Unlike other Eurasianists who saw the Soviet Union as a "stepping stone" towards the development of an Eurasianist Russia, Krasnov's anti-communism led to the rejection of the "stepping stone thesis". In the 1920s-1930s, Krasnov was a popular novelist with his books being translated into 20 languages. Behind the Thistle however, met with an overwhelmingly negative critical response in 1927, being panned by reviewers in the majority of Russian émigré journals who called Behind the Thistle badly written, unrealistic and preachy. Despite the negative reviews, the expression "behind the thistle" became popular with the younger Russian emigres as a way describe the Soviet Union. During the Berne Trial of 1933-35 started when a Swiss Jewish group sued a Swiss Nazi group, Krasnov was asked by his fellow emigre Nikolai Markov to come to Berne to testify for the defendants about the alleged authenticity of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, but he declined. Markov in turn was a member of the Welt-Dienst, an international anti-Semitic society based in Erfurt, Germany and headed by a former German Army officer, Ulrich Fleischhauer whose efforts to promote The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion in Switzerland had caused the lawsuit in Berne. In his correspondence with Markov, Krasnov affirmed his belief in the authenticity of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, but stated he was unwilling to be grilled by the lawyers for the plaintiffs. In 1937, after several Russian White emigre leaders in Paris had been assassinated by the Soviet NKVD, Krasnov moved to Berlin where he believed he would be safer, and declared his support for the Third Reich. In another of his novels, The Lie in 1939, Krasnov wrote about one character: "Lisa was right in her severe judgment: Russia was no more. She did not have a Motherland or her own. However, when the Bremen floated noiselessly by and she saw a black swastika in a white circle on a scarlet banner, a sign of eternal motion and continuum, she was feeling a warm tide covering her heart...That’s Motherland!" World War II During World War II, Krasnov continued his "German orientation" by seeking an alliance with Nazi Germany. Upon hearing of the launching of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, Krasnov immediately issued a statement of support for the "crusade against Judeo-Bolshevism" and declared: "I wish to state to all Cossacks that this is not