unfortunately History.

Your Chinese example is totally ridiculous and has nothing to do with the topic. SPD was not like KMT. The later is a Bourgeoisie Chinese Nationalists while the former is Social Democratic party. And Stalin had no problem working with KMT during Chiangs earlier leadership despite the objections from Chinese cadres(including Mao).

There's actually an interesting piece of information concerning Stalin's position on what to do on upcoming elections concerning pullout from the League of Nations on November 12, 1933, after the Nazis seized power in Germany, and that in practice, Stalin disagreed with the stance taken by the Comintern on boycotting the elections. It comes from the September 2001 issue of RevolutionaryDemocracy, and can be found on this web page here. I quote the relevant sections here: