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Entry: The Origins of the Pod People Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_origins_of_the_pod_people#9524 Post contents: "How would one interpret the Spanish Civil War in terms of Russian nationalism?" Orwell saw through it; read his "Homage to Catalonia." The Russian Communist fifth columnists in Spain actually undermined and betrayed any Spanish socialists who didn't toe Moscow's party line; the Kremlin's concern was Russia's perceived national interest, not any brotherhood of "international socialism." Meanwhile Stalin became a virtual ally of Hitler and supplied Germany with materials the Germans used to bomb London. See also the character of the German Communist "Little Loewy" (fictional, but based on historical persons and incidents) in Koestler's "Darkness at Noon", one of many who were sold out by the so-called "international communists" of the USSR for the sake of Russia's perceived national interest. I agree with Kirt that all isms are idols, but some idols are more seductive to the minds and emotions of men than others. Hardly anyone except for a handful of intellectual fanatics like Lenin and Trotsky have ever really believed passionately in "class consciousness" or in internationalism, because - and don't most of our commenters here agree? - loyalty to "nation" (or "kith and kin" to use the newly fashionable phrase) is deep seated in Human nature, for good AND ill. But economic "class consciousness" and international solidarity is an intellectual abstraction with very limited appeal. Why do you think Stalin replaced the socialist "Internationale" with a new, rousing Soviet National Anthem appealing to the national consciousness, principally of Russians, and with a few token words about other Soviet nationalities all led by Great Russia? Here are the lyrics in English: "Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics, Great Russia has welded forever to stand. Created in struggle by will of the people, United and mighty, our Soviet land!" Granted, the succeeding lyrics mention Lenin and "Communism" (how could they not, lest the Communist Party lose its claim to legitimacy?), but there is a powerful shift in emphasis toward the Motherland, and to the primacy of Russia. That ain't what Marx would have written, nor would Trotsky, a Jew whose loyalty to "Holy Mother Russia", well, didn't exist at all. Russian nationalism came back with Stalin, Trotsky's enemy. Sent at: 2008 11 22