>This also applies to the non-aggression pact that the Soviets signed with
>>Germany before the war.
I'm not saying there weren't sensible reasons for the pact, but I reckon someone in the SU must have leafed through Mein Kampf, or read about Cristalnacht in the papers. The Nazis were already demonstrably the worst thing going in Western Europe. Trotsky got their number in a 1933 article in Harpers Magazine, too.
>It is only with hindsight, that we know the extent of the Nazi horrors.
We didn't know the full extent, no. But we knew plenty.
>German fascism was not necessarily worse than Francoism from the
>standpoint of >the 1930's.
Don't think Stalin minded Franco too much at all really. He didn't try very hard to fight the bastard - too busy shooting up the POUM and rifling the Spanish treasury ... but none of us in the west is, I suppose, in the position to criticise anyone when it comes to the Spanish war ... well, 'cept for mebbe 60000 comrades who deserve more remembering than they get.
>The distinction between Germany and the other capitalist countries was not
>as >sharp as it was after the war, and which we can see with hindsight.
I know I'm gonna sound a bit DeLongish here, but I passionately disagree about this. Plenty of writers in papers and mags had the Nazis' number, Churchill saw 'em for what they were and said so often enough, and there were thousands of erstwhile German residents telling anyone who'd listen (but perhaps there, too, we should not be too high'n'mighty - as 'who'd listen' wasn't a lot ... ). Anyway, we knew plenty by 1938 - not just plenty, but enough. The distinction WAS BIG!
Cheers, Rob.