My Father’s outfit was one of the early ones to enter Berlin after the Russians captured it.
Daddy said every time they would meet with a Russian soldier, they would say in English, “Death to Fascists”.
The American soldiers were for the most part not all that knowledgeable about those political issues. The Americans would sort of stare at them, like what are you saying?
He said after a couple of weeks they quit saying it.
I think the word “Fascist” has become a particular code word to the hard left.
See my post #21. The Soviet army was actually under orders to say "fascist", and not "nazi".
The Nazi party was officially the National Socialist German Workers Party. The reds would never say "nazi" because "nazi" would remind everyone how close the nazi ideology really was to the communist ideology.
Think? It has been for at least 70 years.
See the Hayek quote on my FR profile page for some insight into some of the main reasons why. It’s the 3rd one down, the two-paragrapher.
Beyond that, read Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism for additional history and insights on this subject.