National Socialism cannot exactly be identified as 'Left'. Leftists can only claim the legacy of Communist regimes in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America because these were the only regimes that directly descended from Marxian thoughts and ideas (although these regimes came up with customized versions of Communism to suit their own agendas). An important thing to note here is that these regimes eventually wanted to achieve a classless and stateless societies, but had a state system. The existence of the state in these countries under the Communists can only be justified under the context of the 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' and the eventual de-alienation of the Proletariat. Therefore, there is a justification to the existence of the state, which however turned out to be very controversial. On the other hand we also have the more liberal leftists of the Western Europe and the United States who are 'Democratic Socialists', Democratic Socialism is a more liberal form of leftism which supports democratic means of achieving socialism without a bloody revolution. It is not right to identify Democratic Socialism of the West as pure leftism due to the fact that Democratic Socialism doesn't outright condemn private property and also doesn't have a strong anti-state agenda. Democratic Socialists believe in a more gradual transformation to an era of socialism with communal ownership of capital. The Nazis were supporters of a strong state, pro-industry, and also strong believers in cultural-religions identities. Being cultural nationalists, the Nazis contradicted Marxian positions on religion. The Nazis also allowed private ownership of capital and pursued mercantile ideas of economic prosperity. Therefore it is impossible for the 'Leftists' of the modern world to identity themselves with 'National Socialists' and 'Democratic Socialists'.
