Fascist (insult)

Since the emergence of fascism in Europe in the first half of the 20th century, the term fascist has frequently been used as a pejorative epithet against a wide range of individuals, political movements, governments, and public institutions, including those that would not usually be classified as fascist in mainstream political science. It usually serves as an emotionally loaded substitute for authoritarian.

The Bolshevik movement and later the Soviet Union made frequent use of the "fascist" epithet coming from its conflict with the early German and Italian fascist movements. It was widely used in press and political language to describe either direct competition (such as the White movement) or even internal fractions of the socialist movement, for example social democracy which was called social fascism. Also the Nazi movement in Germany was described as "fascist" until 1939, when the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed, after which Nazi–Soviet relations started to be presented positively in Soviet propaganda.

In 1944 British writer George Orwell commented that due to the widespread use in the European press, "the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless" due to its non-specific use detached from its original political associations.

After 1941 "fascist" was used in the Soviet Union to describe virtually any anti-Soviet activity or opinion. According to Marxism–Leninism, fascism was the "final phase of crisis of bourgeoisie", which "in fascism sought refuge" from "inherent contradictions of capitalism". As result of this approach, it was almost every Western capitalist country that was "fascist", with the Third Reich being just the "most reactionary" one. As result, after 1941 "fascist" was used in Soviet Union to describe virtually any anti-Soviet activity: for example, the international investigation on Katyn massacre was described as "fascist libel"., the Warsaw Uprising as "illegal and organised by fascists". Communist Służba Bezpieczeństwa described trotskyism, titoism and imperialism as "variants of fascism".

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