http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CommieNazis

Advertisement:

A mix of Communism and Fascism is frequently used as "the government we don't like" in fiction. The trope is in action when the heroes enter a Communist country and find that it's Putting on the Reich - or when soldiers in a Fascist army call people Tovarisch. Modern examples of this trope may be explicitly referred to as Nazbols or National Bolsheviks.

This trope is common and popular in the United States. Nazis became Acceptable Targets during WWII, Communists shortly after it, and both are foreigners from far-off places with strange un-American philosophies. Since both Nazis and Communists are villains by default, why not have characters who are both at once to be double evil? But this was never much more than a Comic Book trope, and is a Dead Horse Trope at best at this point; there were always people who knew the contents of Nazi and Communist ideologies, which have awkward similarities but are not quite the same thing.

Advertisement:

Over in Europe, this trope is unknown, and somewhere between eye-rolling and fisticuff-inducing. Germans are still ashamed of what they got up to in the war years, and not really in the mood for joshing about it just yet. Russians are rightly proud of their massive effort in the war ("WWII was won with British intelligence, American steel, and Russian blood", as the saying goes) — and are nostalgic, not for the Soviet Union itself (and especially not for Stalin), but for the high relative prosperity and world-historic significance that they had under the USSR. The countries caught between two fires in the war, however, suffered at the hands of both sides — to this day, some of these countries have banned both communist and Nazi ideologies.

There is, however, a certain degree of truth to this trope. Many officials in the countries caught between Hitler and Stalin managed to work for both sides (burning documents, scapegoating Jews, and giving just enough aid to La Résistance that you can claim you weren't a collaborator can work wonders). East Germany was Nazi-ruled until it was Communist-ruled, and their internal security forces, which had No Budget early on, used WWII surplus uniforms for much longer than you'd expect. (This made East Germans popular antagonists in US Spy Fiction.)

Advertisement:

Part of the problem can be traced to the Nazis themselves, or rather their official name, the National Socialist German Workers Party. This has lead certain political figures to denounce anything that they feel smacks of socialism as just another step on the road to swastikas and dodgy mustaches, with plenty of references to totalitarian Communism (especially Stalin) for good measure. Of course, there are three main problems with this belief: First, that Socialism and Communism aren't the same thing; second, just because the Nazi party used the word 'Socialist' in its name doesn't mean it actually had Socialist (or Communist) objectivesnote The faction of Nazis who took the "Socialist" part seriously were purged in the Night of the Long Knives, along with many others who Hitler decided had outlived their usefulness., just like the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is none of those things and the Holy Roman Empire wasn't any of those things; third, that Hitler really, really, really didn't like Bolshevism, blaming the Jews for it, comparing it to a disease, and also kinda fought a war over that issue.

See this trope's analysis page for further discussion — and for some recent (2000s) movements which are unpleasantly close to being Defictionalizations of this trope. See also Nazi Nobleman, for a different conflation of two groups that historically didn't get on.

Examples

open/close all folders

Comic Books

Captain America: The Red Skull started out as a Nazi villain, but in the 1950s suddenly became a communist. This was later retconned so that the "Communist Skull" turned out to be an imposter who wasn't so much a communist as simply being anti-American, with the original Red Skull returning to his fascist roots. Played with again in the Winter Soldier and Death of Captain America story arcs, whose main villains are the Red Skull and the former Soviet general Alexander Lukin. The original Evil Plan is Lukin's, who tries to kill the Skull in order to obtain a supernatural artifact he needs to complete it. However, due to the artifact's Applied Phlebotinum, he ends up with the Skull's consciousness inside his head along with his own. Cue an uneasy collaboration, in which Lukin's original anti-capitalist plot is altered more and more to fit the Skull's homicidal, Take Over the World goals.

One Hellboy story has Neo-Nazis involved in a project called "Red November". This is justified, since the Nazis did use the color red in much of their regalia (as they were trying to win over ex-Communists).

The Norts in Rogue Trooper appear to be based upon both Nazis and Soviets.

The Hammer Empire in Danger Girl spoof this trope, taking the most outrageous aspects of both (although mostly Nazism).

The country of Borduria in the Tintin album Tintin: The Calculus Affair (1956). Borduria is depicted as a stereotypical half-Eastern Bloc and half-fascist country complete with its own secret police (ZEP) (led by Colonel Sponsz) and a fascist military dictator called Kûrvi-Tasch who promotes a Taschist ideology. A statue of Kûrvi-Tasch appears in front of a government building, in which he wears a moustache similar to Joseph Stalin's and gives a Nazi-like salute.

The fifth Lethal Legion, in West Coast Avengers, was made of resurrected historical villains who receive superpowers and appearance of supervillains. The group included Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Stalin. But initially, they did not care a dent about the Avengers: when they recognized each other, both of them tried to kill each other.

Lubania of DC Comics series World's Finest Comics numbers 192 and 193 is a Fantasy Counterpart Culture Ruritania version of this trope. It is a Central European dictatorship, Superman and Batman are taken to a concentration camp, Colonel Koslov wears a Nazi-inspired uniform, yet every member of the Lubanian army refers to each other as "comrade".

Film

Literature

Live-Action Television

Stand-Up Comedy

In George Carlin's routine "Beard", he discusses how, at the time, people with thick, bushy beards were sometimes considered "Commie Nazi Fag Junkies". He then goes on to note on how many levels that doesn't work.

Joked with in a David Cross routine mocking Tea Party hatred for then-president Barack Obama. "He's a Nazi! He's a Muslim! He's a Communist, Socialist, Black, Muslim Nazi! That's the worst kind of Nazi there is! He's a zombie too, I think!"

Tabletop Games

The Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40,000 is neither Fascist nor Communist, but has distinct elements of both— including "Commissars" named for the Soviet ideological officers and dressed like Nazi agents. The Death Korps of Krieg in particular are the most straight examples, being patterned after WWI-era German trench infantry (with French greatcoats and Russian gas masks) while being lead by Commissars patterned after WWII-era Soviet political officers. This makes them, to quote the Imperium's popular Fan Nickname, "Catholic Space Commie-Nazis". The Watsonian reason for this is probably a case of Future Imperfect, while the Doylist reason is GW giving a reference point for those players more familiar with historical wargames.

In Paranoia, Alpha Complex is at war with the Commies (among many others); one module portrays the Commie-run Alpha State, who's at war with the NazCIA.

Subverted in the Freedom City setting for Mutants & Masterminds. Communist terrorist group Overthrow is an apparent subsidiary of SHADOW, the huge Nazi terror group and HYDRA knockoff that is responsible for most terrorism in the setting. Overthrow's leader, Dominic Ashe, is, however, fully aware that his goals and those of the SHADOW leadership are incompatible, and is planning to depose them one day, while SHADOW's leaders in turn see Overthrow as little more than pawns.

In the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Ravenloft, the domain of Falkovnia is often summed up, somewhat derisively, as "a Medieval-flavored combination of Nazi Germany and the USSR being run by Vlad the Impaler". The domain features a combination of Fascist-like military dictatorship, crushing oppression for the vast population of serf-like non-soldiers, and a paranoid, ever-watching government that treats its populace like cattle — to the point where children who survive birth are branded on the forehead. Its Darklord and military despot, Vlad Drakov, essentially combines Hitler's manic charisma & rages with Stalin's brutal paranoia and coats it all with Vlad the Impaler's sadism, complete with demanding nightly impalements as "dinner theater".

Video Games

Web Originals

Web Video

Jreg's videos on political ideologies depict National Bolshevism as this, personified as the character Nazbol.

This YTP has Dennis Prager teaching students how to be "CommuNazis".

Western Animation