World War I had enormous consequences for European countries. It reshaped political borders, took millions of lives, charred the land, crippled economies and caused new political movements to emerge. Nobody really emerged as the clear cut victor of the Great War and so there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the current governments in place in Russia, Germany and Italy. Russia emerged from a civil war with a communist government and Germany and Italy had fascist regimes. Germany and Italy's insecurity after losing the war led to a sense of nationalistic elitism and superiority while Russia's slightly more successful war effort led to a nationalistic government that promoted the common man.
Downtrodden states like Germany and Italy wanted to have a new government that not only would restore their previous glory, but would make them even stronger than before. Economic troubles were the main factor for Russia's support of the working man. Losing the war awakened the German people. Germans did not lose wars, what happened to the good old days of the early 20th century when Germany prospered? It was the Fatherland's rightful place to be atop the world, Germany is better than this. The country was stunned at how far it had fallen and embraced the government that promised to make the country even stronger than it was before. Russia had a little more self-esteem than the fascist countries had. They knew they were a strong country, their country made up about 10% of the world's land area and Russia had an enormous population. Russia knew that its strength lay in the grittiness of its people, so the public favored a government that supported the common working man. The person that fascist and communist governments wanted to create was different. The fascist government wanted a militaristic upper class man with condescending views on the rest of the world. The communist government wanted a hard-nosed member of the middle class with inner strength.
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