The Interaction Between German Military Circles and the National Socialist Movement During the Weimar Republic in Russian Historiography

The author aims to outline the evolution of the views of Russian scholars on the participation of representatives of the German Army (including demobilised personnel who identified themselves as servicemen), especially the officer corps, in the development of the National Socialist movement in the period between 1918 and 1933. The works of Soviet historians of 1920–1940s are the first attempt to analyse German “fascism” and its main activists. They are full of generalisations and factual inaccuracies, but allow one to conclude that the political upheavals of 1920–1923 largely involved former military personnel. Hitler's movement is portrayed as part of an overall process of counter-revolutionary and anti-government action, dominated by military circles. In the post-war period it has become possible to explore in more detail the Nazi rise to power and the role of the German generals in this process, the growth of the National Socialist movement and the activities of the Sturmabteilung. In general, historians have been unable to shake off a retrospective view of events in the Weimar Republic through the prism of the Nazi dictatorship and its military aggression against the Soviet Union. In recent decades several works on the officer corps as an elite group and its situation during the social and political instability of the 1920s and 1930s have been published. This gives one a different perspective on the mechanisms of interaction between the military circles of the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist movement.

Keywords

National Socialism, Germany, Weimar Republic, armed forces, officer corps, Adolf Hitler, historiography, Freikorps, volunteer units

Received

27.10.2022

Publication date

19.12.2022

Number of characters

37854

Cite

GOST	Sofronov K. The Interaction Between German Military Circles and the National Socialist Movement During the Weimar Republic in Russian Historiography // Novaia i noveishaia istoriia – 2022. – Issue 6 C. 126-140 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://nni.jes.su/S013038640020074-9-1 (circulation date: 12.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013038640020074-9
MLA	Sofronov, Konstantin "The Interaction Between German Military Circles and the National Socialist Movement During the Weimar Republic in Russian Historiography." Novaia i noveishaia istoriia 6 (2022):126-140. DOI: 10.31857/S013038640020074-9
APA	Sofronov K. (2022). The Interaction Between German Military Circles and the National Socialist Movement During the Weimar Republic in Russian Historiography. Novaia i noveishaia istoriia (6), pp.126-140 DOI: 10.31857/S013038640020074-9

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