View source for Anti-communism

{{Short description|Opposition to communism}}
{{distinguish|Anti-bolshevism (disambiguation){{!}}Anti-bolshevism|Anti-Sovietism|Anti-Marxism}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
[[File:Precz.jpg|thumb|Polish anti-communist activists with a banner reading "Down with Commune" during a [[Śląsk Wrocław]] football match in March 2012]]
{{Anti-communism}}
'''Anti-communism''' is [[Political movement|political]] and [[Ideology|ideological]] opposition to [[communism|communist]] beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 [[October Revolution]] in [[Russia]], and it reached global dimensions during the [[Cold War]], when the [[United States]] and the [[Soviet Union]] engaged in an intense rivalry. Anti-communism has been an element of many movements and different political positions across the [[political spectrum]], including [[anarchism]], [[centrism]], [[conservatism]], [[fascism]], [[liberalism]], [[nationalism]], [[social democracy]], [[socialism]], [[leftism]], and [[libertarianism]], as well as broad movements [[#Evasion of censorship|resisting communist governance]]. Anti-communism has also been expressed by [[#Religions|several religious groups]], and in art and [[#Literature|literature]].

The first organization which was specifically dedicated to opposing communism was the Russian [[White movement]], which fought in the [[Russian Civil War]] starting in 1918 against the recently established [[Government of Vladimir Lenin|Bolshevik government]]. The White movement was militarily supported by several [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|allied foreign governments]] which represented the first instance of anti-communism as a government policy. Nevertheless, the [[Red Army]] defeated the White movement and the Soviet Union was created in 1922. During the existence of the Soviet Union, anti-communism became an important feature of many different political movements and governments across the world.

In the [[United States]], anti-communism came to prominence during the [[First Red Scare]] of 1919–1920. During the 1920s and 1930s, opposition to communism in America and in Europe was promoted by conservatives, monarchists, fascists, liberals, and social democrats. Fascist governments rose to prominence as major opponents of communism in the 1930s. Liberal and social democrats in Germany formed the [[Iron Front]] to oppose communists, Nazi fascists, and revanchist conservative monarchists alike. In 1936, the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]], initially between [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]], was formed as an anti-communist alliance.<ref>{{cite encyclopaedia|title=Anti-Comintern Pact|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Anti-Comintern-Pact|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref> In [[#Asia|Asia]], Imperial Japan and the [[Kuomintang]] (Chinese Nationalist Party) were the leading anti-communist forces in this period.

By 1945, the communist Soviet Union was among major [[Allied leaders of World War II|Allied nations]] fighting against the [[Axis powers]] in [[World War II]] (WII.)<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Allied powers|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Allied-Powers-international-alliance|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref> Shortly after the end of the war, rivalry between the [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] Soviet Union and [[Economic liberalism|liberal capitalist]] United States resulted in the [[Cold War]]. During this period, the United States government played a leading role in supporting global anti-communism as part of its [[containment]] policy. Military conflicts between communists and anti-communists occurred in various parts of the world, including during the [[Chinese Civil War]], the [[Korean War]], the [[First Indochina War]], the [[Malayan Emergency]], the [[Vietnam War]], the [[Soviet–Afghan War]], and [[Operation Condor]]. [[NATO]] was founded as an anti-communist military alliance in 1949, and continued throughout the Cold War.

After the [[Revolutions of 1989]] and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, most of the world's communist governments were overthrown, and the Cold War ended. Nevertheless, anti-communism remains an important intellectual element of many contemporary political movements. Organized anti-communist movements remain in opposition to the People's Republic of China and other [[communist state]]s.

== Anti-communist movements ==
=== Left-wing anti-communism ===
{{See also|Anti-Stalinist Left}}

[[File:Three Arrows election poster of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, 1932 - Gegen Papen, Hitler, Thälmann.png|thumb|A widely publicized election poster of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] from 1932, with the Three Arrows symbol representing resistance against [[reactionary]] conservatism, [[Nazism]] and [[communism]], alongside the slogan "Against [[Franz von Papen|Papen]], [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]], [[Ernst Thälmann|Thälmann]]"]]

Since the split of the communist parties from the socialist [[Second International]] to form the Marxist–Leninist [[Communist International|Third International]], [[Social democracy|social democrats]] have been critical of communism for its anti-liberal nature. Examples of left-wing critics of Marxist–Leninist states and parties are [[Friedrich Ebert]], [[Boris Souvarine]], [[George Orwell]], [[Bayard Rustin]], [[Irving Howe]], and [[Max Shachtman]]. The [[American Federation of Labor]] was always strongly anti-communist. The more leftist [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] purged its communists in 1947 and was staunchly anti-communist afterwards.<ref>{{Cite book |last=A. Levenstein |first=Harvey |url=https://archive.org/details/communismanticom0000leve |title=Communism, Anticommunism, and the CIO |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-313-22072-2 |location=Westport}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruotsila |first=Markka |title=British and American Anti-communism Before the Cold War |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7146-8177-1 |location=New York}}</ref> In Britain, the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] strenuously resisted Communist efforts to infiltrate its ranks and take control of locals in the 1930s. The Labour Party became anti-communist and Labour Prime Minister [[Clement Attlee]] was a staunch supporter of [[NATO]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Corthorn |first=Paul |url=https://archive.org/details/britishlabourpar0000unse_v3u5 |title=British Labour Party and the Wider World: Domestic Politics, Internationalism and Foreign Policy |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-85771-111-3 |editor-last=Corthon |editor-first=Paul |location=London |chapter=The Labour Party in the Era of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939–41 |editor-last2=Davis |editor-first2=Jonathan}}</ref>

Despite [[anarchist communism]] being an anarchist school of thought, there are also anarchists who oppose communism. Anti-communist anarchists include [[Anarcho-primitivism|anarcho-primitivists]] and other [[Green anarchism|green anarchists]], who critique communism for its need of industrialisation and its perceived authoritarianism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fuck Your Red Revolution |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ziq-fuck-your-red-revolution-against-ecocide-towards-anarchy |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=November 2024}}

=== Liberalism ===
{{See also|Congress for Cultural Freedom|Cold War liberal|Classical liberalism}}
In ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'', [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]] outlined some provisional short-term measures that could be steps towards [[Communist society|communism]]. They noted that "these measures will, of course, be different in different countries. Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Communist Manifesto (Chapter 2) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> [[Ludwig von Mises]] described this as a "10-point plan" for the redistribution of land and production and argued that the initial and ongoing forms of redistribution constitute direct coercion.<ref>Von Mises, Ludwig (1949). ''Human Action''.</ref> Neither Marx's 10-point plan nor the rest of the manifesto say anything about who has the right to carry out the plan.<ref>Potichnyj, Peter J.; Zacek, Jane Shapiro (1983). ''Politics and Participation under Communist Rule''.</ref> [[Milton Friedman]] argued that the absence of voluntary economic activity makes it too easy for repressive political leaders to grant themselves coercive powers. Friedman's view was also shared by [[Friedrich Hayek]] and [[John Maynard Keynes]], both of whom believed that capitalism is vital for freedom to survive and thrive.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hayek|first=Friedrich|title=The Road to Serfdom|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1944|isbn=0-226-32061-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bellamy|first=Richard|title=The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=0-521-56354-2|page=60}}</ref> [[Ayn Rand]] was strongly anti-communist.<ref>Mayhew, Robert (2004). ''Ayn Rand and Song of Russia: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood''.</ref> She argued that Communist leaders typically claim to work for the common good, but many or all of them were corrupt and totalitarian.<ref>Rand, Ayn (1966). ''[[Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal]]''. New American Library.</ref>

At the end of [[World War I]], [[Liberal internationalism|liberal internationalists]] developed an early opposition to the Bolshevik regime, which they saw as betraying the war effort with peace with Germany, followed by annexed portions of the Soviet Union losing their self-determination.<ref name="Powers-1998">{{Cite book|last=Powers|first=Richard Gid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_LbUSH0N1sC|title=Not without honor : the history of American anticommunism|date=1998|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-07470-0|location=New Haven|pages=12–17, 141–142, 214|oclc=39245533}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=12–17}} Later, knowledge of Stalinist [[show trial]]s and other repressions in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], from 1922 onward, led to a liberal anti-communist consensus by the start of WWII, which temporarily gave way during the WWII alliance with the Soviet Union.<ref name="Powers-1998" />{{Rp|pages=141–142}} Historian Richard Powers distinguishes two main forms of anti-communism during the period, ''liberal anti-communism'' and ''countersubversive anti-communism''. The countersubversives, he argues, derived from a pre-WWII [[Isolationism|isolationist]] tradition on the right. Liberal anti-communists believed that political debate was enough to show Communists as disloyal and irrelevant, while countersubversive anticommunists believed that Communists had to be exposed and punished.<ref name="Powers-1998" />{{Rp|page=214}}

[[Cold War liberal]]s supported the growth of [[Trade union|labor unions]], the [[Civil rights movement|Civil Rights Movement]], and the [[War on poverty|War on Poverty]] and simultaneously opposed what they saw as Communist totalitarianism abroad. As such, they supported efforts to [[Containment|contain]] Soviet communism and other forms of communism.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Müller|first=Jan-Werner|title=What Cold War Liberalism Can Teach Us Today|url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/11/26/what-cold-war-liberalism-can-teach-us-today/|access-date=2021-12-15|website=The New York Review of Books|date=26 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

President [[Harry S. Truman|Harry Truman]] formulated the [[Truman Doctrine]] to stop Soviet expansionism. Truman also called [[Joseph McCarthy]] "the greatest asset the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] has," for dividing the bipartisan foreign policy of the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|title=President Harry S. Truman Responds to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's Accusations of Disloyalty|url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/8078|access-date=2021-12-15|website=historymatters.gmu.edu}}</ref> Liberal anti-communists like [[Edward Shils]] and [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan|Daniel Moynihan]] had a contempt for McCarthyism. As Moynihan put it, "reaction to McCarthy took the form of a modish [[anti anti-communism]] that considered impolite any discussion of the very real threat Communism posed to Western values and security." After revelations of [[Soviet espionage in the United States|Soviet spy networks]] from the declassified [[Venona project]], Moynihan wondered: "Might less secrecy have prevented the liberal overreaction to McCarthyism as well as McCarthyism itself?"<ref name="Moynihan-1998" />

Chancellor [[Konrad Adenauer]], who presided over postwar [[West Germany]] as a market liberal democracy, signaled that the Soviet Union was the "greatest threat to liberty", an idea that exerted major domestic and international influence.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Conference Report: "Western integration, German unification and the Cold War – The Adenauer Era in perspective |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/conference-report-western-integration-german-unification-and-the-cold-war-the-adenauer-era |date=April 4, 2006 |first1=William |last1=Patch |access-date=2021-12-15|website=Wilson Center |language=en}}</ref>

After the fall of [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]] and the Soviet Union in [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|1991]], the anti-communist movement grew rapidly.

In the early 1990s, many new anti-communist movements emerged in the [[Eastern Bloc|former Soviet bloc]] as a result of failed elections and [[Boris Yeltsin]]'s Palace Coup. When this seizure of power occurred, more than thirty electoral blocs set out to contest the election.<ref name="Blunden 1993" /> Some of these anti-Stalinist groups were: [[Democratic Choice of Russia – United Democrats|Choice of Russia]], the [[Civic Union for Stability, Justice & Progress]], [[Constructive Ecological Movement]], [[Russian Democratic Reform Movement]], [[Dignity and Mercy]], and [[Women of Russia]].<ref name="Blunden 1993" /> Even though these movements were not successful in contesting the election, they displayed how there was still a strong support of anti-communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. All of these movements were all critical of the Stalinist policy of the USSR, and some leftist parties and organizations within the movements called it an "unmitigated disaster for socialists"<ref name="Ticktin" />

=== Former communists ===
[[Milovan Djilas]] was a former [[Yugoslavs|Yugoslav]] communist official who became a prominent dissident and critic of communism.<ref>{{cite news|last=Schmemann|first=Serge|date=April 21, 1995|title=Milovan Djilas, Yugoslav Critic of Communism, Dies at 83|work=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|430121573}}}}</ref> [[Leszek Kołakowski]] was a Polish communist who became a famous anti-communist. He was best known for his critical analyses of [[Marxism|Marxist]] thought, especially his acclaimed three-volume history, ''[[Main Currents of Marxism]]'', which is "considered by some<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5418361.ece|title=The hundred most influential books since the war TLS|date=19 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619010636/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5418361.ece |archive-date=19 June 2010 }}</ref> to be one of the most important books on political theory of the 20th century".<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8157014.stm "Polish anti-Marxist thinker dies"], Adam Easton, BBC News, 17 July 2009.</ref> ''[[The God That Failed]]'' is a 1949 book which collects together six essays with the testimonies of a number of famous former communists who were writers and journalists. The common theme of the essays is the authors' disillusionment with and abandonment of communism. The promotional [[byline]] to the book is "Six famous men tell how they changed their minds about communism." [[Anatoliy Golitsyn]] and [[Oleg Kalugin]] were both former [[KGB]] officers, the latter being a general. [[Dmitri Volkogonov]] was a Soviet general who got access to soviet archives following [[glasnost]], and wrote a critical biography dismantling the cult of [[Lenin]] by refuting [[Leninism|Leninist]] ideology.

[[Whittaker Chambers]] was a former spy for the Soviet Union who testified against his fellow spies before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]];<ref>{{cite book |last=Chambers |given=Whittaker |title=Witness |url=https://archive.org/details/witnessw00cham |url-access=registration |publisher=Random House |year=1952 |isbn=0-89526-571-0}}</ref> [[Bella Dodd]] was another American anticommunist.

Other anti-communists who were once Marxists include the writers [[Max Eastman]], [[John Dos Passos]], [[James Burnham]], [[Morrie Ryskind]], [[Frank Meyer (political philosopher)|Frank Meyer]], [[Will Herberg]], [[Sidney Hook]],<ref>[[John Patrick Diggins|John Diggins]], ''Up From Communism'', Harper & Row, 1975.</ref> the contributors to the book ''The God That Failed'': [[Louis Fischer]], [[André Gide]], [[Arthur Koestler]], [[Ignazio Silone]], [[Stephen Spender]] [[Tajar Zavalani]] and [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]].<ref>[[Richard Crossman]], ''[[The God That Failed]]'' (1949).</ref> Anti-communists who were once socialists, liberals or [[social democracy|social democrats]] include [[John Chamberlain (journalist)|John Chamberlain]],<ref>John Chamberlain, ''A Life With the Printed Word'', Regnery, 1982, p. 136.</ref> [[Friedrich Hayek]],<ref>[[Friedrich Hayek]], ''[[The Fatal Conceit]]: The Errors of Socialism'', 1988.</ref> [[Raymond Moley]],<ref>[[Raymond Moley]], ''After Seven Years'', 1939.</ref> [[Norman Podhoretz]], [[David Horowitz]], and [[Irving Kristol]].<ref>[[Irving Kristol]], ''Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea'', 1995.</ref>

=== Counter-revolutionary movements ===
{{See also|Counter-revolutionary|White movement}}
[[File:За единую Россію.jpg|thumb|left|White propaganda poster "For united Russia" representing the Bolsheviks as a fallen communist dragon and the White cause as a crusading knight]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1971-091-20, Kapp-Putsch, Marine-Brigade Erhardt.jpg|thumb|The [[Freikorps]] were anti-communist right-wing paramilitaries (which were essential in fighting against and dismantling the [[German Revolution of 1918–19|communist revolution in Germany between 1918 and 1919]]) who are widely seen as a precursor to [[Nazism]] and responsible for the assassination of [[Rosa Luxemburg]] and [[Karl Liebknecht]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/books/the-women-they-feared.html|title=THE WOMEN THEY FEARED|first=Paul|last=Robinson|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 June 1987}}</ref>]]
A wave of revolutionary impulses since the [[French Revolution]] that had swept over Europe and other parts of the world and thus also created as a counter-revolutionary reaction. Historian [[James H. Billington]] describes, in the book [[Fire in the Minds of Men]], the historical frame of revolutions that extended from the waning of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century and that culminated in the [[Russian Revolution]]. Most exiled Russian [[White émigré]] that included exiled [[Liberalism in Russia|Russian liberals]] were actively anti-communist in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glebov |first=Serguei |date=2000 |title='Congresses of Russia Abroad' in the 1920s and the Politics of Émigré Nationalism: A Liberal Survival |journal=Ab Imperio |issue=3/4 |pages=159–185 |doi=10.1353/imp.2000.0010}}</ref>

In Britain, anti-communism was widespread among the British foreign policy elite in the 1930s with its strong upperclass connections.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strang |first=G. Bruce |date=2008 |title=The Spirit of Ulysses? Ideology and British Appeasement in the 1930s |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=481–526 |doi=10.1080/09592290802344970}}</ref> The upper-class [[Cliveden set]] was strongly anti-communist in Britain.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Quigley |first=Carroll |title=Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time |title-link=Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time |publisher=Macmillan |year=1966 |location=New York |pages=619 |lccn=65013589}}</ref> In the United States, anti-communist fervor was at its highest during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when a [[Hollywood blacklist]] was established, the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] held the televised [[Army–McCarthy hearings]], led by Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]], and the [[John Birch Society]] was formed.

==== White movement in Russia ====
{{Main|White movement}}{{More sources needed|date=May 2025}}
The [[White movement]] was one of the main factions in the [[Russian Civil War]] that fought against the communist [[Bolsheviks]], also known as the ''Reds'', and against the [[Pro-independence movements in the Russian Civil War|pro-independence nationalist movements]] of the former [[Russian Empire]] and other factions. After the civil war, the movement continued operating to a lesser extent as militarized associations of insurrectionists both outside and within Russian borders in [[Siberia]] until roughly [[World War II]]. During [[World War II]], some of the former White commanders attempted to continue the struggle by the means of [[collaboration with Nazi Germany]].
[[File:Volunteer Army poster.jpg|thumb|Propaganda poster of the Russian Whites, contrasting its positive ideal of a "Holy" Christian Russia to Soviet Russia of the Bolsheviks; the Bolsheviks are marked with Jewish facial traits]]
Generally, the movement was unified on an [[Right-wing dictatorship|authoritarian-right]] platform around the figure of the naval officer [[Alexander Kolchak]] who held the title of the [[Supreme Ruler of Russia]] and headed the [[military dictatorship]] of the Whites; although the White movement included a variety of political opinions in Russia opposed to the Bolsheviks, from the republican-minded liberals through monarchists to the [[ultra-nationalist]] [[Black Hundreds]], and did not have a universally-accepted leader or doctrine, the main force behind the movement were the conservative officers, and the resulting movement shared many traits with widespread right-wing counter-revolutionary movements of the time, namely nationalism, racism, distrust of liberal and democratic politics, clericalism, contempt for the common man and dislike of industrial civilization. It generally defended the order of pre-revolutionary Imperial Russia, although the ideal of the movement was a mythical "Holy Russia", what was a mark of its religious understanding of the world; it sought the restoration of imperial state borders and denied the right to self-determination. The movement is associated with pogroms and antisemitism, and it was typical among the White generals [[Jewish Bolshevism|to believe that the Revolution was a result of a Jewish conspiracy]].

Following the military defeat of the Whites, [[Russian All-Military Union|remnants]] and [[National Alliance of Russian Solidarists|continuations]] of the movement remained in several organizations, some of which only had narrow support, enduring within the wider [[White émigré]] overseas community until after the fall of the European communist states in the [[Revolutions of 1989]] and the subsequent [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1990–1991. This community-in-exile of anti-communists often divided into liberal-leaning and conservative-leaning segments, with some still hoping for the restoration of the [[House of Romanov|Romanov dynasty]]. Two claimants to the empty throne emerged during the Civil War,  [[Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich]] of Russia and [[Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856–1929)|Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia]].

=== Fascism ===
[[File:March on Rome.jpg|thumb|Mussolini and the Fascist paramilitary Blackshirts' [[March on Rome]] in October 1922]]
{{See also|Fascism}}
{{Integralism}}
Fascism is often considered to be a reaction to communist and socialist uprisings in Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://ia801502.us.archive.org/21/items/B-001-014-172/B-001-014-172.pdf |title=Fascism: A Reader's Guide — Analyses, Interpretations, Bibliography |publisher=University of California Press |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-520-03033-6 |editor-last=Laqueur |editor-first=Walter |location=Berkeley |pages=16–17}}</ref> [[Italian Fascism]], founded and led by [[Benito Mussolini]], took power after years of leftist unrest led many disgruntled conservatives to fear that a communist revolution was inevitable. [[Nazi Germany]]'s massacres and killings included the persecution of communists<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1933/mar/21/fromthearchive|title=Communists to be interned in Dachau|author=Guardian Staff|date=21 March 1933|work=The Guardian|access-date=30 November 2019|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/camps.htm|title=Holocaust Timeline: The Camps|website=Fcit.usf.edu|access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref> and among the first to be sent to concentration camps.<ref name="Wachsmann-2015">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzKdBAAAQBAJ&q=A+History+of+the+Nazi+Concentration+Camps.|title=KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps|last=Wachsmann|first=Nikolaus|year=2015|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-1-4299-4372-7|pages=31}}</ref>

[[File:Eino Niemisen pahoinpitely.jpg|thumb|Members of the [[Lapua Movement]] assaulting a former [[Red Guards (Finland)|Red officer]] and the publisher of the [[Communism|communist]] newspaper at the [[Vaasa riot]] on June 4, 1930, in [[Vaasa]], [[Finland]]]]
In Europe, numerous right and far-right activists including conservative intellectuals, capitalists and industrialists were vocal opponents of communism. During the late 1930s and the 1940s, several other anti-communist regimes and groups supported fascism. These included the [[Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS]] in Spain; the [[Vichy France|Vichy regime]] and the [[Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism]] (''[[Wehrmacht]]'' Infantry Regiment 638) in France; and in South America movements such as the [[Argentine Anticommunist Alliance]] and [[Brazilian Integralism]].

=== Nazism ===
Historians [[Ian Kershaw]] and [[Joachim Fest]] argue that in the early 1920s the [[Nazis]] were only one of many nationalist and fascist political parties contending for the leadership of Germany's anti-communist movement. The Nazis only came to dominance during the [[Great Depression]], when they organized street battles against German Communist formations. When [[Adolf Hitler]] came to power in 1933, his propaganda chief [[Joseph Goebbels]] set up the "[[Anti-Komintern]]". It published massive amounts of [[anti-Bolshevik propaganda]], with the goal of demonizing [[Bolshevism]] and the Soviet Union before a worldwide audience.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor = 30036470|title = The Anti-Komintern and Nazi Anti-Bolshevik Propaganda in the 1930s|journal = Journal of Contemporary History|volume = 42|issue = 4|pages = 573–594|last1 = Waddington|first1 = Lorna L.|year = 2007|doi = 10.1177/0022009407081488|s2cid = 159672850}}</ref>

In 1936, Nazi Germany and [[Imperial Japan]] signed the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]]. Italy joined as a signatory in 1937 and other countries in or affiliated with the [[Axis Powers]] such as [[Finland]] and [[Francoist Spain|Spain]] joined in 1941. In the first article of the treaty, Germany and Japan agreed to share information about Comintern activities and to plan their operations against such activities jointly. In the second article, the two parties opened the possibility of extending the pact to other countries "whose domestic peace is endangered by the disruptive activities of the Communist Internationale". Such invitations to third parties would be undertaken jointly and after the expressed consent by both parties.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Presseisen |first=Ernest L. |title=Germany and Japan: A Study in Totalitarian Diplomacy, 1933–1941 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff |year=1958 |series=International Scholars Forum |volume=12 |location=The Hague |pages=327}}</ref>

Communists were among the first people targeted by the Nazis, with [[Dachau concentration camp]] when it first opened being for the holding of communists, leading socialists and other "enemies of the state" in 1933.<ref name="MNNQuote">{{cite journal |title=Ein Konzentrationslager für politische Gefangene in der Nähe von Dachau |url=http://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/images/photo02.jpg |journal=Münchner Neueste Nachrichten ("The Munich Latest News") |date=21 March 1933 |publisher=The Holocaust History Project |language=de |quote=The Munich Chief of Police, Himmler, has issued the following press announcement: On Wednesday the first concentration camp is to be opened in Dachau with an accommodation for 5000 persons. 'All Communists and—where necessary—Reichsbanner and Social Democratic functionaries who endanger state security are to be concentrated here, as in the long run it is not possible to keep individual functionaries in the state prisons without overburdening these prisons, and on the other hand these people cannot be released because attempts have shown that they persist in their efforts to agitate and organise as soon as they are released.' |access-date=8 May 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171129141626/http://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/images/photo02.jpg |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Bolschewismus ohne Mask.png|thumb|left|Nazi German propaganda poster "Bolshevism without the Mask", 1937. The "[[Jewish Bolshevism]]" conspiracy theory was a major part of Nazi propaganda, and [[the Holocaust]] was justified as a part of the anti-Communist struggle.]]
Among the motivations for [[the Holocaust]], the systematic extermination of the Jewish people, was the belief shared both by the Nazis and by the German army that Jews were responsible for Communism ("Bolshevism"), which they perceived as a threat to the "[[Western Civilization]]"; thus, extermination of the Jewry, the alleged racial root of Communism, was justified as a part of anti-Communist struggle. The understanding of "Bolshevism" as a Jewish conspiracy originated in the interwar period, during which the right-wing propaganda spread antisemitism through the so-called "[[Stab-in-the-back myth]]" which blamed the Jews for the defeat of Germany in World War I and for the 1918 Revolution. The identification of "Bolshevism" with the Jewry became generally accepted in Nazi Germany, and during World War II, the extermination of the Jews as a war against communism and Nazi mass killings were justified even by the army commanders who did not share the ideology of Nazism. More to it, the Jewry was identified with the anti-Fascist partisan movements in the occupied territories, and the extermination of the Jews was justified as measures of [[counterinsurgency]] and self-defense against an armed enemy.<ref name="holocaust">{{cite book |author1=Mineau |first=André |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=reB9EAAAQBAJ |title=The Making of the Holocaust: Ideology and Ethics in the Systems Perspective |publisher=[[Brill (publisher)|Brill]] |year=2022 |isbn=978-90-04-49491-6 |location=Leiden |page=122}}</ref>

== Religions ==
=== Buddhism ===
{{See also|Criticism of Buddhism|Persecution of Buddhists#Persecution under Communism|l3=Persecution of Buddhists under communist regimes}}
[[Thích Huyền Quang]] was a prominent Vietnamese [[Bhikkhu|Buddhist monk]] and anti-communist dissident. In 1977, Quang wrote a letter to Prime Minister [[Phạm Văn Đồng]] detailing accounts of oppression by the Marxist–Leninist regime. For this, he and five other senior monks were arrested and detained.<ref name="hdvnbtdt.org">{{Cite web |title=VOICES OF CONSCIENCE: The Most Ven. Thich Huyen Quang |url=http://www.hdvnbtdt.org/article.php3?id_article=109 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030915171105/http://www.hdvnbtdt.org/article.php3?id_article=109 |archive-date=15 September 2003 |access-date=12 May 2025 |website=Vietnamese Federation for Fatherland's Integrity}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Website run by an incredibly obscure, defunct organization based in Garden Grove; surely, if this guy is notable enough to warrant inclusion here, there must be higher-quality sources out there|date=May 2025}} In 1982, Quang was arrested and subsequently placed under permanent [[house arrest]] for opposition to government policy after publicly denouncing the establishment of the state-controlled [[Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam|Vietnam Buddhist Sangha]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/07/06/asia/OUKWD-UK-VIETNAM-MONK.php|title=Breaking News, World News & Multimedia|website=International Herald Tribune}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> [[Thích Quảng Độ]] was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and an anti-communist dissident. In January 2008, the Europe-based magazine ''[[A Different View]]'' chose Thích Quảng Độ as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy.

=== Christianity ===
{{See also|Clerical collaboration with communist secret services|Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc|Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union}}
[[File:CDU Wahlkampfplakat - kaspl010.JPG|thumb|Anti-communist propaganda in West Germany in 1953: "All ways of Marxism lead to Moscow! Therefore [[CDU/CSU|CDU]]"]]
The [[Catholic Church]] has a long history of anti-communism. The most recent [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] states: "The Catholic Church has rejected the [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] and [[State atheism|atheistic]] ideologies that have been associated with 'communism' in modern times.{{nbsp}}... Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds{{nbsp}}... [Still,] reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2425.htm|title=CCC Search Result – Paragraph # 2425|website=scborromeo.org}}</ref>

[[Pope John Paul II]] was a harsh critic of communism,<ref>{{cite web |last=Sadler |first=Brent |date=21 January 1998 |title=Pope John Paul's crusade against communism |url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/21/papal.politics/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000930000954/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/21/papal.politics/index.html |archive-date=30 September 2000 |website=CNN}}</ref> as was [[Pope Pius IX]], who issued a [[pope|Papal]] [[encyclical]], entitled ''[[Quanta cura]]'', in which he called "communism and Socialism" the most fatal error.<ref>[[Pius IX]]. ''Quanta cura'' (Condemning Current Errors). 8 December 1864. Retrieved 27 November 2007 from [http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P9QUANTA.htm EWTN.com].<!-- How would one cite a papal encyclical in CS1 style? --></ref> Popes' anti-communist stances were carried on in Italy by the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] (DC), the centrist party founded by [[Alcide De Gasperi]] in 1943, which dominated Italian politics for almost fifty years, until its dissolution in 1993,<ref name="CottaVerzichelli">{{cite book |last1=Cotta |first1=Maurizio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-FAZHBDqggC&pg=PA38 |title=Political Institutions in Italy |last2=Verzichelli |first2=Luca |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-928470-2 |page=38}}</ref> preventing the [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI) from reaching power.<ref>{{cite book |last1=De Rosa |first1=Gabriele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vfy1jCEj64C |title=L'Italia repubblicana nella crisi degli anni Settanta: Sistema politico e istitutzioni |last2=Monina |first2=Giancarlo |date=2003 |publisher=Rubbettino Editore |isbn=978-88-498-0753-0 |location=Soveria Mannelli |page=79 |language=it |trans-title=Republican Italy in the Crisis of the Seventies: Political System and Institutions}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cortesi |first=Luigi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vUf-ozFKkw8C |title=Le origini del PCI: studi e interventi sulla storia del comunismo in Italia |date=1999 |publisher=FrancoAngeli |isbn=978-88-464-1300-0 |location=Milan |page=301 |language=it |trans-title=The Origins of the PCI: Studies and Interventions on the History of Communism in Italy}}</ref>

From [[1945]] onward, the [[Australian Labor Party]] (ALP) leadership accepted the assistance of an anti-communist Roman Catholic movement, led by [[B. A. Santamaria]] to oppose alleged communist subversion of Australian trade unions, of which Catholics were an important traditional support base. [[Bert Cremean]], Deputy Leader of State Parliamentary Labor Party and Santamaria, met with ALP's political and industrial leaders to discuss the movements assisting their opposition to what they alleged was Communist subversion of Australian [[trade unionism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McManus |first=Frank |title=The Tumult and the Shouting |publisher=Rigby Limited |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-7270-0219-8 |location=Adelaide |pages=35–38}}</ref> To oppose Communist infiltration of unions, [[Industrial Groups]] were formed. The groups were active from 1945 to 1954, with the knowledge and support of the ALP leadership,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kane |first=Jack |title=Exploding the Myths: The Political Memoirs of Jack Kane |publisher=Angus & Robertson |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-207-16169-8 |location=North Ryde |pages=18–37}}</ref> until after Labor's loss of the 1954 election, when federal leader [[H. V. Evatt]] in the context of his response to the [[Petrov affair]] blamed "subversive" activities of the "Groupers" for the defeat. After bitter public dispute, many Groupers (including most members of the [[New South Wales]] and [[Victoria (Australia)|Victorian]] state executives and most Victorian Labor branches) were expelled from the ALP and formed the [[Democratic Labor Party (Australia, 1955)|historical Democratic Labor Party]] (DLP). In an attempt to force the ALP reform and remove alleged Communist influence, with a view to then rejoining the "purged" ALP, the DLP [[Electoral system of Australia#Preferential voting|preferenced]] the [[Liberal Party of Australia]] (LPA), enabling them to remain in power for over two decades. The strategy was unsuccessful and after the [[Whitlam government]] during the 1970s the majority of the DLP decided to wind up the party in 1978, although the small federal and state-based [[Democratic Labor Party (Australia, 1955)|Democratic Labour Party]] continued based in Victoria, with state parties reformed in New South Wales and [[Queensland]] in 2008.

After the [[Soviet occupation of Hungary]] during the final stages of the Second World War, many clerics were arrested. The case of the [[Archbishop]] [[József Mindszenty]] of [[Esztergom]], head of the Catholic Church in Hungary, was the most known. He was accused of treason to the Communist ideas and was sent to trials and tortured during several years between 1949 and 1956. During the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] against Marxism–Leninism and Soviet control, Mindszenty was set free and after the failure of the movement he was forced to move to the United States' embassy in [[Budapest]], where he lived until 1971 when the Vatican and the Marxist–Leninist government of Hungary arranged his way out to Austria. In the following years, Mindszenty travelled all over the world visiting the Hungarian colonies in Canada, United States, Germany, Austria, South Africa and Venezuela. He led a high critical campaign against the Leninist regime denouncing the atrocities committed by them against him and the Hungarian people. The Leninist government accused him and demanded that the Vatican remove him the title of Archbishop of Esztergom and forbid him to make public speeches against communism. The Vatican eventually annulled the [[excommunication]] imposed on his political opponents and stripped him of his titles. [[Pope Paul VI]], who declared the Archdiocese of Esztergom officially vacated, refused to fill the seat while Mindszenty was still alive.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Közi Horváth |first=József |url=https://katolikus.hu/dokumentumtar/kozi-horvath-jozsef-mindszenty-biboros |title=Mindszenty bíboros |publisher=Mindszenty Memorial Committee |year=1980 |isbn=978-615-80582-6-1 |location=Munich |language=hu |trans-title=Cardinal Mindszenty}}</ref>

According to the [[The Christian Science Monitor|Christian Science Monitor]], [[Gao Zhisheng]], a Christian lawyer in China, is "one of the most persistent and courageous thorns" against China under communist rule.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Gao Zhisheng: One year later, China still mum on missing lawyer |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0204/Gao-Zhisheng-One-year-later-China-still-mum-on-missing-lawyer |access-date=2024-06-29 |work=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729}}</ref> Gao gained acclaim for challenging the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) by defending coal miners, migrant workers, political activists, and people persecuted for their religious beliefs, including Christians and [[Persecution of Falun Gong|Falun Gong]] adherents.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-08-13 |title="The Bravest Lawyer in China" – Gao Zhisheng |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/08/bravest-lawyer-china-gao-zhisheng/ |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=Amnesty International |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=WITHOUT A TRACE |url=https://chinaaid.org/prisoners/gao-zhisheng/ |access-date=June 29, 2024 |website=ChinaAid|date=August 2023 |author1=Chinaaid }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sun |first=Cheng |date=August 15, 2023 |title=Rights groups call for release of Chinese lawyer who's been missing for 6 years |url=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-missing-lawyer-08152023131015.html |access-date=June 29, 2024 |website=Radio Free Asia}}</ref> According to [[ChinaAid.org|ChinaAid]], a U.S.-based Christian rights group, in 2006, Gao was sentenced to a suspended three-year sentence for "[[Inciting subversion of state power|incitement to subversion]]"<ref name=":0" /> against the communist state, and ultimately was imprisoned in [[Xinjiang]] in December 2011.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=AsiaNews.it |title=Gao Zhisheng, missing for seven years in China's prison system |url=https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Gao-Zhisheng,-missing-for-seven-years-in-China%E2%80%99s-prison-system-60627.html |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=www.asianews.it |language=en}}</ref> Released from prison in August 2014, he was placed under house arrest. In a memoir published in 2016, Gao recounted the torture sessions and three years of solitary confinement, during which he said he was sustained by his Christian faith and his hopes for China.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 14, 2016 |title=Chinese Dissident Lawyer Launches Prison Memoir Detailing Torture, Solitary |url=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/chinese-dissident-lawyer-launches-prison-memoir-detailing-torture-solitary-06142016111116.html |access-date=June 29, 2024 |website=Radio Free Asia}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Gao predicted that the communist rule of China would end in 2017, a revelation he reportedly received from God.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lodge |first=Carey |date=2015-11-11 |title=Gao Zhisheng: Chinese Communist Party will 'collapse and die' by 2017 |url=https://www.christiantoday.com/article/gao-zhisheng-chinese-communist-party-will-collapse-and-die-by-2017/70282.htm |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=www.christiantoday.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Forsythe |first=Michael |date=2016-06-14 |title=Incendiary Memoir by Chinese Rights Lawyer Reaches Bookshelves Abroad |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/world/asia/china-gao-zhisheng-book.html |access-date=2024-06-29 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Gao was "[[Enforced disappearance|disappeared]]" in August 2017. As of April 2024, his family has not heard from him or about his whereabouts since his disappearance.<ref name=":2" />

=== Sikhism ===
In the Indian state of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]], communism was opposed by the [[Damdami Taksal]] order of Sikhs. Communism was weakened after [[Sikh]] youth who had become communists were reinitiated into [[Sikhism]] and initiated into the [[Khalsa]] by the influence of Damdami Taksal [[Jathedar]] [[Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale]]. Many communist party members and supporters were assassinated by [[Damdami Taksal|Taksalis]] and other Sikh militants.<ref>{{cite web |date=11 June 2021 |title=Decoding the Legacy of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale |url=https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/jarnail-singh-bhindranwale-harbhajan-jazzyb-operation-bluestar-sikhs-punjab#read-more}}</ref>

=== Falun Gong ===
{{See also|Falun Gong|Persecution of Falun Gong}}
[[File:A protest by Falun Dafa people to mark violence against women and men in China and CCP.jpg|thumb|An anti-communism demonstration by [[Falun Gong]] in Vancouver, [[British Columbia]], Canada, in 2005. The display in front of them details [[Human rights in China|Chinese human rights abuses]].]]
[[Falun Gong]] practitioners are against the [[Chinese Communist Party]]'s [[persecution of Falun Gong]]. In April 1999, over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered at the Communist Party headquarters ([[Zhongnanhai]]) in a silent protest following an [[history of Falun Gong#Zhongnanhai incident|incident]] in Tianjin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ownby |first=David |title=Controversial New Religions |title-link=Controversial New Religions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-515682-9 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |editor-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |edition=1st |location=New York |language=en |chapter=The Falun Gong: A New Religious Movement in Post-Mao China |editor-last2=Petersen |editor-first2=Jesper Aagaard |page=195}}</ref><ref name="ReidG">Reid, Graham (29 Apr – 5 May 2006) [http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3442/features/5972/nothing_left_to_lose.html "Nothing left to lose"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930160710/http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3442/features/5972/nothing_left_to_lose.html |date=30 September 2007 }}, ''New Zealand Listener''. Retrieved 6 July 2006.</ref><ref name="Schechter">Danny Schechter, ''Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?'', Akashic books: New York, 2001, p. 66.</ref> Two months later, the Communist Party banned the practice, initiated a security crackdown and launched a propaganda campaign against it.<ref name=heretical>{{cite web|url=http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engASA170112000|title=The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "heretical organizations"|date=23 March 2000|access-date=11 July 2003|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030711022606/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engASA170112000|archive-date=11 July 2003}}, [[Amnesty International]].</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/67820.pdf|title=CRS Report for Congress: China and Falun Gong|publisher=[[Congressional Research Service]]|author=Thomas Lum|date=25 May 2006}}</ref><ref name="wildgrass">Johnson, Ian, ''Wild Grass: three portraits of change in modern china'', Vintage (8 March 2005)</ref> Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners in China have reportedly been subjected to [[torture]],<ref name=heretical /> [[Arbitrary arrest and detention|arbitrary imprisonment]],<ref name="Leung">Leung, Beatrice (2002) 'China and Falun Gong: Party and society relations in the modern era', Journal of Contemporary China, 11:33, 761–784</ref> beatings, [[Unfree labour|forced labor]], [[Persecution of Falun Gong#Organ harvesting|organ harvesting]]<ref name=orgharv>[[David Kilgour]], [[David Matas]] (6 July 2006, revised 31 January 2007) [http://organharvestinvestigation.net/ "An Independent Investigation into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China"] (free in 22 languages) organharvestinvestigation.net.</ref> and [[Political abuse of psychiatry#China|psychiatric abuses]].<ref name=sunnygalli>Sunny Y. Lu, MD, PhD, and Viviana B. Galli, MD, "Psychiatric Abuse of Falun Gong Practitioners in China", ''J Am Acad Psychiatry Law'', 30:126–130, 2002.</ref><ref name=munro2002>Robin J. Munro, "Judicial Psychiatry in China and its Political Abuses", ''Columbia Journal of Asian Law'', [[Columbia University]], Volume 14, Number 1, Fall 2000, p. 114.</ref> Falun Gong responded with their own media campaign and have emerged as a notable voice of dissent against the Communist Party by founding organizations such as the far-right ''[[Epoch Times]]'', [[New Tang Dynasty Television]] and others that criticize the Communist Party.<ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119508926438693540 "Chinese dissidents take on Beijing via Media Empire"], ''The Wall Street Journal''.</ref>

Falun Gong activists repeatedly alleged that they were tortured while they were in custody. The Chinese government rejects the allegations, stating that deaths which occurred in custody occurred due to factors such as natural causes and the refusal to accept medical treatment.<ref name="Kavan">{{cite web|url=https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Colleges/College%20of%20Business/Communication%20and%20Journalism/ANZCA%202008/Refereed%20Papers/Kavan_ANZCA08.pdf|title=Falun Gong in the media: What can we believe?|last=Kavan|first=Heather}}</ref> According to David Ownby, "[t]he Chinese government has suppressed movements like the Falun Gong hundreds of times over the course of [[History of China|Chinese history]]", adding that the Chinese Communist government did "the same thing the imperial state had always done, which was to arrest and generally, not always, execute the leaders and pretend to reeducate the others and send them back home and hope that they would be good people from there on".<ref name="Kavan" />

Most of the information which the Western media obtains about Falun Gong is distributed by the Rachlin media group which is described as a public relations firm for Falun Gong.<ref name="Kavan" /> According to reports which were released by the Vienna Radio Network on July 12, [[Gunther von Hagens]], a famous German anatomist, recently held an exhibition of human bodies which provoked Falun Gong's allegations of live organ harvesting. Hagens held a news conference at which he confirmed that none of the human bodies exhibited had come from China. The statement made by Hagens refuted the Falun Gong's rumors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vienna.at/koerperwelten-ausstellung-dna-test-fuer-praeparate-gefordert/3637646|title=Körperwelten" –Ausstellung: DNA – Test für Präparate gefordert|website=Vienna.at|date=12 July 2013|access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ie.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/flg/t1137136.htm|title=Famous German Anatomist Refuted Falun Gong's Rumors on Live Organ Harvest (Photo)|website=Ie.china-embassy.org|access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref>

According to Chinese government officials, "[t]he allegations that Falun Gong members are being murdered in China for organ harvesting, as well as the Kilgour-Matas report, have long before been found false and proved to be nothing but a lie fabricated by a handful of anti-China people to tarnish China's reputation. The virulent accusations made during the hearing had already been robustly refuted seven years before, not only by Chinese authorities but also by diplomats and journalists of several other countries who conducted their own conscientious investigations in China, including officers and staff of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the U.S. Consulate-General in Shenyang".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ie.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/flg/t1059783.htm|title=Statement of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ireland on the latest attempts by Falun Gong to disseminate sensational rumours about "organ harvesting" in China|website=Ie.china-embassy.org|access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref>

In 2006, allegations emerged that a large number of Falun Gong practitioners [[Persecution of Falun Gong#Organ harvesting|had been killed to supply China's organ transplant industry]].<ref name=orgharv /><ref name=CGOH>Gutmann, Ethan. [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/824qbcjr.asp "China's Gruesome Organ Harvest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524133009/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/824qbcjr.asp |date=24 May 2012 }}, [[The Weekly Standard]], 24 November 2008</ref> The [[Kilgour-Matas report]] found that "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six-year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained" and concluded that "there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners".<ref name=orgharv /> [[Ethan Gutmann]] estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008.<ref name=Jay>[[Jay Nordlinger]] (25 August 2014) [http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nordlinger_gutmann08-25-14.html "Face The Slaughter: The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem, by Ethan Gutmann"], ''National Review''</ref><ref name=Tstar>Barbara Turnbull (21 October 2014) [https://www.thestar.com/life/2014/10/21/qa_author_and_analyst_ethan_gutmann_discusses_chinas_illegal_organ_trade.html "Q&A: Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China's illegal organ trade"] ''Toronto Star''</ref><ref name=Slaughter>Ethan Gutmann (August 2014) [https://www.amazon.com/The-Slaughter-Killings-Harvesting-Dissident/dp/161614940X The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem] "Average number of Falun Gong in Laogai System at any given time" Low estimate 450,000, High estimate 1,000,000 p 320. "Best estimate of Falun Gong harvested 2000 to 2008" 65,000 p. 322.</ref>

In 2009, courts in Spain and Argentina indicted senior Chinese officials for [[genocide]] and [[crimes against humanity]] for their role in orchestrating the suppression of Falun Gong.<ref name="reutersflg">Reuters, [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-china-falungong-idUSTRE5BM02B20091223 "Argentine judge asks China arrests over Falun Gong"], 22 December 2009.</ref><ref>Genocide Prevention Network, [http://www.genocidepreventionnow.org/GPNSearchResults/tabid/64/ctl/DisplayArticle/mid/400/aid/151/Default.aspx 'Spanish Court Indicts Chinese Leaders for Persecution of Falun Gong'].</ref><ref>[http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/11/14/espana/1258230601.html La Audiencia pide interrogar al ex presidente chino Jiang por genocidio], 14 November 2009</ref>

=== Unification Church ===
{{Main|Unification Church and politics}}

In the 1940s, [[Unification Church]] founder [[Sun Myung Moon]] cooperated with [[Communist Party of Korea]] members in support of the [[Korean independence movement]] against [[Imperial Japan]]. After the [[Korean War]] (1950–1953), he became an outspoken anti-communist.<ref name="moon-peace">{{cite book |last=Moon |first=Sun Myung |title=As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen |publisher=Gimm-Young Publishers |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7166-0299-6}}</ref>  Moon viewed the [[Cold War]] between liberal democracy and communism as the final conflict between God and [[Satan]], with divided Korea as its primary [[front line]].<ref>''Christianity: A Global History'', David Chidester, HarperCollins, 2001, {{ISBN|0062517708}}, 9780062517708, pages 514 to 515</ref>

Soon after its founding, the Unification Church began supporting anti-communist organizations, including the [[World League for Freedom and Democracy]] founded in 1966 in [[Taipei]], [[Republic of China]] (Taiwan), by [[Chiang Kai-shek]],<ref>''The World's Religions: Continuities and Transformations'', Peter B Clarke, Peter Beyer, Taylor & Francis, 2008 {{ISBN|1135211000}}, 9781135211004</ref>  and the [[Korean Culture and Freedom Foundation]], an international [[public diplomacy]] organization which also sponsored Radio Free Asia.<ref name="Korean denies influence peddling">{{cite news |title=Korean denies influence peddling |newspaper=Bangor Daily News |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19761102&id=y6kzAAAAIBAJ&pg=3422,903462 |access-date=21 March 2012}}</ref>  The Unification movement was criticized for its anti-communist activism by the [[mainstream media]] and the [[Alternative media|alternative press]], and many members of them said that it could lead to [[World War Three]] and a [[nuclear holocaust]]. The movement's anti-communist activities received financial support from Japanese millionaire and activist [[Ryōichi Sasakawa]].<ref name="Give and Forget">{{Cite web |title=CAUSA/The Downfall of Communism |url=http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Publications/SMM-Communism-060300/giveforget.html#chap2a |access-date=2022-08-10 |website=www.tparents.org}}</ref><ref name="The Resurrection of Reverend Moon">{{cite web |date=21 January 1992 |title=The Resurrection of Reverend Moon |url=http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/moontranscript2.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110107084418/http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/moontranscript2.shtml |archive-date=7 January 2011 |work=Frontline |publisher=PBS}}</ref><ref name="Sun Myung Moon Changes Robes">{{Cite news |last=Goodman |first=Walter |date=1992-01-21 |title=Review/Television; Sun Myung Moon Changes Robes |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/21/news/review-television-sun-myung-moon-changes-robes.html |access-date=2022-08-10 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In 1972, Moon predicted the [[decline of communism]], based on the teachings of his book, the ''[[Divine Principle]]'': "After 7,000 biblical years—6,000 years of restoration history plus the millennium, the time of completion—communism will fall in its 70th year. Here is the meaning of the year 1978. Communism, begun in 1917, could maintain itself approximately 60 years and reach its peak. So 1978 is the border line and afterward communism will decline; in the 70th year it will be altogether ruined. This is true. Therefore, now is the time for people who are studying communism to abandon it."<ref>[http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Books/sm-gww/GWW-07.htm The Way of Restoration], (April, 1972)</ref> In 1973, he called for an "automatic [[theocracy]]" to replace communism and solve "every political and economic situation in every field".<ref>''Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church'', [[Frederick Sontag]], [[Abingdon Press]], Jan 1, 1977, page 122</ref>  In 1975, Moon spoke at a government sponsored rally against potential North Korean military aggression on [[Yeouido Island]] in Seoul to an audience of around 1 million.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Quebedeaux |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8t-9yx3oG4kC&q=yoido+rally |title=Richard Quebedeaux, Lifestyle : Conversations with Members of Unification Church |year=1982 |publisher=Erick Rodriguez |isbn=978-0-932894-18-2 |access-date=9 October 2012}}</ref>

In 1976, Moon established [[News World Communications]], an international news media conglomerate which publishes ''[[The Washington Times]]'' newspaper in Washington, D.C., and newspapers in South Korea, Japan, and South America, partly to promote political conservatism. According to ''[[The Washington Post]]'', "the ''Times'' was established by Moon to combat communism and be a conservative alternative to what he perceived as the liberal bias of ''The Washington Post''."<ref name="Washington Post-ghosts">{{cite news |last=Ahrens |first=Frank |date=May 23, 2002 |title=Moon Speech Raises Old Ghosts as the Times Turns 20 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A60061-2002May22 |access-date=2009-08-16}}</ref> [[Bo Hi Pak]], called Moon's "right-hand man", was the founding president and the founding chairman of the board.<ref name="Washington Times Corporation 1992">Pak was founding president of the Washington Times Corporation (1982–1992), and founding chairman of the board. [[Bo Hi Pak]], Appendix B: Brief Chronology of the Life of Dr. Bo Hi Pak, in ''Messiah: My Testimony to Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Vol I'' by Bo Hi Pak (2000), Lanham, MD: University Press of America.</ref> Moon asked [[Richard L. Rubenstein]], a rabbi and college professor, to join its board of directors.<ref>"Rabbi Joins the Board of Moonie Newspaper", ''[[The Palm Beach Post]]'', May 21, 1978</ref> ''The Washington Times'' has often been noted for its generally pro-Israel editorial policies.<ref name="wrmea.com">[http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/1297/9712060.html As U.S. Media Ownership Shrinks, Who Covers Islam?], ''[[Washington Report on Middle East Affairs]]'', December 1997</ref> In 2002, during the 20th anniversary party for the ''Times'', Moon said: "The ''Washington Times'' will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world."<ref name="Washington Post-ghosts" />

In 1980, members founded [[CAUSA International]], an anti-communist educational organization based in New York City.<ref name="ReferenceE">"Moon's "Cause" Takes Aim At Communism in Americas." ''[[The Washington Post]]''. August 28, 1983</ref> In the 1980s, it was active in 21 countries. In the United States, it sponsored educational conferences for [[Evangelical Christianity|evangelical]] and [[Fundamentalist Christianity|fundamentalist]] Christian leaders<ref name="christianitytoday37">[http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/augustweb-only/8-6-37.0.html Sun Myung Moon's Followers Recruit Christians to Assist in Battle Against Communism] ''[[Christianity Today]]'', June 15, 1985</ref> as well as seminars and conferences for [[United States Senate|Senate]] staffers, [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Hispanic Americans]] and conservative activists.<ref name="washingtonpost.com">[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/unification/image.htm Church Spends Millions On Its Image], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 1984-09-17. "Another church political arm, Causa International, which preaches a philosophy it calls "God-ism," has been spending millions of dollars on expense-paid seminars and conferences for Senate staffers, Hispanic Americans and conservative activists. It also has contributed $500,000 to finance an anticommunist lobbying campaign headed by John T. (Terry) Dolan, chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC)."</ref> In 1986, CAUSA International sponsored the documentary film ''[[Nicaragua Was Our Home]]'', about the [[Miskito people|Miskito]] Indians of [[Nicaragua]] and their persecution at the hands of the Nicaraguan government. It was filmed and produced by USA-UWC member [[Lee Shapiro]], who later died while filming with anti-Soviet forces during the [[Soviet–Afghan War]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Corry |first=John |date=29 July 1986 |title=On 13, Sandinistas Vs. Miskitos |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/29/movies/on-13-sandinistas-vs-miskitos.html |access-date=19 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Revista Envío – How to Read the Reagan Administration: The Miskito Case |url=http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3245 |access-date=19 January 2019 |website=www.envio.org.ni}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=FAIR |url=https://fair.org/ |access-date=19 January 2019}}</ref><ref>[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40717F738590C7B8EDDA90994DF484D81 2 Americans Reported Killed In an Ambush in Afghanistan] ''[[The New York Times]]'', 1987-10-28</ref> At this time CAUSA international also directly assisted the [[Central Intelligence Agency|United States Central Intelligence Agency]] in supplying [[Contras|the Contras]], in addition to paying for flights by rebel leaders. CAUSA's aid to the Contras escalated after Congress cut off CIA funding for them. According to contemporary CIA reports, supplies for the anti-Sandinista forces and their families came from a variety of sources in the US ranging from Moon's Unification Church to U.S. politicians, evangelical groups and former military officers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 8, 1985 |title=PRIVATE GROUPS REPORT SURGE IN AID TO CONTRAS |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00552r000606200008-1 |access-date=January 3, 2023 |website=cia.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 22, 2016 |title='COVERT' WAR ON SANDINISTAS CHANGING HANDS |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000100130050-5 |access-date=January 3, 2023 |website=cia.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Jack |date=16 August 1984 |title=CIA, Moonies Cooperate in Sandinista War |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200028-8.pdf |access-date=January 3, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McGill |first=Peter |date=October 15, 2022 |title=The Dark Shadow Cast by Moon Sun Myung's Unification Church and Abe Shinzo |url=https://apjjf.org/2022/17/McGill.html |access-date=November 26, 2022 |website=The Asia-Pacific Journal {{!}} Japan Focus}}</ref>

In 1983, some American members joined a public protest against the [[Soviet Union]] in response to its shooting down of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Johnny |date=September 3, 1983 |title=Police chief dies at ballgame |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/29/PK2812ETF2.DTL |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |quote=For a second day, the Soviet Consulate in Pacific Heights was the scene of emotional protests against the shooting down of a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet. About 300 people held demonstration yesterday morning. Among them were members of the Unification Church, or "Moonies," whose founder is the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the South Korean who has melded a fierce anti-communism into his ideology. Eldridge Cleaver, the onetime black radical who recently has had ties with the Moonies, spoke at the rally. Many pickets carried signs accusing the Soviet Union of murdering the 269 passengers and crew aboard the airliner. In another development, San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli filed a $109 billion lawsuit against the Soviet Union on behalf of the 269 victims.}}</ref> In 1984, the HSA–UWC founded the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy, a Washington, D.C. [[think tank]] that underwrites conservative-oriented research and seminars at [[Stanford University]], the [[University of Chicago]], and other institutions.<ref name="Church Spends Millions On Its Image">{{cite news |last=Isikoff |first=Michael |date=September 17, 1984 |title=Church Spends Millions On Its Image |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/unification/image.htm |access-date=September 14, 2022}}</ref> In the same year, member [[Dan Fefferman]] founded the International Coalition for Religious Freedom in [[Virginia]], which is active in protesting what it considers to be threats to [[religious freedom]] by governmental agencies.<ref name="Ribadeneira-ire">{{cite news |last=Ribadeneira |first=Diego |date=August 21, 1999 |title=Ire at school Star of David ruling unites ACLU, Pat Robertson |page=B2 |work=[[The Boston Globe]]}}</ref> In August 1985, the [[Professors World Peace Academy]], an organization founded by Moon, sponsored a conference in [[Geneva]] to debate the theme "The situation in the world after the fall of the communist empire."<ref name="goliath.ecnext.com">[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-14440148/Projections-about-a-post-Soviet.html Projections about a post-Soviet world-twenty-five years later.] // Goliath Business News</ref>  After the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991 the Unification movement promoted extensive missionary work in Russia and other former Soviet nations.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Carden |first1=Paul |date=Summer 1998 |title=Cults and New Religious Movements in the Former Soviet Union |url=http://eastwestreport.org/articles/ew06301.htm |website=eastwestreport.org}}</ref>

=== Islam ===
{{further|Islam in China|Islam in the Soviet Union|Persecution of Muslims#Modern era}}

In the Muslim parts of the Soviet Union ([[Caucasus]] and Central Asia), the party-state suppressed Islamic worship, education, association, and pilgrimage institutions that were seen as obstacles to ideological and social change along communist lines. Where the [[Islamic state]] was established, left-wing politics were often associated with profanity and outlawed. In countries such as Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Iran, communists and other leftist parties find themselves in a bitter competition for power with Islamists.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sidel |first=John T. |date=2017-10-09 |title=Opinion {{!}} What Killed the Promise of Muslim Communism? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/opinion/muslim-communism.html |access-date=2023-07-10 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

=== Paganism ===
{{further|Dievturība#Suppression and émigré activities|Romuva (religion)#Soviet suppression}}
{{Empty section|date=July 2022}}

== Literature ==
[[File:Animal Farm strip cartoon.jpg|thumb|300px|A 1950 ''[[Animal Farm]]'' cartoon strip produced for the Cold War anti-communist department of the British Foreign Office, the [[Information Research Department|IRD]]]]
[[George Orwell]], a [[democratic socialism|democratic socialist]], wrote two of the most widely read and influential [[anti-totalitarian]] novels, namely ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' and ''[[Animal Farm]]'', both of which featured allusions to the [[Soviet Union]] under the [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)|rule]] of [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Rosalind Marsh|title=Images of Dictatorship: Stalin in Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aO8DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT99|year=2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=99|isbn=978-1-351-76202-1}}</ref>

Also on the left-wing, [[Arthur Koestler]]—a former member of the [[Communist Party of Germany]]—explored the ethics of revolution from an anti-communist perspective in a variety of works. His trilogy of early novels testified to Koestler's growing conviction that utopian ends do not justify the means often used by revolutionary governments. These novels are ''[[The Gladiators (novel)|The Gladiators]]'' (which explores the slave uprising led by [[Spartacus]] in the Roman Empire as an [[allegory]] for the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]]), ''[[Darkness at Noon]]'' (based on the [[Moscow Trials]], this was a very widely read novel that made Koestler one of the most prominent anti-communist intellectuals of the period), ''The Yogi and the Commissar'' and ''[[Arrival and Departure]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edward Saunders|title=Arthur Koestler|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3QsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT59|year=2017|publisher=Reaktion Books|pages=59–60|isbn=978-1-78023-763-3}}</ref>

[[Whittaker Chambers]]—an American ex-Communist who became famous for his cooperation with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he implicated [[Alger Hiss]]—published an anti-communist memoir, ''Witness'', in 1952. It became "the principal rallying cry of anti-Communist conservatives".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Charles W. Dunn|author2=J. David Woodard|title=The Conservative Tradition in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFsWu6BwUYoC&pg=PA106|year=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=106|isbn=978-0-7425-2234-3}}</ref>

[[Boris Pasternak]], a Russian writer, rose to international fame after his anti-communist novel ''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' was smuggled out of the Soviet Union (where it was banned) and published in the West in 1957. He received the [[Nobel Prize for Literature]], much to the chagrin of the Soviet authorities.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Peter Finn|author2=Petra Couvée|title=The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoNtAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT189|year=2014|publisher=Knopf Doubleday|page=189|isbn=978-0-307-90801-8}}</ref>

[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] was a Russian novelist, dramatist and historian. Through his writings—particularly ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' and ''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]'', his two best-known works—he made the world aware of the [[Gulag]], the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system. For these efforts, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1970 and was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974.

[[File:Herta Müller.jpg|thumb|[[Herta Müller]] in 2009]]
[[Herta Müller]] is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist noted for her works depicting the harsh conditions of life in [[Communist Romania]] under the repressive [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]] regime, the history of the Germans in the [[Banat]] (and more broadly, [[Transylvania]]) and the persecution of Romanian [[Germans of Romania|ethnic Germans]] by [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] [[Soviet occupation of Romania|Soviet occupying forces in Romania]] and the Soviet-imposed Communist regime of Romania. Müller has been an internationally known author since the early 1990s and her works have been translated into more than 20 languages.<ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4774078,00.html "Literaturnobelpreis geht an Herta Müller"].</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/bos/en5124021.htm|title=Goethe–Institut Boston–Goethe–Institut USA|website=goethe.de}}</ref> She has received over 20 awards, including the 1994 [[Kleist Prize]], the 1995 [[Aristeion Prize]], the 1998 [[International Dublin Literary Award]], the 2009 [[Franz Werfel Human Rights Award]] and the 2009 [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref>Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, "The Post-Communist Afterlife of Dissidents: The Case of Herta Müller". in {{cite book|author1=M. Schoenhals|author2=K. Sarsenov|title=Imagining Mass Dictatorships: The Individual and the Masses in Literature and Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYiYAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT28|year=2013|publisher=Springer|pages=28–51|isbn=978-1-137-33069-7}}</ref>

[[Ayn Rand]] was a Russian–American 20th-century writer who was an enthusiastic supporter of ''[[laissez-faire]]'' capitalism. She wrote ''[[We the Living]]'' about the effects of communism in Russia.<ref>Robert Mayhew, ''Ayn Rand and Song of Russia: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood'' (2005)</ref>

[[Richard Wurmbrand]] wrote about his experiences being tortured for his faith in Communist Romania. He ascribed communism to a demonic conspiracy and alluded to Karl Marx being demon-possessed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sawatsky|first=Walter|title=Soviet Evangelicals since World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YvlJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA405|year=2007|publisher=Wipf & Stock|page=405|isbn=978-1-55635-259-1}}</ref>

== Evasion of censorship ==
[[Samizdat]] was a key form of dissident activity across the [[Soviet bloc]]. Individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader, thus building a foundation for the successful resistance of the 1980s. This [[grassroots]] practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials. [[Vladimir Bukovsky]] defined it as follows: "I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and get imprisoned for it."

During the Cold War, Western countries invested heavily in powerful transmitters which enabled broadcasters to be heard in the Eastern Bloc, despite attempts by authorities to [[radio jamming|jam]] such signals. In 1947, [[Voice of America]] (VOA) started broadcasting in Russian with the intent to counter Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies.<ref name='whitton'>Whitton, John B. (January 1951). "Cold War Propaganda". ''[[The American Journal of International Law]]''. '''45''' (1): 151–153.</ref> These included [[Radio Free Europe]] (RFE), [[Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor|RIAS]], [[Deutsche Welle]] (DW), [[Radio France International]] (RFI), the [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] (BBC), [[ABS-CBN Corporation|ABS-CBN]] and the [[Japan Broadcasting Corporation]] (NHK).<ref name="frucht490">{{cite book|last=Frucht|first=Richard C.|title=Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe: From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism|publisher=Taylor & Francis Group|year=2003|isbn=978-0-203-80109-3|page=490}}</ref> The Soviet Union responded by attempting aggressive, electronic jamming of VOA (and some other Western) broadcasts in 1949.<ref name="whitton" /> The [[BBC World Service]] similarly broadcast language-specific programming to countries behind the [[Iron Curtain]].

In the People's Republic of China, people have to bypass the [[Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China|Chinese Internet censorship]] and other forms of censorship.

== By region ==
[[File:Thecristisrizenoldrussiancivilwarposter.jpg|thumb|upright=0.95|[[White movement|Russian èmigré]] [[Anti-Bolshevik propaganda|anti-Bolshevik poster]], c. 1932]]
[[File:Affiche de propagande anti-communiste (7622407306).jpg|thumb|[[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|Nazi anti-Bolshevik poster]] in German-occupied [[Reichskommissariat Ostland|Estonia]]]]

=== Africa ===
==== Libya ====
The 1969 coup that overthrew King Idris in Libya was received well in Italy due in part to the religion-based anti-communist ideology of Muammar Gaddafi.<ref name="Toaldo-2013" /> Libya, being a former colony of Italy, maintained good relations with the Italians under the reign of King Idris, and this good relationship continued despite the regime change as the Italians viewed the revolution as nationalist, rather than communist, in nature.<ref name="Toaldo-2013" /> Quranic justifications of the revolution by the new regime further assured Italians that Libya would not align with the communist world.<ref name="Toaldo-2013" />

==== South Africa ====
The popularisation of anti-communism came just after the Second World War and coinciding with the origins of [[apartheid]]. The ideology of anti-communism can largely be drawn on racial lines with white South Africans largely being anti-communist. The fiercely anti-communist [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] can also trace some of their votes to this policy. A common term  in Afrikaans was {{lang|af|rooi gevaar}}, literally meaning 'red danger'. In 1950, South Africa would ban the [[South African Communist Party]] with the Suppression of communism Act. South Africa would become involved in conflicts in Southern Africa against Communist factions such as [[SWAPO]] in Namibia and the [[MPLA]] in Angola. Many anti-apartheid organisations such as the [[African National Congress]] and the [[Pan-African Congress]] had many Communist members. This led to more extreme anti-communism in many white South Africans. At the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the conclusion of the [[South African Border War]], President [[F. W. De Klerk]] saw an opening for a peaceful resolution to the end of apartheid and the start of democracy in South Africa.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Ian|title=Stuck in Middle GEAR: South Africa's Post-apartheid Foreign Relations|date=2001|pages=38–39|publisher=Praeger|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0275972752}}</ref>

=== Asia ===
==== Armenia ====
In February 1921 the left-wing nationalist [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation]] (Dashnaktsutyun) staged an [[February Uprising|uprising]] against the Bolshevik authorities of Armenia just three months after the disestablishment of the [[First Republic of Armenia]] and its Sovietization. The nationalists temporarily took power. Subsequently, the anti-communist rebels, led by the prominent nationalist leader [[Garegin Nzhdeh]], retreated to the mountainous region of Zangezur (Syunik) and established the [[Republic of Mountainous Armenia]], which lasted until mid-1921.

==== China ====
{{Main|Anti-communism in China}}

==== India ====
During the Cold War, while the [[Indian National Congress]] pursued a pro-Soviet policy, parties committed to [[Hindu nationalism]] continued to oppose communism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rahul |first1=Sagar |title=Hindu Nationalists and the Cold War |url=https://nyuad.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyuad/faculty/social-science/rahul-sagar/publications/sagar-hindu-nationalism-and-the-cold-war.pdf |publisher=New York University Abu Dhabi}}</ref>

India is involved in law-and-order operations against a long-standing [[Naxalite–Maoist insurgency]]. Along with this, there are many state-sponsored anti-Maoist militias.<ref>{{cite news|last=|first=|date=2011-07-05|title=Indian court rules anti-Maoist militia unconstitutional|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-14036176|url-status=live|access-date=2021-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105085403/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-14036176|archive-date=2021-01-05}}</ref> In the [[2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election]]s, [[Mamata Banerjee]] led her party [[All India Trinamool Congress|AITC]] to a landslide victory over the ruling [[Left Front (West Bengal)|Left Front]] that had become the world's longest-ruling democratically elected communist government. Since [[Bharatiya Janata Party]]'s rise under [[Premiership of Narendra Modi|Narendra Modi's premiership]], the influence of communists and left-wing movements overall in India continue to decline.<ref>{{cite web |title=Weak communists open the door to Hindu nationalism in India – UCA News |url=https://www.ucanews.com/news/weak-communists-open-the-door-to-hindu-nationalism-in-india/91417 |access-date=2023-07-10 |website=ucanews.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Singh |first=Amol |date=18 November 2020 |title=The Rise of Hindu Nationalism and the Failures of the Indian Left |url=https://jacobin.com/2020/11/hindu-nationalism-indian-left-failures-political-strategy |access-date=2023-07-10 |magazine=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]}}</ref>

==== Indonesia ====
{{Main|Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66}}
Because of suspicions regarding Communist involvement in the [[30 September movement|September 30 incident]], an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 people were killed by the Indonesian military and allied [[militia]] in anti-communist purges which targeted members of the [[Communist Party of Indonesia]] and alleged sympathizers from October 1965 to the early months of 1966.<ref name="Blumenthal80">Mark Aarons (2007). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA69 Justice Betrayed: Post-1945 Responses to Genocide]." In David A. Blumenthal and Timothy L. H. McCormack (eds). ''[http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance The Legacy of Nuremberg: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance? (International Humanitarian Law).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105053952/http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance |date=5 January 2016 }}'' [[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]. {{ISBN|9004156917}} p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA80 80].</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Geoffrey B. |date=2018 |title=The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965–66 |url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |page=3 |isbn=978-1-4008-8886-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=2 June 2016 |title=Looking into the massacres of Indonesia's past|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36431837|work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=29 October 2017}}</ref> Western governments colluded in the massacres, [[CIA activities in Indonesia#Anti-communist purge|in particular the United States]], which provided the Indonesian military weapons, money, equipment and lists containing the names of thousands of suspected communists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Simpson|first=Bradley|date= 2010|title=Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.–Indonesian Relations, 1960–1968|url=http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=7853|publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]|page=193|isbn=978-0-8047-7182-5|quote="Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party's unarmed supporters might not go far enough, permitting Sukarno to return to power and frustrate the [Johnson] Administration's emerging plans for a post-Sukarno Indonesia."}}</ref><ref name="Blumenthal80" /><ref>Kai Thaler (2 December 2015). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/12/02/50-years-ago-today-the-u-s-embassy-endorsed-mass-killings-in-indonesia-heres-what-that-means-for-today/ 50 years ago today, American diplomats endorsed mass killings in Indonesia. Here's what that means for today.] ''[[The Washington Post]].'' Retrieved 2 December 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Scott|first=Margaret|date=26 October 2017|title=Uncovering Indonesia's Act of Killing|url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/10/20/uncovering-indonesias-act-of-killing/|work=[[The New York Review of Books]]|access-date=4 March 2018}}</ref> A tribunal in late 2016 declared the massacres a crime against humanity and also named the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia as accomplices to those crimes.<ref>{{cite news |last=Perry|first=Juliet |date=21 July 2016|title=Tribunal finds Indonesia guilty of 1965 genocide; US, UK complicit|url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/asia/indonesia-genocide-panel/index.html|publisher=CNN |access-date=8 July 2017}}</ref>

Also stemming from the incident, Indonesia banned the spread of Communist/Marxist–Leninist thought since 1966. This is achieved through the passing of Article 2 of the Temporary People's Consultative Assembly Resolution no. 25, 1966 ({{langx|id|TAP MPRS no. 25 tahun 1966}})<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hukumonline.com/pusatdata/detail/lt50768a41ad5ab/ketetapan-mprs-nomor-xxv-mprs-1966-tahun-1966 | title=Ketetapan MPRS Nomor XXV/MPRS/1966 Tahun 1966 – Pusat Data Hukumonline }}</ref> and letters (a), (c), (d), and (e) section (b) of Article 107 of Law no. 27, 1999 ({{langx|id|UU no. 27 tahun 1999}}).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20160511154554-20-129985/deretan-pasal-krusial-untuk-berangus-komunisme-di-indonesia | title=Deretan Pasal Krusial untuk Berangus Komunisme di Indonesia | newspaper=Nasional | last1=Kusumadewi | first1=Anggi }}</ref> Violators are subject to a 12-year, 15-year, or 20-year prison sentence for violating letter (a) (spreading the Communist thought in public), (c) (spreading the Communist thought in public and causing disorder afterwards), (e) (forming Communist organizations or aiding Marxist–Leninist organizations, be it explicit or suspected, foreign or domestic, with the intention of changing the state ideology of Pancasila with Marxism–Leninism), and (d) (spreading Communist thought with the intention of replacing the state ideology [[Pancasila (politics)|Pancasila]] with Marxism–Leninism), respectively.

==== Japan and Manchukuo ====
{{See also|Uyoku dantai}}
During the [[Nikolayevsk incident]] starting in March 1920, Russian Jewish journalist Gutman Anatoly Yakovlevich began to issue the Delo Rossii in Tokyo, an anti-Bolshevistic Russian language newspaper.<ref>"Cahiers du Monde russe, vol. 46 (3), Juil.–Sept. 2005" {{in lang|fr}}, [[School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences]], 2006, {{ISBN|978-2-7132-2056-2}}</ref><ref name="ref.b03040699800">{{cite web|url=https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/das/image/B03040699800|title=6．露字新聞「デーロ、ロシー」発刊/1 大正9年3月12日から大正9年9月6日|website=www.jacar.archives.go.jp}}</ref><ref name="ref.b03040651200">{{cite web|url=https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/das/image/B03040651200|title=10．浦汐政府対日宣伝開始記事ノ件 自大正九年九月|website=www.jacar.archives.go.jp}}</ref> In June, Romanovsky Georgy Dmitrievich, who had been the chief authorized officer and military representative at the Allied command in the Far East,<ref>"Белые генералы Восточного фронта Гражданской войны: Биографический справочник" {{in lang|ru}}, Волков Е. В., Егоров Н. Д., Купцов И. В., 2003, {{ISBN|5-85887-169-0}}</ref> discussed with a delegate of Semyonov's army, Syro-Boyarsky Alexander Vladimirovich and thereafter acquired the ''Delo Rossii'' gazette.<ref name="ref.b03040651200" /> In July, he began to distribute the translated version of the ''Delo Rossii'' gazette to noted Japanese officials and socialites.<ref name="ref.b03040699800" /><ref name="ref.b03040651200" />

In 1933 Japan participated in the ninth conference of the [[International Entente Against the Third International]] and founded the Association for the Study of International Socialistic Ideas and Movements ({{langx|ja|国際思想研究会}}).<ref>[[National Archives of Japan]]. [https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/aj/meta/image_B04012990900 Japan Center for Asian Historical Records – 「JACAR(アジア歴史資料センター)Ref.B04012990900、国際思想研究会関係雑件（「オーベル」協会関係ヲ含ム）(I-4-5-1-9)(外務省外交史料館)」 国際思想研究会関係雑件（「オーベル」協会関係ヲ含ム） 分割1] {{in lang|ja}}</ref> In the summer of 1935, the Comintern held the [[Seventh World Congress of the Comintern]] in which they set Japan and Germany as the communizing targets<ref>世界の戦慄・赤化の陰謀 {{in lang|ja}} pp. 75–76 [[Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun]]/[[Mainichi Shimbun|Osaka Mainichi Shimbun]] 1936</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XBq8l7o5tP4C 満洲共産匪の研究] {{in lang|ja}} pp. 40–44 Manchukuo Military government Adviser division 1936</ref> and the Chinese Communist Party declared the [[August 1 Declaration]]. After that, Japan defined their anti-communistic "Three Principles of HIROTA" for relations with China and also Japan concluded the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] with Germany.

In November 1938 Prime Minister [[Fumimaro Konoe]] declared the anti-communistic [[New Order in East Asia]]. In 1940, Japan, Manchukuo and the [[Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China]] declared the which is based on the New Order in East Asia.

During the period of [[Occupation of Japan|American occupation]] between 1948 and 1951, a "[[Red Purge]]" occurred in Japan in which over 20,000 people accused of being Communists were purged from their places of employment.<ref>[[Hirata Tetsuo]] and [[John W. Dower]], [http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=17&ItemID=13261 "Japan's Red Purge: Lessons from a Saga of Suppression of Free Speech and Thought"] {{webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070807063408/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=17&ItemID=13261|date=7 August 2007}}, originally in ''[[Shukan Kinyobi]]'', no. 616, 28 July 2006, translation ''[[Japan Focus]]'' on 7 July 2007, republished [Zmag.org|Zcommunications.org] 2007.</ref>

==== Malaysia ====
{{See also|Malayan Emergency|Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–1989)}}

==== Philippines ====
{{See also|Red-tagging in the Philippines}}

==== Singapore ====
{{See also|Operation Coldstore|Operation Spectrum}}

==== South Korea ====
{{main category|Anti-communism in South Korea}}
[[File:Prisoners on ground before execution,Taejon, South Korea.jpg|thumb|[[Bodo League massacre]] of communists and suspected sympathizers, South Korea, 1950]]
Choi ji-ryong is an outspoken anti-communist cartoonist in South Korea. His [[editorial cartoon]]s have been critical of Korean presidents [[Kim Dae-jung]] and [[Roh Moo Hyun]].

==== Taiwan ====
{{See also|White Terror (Taiwan)}}
Republic of China (ROC) or [[Taiwan]]'s anti-communism focuses on [[Anti-People's Republic of China|opposing the People's Republic of China]] (PRC), with two largely different political elements:
* ROC-based anti-communism ([[pan-Blue]]): they support [[Chinese nationalism]] and oppose the PRC's rule of [[mainland China]].
* Taiwan-based anti-communism ([[pan-Green]]): they support [[Taiwanese nationalism]] and oppose the PRC's [[Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China|claim to Taiwan]].

==== Vietnam ====
{{Main|First Indochina War|Vietnam War|Vietnamese democracy movement}}
{{See also|History of Vietnam}}
[[File:Flag of South Vietnam.svg|thumb|left|[[Flag of South Vietnam|Flag]] of former anti-communist regime in Vietnam (1949–75), later becoming flag of anti-communist Overseas Vietnamese]]
Conflict between Vietnamese communist and non-communist factions erupted after the fall of the monarchy in [[August Revolution|1945]]. During the [[Cold War]], Vietnamese anti-communists and nationalists (''phe quốc gia'') fought against communists (''phe cộng sản'') wanting to gain power in the [[First Indochina War]] (French colonial war) and especially the [[Vietnam War]] (proxy and civil war), but they failed in both, leading to all of Vietnam taken over by communism in [[Fall of Saigon|1975]]. This sparked the explosion of the [[Vietnamese democracy movement]] demanding the dissolution of the communist regime in Vietnam. Anti-communist organizations are currently illegal in Vietnam but they can ''de facto'' work in Vietnam.

==== Middle East ====
{{Main|Islamism}}
{{further|North Yemen Civil War|Ramadan Revolution|17 July Revolution|Dhofar Rebellion|Soviet–Afghan War|Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)|Khomeini's letter to Mikhail Gorbachev}}

The "materialism" advocated by Marxism–Leninism had a serious conflict with the strong religious atmosphere of the traditional Muslim society,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fred |first1=Halliday |title=The Left and the Jihad |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/left_jihad_3886jsp/ |publisher=openDemocracy |access-date=6 April 2011}}</ref> especially the rise of [[Islamism]] after the 1970s, the [[Iranian Revolution]] and Soviet invade Afghanistan intensifies Muslim world's conflict with communism. Eventually, there were [[1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners|mass executions]] of members of the [[Tudeh Party of Iran]], and after the defeat of the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|pro-Soviet Afghan regime]] the [[Taliban]] tortured the former communist leader [[Mohammad Najibullah|Najibullah]] to death.<ref>{{cite web |title=A communist history of Afghanistan |date=27 August 2021 |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/research/a-communist-history-of-afghanistan-7473493/ |publisher=Indian Express |access-date=27 August 2021}}</ref>

===== Iran =====
{{See also|1981–1982 Iran Massacres}}

===== Jordan =====
Jordanian King Hussein ibn Talal, maintained good relations with the U.S. on the basis of his anti-communism.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bunch|first=Clea Lutz|date=December 2006|title=Balancing Acts: Jordan and the United States during the Johnson Administration|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cjh.41.3.517|journal=Canadian Journal of History|volume=41|issue=3|pages=517–536|doi=10.3138/cjh.41.3.517|issn=0008-4107|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===== Lebanon =====
Islamic clergy were influential in the formation of Lebanese political thought, especially as it relates to the policies of [[Hizbullah]].<ref name="Daher-2016" /> For example, Iraqi cleric [[Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr|Muhammed Baqir Al-Sadr]], wrote two books to counter Marxist narratives.<ref name="Daher-2016" /> One aimed to discredit Marxist philosophy, and the other aimed to discredit Marxist economic thought, while both reached the conclusion of Islam being a more suitable ideology for the world.<ref name="Daher-2016" /> Thus, it can be understood that the Islamic fundamentalist elements of the Hizbullah party in Lebanon clearly stem from an Islamic ideological opposition to Marxism.<ref name="Daher-2016" />

===== Saudi Arabia =====
In 1953 Saudi oil field workers petitioned the oil company Aramco for "better working conditions, higher pay, and an end to the company's discriminatory hiring practices." In response, the Saudi Arabian government arrested the workers' leaders, at which point a pre-planned strike by the oil field workers occurred.<ref name="Al-Sudairi-2019" /> Though these leaders were later pardoned, the Saudi Arabian government, in conjunction with Aramco, implemented violent measures to discipline the workers. Over 200 workers suspected of having links to communism were arrested and expelled. In 1956, after sustained protests by the leftist group NRF (National Reform Front), the government decided to suppress the protests by promoting anti-communist propaganda, canceling the municipal elections, outlawing protests and arresting the NRF leaders. Governmental opposition to communist elements within Saudi Arabia came to a head with the ascension of King Faisal to the Saudi throne, saying he would "not be lenient with any communist principle which seeps into Saudi Arabia, or with any slogans that contradict Islamic shari'a{{nbsp}}... Communism has not entered any land or country without inflicting destruction upon it." Faisal employed three strategies to weaken and discredit the growing communist influences in Saudi Arabia, namely, economic development, creating a Saudi identity, and repression of the NLF (National Liberation Front), the leading communist group in Saudi Arabia and successor to the NRF.

Islam was important in legitimizing his actions and garnering wider opposition to communism.For example, Mufti 'Abd al-'Aziz Bin Baz said communists were, "more disbelieving than the Jews and the Christians, for they were atheists that do not believe in God or the Last Day." Newspapers drew antisemitic connections from Communism to Judaism, on account of Marx's Jewish heritage. Faisal also employed surveillance, including coordination with the US government, for the identification of communists or communist sympathizers.This led to mass arrests of communist sympathizers and their political repression.<ref name="Al-Sudairi-2019" />

The Saudi Arabian government was vehemently opposed to communism for its atheistic principles, its expansionism, and its persecution of Muslims. The country consistently provided billions of dollars of foreign aid to promote anti-communism.The Saudi government also sent Moroccan troops to fight Angola's communist insurgents in Zaire.<ref name="Bowman-2005" /> In 1955, King Saud wrote to the United States:<blockquote>"Our very special attitude towards communism is well known to [the] US government and to [the] world. It is our interest that communism not infiltrate into any area of the Middle East. In opposing communism, we do so on basic religious belief and Islamic principle, in which we believe with all of our heart, and not to please America or western states. My position, in particular, of Moslem Arab King, servant to Holy Shrines, looked up to by 400 million Moslems in East and West, is extremely delicate and serious before God, my nation, and history."</blockquote>

===== Turkey =====
{{See also|Political violence in Turkey (1976–1980)}}
Anti-communist opinions in Anatolia started in the early 20th century, and first anti-communist incident occurred in the 1920s. On 28 January 1920, [[Mustafa Subhi]], founder of the [[Communist Party of Turkey (historical)|Communist Party of Turkey]], was assassinated together with his wife and his 21 communist comrades while traveling to [[Batumi]] in the [[Black Sea]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ulus|first=Özgür Mutlu|title=The Army and the Radical Left in Turkey: Military Coups, Socialist Revolution and Kemalism|publisher=I.B. Tauris|year=2011|isbn=978-1-84885-484-0|pages=134|language=en}}</ref> In the following years, more pressure was put on communist activities.  In 1925, the Turkish government shut down several communist newspapers, such as ''Aydınlık'' and ''Yeni Dünya''.<ref name="Gasimov-2012">{{Cite journal|last=Gasimov|first=Zaur|date=2012|title=Anti-communism Imported? Azeri Emigrant Periodicals in Istanbul and Ankara (1920–1950s)|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1285243887|journal=Cumhuriyet Tarihi Arastirmalari Dergisi; Ankara|volume=8|pages=3–18|id={{ProQuest|1285243887}}}}</ref> Many members and symphatisers of the [[Communist Party of Turkey (historical)|Communist Party of Turkey]] including [[Hikmet Kıvılcımlı]], [[Nâzım Hikmet]] and Şefik Hüsnü were mass arrested on 25 October 1927.<ref>[http://www.boyutpedia.com/default~ID~2352~aID~69054~link~1927_yili_olaylari.html Yılın Olayları] {{web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120412031554/http://www.boyutpedia.com/default~ID~2352~aID~69054~link~1927_yili_olaylari.html|date=12 April 2012}}, 3 Mayıs 2010 tarihinde erişilmiştir</ref><ref>[http://www.atin.org/detail.asp?cmd=articledetail&articleid=28 atin.org] {{web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603051336/https://www.atin.org/detail.asp?cmd=articledetail&articleid=28|date=3 June 2020}}, 3 Mayıs 2010 tarihinde erişilmiştir</ref><ref>[http://kadrodergisi.com/kadro-hareketi-omur-sezgin/ kadrodergisi.com], 3 Mayıs 2010 tarihinde erişilmiştir</ref> Later, in 1937, a committee with the leadership of [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] decided that works of [[Hikmet Kıvılcımlı]] are detrimental communist propaganda, and that they should be censored.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Demokrasi, Türkiye Ekonumi Polkitikası|url=https://www.istanbulgercegi.com/demokrasi-turkiye-ekonumi-polkitikasi-39445443.html|access-date=2020-12-11|website=İstanbul Gerçeği|language=tr}}</ref>

During the 1960s the Turkish state used nationalist and Islamist youth groups to establish "Associations of the Struggle Against Communism."<ref name="Tomac-2020">{{Cite journal|last=Tomac|first=Ayca|date=2020-11-20|title='Rejecting the Legacy, Restoring the Honor': The Anti-Capitalist Muslims in Turkey|journal=Religions|language=en|volume=11|issue=11|pages=621|doi=10.3390/rel11110621|issn=2077-1444|doi-access=free}}</ref> These associations, in conjunction with the Turkish police, were responsible for the ''Kanlı Pazar,'' or "Bloody Sunday" incident in Istanbul on February 16, 1969.<ref name="Tomac-2020" /> Leftist student protestors clashed with police and members of the "Associations of the Struggle Against Communism", causing many injuries and two deaths.<ref name="Tomac-2020" /> Islamist writers frequently invoked the idea that religion and communism were incompatible, and this was one of the main causes of the fighting.<ref name="Tomac-2020" /> The Azeri immigrant community in Turkey was important in cultivating anti-communist thought, as they had experiences with Marxism.<ref name="Gasimov-2012" /> ''Odlu Yurt'' and ''Azerbaycan'', popular Azeri newspapers, frequently criticized the Soviet Union and outwardly professed their anti-communist perspective, drawing in a wide range of intellectuals from the surrounding area.<ref name="Gasimov-2012" /> The Azeri population of Turkey opposed communism primarily in the intellectual sphere, using journals and publications to criticize the Soviet Union.<ref name="Gasimov-2012" />

World War II caused a rapid increase in anti-communism in Turkey. Then the [[Prime Minister of Turkey]] [[Şükrü Saracoğlu]] said that "as a Turk, he passionately wants Russia to be eliminated" and then the Turkish embassy to Germany [[Hüseyin Numan Menemencioğlu]] stated that "Turkey certainly will benefit from a complete as possible defeat of Bolshevik Russia" in a speech he made in Berlin.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=UMAR|first=Ömer|date=2020-03-12|title=İkinci Dünya Savaşı Sırasında Türk-Sovyet İlişkileri|journal=Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Dergisi|volume=20|issue=59|pages=369–412|doi=10.33419/aamd.702849|issn=1011-727X|doi-access=free}}</ref> On 4 December 1945, main printing press of the ''Tan'' newspaper, which had communist opinions and defended normalization of the relations between Turkey and Soviet Union, was raided and looted by [[Turanism|Turanist]] and [[Islamism|Islamist]] mobs, leaving several journalists wounded.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2010-12-13|title=İşte 'onlar'ın gençlik hikayeleri{{nbsp}}...|url=https://haber.sol.org.tr/devlet-ve-siyaset/iste-onlarin-genclik-hikayeleri-haberi-36833|access-date=2020-12-12|newspaper=Sol|language=tr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Bediüzzaman'ın yorumuyla Tan olayı|url=https://www.yeniasya.com.tr/enstitu/bediuzzaman-in-yorumuyla-tan-olayi_146113|access-date=2020-12-12|website=Yenı Asya – Gerçekten haber verir}}</ref> During the Cold War, anti-communist publishing in Turkey was supported by right-wing organizations and state policies, and anti-communist ideas were spread institutionally and systematically.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Balta |first1=Fatma |last2=Işıklar Koçak |first2=Müge |title=The Pivotal Role of Translation in the Spread of Anti-Communism in Turkey During The Cold War |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=tr&user=lCdsWKEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=lCdsWKEAAAAJ:u5HHmVD_uO8C |access-date=2024-10-14 |website=scholar.google.com}}</ref>

After the [[1971 Turkish military memorandum]] the new administration started a purge campaign against communist institutions and persons both in military and public, resulting in arrestings and in some cases, torture of many communist intellectuals, soldiers and students. Leaders of the [[Workers' Party of Turkey (1961)|Workers' Party of Turkey]], [[Behice Boran]] and [[Sadun Aren]] were arrested and many communist intellectuals such as Hikmet Kıvılcımlı, Mihri Belli and Doğan Avcıoğlu had to flee the country for their life safety. In 1971, [[Deniz Gezmiş]], [[Hüseyin İnan]] and [[Yusuf Aslan]] were executed.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ersan, Vehbi|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/874836905|title=1970'lerde Türkiye solu|date=2013|publisher=İletişim Yayınları|isbn=978-975-05-1241-4|edition=1. baskı|location=İstanbul|oclc=874836905}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2010-07-15|title=Dersimiz statüko|url=https://haber.sol.org.tr/devlet-ve-siyaset/dersimiz-statuko-haberi-30916|access-date=2020-12-12|newspaper=Sol|language=tr}}</ref>

In March 1973 [[Turkish Armed Forces]] published a book named ''How Communists Deceive Our Workers and Our Youth''. The book consisted of 32 pages and included many anti-communist phrases in it.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Komünistler İşçilerimizi ve Gençlerimizi Nasıl Aldatıyor?|publisher=Genelkurmay ATASE Başkanlığı Yayınevi|year=1973}}</ref>

[[Bülent Ecevit]], who served as the [[Prime Minister of Turkey]] four times between 1974 and 2002, openly expressed anti-communist opinions. Most famously, in 1975, Ecevit said "[[Republican People's Party]] is the most powerful party of Turkey. It will block communism, as long as it stays strong, there will not be communism in Turkey."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ecevit|first=Bülent|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/949573297|title=Türkiye 1965–75|date=2010|publisher=Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları|isbn=978-9944-88-789-2|edition=1st|location=İstanbul|oclc=949573297}}</ref>

=== Europe ===
==== Council of Europe and European Union ====
{{Main|Council of Europe resolution 1481}}
Resolution 1481/2006 of the [[Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe]] (PACE), issued on 25 January 2006 during its winter session, "strongly condemns crimes of totalitarian communist regimes".

The European Parliament has designated August 23 as the [[Black Ribbon Day]], a Europe-wide day of remembrance for victims of the 20th-century totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.euractiv.com/en/culture/europe-ponders-remembrance-day-communist-nazi-past/article-180794|title=Europe ponders 'remembrance day' for communist, Nazi past|website=euractiv.com|access-date=17 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090412103148/http://www.euractiv.com/en/culture/europe-ponders-remembrance-day-communist-nazi-past/article-180794|archive-date=12 April 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Albania ====
{{See also|Albanian Subversion}}
In the early years of the Cold War, [[Midhat Frashëri]] tried to patch together a coalition of anti-communist opposition forces in Britain and the United States.<ref name="albanianhistory1">{{cite web|title=Mid'hat bey Frashëri: The Epirus Question – the Martyrdom of a People |author=Robert Elsie |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1942.html |access-date=18 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010338/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1942.html |archive-date=23 July 2011}}</ref> The [["Free Albania" National Committee]] was officially formed on 26 August 1949 in Paris, France. Frashëri was its chairman, with other members of the Directing Board: Nuçi Kotta, Albaz Kupi, Said Kryeziu and Zef Pali.<ref name="Mustaqi">{{citation |url=http://gazeta-lajmi.info/1949-pentagoni-diplomaci-fleksibel-me-shqiperine/ |author=Thanas Mustaqi |language=sq |date=23 September 2011 |access-date=19 December 2014 |title=1949, Pentagoni: Diplomaci fleksibël me Shqipërinë |trans-title=1949, Pentagon:Flexible diplomacy with Albania |quote=Më 26 gusht të vitit 1949, në Paris u formua Komiteti Kombëtar-Demokratik "Shqipëria e lirë", me nismën e Mithat Frashërit për të "udhëhequr dhe inkurajuar njerëzit tanë të zotë në rezistencën e tyre kundër tiranisë komuniste". Këtu u zgjodh edhe Këshilli udhëheqës i saj i përbërë nga Mid'hat Frashëri (kryetar), Abas Kupi, Zef Pali, Said Kryeziu dhe Nuçi Kotta (anëtarë). Organi më i lartë ishte Këshilli Kombëtar prej 11 anëtarësh nga parti të ndryshme. Por pas disa ditësh, agjencia franceze e lajmeve AFP transmetoi një deklaratë të Mbretit në mërgim Ahmet Zogu, në të cilën thuhej se nuk e njihte Komitetin Shqipëria e Lirë dhe se "pas 7 prillit 1939, unë jam i vetmi autoritet legjitim i shqiptarëve". |publisher=Lajmi |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004080114/http://gazeta-lajmi.info/1949-pentagoni-diplomaci-fleksibel-me-shqiperine/ |archive-date=4 October 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> It was supported by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) and placed as member of [[National Committee for a Free Europe]].<ref name="TO">{{citation |language=sq |work=Tirana Observer |access-date=19 December 2014 |url=http://www.tiranaobserver.al/deshmia-e-neshat-bilalit-pse-kompania-4000-deshtoi-ne-rrezimin-e-enver-hoxhes/ |author=Petrit Palushi |title=Dëshmia e Neshat Bilalit: Pse "Kompania 4000" dështoi në rrëzimin e Enver Hoxhës |trans-title=Testimony of Neshat Bilali: Why Company 4000 failed in overthrowing Enver Hoxha |date=12 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227014045/http://www.tiranaobserver.al/deshmia-e-neshat-bilalit-pse-kompania-4000-deshtoi-ne-rrezimin-e-enver-hoxhes/ |archive-date=27 December 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="panorama">{{citation |publisher=Gazeta Panorama Online |language=sq |access-date=19 December 2014 |url=http://www.panorama.com.al/2013/06/30/arkivi-i-cia-roma-qendra-e-operacioneve-kunder-hoxhes/ |title=Arkivi i CIA: Roma, qendra e operacioneve kundër Hoxhës |date=30 June 2012 |trans-title=CIA archives: Rome, centre of operations against Hoxha |author=Auron Tare |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220061136/http://www.panorama.com.al/2013/06/30/arkivi-i-cia-roma-qendra-e-operacioneve-kunder-hoxhes/ |archive-date=20 December 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Albania has enacted the [[Law on Communist Genocide]] with the purpose<ref name=omri>"The [[OMRI]] annual survey of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, 1995", {{ISBN|1-56324-924-3}}, 1996, [https://books.google.com/books?id=T1vFM-R34TYC&dq=%22Genocide+and+Crimes+Against+Humanity%22+albania+law&pg=PA149 pp. 149–150], the text of the introductory provisions of the law, translated from the ''Official Journal of the Republic of Albania'', no. 21, September 1995, pp. 923–024</ref> of expediting the prosecution of the violations of the basic human rights and freedoms by the former [[Hoxhaism|Hoxhaist]] and Maoist governments of the [[Socialist People's Republic of Albania]]. The law has also been referred to in English as the "Genocide Law"<ref>''Albania as Dictatorship and Democracy: From Isolation to the Kosovo War, 1946–1998'' by Owen Pearson {{ISBN|978-1-84511-105-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=D4wx7kQp4bgC&q=%22genocide+law%22&pg=PP1 p. 659]</ref><ref>"Post-Communist Transitional Justice in Albania" by RC Austin, J Ellison. ''East European Politics and Societies'', Vol. 22, No. 2, 373–401 (2008).[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=%22Post-Communist+Transitional+Justice+in+Albania%22+%2B%22genocide+law%22&btnG=Search Scholar.Google.com]</ref><ref>This usage of the term "Genocide Law" is not to be confused with the application of Article 73 "Genocide" of the [http://preventgenocide.org/law/domestic/albania.htm Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania, Special Part, Chap. 1, Crimes Against Humanity]</ref> and the "Law on Communist Genocide".<ref>[[Kevin Boyle (lawyer)|Kevin Boyle]] and Juliet Sheen, ''Freedom of Religion and Belief: A World Report'', 1997, {{ISBN|0-203-41102-1}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=MFUZkWWgOtMC&dq=%22Law+on+Communist+Genocide%22&pg=PA262 p. 262]</ref><ref>The Balkans:A Post-Communist History by Robert Bideleux, Ian Jeffries. {{ISBN|978-0-203-96911-3}} [https://www.scribd.com/doc/17379442/balkans-post-communist-history p. 78]{{dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==== Belgium ====
Since before World War II, there were some anti-communist organizations such as the Union Civique Belge and the Société d'Etudes Politiques, Economiques et Sociales (SEPES).<ref>Emmanuel Gerard, "Religion, class and language: The Catholic party in Belgium." in Wolfram Kaiser and Helmut Wohnout, eds., ''Political Catholicism in Europe 1918–1945'' (2004) pp. 84–101.</ref> Catholic anti-communism was especially prominent; members of clergy supported anti-communist literature ventures, including Belina-Podgaetsky's first novel, ''L'Ouragan rouge,'' in the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Coudenys|first=Wim|date=January 2016|title="Fictional, but Truthful." Nicolas Belina-Podgaetsky, a Soviet Journalist at the Service of Catholic Anti-Communism in Belgium|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1484/j.rhe.5.110726|journal=Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique|volume=111|issue=1–2|pages=148–180|doi=10.1484/j.rhe.5.110726|issn=0035-2381|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==== Czechoslovakia ====
[[File:Prague Demonstration April 1990.jpg|thumb|Before the [[1990 Czechoslovak parliamentary election|June 1990 elections]], demonstrators on [[Wenceslas Square]] in April gather under a poster where the [[red star]] and initials of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia|KSČ]] has a [[swastika]] painted on top of it while the [[coat of arms]] depicted is from before the formation of the [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]].]]
Interwar Czechoslovakia contained fascist movements that had anti-communist ideas. Czechoslovak Fascists of Moravia had powerful patrons. One patron was the Union of Industrialists (Svaz průmyslníků), which helped them financially. The Union of Industrialists acted as an in-between through which Frantisek Zavfel, a National Democratic member of Czechoslovakian legislature, supported the movement. The Moravian wing of fascism also enjoyed the support of the anti-Bolshevik Russians centered around Hetman Ostranic. The fascists of Moravia shared many of the same ideas as fascists in Bohemia such as hostility to the Soviet Union and anti-communism. The Moravians also campaigned against what they perceived to be the divisive idea of class struggle.<ref name="Kelly-1995">{{cite book|last=Kelly|first=David D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-utnAAAAMAAJ&q=czech+fascist+movement+kelly|title=The Czech Fascist Movement: 1922–1942|date=1995|publisher=East European Monographs|isbn=978-0-88033-327-6|pages=43}}</ref>

The view of fascism as a barrier against communism was widespread in Czechoslovakia, where during the 1920s propaganda was conducted against establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet government in Russia. In 1922, after Czechoslovakia and Russia concluded a trade agreement, the extreme right fascist-inclined elements of the National Democratic Party increased their opposition to the government. The country's foremost fascist, Radola Gajda, founded the National Fascist Camp. The National Fascist Camp condemned communism, Jews and anti-Nazi refugees from Germany. There was a strong anti-communist campaign in January 1923 following the attempted assassination of the country's Finance Minister, which they linked to the beginning of a communist-led takeover.<ref name="Kelly-1995" />

The [[uprising in Plzeň]] was an anti-communist revolt by Czechoslovak workers in 1953. The [[Velvet Revolution]] or [[Gentle Revolution]] was a [[nonviolence|non-violent]] revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Soviet-backed Marxist–Leninist government.<ref>{{cite web|title=Velvet Revolution|url=http://archiv.radio.cz/history/history15.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717233817/http://archiv.radio.cz/history/history15.html|archive-date=17 July 2011|access-date=26 October 2009|website=radio.cz}}</ref> It is seen as one of the most important of the [[Revolutions of 1989]]. On 17 November 1989, riot police suppressed a peaceful [[student activism|student demonstration]] in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from 19 November to late December. By 20 November, the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swollen from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. A two-hour [[general strike]], involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was held on 27 November. In June 1990, Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946.

==== Finland ====
[[File:Larry Thorne.jpg|thumb|[[Lauri Törni]] (1919–1965), Finnish-born [[United States Army Special Forces|green beret]] [[Captain (armed forces)|captain]], who fought against communism in the ranks of three different armies ([[Finnish Defence Forces]], [[Waffen-SS]], and [[United States Army]])<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/larry-thorne-fought-communists/|title=This Green Beret spent his life fighting communists in three different armies|date=22 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/the-crazy-story-of-the-man-who-fought-for-finland-the-nazis-and-us-army-special-forces-2015-7|title=The crazy story of the man who fought for Finland, the Nazis, and US Army Special Forces|first=Paul|last=Szoldra|website=Business Insider}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historycollection.com/this-war-hero-spent-his-life-fighting-communists/|title=This War Hero Spent his Life Fighting Communists|date=31 August 2019}}</ref>]]
Anti-communism in the Nordic countries was at its highest extent in Finland between the world wars. In Finland, nationalistic anti-communism existed before the Cold War in the forms of the [[Lapua Movement]] and the [[Patriotic People's Movement (Finland)|Patriotic People's Movement]], which was outlawed after the [[Continuation War]]. During the Cold War, the [[Constitutional Right Party]] was opposed to communism. Anti-communist Finnish White Guards were engaged in armed hostilities against the Russian Soviet Government in Russia's civil war across the border in the Russian province of East Karelia. These armed hostilities preceded the overthrow of Finland's revolutionary government in 1918 and after the 1920 peace agreement with Russia that established Russian-Finnish borders.<ref name="Morgan-2003">{{cite book|last=Morgan|first=Philip|url=https://archive.org/details/fascismineurope10000morg|title=Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-74028-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fascismineurope10000morg/page/32 32]|quote=morgan fascism europe.|url-access=registration}}</ref>

Following Finland's independence in 1917–1918, the Finnish White Guard forces had negotiated and acquired help from Germany. Germany landed close 10,000 men in the city of Hanko on 3 April 1918. Finland's civil war was short and bloody. A recorded 5,717 pro-Communist forces were killed in battle. Communists and their supporters fell victim to an anti-communist campaign of White Terror in which an estimated 7,300 people were killed. Following the end of the conflict, estimates of 13,000 to 75,000 pro-communist prisoners perished in prison camps due to factors such as malnutrition.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lavery|first=Jason Edward|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoffinland00lave|title=The History of Finland|date=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32837-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyoffinland00lave/page/87 87]|quote=5,717 finland war.|url-access=registration}}</ref>

Finnish anti-communism persisted during the 1920s. White Guard militias formed during the civil war in 1918 were retained as an armed 100,000 strong 'civil guard'. The Finnish used these militias as a permanent anti-communist auxiliary to the military. In Finland, anti-communism had an official character and was prolific in institutions.<ref name="Morgan-2003" /> After the Finnish increased its support and received nearly 14 per cent of the vote in the 1929 elections, civil guards and local farmers violently suppressed up a communist party meeting in Lapua. This place gave its name to a direct-action movement, the sole purpose of which was to fight against communism.<ref name="Morgan-2003" />

==== France ====
{{Conservatism in France}}
International anti-communism played a major role in Franco-German-Soviet relations in the 1920s. Pragmatic realists and anti-Communist ideologues confronted each other over trade, security, electoral politics, and the danger of socialist revolution.<ref>Michael Jabara Carley, and Richard Kent Debo, "Always in Need of Credit: The USSR and Franco-German Economic Cooperation, 1926–1929." ''French Historical Studies'' (1997): 315–356.</ref>

At the end of 1932, François de Boisjolin organized the Ligue Internationale Anti-Communiste.<ref name="ihs-lia">"Les cahiers d'histoire sociale: revue trimestrielle de l'Institut d'histoire sociale, Issues 14–16", {{interlanguage link|Institut d'histoire sociale|fr|Institut d'histoire sociale}}, 2000</ref><ref>Ernst Henri, "Hitler Over Europe", 1934, p. 178</ref> The organization members came mainly from the wine region of [[South West France (wine region)|South West France]].<ref name="ihs-lia" /> In 1939, the [[Law on the Freedom of the Press of 29 July 1881]] was amended and François de Boisjolin and others were arrested.<ref>[http://antiracisme.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/12/04/autre-temps-autres-perquisitions-1939/ Autre temps, autres perquisitions (1939)], [[Le Monde]], 4 December 2015</ref>

French communists played a major role in the wartime Resistance but were distrusted by the key leader [[Charles de Gaulle]]. By 1947, [[Raymond Aron]] (1905–83) was the leading intellectual challenging the far-left that permeated much of the French intellectual community. He became a combative Cold Warrior quick to challenge anyone, including [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], who embraced communism and defended Stalin. Aron praised American capitalism, supported NATO, and denounced Marxist Leninism as a totalitarian movement opposed to the values of Western liberal democracy.<ref>Stuart L. Campbell, "Raymond Aron: The Making of a Cold Warrior." ''Historian'' 51.4 (1989): 551–573. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24447476 online]</ref>

==== Germany ====
[[File:Bolschewismus ohne Maske2.jpg|thumb|left|German anti-communist [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|propaganda]] poster]]
In Nazi Germany, the [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP) banned communist parties and targeted communists. After the [[Reichstag Fire]], violent suppression of communists by the [[Sturmabteilung]] was undertaken nationwide and 4,000 members of the [[Communist Party of Germany]] were arrested.{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=329–334}} The Nazi Party also established [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]] for their political opponents, such as communists.<ref>''Münchner Neueste Nachrichten'', 21 March 1933, [http://phdn.org/archives/holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/photo02.html online scan]</ref> [[Nazi propaganda]] dismissed the communists as "Red subhumans".<ref>[[Michael Burleigh]], ''The Third Reich: A New History'', p. 144.</ref>

Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler focused on the threat of communism. He described communists as "a mob storming about in some of our streets in Germany, it a conception of the world which is in the act of subjecting to itself the entire Asiatic continent". Hitler believed that about communism, "unless it were halted it would 'gradually shatter the whole world{{nbsp}}... and transform it as completely as did Christianity".<ref name="Bullock-1991" /> Anti-communism was a significant part of Hitler's propaganda throughout his career. Hitler's foreign relations focused around the Anti-Comintern Pact and always looked towards Russia as the point of Germany's expansion. Surpassed only by antisemitism, anti-communism was the most continuous and persistent theme of Hitler's political life and that of the Nazi Party.<ref name="Bullock-1991" />

According to Hitler "[t]he Jewish doctrine of Marxism repudiates the aristocratic principle of nature and substitutes for it and the eternal privilege of force and energy, numerical mass and its dead weight. Thus it denies the individual worth of the human personality, impugns the teaching that nationhood and race have a primary significance, and by doing this takes away the very foundations of human existence and human civilization."<ref name="Bullock-1991" /> Shortly after the Nazis in Germany seized power, they repressed communists. Beginning in 1933, the Nazis perpetrated repressions against communists, including detainment in concentration camps and torture. The first prisoners in the first Nazi concentration camp of Dachau were communists. Whereas communism prioritised social class, Nazism emphasized the nation and race above all else. Nazi propaganda recast communism as "Judeo-Bolshevism", with Nazi leaders characterizing communism as a Jewish plot seeking to harm Germany. The Nazis view of "Judeo-Bolshevism" as a threat was influenced by Germany's proximity to the Soviet Union. For Nazis, Jews and communists became interchangeable. Hitler's speech to a Nuremberg Rally in September 1937 had forceful attacks on communism. He identified communism with a Jewish world conspiracy from Moscow as "a fact proved by irrefutable evidence". He believed that Jews had established a cruel rule over Russians and other nationalities and sought to expand their rule to the rest of Europe and the world.<ref name="Bullock-1991" />

During the invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union, the Nazis and their military leaders targeted Soviet commissars for persecution. Nazis leaders saw commissars as embodiment of "Jewish Bolshevism" that would force their military to fight to the end and commit cruelties against Germans. On 6 June 1941, German Army High Command ordered the execution of all "political commissars" who acted against German troops. The order had the widespread support among the strongly anti-communist German officers and was applied widely. The order was applied against combatants and prisoners as well as on battlefields and occupied territories.<ref name="Wachsmann-2015" />

Following their placement in concentration camps, most Soviet "commissars" were executed within days. The systematic mass extermination of Soviet "commissars" had exceeded all previous campaigns of murder by the Nazis. For the first time and towards Soviet "commissars", Nazi concentration camps executed people on a large scale. During the two-month period spanning September to October 1941, German SS men put to death around 9,000 Soviet POWs in Sachsenhausen.<ref name="Wachsmann-2015" />

Following the [[Nazi Germany#Turning point and collapse|fall of Nazi Germany]] and emergence of two rival states, [[East Germany|East]] and [[West Germany]], the larger, capitalist, and significantly wealthier Western country positioned itself as an antithesis to the [[Eastern Bloc|Soviet-dominated]] East. As such, the [[Communist Party of Germany]] was banned in 1956, and all major political parties, including the [[Christian Democratic Union of Germany]] and [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] became staunchly anti-communist. The first post-WW2 German Chancellor [[Konrad Adenauer]] became an anti-communist icon who placed his opposition to the totalitarian USSR even higher than his dislike of Nazism. Adenauer prioritized the struggle against the USSR over [[denazification]] policies, and put an end to the persecution of former Nazis, granting clemency to those who were not involved in abhorrent human rights abuses and even allowed some to hold governmental positions.<ref>Tetens, T.H. ''The New Germany and the Old Nazis'', New York: Random House, 1961 pp. 37–40.</ref><ref>The Nazi-ferreting questionnaire cited 136 mandatory reasons for exclusion from employment and created red-tape nightmares for both the hapless and the guilty; see ''The New York Times'', 22 February 2003, p. A7.</ref><ref>Steinweis, Alan E., Rogers, Daniel E. ''The Impact of Nazism: New Perspectives on the Third Reich and Its Legacy.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2003, p. 235</ref> Officials were allowed to retake jobs in civil service, with the exception of people assigned to Group I (Major Offenders) and II (Offenders) during the denazification review process.<ref name=Art>Art, David, ''The politics of the Nazi past in Germany and Austria'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 53–55</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav?start=%2F%2F*%5B%40attr_id%3D%27bgbl151s0307.pdf%27%5D#__bgbl__%2F%2F*%5B%40attr_id%3D%27bgbl151s0307.pdf%27%5D__1578237681963|title=''Gesetz zur Regelung der Rechtsverhältnisse der unter Artikel 131 des Grundgesetzes fallenden Personen'' (Bundesgesetzblatt I 22/1951, p. 307 ff.)|date=11 May 1951|language=de}}</ref>

==== Hungary ====
[[File:Hole in flag - Budapest 1956.jpg|thumb|left| Symbol of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]: [[Flag of Hungary|Hungarian flag]] with the 1949–1956 communist emblem cut out]]
In Hungary, a Soviet Republic was formed in March 1919. It was led by communists and socialists. Acting with support of the French government, the Romanian army, along with Czech and Yugoslav forces (the future [[Little Entente]]) already occupying parts of Hungary, invaded and overthrew the communist government in the capital, Budapest, in late 1919. Local Hungarian counter-revolutionary militias, rallying around Nicholas Horthy, ex-admiral of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, attacked and killed socialists, communists and Jews in a counter-revolutionary terror, lasting into 1920.<ref name="Morgan-2003" /> The Hungarian regime subsequently established had refused to establish diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia.<ref name="Pastor2004">{{cite journal|last=Pastor|first=Peter|date=2004|title=Hungarian-Soviet Diplomatic Relations 1935–1941: A Failed Rapprochement|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|volume=56|issue=5|pages=731–750|doi=10.1080/0966813041000235128|issn=0966-8136|jstor=4147480|s2cid=153425082}}</ref>

An estimated 5,000 people were put to death during the Hungarian White Terror of 1919–1920, and tens of thousands were imprisoned without trial. Alleged Communists were sought and jailed by the Hungarian regime and murdered by right-wing vigilante groups. The Jewish population that Hungarian regime elements accused of being connected with communism was also persecuted.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Raymond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0Z_8orB47oC&q=hungary+white+terror+killed+1919+thousands+5000|title=Hungary|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8160-5081-9|pages=33}}</ref>

Anti-communist Hungarian military officers linked Jews with communism. Following the overthrow of the Soviet government in Hungary, the lawyer Oscar Szollosy published a widely circulated newspaper article on "The Criminals of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" in which he identified Jewish "red, blood-stained knights of hate" as the main perpetrators as the driving force behind communism.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gerwarth|first=Robert|date=2008|title=The Central European Counter-Revolution: Paramilitary Violence in Germany, Austria and Hungary after the Great War|journal=Past & Present|issue=200|pages=201|issn=0031-2746|jstor=25096723}}</ref>

German leader Adolf Hitler wrote a letter to Hungarian leader Horthy in which Germany's attack on the Soviet Union was justified because Germany felt that it was upholding European culture and civilization. According to the German ambassador in Budapest, who delivered Hitler's letter, Horthy declared: "For 22 years he had longed for this day, and was now delighted. Centuries later humanity would be thanking the Fuhrer for his deed. One hundred and eighty million Russians would now be liberated from the yoke forced upon them by 2 million Bolshevists".<ref name="Pastor2004" />

At the end of November 1941 Hungarian brigades began to arrive in Ukraine to perform exclusively police functions in the occupied territories. For 1941–1943 only in Chernigov region and the surrounding villages, Hungarian troops took part in the extermination of an estimated 60,000 Soviet citizens. Hungarian troops were characterized by ill-treatment of Soviet partisans and also Soviet prisoners of war. When retreating from the Chernyansky district of the Kursk region, it was testified that "the Hungarian military units kidnapped 200 prisoners of war of the Red Army and 160 Soviet patriots from the concentration camp. On the way, the fascists blocked all of these 360 people in the school building, doused with gasoline and lit them. Those who tried to escape were shot".<ref>{{cite web|title=Документы и материалы|url=https://runivers.ru/doc/d2.php?SECTION_ID=6344&PORTAL_ID=6341|access-date=30 November 2019|website=Runivers.ru}}</ref>

The [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] was a revolt against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and its Stalinist policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956. The revolt began as a student demonstration which attracted thousands as it marched through central [[Budapest]] to the [[Hungarian Parliament Building|Parliament building]]. A student delegation entering the [[Hungarian Radio|radio building]] in an attempt to broadcast [[Demands of Hungarian Revolutionaries of 1956|its demands]] was detained. When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the [[State Protection Authority|State Security Police]] (ÁVH) from within the building. As the news spread quickly, disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital. The revolt moved quickly across [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]] and the government fell. After announcing a willingness to negotiate a withdrawal of Soviet forces, the [[Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution.

==== Moldova ====
[[File:Chisinau-eu.jpg|thumb|The [[flag of Europe]] was a symbol for Moldovan anti-communists in 2009.]]
The [[2009 Moldova civil unrest|Moldovan anti-communist social movement]] emerged on 7 April 2009 in major cities of Moldova after the [[Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova]] (PCRM) had allegedly rigged elections.

The anti-communists organized themselves using an online [[social network service]], Twitter, hence its moniker used by the media, the [[Twittered revolution|Twitter Revolution]]<ref name="twitterrevolution">[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,618563,00.html "Twitter Revolution: Fearing Uprising, Russia Backs Moldova's Communists"], ''Der Spiegel'', 10 April 2009</ref><ref>[http://www.rferl.org/content/Moldovas_Twitter_Revolution/1605005.html "Moldova's "Twitter Revolution""] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629195218/http://www.rferl.org/content/Moldovas_Twitter_Revolution/1605005.html |date=29 June 2011 }}, RFE/RL, 8 April 2009</ref> or [[Colour revolution#Reactions and connected movements in other countries|Grape revolution]].

==== Poland ====
{{Main|Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1989)|Cursed soldiers}}
[[File:Leon Trotsky.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.85|"Bolshevik freedom", Polish anti-communist propaganda poster with nude caricature of [[Leon Trotsky]]]]
{{Conservatism in Poland}}
[[Vladimir Lenin]] saw Poland as the bridge which the [[Red Army]] would have to cross to assist the [[Soviet Empire|other Communist movements]] and help bring about other European revolutions. Poland was the first country which successfully stopped a Communist military advance. Between February 1919 and March 1921, Poland's successful defence of its independence was known as the [[Polish–Soviet War]]. According to American sociologist Alexander Gella, "the Polish victory had gained twenty years of independence not only for Poland, but at least for an entire central part of Europe".<ref name="Gella">[[Aleksander Gella]], ''Development of Class Structure in Eastern Europe: Poland and Her Southern Neighbors'', [[SUNY Press]], 1988, {{ISBN|0-88706-833-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8keIXDyF_EoC&pg=PA23 Google Print, p. 23]</ref>

After the German and Soviet [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, the first Polish uprising during World War II was against the Soviets. The [[Czortków Uprising]] occurred during 21–22 January 1940 in the Soviet-occupied [[Podolia]]. Teenagers from local high schools stormed the local Red Army barracks and a prison to release Polish soldiers who had been imprisoned there.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKtOr4EXOWwC&q=czortkow+uprising&pg=PA172|title=Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia|first=Jan T.|last=Gross|year=2002|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-09603-1|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In the latter years of the war, there were [[Soviet partisans in Poland|increasing conflicts between Polish and Soviet partisans]] and some groups continued to oppose the Soviets long after the war.<ref>[[Norman Davies]], Rising '44, 2004, Viking Penguin, {{ISBN|0-670-03284-0}}</ref> Between 1944 and 1946, soldiers of the anti-communist armed groups, known as the [[cursed soldiers]], made a series of [[Raids on communist prisons in Poland (1944–1946)|attacks on communist prisons]] immediately following the end of World War II in Poland.<ref>''The Atlas of the Independence Underground in Poland 1944–1956'', Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, Warszawa-Lublin, 2007. {{ISBN|978-83-60464-45-8}}</ref> The last of the cursed soldiers, members of the militant [[Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1953)|anti-communist resistance in Poland]], was [[Józef Franczak]], who was killed with a pistol in his hand by [[ZOMO]] in 1963.<ref>Violetta Gut: Józef Franczak ps. Lalek. Ostatni partyzant poakowskiego podziemia, [http://www.marszalek.com.pl/ Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek (en): Adam Marszałek's Publishing House], [[Toruń]], 2004, {{ISBN|83-7322-990-6}}</ref>

[[Poznań 1956 protests]] were massive anti-communist protests in the [[People's Republic of Poland]]. Protesters were repressed by the regime.

The [[Polish 1970 protests]] ({{langx|pl|Grudzień 1970}}) were anti-Comintern protests which occurred in northern Poland in December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase in the prices of food and other everyday items. As a result of the riots, brutally put down by the [[Polish People's Army]] and the [[Milicja Obywatelska|Citizen's Militia]], at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,000 were wounded. [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] was an anti-communist trade union in a [[Warsaw Pact]] country. In the 1980s, it constituted a broad anti-communist movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the [[Martial law in Poland|period of martial law in the early 1980s]] and several years of repression, but in the end, it had to start negotiating with the union. The [[Polish Round Table Agreement|Round Table Talks]] between the government and the Solidarity-led opposition led to [[1989 Polish legislative elections|semi-free elections in 1989]]. By the end of August, a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December 1990 Wałęsa was elected [[President of Poland]]. Since then, it has become a more traditional trade union.

==== Romania ====
{{further|Romanian anti-communist resistance movement}}
The [[Romanian anti-communist resistance movement]] lasted between 1948 and the early 1960s. Armed resistance was the first and most structured form of resistance against the Communist regime. It was not until the overthrow of [[Nicolae Ceaușescu|Nicolae Ceauşescu]] in late 1989 that details about what was called "anti-communist armed resistance" were made public. It was only then that the public learned about the numerous small groups of "[[haiduc]]s" who had taken refuge in the [[Carpathian Mountains]], where some resisted for ten years against the troops of the [[Securitate]]. The last "haiduc" was killed in the mountains of [[Banat]] in 1962. The Romanian resistance was one of the longest lasting armed movements in the former [[Eastern bloc|Soviet bloc]].<ref>Consiliul National pentru Studierea Ahivelor Securităţii, ''Bande, bandiţi si eroi. Grupurile de rezistenţă şi Securitatea (1948–1968)'', Editura Enciclopedica, Bucureşti, 2003</ref>

The [[Romanian Revolution of 1989]] was a week-long series of increasingly violent riots and fighting in late December 1989 that overthrew the government of Ceauşescu. After a [[show trial]], Ceauşescu and his wife [[Elena Ceauşescu|Elena]] were executed.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Graham-Harrison|first1=Emma|date=7 December 2014|title='I'm still nervous,' says soldier who shot Nicolae Ceausescu|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/07/nicolae-ceausescu-execution-anniversary-romania|access-date=10 August 2017}}</ref> Romania was the only [[Eastern Bloc]] country to overthrow its government violently or to execute its leaders.

==== Serbia ====
During the [[World War II in Yugoslavia|occupation of Yugoslavia]] between 1941 and 1945, two distinct resistance movements formed, the royalist and anti-communist [[Chetniks]] and the communist [[Yugoslav partisans]]. Although initially allied, animosity between the two grew due to ideological differences<ref>{{cite book| last = Redžić| first = Enver  | author-link = Enver Redžić| title = Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War| publisher = Frank Cass| location = Abingdon| year = 2005| isbn = 978-0-7146-5625-0| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mXiSKULRN-oC}}</ref> and Chetnik actions against Axis being mistakenly credited to Tito and his Communist forces by Allied liaison officers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tillotson|first=Michael|title=SOE and The Resistance: As told in The Times Obituaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQkNyMBh3PkC&pg=PA155|year=2011|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4411-4356-3}}</ref>  Gradually, the Chetniks ended up primarily fighting the Partisans instead of the occupation forces, and started cooperating with the Axis in a struggle to destroy the Partisans, receiving increasing amounts of logistical assistance. General Draža Mihailović, leader of the Chetnik detachment in occupied Serbia admitted to a British colonel that the Chetniks' principal enemies were "the partisans, the [[Ustasha]], the Muslims, the Croats and last the Germans and Italians" [in that order].<ref>{{Cite book| last = Velikonja| first = Mitja| year = 2003| title = Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina| publisher = Texas A&M University Press| location = College Station| isbn = 978-1-58544-226-3| url = https://archive.org/details/religiousseparat0000veli}}</ref> By the end of the war, the partisans achieved total victory and enacted [[Communist purges in Serbia in 1944–1945|widespread purges throughout Serbia]] from 1944 to 1945. By 1946, anti-communist Chetniks were largely defeated by communist authorities.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/clanak/321929|title=PRO-YUGOSLAV ANTI-COMMUNIST GUERILLAS IN CROATIA AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR|first=Zdenko|last=Radelić|date=20 October 2003|journal=Časopis za suvremenu povijest|volume=35|issue=2|pages=463–486|accessdate=4 January 2023|via=hrcak.srce.hr}}</ref>

==== Spain ====
===== Pre-Francoist Spain =====
{{See also|Falangist Movement of Spain|CEDA|Fascism}}
In Spain, anti-communism has been present in both the political left and right.

In the decade preceding the [[Spanish Civil War]], the [[Communist Party of Spain]] (PCE) was overshadowed by and competed with [[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo|Spain's anarcho-syndicalist]] and [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|Socialist]] counterparts.<ref>{{cite book|last=Payne|first=Stanley|title=The Spanish Civil War, Soviet Union, and Communism|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-300-13078-2|pages=8–10}}</ref> Under the dictatorship of [[Miguel Primo de Rivera]], "most prominent party members were jailed", and the party headquarters were moved to Paris.<ref name="Mujal-León-1983">{{cite book|last=Mujal-León|first=Eusebio|url=http://archive.org/details/communismpolitic00muja|title=Communism and political change in Spain|date=1983|publisher= Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-31389-8|pages=7}}</ref> Furthermore, the party was weakened by factionalism in the [[Communist International|Comintern]] and the poor representatives it was sent from Moscow.<ref name="Mujal-León-1983" /> Until 1934, when the PCE joined [[Manuel Azaña]]'s government, the PCE opposed the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republic]].<ref name="Mujal-León-1983" /> Left consolidation under Prime Minister [[Manuel Azaña|Azaña]] corresponded with the Comintern directive<ref name="Payne-2006">{{cite book|last=Payne|first=Stanley|title=The Collapse of the Spanish Republic, 1933–1936|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-300-13080-5|pages=81}}</ref> to form broad coalitions opposing [[fascism]].<ref name="Mujal-León-1983" /> Upon their 1934 merger with the PSOE under the [[:ast:Alianza Obrera|Alianza Obrera]],<ref name="Payne-2006" /> the communists reversed their view on the Republic and their influence expanded.<ref name="Mujal-León-1983" /> Between 1934 and 1936, the PCE's membership grew from approximately one thousand to thirty thousand.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beevor|first=Antony|url=http://archive.org/details/spanishcivilwar0000beev|title=The Spanish Civil War|date=2001|publisher= Penguin Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-14-100148-7}}</ref>

[[File:Pius xi 1.jpg|thumb|During the Spanish Civil War, [[Pope Pius XI]] wrote, "bolshevistic and atheistic Communism, which aims at upsetting the social order and at undermining the very foundations of Christian civilization", had destroyed "as far as possible every church and every monastery".<ref name=Pius11 />]]

During the Spanish Civil War the PCE was uncharacteristically moderate, prioritized garnering middle-class support and the war effort over revolutionary policy.<ref name="Mujal-León-1983" />

Communists lost favor after the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]] lost the war, and anti-communism spread to the remainder of the Spanish left. This shift was, in part, at reaction to the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], which was seen as a Soviet concession to Nazi fascism, and the PCE's refusal to share the aid it received from the Soviet Union with other leftists. Some leftists blamed the PCE for the Republicans' defeat.<ref name="Mujal-León-1983" />

In Spain and internationally, the Catholic Church was a critical anti-communist influence.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Catholic Church retained a great deal of Spain's wealth but were losing social influence.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sánchez|first=Santiago Martínez|title=The Spanish Bishops and Nazism During the Spanish Civil War|date=2013|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23565369|journal=The Catholic Historical Review|volume=99|issue=3|pages=499–530|jstor=23565369|issn=0008-8080}}</ref><ref name="Karlheinz Deschner-2013">{{Cite book|last=Karlheinz Deschner|url=http://archive.org/details/GodAndTheFascistsKarlheinzDeschner2013|title=God and the Fascists: The Vatican Alliance with Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, and Pavelic|date=2013|language=English}}</ref> [[Spanish Constitution of 1931|The Second Republic's new constitution]] "withdrew education{{nbsp}}... from the clergy, dissolved the Jesuit order, banned monks and nuns from trading, and secularized marriage." This marked a sharp contrast from the [[Restoration (Spain)|Restoration period]], during which the Church retained a religious monopoly.<ref name="Bullock-1991" /><ref name="Morgan-2003" /> The Church reacted to this change and anti-clerical destruction of Church property by funding the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights ([[CEDA]]) and denouncing the 'red' Republican government.<ref name="Karlheinz Deschner-2013" />

In 1937 [[Pope Pius XI]] released ''[[Divini Redemptoris]]'', an anti-communist [[encyclical]].<ref name="Bullock-1991" /> The document reflected the attitudes of Spanish bishops, claiming that communists were slaughtering clerics and all opposed to atheism.<ref name=Pius11>{{Cite web|title=Divini Redemptoris (March 19, 1937) {{!}} PIUS XI|url=http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19370319_divini-redemptoris.html|access-date=2021-03-09|website=www.vatican.va}}</ref>

Anti-communism was a shared ideological feature among Spain's various right-wing groups in the lead-up to the [[Spanish Civil War]]. Within the right-wing, the Catholic Church's anti-communism pulled together the political interests of the lower, agrarian classes, the landed aristocracy, and industrialists.<ref name="Preston 1990">{{Cite book|last=Preston|first=Paul|url=http://archive.org/details/politicsofreveng0000pres|title=The politics of revenge : fascism and the military in twentieth-century Spain|date=1990|publisher= Unwin Hyman |location=London; Boston |isbn=978-0-04-445463-2}}</ref> Despite these groups' political differences, [[Popular Front (Spain)|The Popular Front's]] [[1936 Spanish general election|electoral victory in 1936]] spurred [[CEDA|Catholic authoritarians]], [[Carlism|Carlists]], [[Spanish Renovation|monarchists]], some [[Spanish Military Union|military officers]], and [[Falange Española de las JONS|fascists]] to [[Unification Decree (Spain, 1937)|consolidate]] under the [[FET y de las JONS|Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS]] headed by the general and future dictator, [[Francisco Franco]].<ref name="Preston 1990" />
[[File:KZ Mauthausen.jpg|thumb|Spanish prisoners in the [[Mauthausen concentration camp]] upon being liberated by the [[United States Army]]  ]]

===== Francoist Spain =====
{{See also|Francoist concentration camps|Anti-communist mass killings|White Terror (Spain)}}

Shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War, Spain entered [[Anti-Comintern Pact|the Anti-Comintern Pact]] and a [[Treaty of Friendship]] with [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Whealey|first=Robert|title=Hitler and Spain|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=1989|isbn=978-0-8131-4863-2|pages=137}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/508495680|title=The Oxford companion to World War II|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Ian Dear, M. R. D. Foot|isbn=0-19-860446-7|location=Oxford|oclc=508495680}}</ref> The [[Francoist Spain|Franco regime]] continued to retaliate and discriminate against the "[[Jewish Bolshevism|Jewish-Masonic-Communist]]" Republicans. The divide between Republicans and Francoists was maintained until the regime ended in 1975.<ref name="Preston-2007">{{cite book|last=Preston|first=Paul|title=The Spanish Civil War|publisher=W. W. Norton & Co.|year=2007|isbn=978-0-393-32987-2|location=New York|pages=305}}</ref>

Francoist retaliation was multifaceted. No political organization outside of the Franco regime was permitted,<ref name="Grungel-1997">{{cite book|last=Grungel|first=Jean|title=Franco's Spain|publisher=Hodder Education Group|year=1997|isbn=978-0-340-66323-3|location=London|pages=25–27}}</ref> and the Law of Repression of Freemasonry and communism was enacted in 1940.<ref name="Salvado-1999">{{cite book|last=Salvado|first=Romero|title=Twentieth-century Spain : politics and society in Spain, 1898–1998|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-312-21626-9|location=New York|pages=127–133}}</ref> Under this law, the term "communism" was applied to all revolutionary leftists, many of whom did not actually identify as Communists.<ref name="Grungel-1997" /> Political approval from the Franco regime was required "in order to obtain such vital things as a ration card or a job".<ref name="Salvado-1999" />

Military courts were ordered to eliminate all political opposition to the Franco regime,<ref name="Grungel-1997" /> and hundreds of thousands were executed and imprisoned under political pretenses.<ref name="Graham-2005">{{cite book|last=Graham|first=Helen|title=The Spanish Civil War|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-19-280377-1|pages=129–133}}</ref> Among these were those in the "defeated republican constituencies", including "urban workers, the rural landless, [[Basque nationalism|regional nationalists]], liberal professionals, and [[New Woman|'new' women]]." The Francoist prison system comprised two hundred camps, which separated Republican prisoners deemed recoverable, who were used for forced labor, from the rest, who were immediately killed.<ref name="Preston-2007" /> Some in these camps were subjected to [[unethical human experimentation]] that sought to find "the [[Biological psychiatry|bio-psychic]] roots of [[Marxism]]."<ref name="Preston-2007" /> Additionally, thousands of exiled Republicans were forced "to work for the German war effort" or imprisoned in [[Nazi concentration camps]]. Franco "actively encouraged Germans to detain and deport exiled Republicans."<ref name="Preston-2007" />

Anti-communism was also perpetuated in the education system. "A quarter of all teachers" were purged from school and university education, and Spain's history, including that of the recent war,<ref name="Salvado-1999" /> was taught from an extremely conservative, pro-Franco perspective.<ref name="Graham-2005" />

==== Ukraine ====
{{Main|Decommunization in Ukraine}}
During and after [[Euromaidan]], starting with the fall of the monument to Lenin in [[Kyiv]] on 8 December 2013, several Lenin monuments and statues were removed/destroyed by protesters. The ban on communist symbols did result in the removement of hundreds of statues, the replacement of millions of street signs and the renaming of populated places including some of Ukraine's biggest cities like [[Dnipro]], [[Horishni Plavni]] and [[Kropyvnytskyi]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Shevchenko|first=Vitaly|date=14 April 2015|title=Goodbye, Lenin: Ukraine moves to ban communist symbols|work=[[BBC News]]|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32267075|access-date=17 May 2015}}</ref>

=== North America ===
==== United States ====
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2009}}
{{Main|Red Scare}}
{{Conservatism US}}

===== 1920s and 1930s =====
[[File:Welch-McCarthy-Hearings.jpg|thumb|230px|[[Joseph N. Welch]] (left) being questioned by Senator [[Joe McCarthy]] (right) on 9 June 1954]]
The first major manifestation of anti-communism in the United States occurred in 1919 and 1920 during the [[First Red Scare]], led by Attorney General [[Alexander Mitchell Palmer]]. During the Red Scare, the [[Lusk Committee]] investigated those suspected of [[sedition]] and many laws were passed in the United States that sanctioned the firings of Communists. The [[Hatch Act of 1939]], which was sponsored by [[Carl Hatch]] of [[New Mexico]], attempted to drive communism out of public work places. The Hatch Act outlawed the hiring of federal workers who advocated the "overthrow of our Constitutional form of government". This phrase was specifically directed at the [[Communist Party USA]]. Later in the spring of 1941, another anti-communist law was passed, Public Law 135, which sanctioned the investigation of any federal worker suspected of being Communist and the firing of any Communist worker.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=M. Stanton |title=Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies |date=2007 |publisher=Crown Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-23866-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC |ref={{harvid|Evans|2003}} |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Is this tomorrow.jpg|thumb|left|Cover to the 1947 comic book, ''Is This Tomorrow'']]
Catholics often took the lead in fighting against communism in America.<ref>McNamara, Patrick (2005). ''A Catholic Cold War: Edmund A. Walsh, S.J., and the Politics of American Anticommunism''.</ref> Pat Scanlan (1894–1983) was the managing editor (1917–1968) of the ''Brooklyn Tablet'', the official paper of the Brooklyn diocese. He was a leader in the fight against the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and supported the [[National Legion of Decency]] efforts to minimize [[Human sexuality|sexuality]] in Hollywood films.<ref>Delaney, John J. (1984). ''Dictionary of American Catholic Biography''. p. 511.</ref>

Historian Richard Powers says:
<blockquote>Pat Scanlan emerged in the 1920s as the leading spokesman for an especially pugnacious brand of militant Catholic anti-communism, that of [[Irish Americans|Irish-Americans]] who, after suffering from 100 years of anti-Catholic prejudice in America, reacted to any criticism of the Church as a bigoted attack on their own hard-won status in American society.{{nbsp}}... He combined a vivid writing style filled with [[H. L. Mencken|Menckenesque]] invective, with an unbridled love of controversy. Under Scanlan, the ''Tablet'' became the national voice of Irish Catholic anti-communism—and a thorn in the side of New York's [[Protestants]] and Jews.<ref>{{cite book|last=Powers|first=Richard Gid|title=Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_LbUSH0N1sC&pg=PA55|year=1998|publisher=Yale UP|pages=55–57|isbn=0-300-07470-0}}</ref></blockquote>

===== Cold War era, 1947–1991 =====
[[File:JFK speech Ich bin ein berliner 1.jpg|thumb|[[John F. Kennedy]]'s 1963 "[[Ich bin ein Berliner]]" speech in [[West Berlin]]]]
[[File:President Ronald Reagan with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher During a Working Luncheon at Camp David (retouched).jpg|thumb|U.S. president [[Ronald Reagan]] and United Kingdom prime minister [[Margaret Thatcher]]]]
Following [[World War II]] and the rise of the [[Soviet Union]], many anti-communists in the United States feared that communism would triumph throughout the entire world and eventually become a direct threat to the United States. There were fears that the Soviet Union and its allies such as the People's Republic of China were using their power to forcibly bring countries under Communist rule. Eastern Europe, [[North Korea]], [[Vietnam]], [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], [[British Malaya|Malaya]], and [[Indonesia]] were cited as evidence of this. [[NATO]] was a military alliance of nations in Western Europe which was led by the United States and it sought to halt further Communist expansion by pursuing the [[containment]] strategy.
[[File:United Nations Day Anti-Communism Rally November 1960 (1).jpg|thumb|[[University of San Diego]] students marching in an anti-communism rally in 1960]]
The deepening of the [[Cold War]] in the 1950s saw a dramatic increase in anti-communism in the United States, including the anti-communist campaign which is known as [[McCarthyism]]. Thousands of Americans, such as the filmmaker [[Charlie Chaplin]], were accused of being Communists or sympathizers and many became the subject of aggressive investigations by government committees such as the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]. As a result of sometimes vastly exaggerated accusations, many of the accused lost their jobs and became [[blacklisted]], although most of these verdicts were later overturned. This was also the period of the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]] and the [[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]] trial. It was in this period that [[Robert W. Welch Jr.]] organized the [[John Birch Society]], which became a leading force against the "Communist conspiracy" in the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many records such as the [[Venona Project]] were made public that in fact verified that many of those thought to be falsely accused for political purposes were in fact Communist spies or sympathizers. [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan|Moynihan]] noted the "real (but limited) extent" of [[Soviet espionage in the United States|Soviet espionage]].<ref name="Moynihan-1998" /> [[John Earl Haynes]], while acknowledging that inexcusable excesses occurred during McCarthyism, states that the [[Communist Party USA]] was essentially a "satellite" of the Soviet party based on archives of covert communication.<ref>{{cite web|last=Haynes|first=John Earl|author-link=John Earl Haynes|title=Reflections on Ellen Schrecker and Maurice Isserman's essay, "The Right's Cold War Revision"|url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page47.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315132843/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page47.html|archive-date=March 15, 2015|access-date=September 9, 2010}}</ref>

The State Department refused to issue passports to citizens who declined to swear that they were not Communists.<ref name=":Gao">{{Cite book |last=Gao |first=Yunxiang |title=Arise, Africa! Roar, China! Black and Chinese Citizens of the World in the Twentieth Century |date=2021 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-1-4696-6460-6 |location=Chapel Hill, NC}}</ref>{{Rp|page=12}} This practice was ended following the 1958 Supreme Court Case ''[[Kent v. Dulles]]''.<ref name=":Gao" />{{Rp|page=12}}

During the 1980s, the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]] pursued an aggressive policy against the Soviet Union under the [[Reagan Doctrine]], which was implemented to reduce the influence of the Soviet Union worldwide by providing aid to anti-Soviet resistance movements, including the [[Contras]] in [[Nicaragua]] and the [[Mujahideen]]s in [[Afghanistan]]. Reagan and U.S. allies also increased weapons programs, including the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]].

The deliberate downing of [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007]] near [[Moneron Island]] by the Soviets on 1 September 1983 contributed to the anti-communism sentiment of the 1980s. KAL 007 had been carrying 269 people, including a sitting Congressman, [[Larry McDonald]], who was a leader in the [[John Birch Society]].<ref>Farrel Corcoran, "KAL 007 and the evil empire: Mediated disaster and forms of rationalization." ''Critical Studies in Media Communication'' 3.3 (1986): 297–316.</ref><ref>Craig A. Morgan, "The Downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007." ''Yale Journal of International Law'' 11 (1985): 231+ [https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/6145/15_11YaleJIntlL231_Fall1985_.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y online].</ref>

The U.S. government argued its anti-communist policies by citing the human rights record of Communist states, most notably the Soviet Union during the [[Joseph Stalin]] era, [[Maoism|Maoist]] China, North Korea and the [[Pol Pot]]-led anti-[[Hanoi]] [[Khmer Rouge]] government and the pro-[[Hanoi]] [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]] in Cambodia. During the 1980s, the [[Kirkpatrick Doctrine]] was particularly influential in American politics and it advocated the United States support of anti-communist governments around the world, including authoritarian regimes. In support of the Reagan Doctrine and other anti-communist foreign and defense policies, prominent United States and Western anti-communists warned that the United States needed to avoid repeating the West's perceived mistakes of [[appeasement]] of [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>Johns, Michael (Summer 1987). ["Peace in Our Time: The Spirit of Munich Lives On". ''Policy Review''.</ref>

In one of the most prominent anti-communist speeches of any president, Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "[[Evil Empire speech|evil empire]]" and anti-communist intellectuals prominently defended the label. In 1987, for instance, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the 1917 [[Bolshevik Revolution]], Michael Johns of [[The Heritage Foundation]] cited 208 perceived acts of evil by the Soviets since the revolution.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cite Soviets' Dark Side While Holding U.S. To High Standards |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1987/11/17/cite-soviets-dark-side-while-holding-us-to-high-standards/ |date=November 17, 1987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324095738/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1987-11-17/news/0160160268_1_soviet-union-soviet-tanks-evil-empire |archive-date=2012-03-24 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-09-21}}</ref><ref>Johns, Michael (Fall 1987). "Seventy Years of Evil: Soviet Crimes from Lenin to Gorbachev". ''Policy Review''. The Heritage Foundation.</ref>

In 1993, Congress passed and President Clinton signed Public Law 103-199 for the construction of a national monument to victims of communism.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rauch|first=Jonathan|title=The Forgotten Millions|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/12/the-forgotten-millions/302849/|access-date=14 July 2018|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=1 December 2003|quote=in 1993 Congress and President Bill Clinton authorized the construction, on public land but with private funds, of a national memorial to honor the victims of communism. The act cited "the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust," and resolved that "the sacrifices of these victims should be permanently memorialized so that never again will nations and peoples allow so evil a tyranny to terrorize the world".}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=H.R.3000 – Friendship Act|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/3000/text|website=Congress.gov|publisher=United States Congress|access-date=14 July 2018|quote=Sec. 905. Monument to Honor Victims of Communism. (a) Findings. – Congress finds that – (1) since 1917, the rulers of empires and international communism led by Vladimir I. Lenin and Mao Tse-tung have been responsible for the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust|date=17 December 1993}}</ref> In 2007, President Bush attended its inauguration.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-communism-idUSPEK20924820070614|title=China blasts Bush tribute to victims of communism|work=Reuters|date=14 June 2007}}</ref>

===== Post-Cold War era developments =====
Anti-communism became significantly muted after the 1980s–1990s [[Chinese economic reform]] and the fall of the Soviet Union and [[Eastern bloc]] Communist governments in Europe between 1989 and 1991, the result of which being that fear of a worldwide Communist takeover was no longer a serious concern. However, remnants of anti-communism remain in foreign policy with regard to Cuba and North Korea. In the case of Cuba, it was not until the [[Presidency of Barack Obama|Obama administration]] that [[Cuban thaw|the United States began to weaken]] (though not lift) [[United States embargo against Cuba|its economic sanctions]] against the country. Tensions with North Korea have heightened as the result of reports that it is stockpiling [[nuclear weapons]] and the assertion that it is willing to sell its nuclear weapons and [[ballistic missile]] technology to any group willing to pay a high enough price. [[Ideological restrictions on naturalization in U.S. law|Ideological restrictions on naturalization in United States law]] remain in effect, affecting prospective immigrants who were at one time members of a Communist party and the [[Communist Control Act of 1954|Communist Control Act]] which outlaws the Communist Party still remains in effect, although it was never enforced by the Federal Government. Some states also still have laws banning Communists from working in the state government.

Since the [[September 11 attacks]] on the United States and the subsequent implementation of the [[Patriot Act]] which was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed into law and strongly supported by President Bush, some Communist groups in the United States have been subjected to renewed scrutiny by the government. On 24 September 2010, over 70 FBI agents simultaneously raided homes and served subpoenas to prominent antiwar and international solidarity activists who were thought to be members of the [[Freedom Road Socialist Organization]] (FRSO) in Minneapolis, Chicago and Grand Rapids and they also visited and attempted to question activists in Milwaukee, Durham and San Jose. The search warrants and subpoenas indicated that the FBI was looking for evidence that was related to their "material support of terrorism".<ref>{{cite web|title=Timeline of Events 2010|url=http://www.stopfbi.net/about/timeline|publisher=Committee to Stop FBI Repression|access-date=25 April 2013|archive-date=20 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220101251/http://www.stopfbi.net/about/timeline|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the process of raiding an activist's home, FBI agents accidentally left behind a file of secret FBI documents which showed that the raids were aimed at people who were actual or suspected members of the FRSO. The documents revealed a series of questions that agents would ask activists regarding their involvement in the FRSO and their international solidarity work that was related to their dealings with the [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]] and the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]].<ref>{{cite web|title=FBI Interview Questions for FRSO|url=http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/3-Interrogation%20Questions.pdf|publisher=Committee to Stop FBI Repression|access-date=25 April 2013|archive-date=17 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117080048/http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/3-Interrogation%20Questions.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Later, members of the newly formed Committee to Stop FBI Repression held a press conference in Minnesota in which they revealed that the FBI had placed an informant inside the FRSO to gather information prior to the raids.<ref>{{cite web|title=Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists Denounce FBI Infiltration|url=http://www.stopfbi.net/2011/1/12/anti-war-and-international-solidarity-activists-denounce-fbi-infiltration|publisher=Committee to Stop FBI Repression|access-date=25 April 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628140457/http://www.stopfbi.net/2011/1/12/anti-war-and-international-solidarity-activists-denounce-fbi-infiltration|archive-date=28 June 2013}}</ref>

On October 2, 2020 the [[United States Citizenship and Immigration Services]] issued policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address inadmissibility based on membership in or affiliation with a [[communist party]] or any other [[totalitarian]] party. It said that unless otherwise exempt, any intending immigrant who was a member or affiliate of a communist or totalitarian party, or subdivision or affiliate, domestic or foreign, was inadmissible to the United States. It also indicated that a member of a communist party or any other totalitarian party was inconsistent and incompatible with the naturalization [[Oath of Allegiance (United States)|Oath of Allegiance]] to the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 2, 2020|title=USCIS Issues Policy Guidance Regarding Inadmissibility Based on Membership in a Totalitarian Party|url=https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-issues-policy-guidance-regarding-inadmissibility-based-on-membership-in-a-totalitarian-party|website=U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services}}</ref>

In 2024, the state of [[Florida]] passed legislation which mandates anti-communism teaching for public school children from Kindergarten to 12th grade.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gov. DeSantis signs law requiring anti-communist teachings in K-12 |url=https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2024/04/17/desantis-communism-school-florida |access-date=2024-05-24 |website=mynews13.com |language=en}}</ref>

In December 2024, the [[United States House of Representatives]] passed by 327-62 H.R.5349 [[Crucial Communism Teaching Act]]. The bill directs the [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]] to create a civic education program for high schools about the dangers of communism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hurowitz |first=Noah |date=2024-12-05 |title=Just Say No: Congress Considers Neocon Lesson Plans to Keep Kids Off Communism |url=https://theintercept.com/2024/12/05/congress-anti-communism-school-curriculum/ |access-date=2024-12-14 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=H.R.5349 – Crucial Communism Teaching Act |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5349 |access-date=December 14, 2024 |website=congress.gov|date=9 December 2024 }}</ref>

=== South America ===
{{expand section|date=May 2019}}
During the 1970s, the right-wing [[military junta]]s of South America implemented [[Operation Condor]], a campaign of [[political repression]] involving tens of thousands of political assassinations, illegal detentions and tortures of communist sympathizers. The campaign was aimed at eradicating alleged communist and socialist influences in their respective countries and control opposition against the government, which resulted in a large number of deaths.<ref name="shock-doc-126">{{cite book|last=Klein|first=Naomi|title=Shock Doctrine|publisher=Picador|location=New York|year=2007|page=[https://archive.org/details/shockdoctriner00unse/page/126 126]|isbn=978-0-312-42799-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/shockdoctriner00unse/page/126}}</ref> Participatory governments include Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, with limited support from the United States.<ref>[[J. Patrice McSherry]]. ''[https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742536876 Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America].'' [[Rowman & Littlefield Publishers]], 2005. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tSDg6xa4z2YC&pg=PA36 p. 36]. {{ISBN|0742536874}}.</ref><ref>Cecilia Menjívar and Néstor Rodríguez (eds). ''[http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/menwhe When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104004407/http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/menwhe |date=4 November 2015 }}''. [[University of Texas Press]], 2005. {{ISBN|0292706790}}</ref>

==== Argentina ====
In 1961 the American Organization for the Safeguarding of Morality were endorsed by Argentine President Arturo Frondizi, who viewed the group as a positive development in the fight against communism.<ref name="Manzano-2015">{{Cite journal|last=Manzano|first=Valeria|date=February 2015|title=Sex, Gender and the Making of the 'Enemy Within' in Cold War Argentina|journal=Journal of Latin American Studies|language=en|volume=47|issue=1|pages=1–29|doi=10.1017/S0022216X14000686|issn=0022-216X|doi-access=free|hdl=11336/35773|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Conservative, Catholic women became the foundation for the nation's anti-communist sentiment, viewing themselves as protectors of the youth against moral degeneracy.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> The ideas of the traditional family and of anti-communism increasingly became linked in the minds of these women, especially as the Vatican increased its anti-communist messaging.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> In 1951, the "League of Mothers" was created.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> This group of women aimed to counter the forces of liberalism and communism and to protect traditional, social institutions they viewed were under attack from communism.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> This group functioned as both a philanthropic organization and a sociopolitical watchdog.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> Colonel Rómulo Menéndez wrote in ''Círculo Militar'', "the communists want to break up the family—through divorce, ideas on communication among its members, and the breakdown of the father's authority."<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> The Argentinian Revolution of 1966–1970 brought into power General Juan Carlos Onganía.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> The Onganía regime pursued policies aimed at social planning on the basis that communism destroys traditional social institutions.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> This led to the new government changing the governing structure of universities from an egalitarian structure to a hierarchical one, claiming that the governing structures themselves imbued students with the message of communism.<ref name="Manzano-2015" /> The new government also criminalized certain students and professors and banned student federations.<ref name="Manzano-2015" />

==== Brazil ====
In the [[2018 Brazilian general election]], the campaign of [[Jair Bolsonaro]] painted candidate [[Fernando Haddad]], former president [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]] and the left-wing [[Workers' Party (Brazil)|Worker's Party]] as [[communists]], claiming they could turn Brazil into "a Venezuela". The motto "Our flag never will be red" has been a symbol of anti-communism in Brazil, going so far as being uttered by Bolsonaro himself during his inauguration speech.<ref>{{cite news|date=1 January 2019|title='Bandeira jamais será vermelha', diz Bolsonaro em discurso no Palácio do Planalto|work=Jornal EXTRA|url=https://extra.globo.com/noticias/brasil/bandeira-jamais-sera-vermelha-diz-bolsonaro-em-discurso-no-palacio-do-planalto-23339528.html}}</ref>

Anti-communism in Brazil is primarily represented by right-wing and far-right political parties such as Bolsonaro's [[Alliance for Brazil]], the Social Liberal Party, the [[Social Christian Party (Brazil)|Social Christian Party]], [[Patriota]], the [[Brazilian Labour Renewal Party]], [[Podemos (Brazil)|Podemos]] and the [[New Party (Brazil)|New Party]].

==== Chile ====
In 1932 Chile experienced a process of democratic restoration after the dictatorship of [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]], which lasted from 1927 to 1931. Under this agitated political-social context, the anti-communist political party [[National Socialist Movement of Chile]] emerged.<ref name="static.ides.org.ar">{{cite web |last1=Bohoslavsky |first1=Ernesto |date=April 2012 |title=El anticomunismo en Chile en el siglo XX: ideologemas transnacionales y usos locales |url=https://static.ides.org.ar/archivo/saberesdeestado/2012/04/Bohos-IDES.pdf |access-date=26 June 2023 |language=es}}</ref> At the end of the 1930s, a group of young people who split from the [[Conservative Party (Chile)|Conservative Party]] formed the [[National Falange]], which was led by [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]], a fervently anti-communist politician.<ref>{{cite web |title=La larga historia de una frágil alianza: Democracia Cristiana y Partido Comunista |url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2016/08/22/la-larga-historia-de-una-fragil-alianza-democracia-cristiana-y-partido-comunista/ |website=El Mostrador |access-date=26 June 2023 |language=es |date=22 August 2016}}</ref>

The Chilean Committee for Cultural Freedom, a branch of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, actively opposed the Chilean Society of Writers on the basis that it harbored pro-soviet, pro-communist sentiment.<ref name="Nállim-2019">{{Cite journal|last=Nállim|first=Jorge A.|date=August 2019|title=Culture, Politics and the Cold War: The Sociedad de Escritores de Chile in the 1950s|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022216X18000755/type/journal_article|journal=Journal of Latin American Studies|language=en|volume=51|issue=3|pages=549–571|doi=10.1017/S0022216X18000755|s2cid=150953627|issn=0022-216X|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The Chilean Committee for Cultural Freedom put its members in many different media organs and social institutions in Chile to advocate against communism.<ref name="Nállim-2019" /> Carlos Baráibar, the leader of the Chilean Committee for Cultural Freedom, frequently criticized famous communist writer and President of the Chilean Society of Writers, [[Pablo Neruda]].<ref name="Nállim-2019" /> In 1959, the Chilean Committee for Cultural Freedom was successful in the Chilean Society of Writers board elections, replacing Neruda and his group of communist sympathizers with Alejandro Magnet, a supporter of the centrist, [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democratic Party]].<ref name="Nállim-2019" />

In 1947 [[Gabriel González Videla]] undertook state action to distance Chile from communism.<ref name="Nállim-2019" /> Internationally, Chile became hostile to communist countries.<ref name="Nállim-2019" /> Domestically, the Communist Party was outlawed and communist labor organizations were dismantled, which forced many communists, such as Neruda, to flee Chile.<ref name="Nállim-2019" /> In July 1947, due to a collective locomotion strike in Santiago promoted by the Communist Party, its militants were dismissed from the public administration. The Videla government also arrested communist leaders and interned them in the Pisagua prison camp in January 1948. In 1958, after a long parliamentary debate, the Law for the Permanent Defense of Democracy was finally repealed, and the Communist Party returned to legality.<ref>{{cite web |title=persecución a militantes – Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile |url=https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-94602.html |website=www.memoriachilena.gob.cl |access-date=26 June 2023}}</ref>

The [[Fatherland and Liberty]] Nationalist Front, a far-right paramilitary group with a marked anti-communist ideology, acted against the [[Presidency of Salvador Allende|government of Salvador Allende]] through political violence, sabotage and terrorism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Díaz Nieva |first1=José |last2=Valdés Urrutia |first2=Mario |last3=Díaz Nieva |first3=José |last4=Valdés Urrutia |first4=Mario |title=El Frente penquista de Patria y Libertad: una historia de extremismo y violencia (1970–1973) |journal=Revista de historia (Concepción) |pages=635–662 |doi=10.29393/rh29-37fpdv20037 |date=December 2022|volume=2 |issue=29 |s2cid=255431215 |doi-access=free }}</ref> On September 11, 1973, the [[Chilean Armed Forces]] led by [[Augusto Pinochet]] carried out a coup that overthrew the government of Allende,<ref>{{cite web |title=golpe de Estado – Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile |url=https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-92405.html |website=www.memoriachilena.gob.cl |access-date=26 June 2023}}</ref> giving way to a [[Military dictatorship of Chile|military dictatorship]] which would last from 1973 to 1990. The new government was marked by the persecution and repression of any type of political dissidence, mainly socialists and communists. Later on they would create the [[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional]], the body in charge of executing these activities.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-11-12 |title=Dictadura de Augusto Pinochet: los años más oscuros de Chile |url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/junior-report/20191108/471450047349/dictadura-chile-augusto-pinochet-represion.html |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=La Vanguardia |language=es}}</ref>

== Criticism ==
{{See also|Anti anti-communism|Anti-communist mass killings}}
Some academics and pundits argue that anti-communist narratives have exaggerated the extent of political repression and censorship in states under communist rule or have drawn comparisons with what they see as atrocities that were perpetrated by capitalist countries, particularly during the Cold War. They include [[Mark Aarons]],<ref name="Blumenthal80" /> [[Vincent Bevins]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent|author-link=Vincent Bevins |title= [[The Jakarta Method]]: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World|date=2020 |publisher= [[PublicAffairs]]|pages=15–16 |isbn= 978-1-5417-4240-6|quote=The specific kind of anti-communism that took shape in these years was partly based on value judgements: the widespread belief in the United States that communism was simply a bad system, or morally repugnant even when effective. But it was also based on a number of assertions about the nature of Soviet-led international communism. There was a widespread belief that Stalin wanted to invade Western Europe. It became accepted as fact that the Soviets were pushing for revolution worldwide, and that whenever communists were present, even in small numbers, they probably had secret plans to overthrow the government. And it was considered gospel that anywhere communists were acting, they were doing so on the orders of the Soviet Union, part of a monolithic global conspiracy to destroy the West. Most of this was simply untrue. Much of the rest was greatly exaggerated.}}</ref> [[Noam Chomsky]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Chomsky|first=Noam|author-link=Noam Chomsky|title=Counting the Bodies|work=Spectrezine|access-date=18 September 2016|url=http://spectrezine.org/global/chomsky.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921084037/http://www.spectrezine.org/global/chomsky.htm|archive-date=21 September 2016}}</ref> [[Jodi Dean]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Dean|first=Jodi|author-link=Jodi Dean|date=2012|title=The Communist Horizon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBghOq42S3YC&pg=PA6|publisher=Verso|pages=6–7|isbn=978-1-84467-954-6}}</ref> [[Christian Gerlach]],<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Gerlach |editor1-first=Christian |editor2-last=Six |editor2-first=Clemens |date=2020 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Anti-Communist Persecutions|location= |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|pages=1–7|isbn=978-3-030-54965-7}}</ref> [[Kristen Ghodsee]],<ref>Ghodsee, Kristen R.; Sehon, Scott; Dresser, Sam, ed. (22 March 2018). [https://aeon.co/essays/the-merits-of-taking-an-anti-anti-communism-stance "The merits of taking an anti-anti-communism stance"]. ''[[Aeon (digital magazine)|Aeon]]''. Retrieved 11 February 2020.</ref> [[Seumas Milne]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Milne|first=Seumas|author-link=Seumas Milne|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Columnists/Column/0,,1710891,00.html|title=Communism may be dead, but clearly not dead enough|work=The Guardian|date=16 February 2006|access-date=5 September 2018}}</ref> and [[Michael Parenti]].<ref>{{citation|last=Parenti|first=Michael|title=Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism|year=1997|publisher=[[City Lights Bookstore|City Lights Books]]|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-0-87286-329-3|page=58|author-link=Michael Parenti}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Communism|Politics}}
{{cols|colwidth=21em}}
* [[Anti-communist mass killings]]
* [[1951 Australian Communist Party ban referendum]]
* [[Anti-fascism]]
* [[Anti-Leninism]]
* [[Anti-liberalism]]
* [[Anti-racism]]
* ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]''
* [[Communist terrorism]]
* [[Crimes against humanity under communist regimes]]
* [[Criticism of anarchism]]
* [[Criticism of communist party rule]]
* [[Criticism of Marxism]]
* [[Criticism of socialism]]
* [[Decommunization]]
* [[Far-left politics]]
* [[Far-right politics]]
* [[Joint Committee Against Communism]]
* [[Left-wing politics]]
* [[Left-wing populism]]
* [[Left-wing terrorism]]
* [[Mass killings under communist regimes]]
* [[McCarthyism and antisemitism]]
* [[Political spectrum]]
* [[Political violence]]
* [[Radical right (Europe)]]
* [[Radical right (United States)]]
* [[Red Scare]]
* [[Right-wing politics]]
* [[Right-wing populism]]
* [[Right-wing terrorism]]
* [[Soviet dissidents]]
* [[De-Stalinization]]
* [[Demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine]]
{{colend}}

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=

<ref name="Al-Sudairi-2019">{{cite journal |last=Al-Sudairi |first=Mohammed Turki A. |date=2019-10-15 |title=Marx's Arabian Apostles: The Rise and Fall of the Saudi Communist Movement |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/10.3751/73.3.15 |journal=The Middle East Journal |language=en |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=438–457 |doi=10.3751/73.3.15 |issn=0026-3141 |s2cid=210378439|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

<ref name="Bowman-2005">{{cite journal |last=Bowman |first=Bradley |date=2005 |title=Realism and Idealism: US Policy toward Saudi Arabia, from the Cold War to Today |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/198174058 |journal=Parameters; Carlisle Barracks |volume=35 |pages=91–105 |id={{ProQuest|198174058}}}}</ref>

<ref name="Moynihan-1998">{{cite book|last=Moynihan|first=Daniel Patrick|url=https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn|title=Secrecy: The American Experience|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-300-08079-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn/page/15 15]–16|url-access=registration}}</ref>

<ref name="Bullock-1991">{{cite book |last=Bullock |first=Alan |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlerstudyintyr00bull |title=Hitler: A Study in Tyranny |year=1991 |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=978-0-06-092020-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/hitlerstudyintyr00bull/page/40 40] |quote=alan bullock tyranny. |url-access=registration}}</ref>

<ref name="Daher-2016">{{cite journal |last=Daher |first=Joseph |date=2016-07-15 |title=Reassessing Hizbullah's Socioeconomic Policies in Lebanon |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3751/70.3.13 |journal=The Middle East Journal |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=399–418 |doi=10.3751/70.3.13 |s2cid=147918005 |issn=0026-3141|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

<ref name="Toaldo-2013">{{cite journal |last=Toaldo |first=Mattia |date=2013 |title=The Italo-Libyan Relationship between 1969 and 1976 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0263718900009675/type/journal_article |journal=Libyan Studies |language=en |volume=44 |pages=85–94 |doi=10.1017/S0263718900009675 |s2cid=147112053 |issn=0263-7189|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

<ref name="Blunden 1993">[[Andy Blunden]] 1993 The Class Struggle in Russia: III: The Left in Russia ''Stalinism: It's [''sic''] Origin and Future''.</ref>

<ref name="Ticktin">Hillel H. Ticktin End of Stalinism, Beginning of Marxism May–June 1992, Against the Current 38</ref>
}}

== Further reading ==
{{Library resources box}}
* Kennan, George F. (1964). ''On Dealing with the Communist World'', in series, ''The Elihu Root Lectures''. New York: Harper & Row. xi, 57 p. ''N.B''.: Also on t.p.: "Published for the Council on Foreign Relations".
* Gülstorff, Torben (2015). ''Warming Up a Cooling War: An Introductory Guide on the CIAS and Other Globally Operating Anti-communist Networks at the Beginning of the Cold War Decade of Détente'', in series, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/warming-cooling-war-introductory-guide-the-cias-and-other-globally-operating-anti Cold War International History Project Working Paper Series #75], Washington.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Anti-communism}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [[Stephane Courtois]] (1997). [https://web.archive.org/web/20100403085848/http://www.cooper.edu/humanities/core/hss3/Blackbook.html ''The Black Book of communism''].
* [http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/ The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation].

{{fall of Communism}}

{{authority control}}

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