In the Russosphere, that’s basically what it means. To them, the chief crime of the Third Reich isn’t the Holocaust (murdering large swathes of undesirables is something they share, after all), it’s that they double crossed the USSR and invaded them. “Nazi” is more synonymous with “threat to the homeland” in Russia, and that’s part of why they insist Ukraine is a Nazi state.
I myself, hating to be bogged down in semantics, actually dislike how “nazi” is applied too broadly, even if I agree with the sentiment. Most of the time, the more appropriate word is “fascist”, as that is a word that can be applied broadly, whereas “nazi” is one specific type of fascist that doesn’t apply as often as social media may indicate.
In the Russosphere, that’s basically what it means. To them, the chief crime of the Third Reich isn’t the Holocaust (murdering large swathes of undesirables is something they share, after all), it’s that they double crossed the USSR and invaded them. “Nazi” is more synonymous with “threat to the homeland” in Russia, and that’s part of why they insist Ukraine is a Nazi state.
That does explain a lot.
I myself, hating to be bogged down in semantics, actually dislike how “nazi” is applied too broadly, even if I agree with the sentiment. Most of the time, the more appropriate word is “fascist”, as that is a word that can be applied broadly, whereas “nazi” is one specific type of fascist that doesn’t apply as often as social media may indicate.