So the 1990s economic collapse is completely irrelevant to the comparison? The two may well be completely different, but that wasn't exactly a minor economic downturn.
> It would also have a strong, powerful communist movement opposed by a
> strong, powerful fascist movement, as opposed to Zyuganov and some
> skinheads, with paramilitaries from both organizations fighting in the
> streets. It would also be largely monoethnic and monocultural, which
> is kind of a prerequisite for fascists to come to powers, instead of
> what it is, fantasmagorically multiethnic.
>
> There are practically no similarities.
Except the ones I noted in my original posting, which in fact didn't mention fascism or the economy at all. My point was about political structure and the collapse of their democratic systems: the Weimar police and judicial system, government bureaucracy and most significantly the military were all unchanged from the Imperial regime, and never really accepted the legitimacy of the new regime.