Why was the world so fearful of russian and communists?

Answer 1

Initially it was because communism was seen as a threat to existing society, which, to be fair, communists absolutely claimed to be.

So Western society was set up a certain way, with governments and capitalism and so on. Communists came along and said "we want to change all of that into a new way that we think is better." And people, especially governments and elites, didn't want that change. So initially it was just a strong difference of opinion. What didn't help the communists was that they often joined up with labor unions and tried to cause trouble for government and businesses, or even to tried sabotaging things. So it was pretty easy for governments and media outlets (newspapers and such) to make communists seem like treacherous spies, bombers and other sorts of villains.

Then in 1917 in Russia, communists took advantage of how badly Russia was losing in World War I and began taking over. Russia quit fighting in WW1 and instead fought a very nasty civil war that lasted about 5 years and totally devastated the country. Millions of people died. Immediately after winning the civil war, the Bolsheviks, as the Russian communists were known, set up a Dictatorship with powerful police and intelligence agencies to enforce their rule and to eliminate "capitalists", "revisionists" and "counter-revolutionaries"- all of which were basically anyone who the communists didn't like, often times even other communists!

After World War I ended, there were further communist uprisings in other countries. Germany, Bavaria and Hungary all had communist revolts right after the war ended, although all were eventually defeated. So in other Western countries, the fear that a communist revolt might start there too became very real. Russia was one thing... but now it was spreading. At this time, the US had what was called a "Red Scare" (red is the color of communism), where the government arrested hundreds of people who they believed were communist.

In the mid 1920's, after the Bolsheviks fully set up in Russia- which they renamed the Soviet Union, they began to see themselves as the leaders of communism in the world- they had conquered a large and powerful country, so it seemed only logical. They felt it was their job to help spread communism to new countries. So they began sending money, advisors and weapons to communist groups in other countries. During and right after World War II, communists were able to come to power, with a lot of help from the Soviet Union, in many countries, like North Korea, China, Vietnam, and most of eastern Europe. All of these countries set up governments that were similar to the one set up in Russia- a dictatorship ruling with help from powerful police and intelligence agencies.

So it's easy to see why the Soviet Union would be a fearful foe. They became very good at funding spies and other agents in foreign countries in an effort to continue spreading communism. Western European countries had to sit near all these communist eastern countries, and those eastern countries were supported by the massive Soviet Red Army.