Russia/Italy Dynamics

This is kind of an off-the-wall question:

Suppose Russia became fascist, not communist, after WWI. How do you suppose Mussolini would view the Russian gov't, and vice versa? Don't factor Hitler into it; for the purposes of this question, assume he doesn't exist. Would they be natural allies, or are their spheres of influence and interest too different?

Diamond said:

This is kind of an off-the-wall question:

Suppose Russia became fascist, not communist, after WWI. How do you suppose Mussolini would view the Russian gov't, and vice versa? Don't factor Hitler into it; for the purposes of this question, assume he doesn't exist. Would they be natural allies, or are their spheres of influence and interest too different?

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I love questions like this but I hate answering them ! That's because I immediately hit a blank wall. WHAT IS Russian Fascism for example ? Considering that the word and concept did not exist before Mussolini, how has a Russian regime formulated itself so as to be considered by this label ? After all, a military White dictatorship might SEEM Fascist to us in hindsight, as might a Romanov restoration (don't forget Mussolini always operated under the King of Italy) but would the similiarities be obvious to Mussolini ?

If not, then the caricature of the Russian set up would be derived from other 'shared' history, the republicans of Portugal (hardly an optimistic comparison but not necessarily a bad one), the Directorate or perhaps Kossuth's Hungary. Mussolini may well view all of these as abherations to one degree or another

Besides, was he 'aware' (as we are in hindsight) that he was creating a political creed or did he assume he was crearting an Italian-only experience ?

Grey Wolf