Communist Heroes

[Egalitarianism]

Who were some genuine heroes of the Communist ideal in history ?
Figures we can emulate

Was Che Guevara a hero or a villain ? Please explain.

[Prometeo liberado]

Jack Reed. That fucker was kickn' ass from Oregon to Mexico to the USSR! Rode with Zapata and Kamenev. Arguably two of the most important revolutions of the last century. Wrote Ten Days that Shook the World and had Lenin personally get him out of jail in Finland. Buried in the Kremlin. A founding member of the Communist party in america. Fuck warren beatty and his take on my man Jack!

[Renegade Saint]

Jack Reed. That fucker was kickn' ass from Oregon to Mexico to the USSR! Rode with Zapata and Kamenev. Arguably two of the most important revolutions of the last century. Wrote Ten Days that Shook the World and had Lenin personally get him out of jail in Finland. A founding member of the Communist party in america. Fuck warren beatty and his take on my man Jack!
You forgot "the only American buried in the Kremlin." Having just watched "Reds" I thought it was pretty good. What's your issue with it?

[Agent Ducky]

You forgot "the only American buried in the Kremlin." Having just watched "Reds" I thought it was pretty good. What's your issue with it?

Yeah, I didn't see it as portraying him negatively at all.

I think it's interesting that you talk about "heroes". Idolizing people can be dangerous because many times it makes us blind to their flaws that all humans have. But there are some pretty legit people in the movement. I think a lot of them are underrecognized for their heroic actions (which is a bit ironic to me, that a few people get a lot of credit when communism is about just the opposite).

It all really depends on what you define as a "genuine hero."

[Prometeo liberado]

You forgot "the only American buried in the Kremlin." Having just watched "Reds" I thought it was pretty good. What's your issue with it?
I just don't like that he had to sell out Reed to his hollywood financiers and make him out to be a counterrevolutionary in the end. Never happened. Can't believe I forgot about the burial at the Kremlin though! Idiot I am!

[Prometeo liberado]

Honorable mention also goes to Zhukov, Fernando Alagrete and all the fine people of Nepal, gettin it on despite the bankrupt leadership of the UCPN(M). For your consideration comrades.

[Renegade Saint]

I just don't like that he had to sell out Reed to his hollywood financiers and make him out to be a counterrevolutionary in the end. Never happened. Can't believe I forgot about the burial at the Kremlin though! Idiot I am!
Huh? He never became anti-Bolshevik in the film. He was irritated with Zinoviev for re-writing his speeches, but that's hardly counter-revolutionary. In fact he had that argument with Emma Goldman. And one of the "witnesses" explicitly said (paraphrasing) "Some folks said that Jack 'came to his senses' [about the Bolsheviks] before he died. Not true, it never happened."

[Prometeo liberado]

He is shown running towards the retreating white army in one of the last scenes?

[CommunityBeliever]

The Maoist revolutionaries Cherukuri Rajkumar, Mallojula Koteswara Rao, and Yadhistir Mahato heorically sacrificed their lives in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism in India.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Reed was not the only American buried in the Kremlin; Bill Haywood's partial remains were also buried there.

[Zulu]

Zhukov

Actually, there is a lot of controversy around Zhukov.

[Jimmie Higgins]

You forgot "the only American buried in the Kremlin." Having just watched "Reds" I thought it was pretty good. What's your issue with it?I enjoy that movie (I'm mean fuck, compared to all the other Hollywood movies about the Revolution... are there any, just Dr. Zhivago?) and really like Warren Betty actually, but I think there are some humorously (for leftists) apologetic liberal things about the movie.

I mean the whole framing thing with the old people? Maybe the intention was to show that "this really happened" but I always interpreted it as a left-liberal equivocation: "yeah, this happened, it was kind of interesting and I like some of the ideals, but we all know it won't work and people only supported it because it was a different time, we know better now" or "look how antiquated revolutionary working class ideas are! Only old people remember them."

I also hate the fairly stock Hollywood thing about people who are politically driven having to "choose" between love and revolution. If only Jack hadn't been so swept up, he wouldn't have lost the love of his life!

But I'd sit down for the full run-time almost any day if I was home and had the time. The same with "Shampoo" or "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" :lol: That dude was fucking hot back in the day.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Who were some genuine heroes of the Communist ideal in history ?
Figures we can emulate

Was Che Guevara a hero or a villain ? Please explain.There are revolutionaries I really admire for a variety of reasons from their insight to what they accomplished to their ability to make a moving and convincing speech to even just aspects of their biography. That being said, I generally have a kind of knee-jerk suspicion of revolutionary hero-worship.

The leftists who I get all fan-boy about though generally are not the ones I have a really strong degree of political agreement with. I like Malcolm X who wasn't a Marxist or Socialist but was one of the best at exposing liberal hypocrisy and was really dedicated to trying to figure a way out of this shit even if he never came to a more fully realized class consciousness. Eugene Debs is another because like Malcolm he was phenomenally skilled at relating revolutionary ideas in speeches to working class people. I like these figures too because it's harder to relate Lenin's biography and story to working class life in the US, whereas Malcolm and Debs were operating in conditions which are much more recognizable and their existence and lives inherently contradict the propaganda we get in the US about radicalism being alien (or even "foreign" in the xenophobic sense) to working class people here.

[Bostana]

Enver Hoxha is Communist Hero

[Agent Ducky]

Enver Hoxha is Communist Hero
No one can defeat him.

[Drowzy_Shooter]

For anarcho's , Nestor "Pappa" Makhno is a true hero. Leader of the Revolutionary, Insurrectionary Army of the Ukraine (also known as the Black Army). Unfortunately, he was betrayed by the Bolsheviks.

[Ocean Seal]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoya_Kosmodemyanskaya

Talkin shit to Nazis all day everyday

[Per Levy]

For anarcho's , Nestor "Pappa" Makhno is a true hero. Leader of the Revolutionary, Insurrectionary Army of the Ukraine (also known as the Black Army). Unfortunately, he was betrayed by the Bolsheviks.

as far as i gathered he and his black army was pretty similar to the bolsheviks, they even set up a secret service that tortured and killed people.

@op: the working class movement is full of matyrs who fought and died for their cause. i find hero worship stupid though, some lone heros dont make a revolution in the end and these "heros" wernt saints or anything. still there are of course many personalities that can be admired from all over the world.

[Ostrinski]

Felix Dzerzhinsky

[ВАЛТЕР]

Sava Kovacevic, and every single Partisan fighter from the former Yugoslavia.

[Renegade Saint]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missak_Manouchian

[Prometeo liberado]

Actually, there is a lot of controversy around Zhukov.

Honorable mention is just that, ergo "for your consideration". I leave it to the people.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Lenin was pretty kick-ass :thumbup1:

(Honestly, how could people forget the most awesome communist hero ever?!)

[Drosophila]

Jim Jones

[Drosophila]

and Lyndon LaRouche

[The Young Pioneer]

The worker.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

The worker.

The working masses....

[The Young Pioneer]

The working masses....

At least mine has the implication that it could be any comrade; you're the one stating particulars by identifying only Lenin.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

At least mine has the implication that it could be any comrade; you're the one stating particulars by identifying only Lenin.

Was Lenin not a worker?

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Jack Barnes!

[safeduck]

Was Che Guevara a hero or a villain ? Please explain.

This is one of those questions you will never get a clear answer on. It's all a matter of opinion. I suggest you do some reading about him and make your own decision.

In my opinion though, yes, Che Guevara was a hero. He was born into a fairly richer than average family. He got a medical degree as a physician. He could of easily got a job as a doctor and just settled down for the rest of his life. Instead, he chose to go out and help the poor and suffering in latin America. He risked his own life for others and died for what he beleived in. He had no interest in wealth or the comforts it brings. He would rather live and fight in the jungle's, mountains and countryside and walk for miles on end every day. He is a symbol of hope for millions, if not billions all around the world. This makes him a hero in my books.

[Ostrinski]

Che was not a hero, but he very well could be your hero.

[The Young Pioneer]

Was Lenin not a worker?

Yes, but by defining the worker by name, you recognise only one person rather than the masses to which you referred in your attempt to correct me.


This thread is kind of unsettling for a group of people who claim to ascribe to the theory of classless, stateless society wherein the people - rather than some idolised hero - run things. Maybe if the word weren't "hero" I'd understand. Though "Innovative-communists-who-moved-towards-the-progress-of-our-cause-through-history" is a bit long for a title, I'm sure.

But whatever.

[Dean]

Lee Harvey Oswald.

[Bostana]

You all have forgotten one Very Important Leader in the Communist World:

http://www.thepeoplescube.com/images/Karl_Marx_V_Sign.jpg

[Prometeo liberado]

How about Krupskaya, Lenins wife? She spent the rest of her life after Lenin's death helping children and still has a chocolate candy named after her.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/shortcuts)

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/1/26/1264530835592/Krupskaya-chocolate-001.jpg

[Prometeo liberado]

You all have forgotten one Very Important Leader in the Communist World:

http://www.thepeoplescube.com/images/Karl_Marx_V_Sign.jpg
I didn't know Frederick Douglas was a commie?

[Bostana]

I didn't know Frederick Douglas was a commie?

Karl Marx
:D

[Prometeo liberado]

Karl Marx
:D
I know.

[Bostana]

I know.

Oh?

Know I feel stupid

[GoddessCleoLover]

IMO Zhukov was a hero, but no more so than Comrade Zoya or the millions of persons of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Greece and other countries where soldiers and partisans resisted Nazi tyranny.

I believe the OP meant to refer to famous revolutionary heroes who deserve special recognition. Don't suppose that anyone here would be surprised that I mention Antonio Gramsci for his intellectual incisiveness in adapting Marxism to the twentieth century.

Che was IMO a hero in the sense that I respect his sacrifices for the revolutionary struggle, but to my mind his "foco theory" was profoundly erroneous in its application, whether to BOlivia in the late 60s or the USA today.

[The Young Pioneer]

How about Krupskaya, Lenins wife? She spent the rest of her life after Lenin's death helping children and still has a chocolate candy named after her.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/shortcuts)

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/1/26/1264530835592/Krupskaya-chocolate-001.jpg

Had no idea that Troika chocolate was named for her. But it's effin' delicious. :D

[The Young Pioneer]

Every single Partisan fighter from the former Yugoslavia.

I think it's dangerous to say "every" person in any army is good/bad/etc.

Was the Partisan cause heroic? Absolutely. Was every single action by every single Partisan heroic or even admirable? Definitely not.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Yes, but by defining the worker by name, you recognise only one person rather than the masses to which you referred in your attempt to correct me.


This thread is kind of unsettling for a group of people who claim to ascribe to the theory of classless, stateless society wherein the people - rather than some idolised hero - run things. Maybe if the word weren't "hero" I'd understand. Though "Innovative-communists-who-moved-towards-the-progress-of-our-cause-through-history" is a bit long for a title, I'm sure.

But whatever.

I never tried to correct you,I was just playing at semantics and extending your concept. Lenin had nothing to do with my reply to your post.