Comment by tirant
17 hours ago
The fascists were everywhere in the DDR: just called members of the party or as part of the Stasi.
And I take the definition of fascists as anyone who prioritizes their political system, State or political view to a point of depriving any other citizen of their basic freedom.
Authoritarianism isn't the same thing as fascism.
Some ways, yes, some ways no. Communism and Fascism in practice had mutual influences on one another although they would be loathe to admit it. (By Communism here, I mean Communist party rule, not the future utopia which none of these countries ever achieved.)
If you want to take a more Trotskyite view, many post-revolutionary states enter a so called "Bonapartist" phase, where militarism, ultranationalism and symbology combine to produce something which looks a lot like Fascism. Mao and Stalin were not above using ultranationalism and chauvinism to push their rule. North Korea has gone all the way with this with Juche which contains mystical, ultranationalist and even racial supremacist features.