Editing Third Period (section)

=="Social fascism"==
{{Main article|Social fascism}}
One notable development in this period was that Communists organized the unemployed into a political force, despite their distance from the [[means of production]]. Another distinguishing feature of this policy was that Communists fought against their rivals on the left as vehemently as their opponents on the right of the political spectrum, with special viciousness directed at real or imaginary followers of [[Leon Trotsky]]. [[Social Democracy|Social Democrats]] were targeted by Communist polemics, in which they were dubbed "[[Social fascism|social fascists]]."

Trotskyists have blamed Stalin's line for the rise of [[Nazism]] because it precluded unity between the [[Communist Party of Germany|German communists]] with the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|German Social Democrats]]. Hitler's rise to power, consequently, was also a reason for the abandonment of the policy in favor of the Popular Front strategy because Germany became the biggest security threat to the Soviet Union.