Uncritical, presentist, or counter-factual approaches to the topics that fueled the ideological struggles of the interwar period: revolution, democracy, war, and fascism in much of the historiography have significantly muddled the waters of further enquiry. In spite of public statements made for Western audiences, the top leaders of the Soviet People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NARKOMINDEL, henceforth NKID) made it clear that “democracy”, “fascism”, “revolution”, and “war” were terms Bolsheviks used loosely abroad to gain traction with what they saw as capitalist-bourgeois regimes.