Despite the lack of any evidence of Soviet plans to attack Germany, it was a claim that found ready credence on the German home front.9 In mobilising the deep-seated fear of ‘Bolshevism’, the Nazis were appealing to the same broad coalition of German public opinion as had come together to repel ‘Russian barbarism’ in 1914. From former Social Democratic voters to conservative nationalists, this was a matter of profound – and axiomatic – importance.
