Fascism and Socialism, a distinction without a difference. It was Mussolini who started the fascist movement in Italy and he was a communist who corresponded regularly with Lenin. He only started the fascist party when he decided the international communist movement really meant control of Italy by Moscow and decided to go his own way. The nazis incorporated socialist principles in their platform. They only stopped further leftward drift when they purged Roehm and the SA leadership in a deal to gain support of the Army for Hitler's bid for chancellor.