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FACT BRIEF

Did World War II result in socialism being 'beat'?

By Christiana Dillard
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NO

Socialism is not the same as "national socialism," more popularly known as Nazism, an ideology that was adopted by the Nazi Party of Germany.

Socialism is most commonly defined as collective ownership of the means of production. The Soviet Union, officially known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was one of the major Allied Powers of World War II, which won the war.

Lead Stories reached out to Ronald Granieri, an associate professor of history in the Department of National Security and Strategy at U.S. Army War College, and author of a piece in The Washington Post discussing the difference between socialism and national socialism. Granieri categorized the claim as "not remotely accurate."

Among several points he made:

"The Soviets contributed mightily to the defeat of Nazi Germany, and they literally called their participation a triumph for socialism."

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Washington Post The right needs to stop falsely claiming that the Nazis were socialists
Investopedia Socialism
Encyclopædia Britannica Socialism - Postwar socialism
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.