<span>2 good reasons many nationalist movements - eg., Vietnam, Cuba, colonial Africa - were also Communist. 1) Colonial governments not only ruled politically, but economically as well. A Communist revolutionary could promise independence, so that the locals could rule not only politically, but over the economy too. 2) Russia and China aided such nationalist movements, as a means to fight the western powers during the Cold War. </span>
<span>Communist influence grew in Europe around wwii not just because of Russian military success, but because they were in partisan movements. Communists saw themselves as the natural enemies of Nazism (Hitler fought Commies in GErmany during his rise to power),so this was a good fit...eg., Communist partisans lynched Mussolini. </span>
