“Born of war, both Bolshevism and Fascism drew their basic education from war. They transferred to politics the lessons of the trenches: familiarity with violence, the simplicity of extreme passions, the submission of the individual to the collectivity, and finally the bitterness of futile or betrayed sacrifices.”

Source: The Passing of an Illusion, The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century (1999), p.163

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François Furet 12
French historian 1927–1997

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