One of the factors that helped the Nazi party gain power was when they gained the support of Centrist parties that consisted of industrialists and businesses who were motivated by their fear that the communists or socialists would destroy their privileged position. The Nazi party made it clear that they were strongly anti-socialist and anti-communist, and the Centrist parties thus put their weight behind the Nazis, believing that they could retain some measure of control over them. This is where the fear of Russia was played up, for its communist style ideology, and for the Russian Revolution that occurred as a result of this ideology. This pushed the Centrist parties directly into the hands of the Nazis, and we all know the rest of that story. Pedaling fear of Russia, to weaken the left did not turn out so well . . . . Yet it seems just as common today as it was then.