Communazi

"Communazi" is an American political neologism, "coined by a reporter" and made popular by '' Time'' (first September 11, 1939) days after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (a neutrality pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov). It implied that both Communism and Nazism were one and the same because they were essentially totalitarian, whether left or right in belief. It continues to receive mention, largely in its historical context, to the present.

History

''Time'' repeatedly referred to the Pact as the "Communazi Pact" and its participants as "communazis" through 1941. Among ''Time'' writers and editors who used the term was Whittaker Chambers in his 1941 essay "The Revolt of the Intellectuals."

Whether coined or popularized by ''Time'', the term then started appearing in print in other publications, at first in labor-oriented (but non-Soviet-aligned) publications, then in wider-circulating publications, by right-wing writers (e.g., Joseph P. Kamp of the Constitutional Educational League), in other English-speaking countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, and eventually in German:
* Newspapers:
** "Allen Tells Dies Hitler Was 'Sound'" (25 August 1939)
** "Two States, Two Gatherings and a Lot of Anti-Government Sentiment; At Michigan Rally, Unyielding Anger At the Brady Bill" (15 May 1995)
** "Fighting the Nazis With Celluloid" (12 October 2014)
* Magazines:
** ''The Garment Worker'' (1939)
** ''American Labor World'' (1939)
** ''Frontiers of Democracy'' (1939)
** ''Journeymen Plumbers and Steam Fitters Journal'' (1939)
** ''Dynamic America'' (1940)
** '' Saturday Review'' (1940)
** ''Political Correspondence of the Workers' League for a Revolutionary Party'' (1940)
** ''Mexicana Review'' (1940)
** ''Twice a Year'' by Dorothy Norman (1941)
** ''Labour Monthly'' (1942)
* Books:
** ''Yankee Reporter'' by S. Burton Heath (1940)
** ''The Fifth Column Vs. the Dies Committee'' by Joseph P. Kamp (1941)
** ''Common Cause'' by Giuseppe Antonio Borgese (1940)
** ''Events and Shadows'' by Robert Gilbert Vansittart Baron Vansittart (1947)
** ''Must We Perish?'' by Hershel D. Meyer (1949)
** ''Report of the Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor'' (1970)
** ''Labor Radical'' by Len De Caux (1970)
** ''A Study in Liberty'' by Horace Mayer Kallen (1973)
** ''United Nations: Perfidy and Perversion'' by Hillel Seidman (1982)
** ''Lion Feuchtwanger'' by Volker Skierka (1984)
** ''Dear editor: letters to Time magazine, 1923–1984'' (1985)
** ''Das mexikanische Exil'' by Fritz Pohle (1986)
** ''America and the Holocaust: Barring the gates to America'' by David S. Wyman (1990)
** ''Literatur für Leser'' (1992)
** ''Argonautenschiff: Jahrbuch der Anna-Seghers-Gesellschaft'' (1992)
** ''Which Side Were You On?'' by Maurice Isserman (1993)
** ''Hollywood Party'' by Lloyd Billingsley (1998)
** ''A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone'' by Ted Morgan (writer) (1999)
** ''Communazis'' by Alexander Stephan (2000)
** ''British and American Anticommunism Before the Cold War'' by :FI:Markku Ruotsila (2001)
** ''The FBI Encyclopedia'' by Michael Newton (2003)
** ''Adolf Kozlik'' by Gottfried Fritzi (2004)
** ''Überwacht, Ausgebürgert, Exiliert'' by Alexander Stephan (2007)
** ''Adorno in America'' by David Jenemann (2007)
** ''Engineering Communism'' by Steve Usdin (2008)
** ''Shame and Glory of the Intellectuals'' by Peter Viereck (2007)
** ''Antisemitism and the American Far Left'' by Stephen Harlan Norwood (2013)
** ''Open a New Window'' by Ethan Mordden (2015)

In 1940, the term "communazi" started to appear in the government records of the US, the House of Commons of Canada, and the UK House of Lords.

"Communazi" is also the subject of a book, ''"Communazis": FBI Surveillance of German Émigré Writers'', published in 2000 by Alexander Stephan.

See also

* Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism
* Horseshoe theory
* National Bolshevism
* Beefsteak Nazi

References

{{reflist

Political science terminology
Political neologisms
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
Anti-communist terminology