• Justice
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    9 months ago

    Trotsky on the ground made me laugh a little. I assume this was done by a Stalin-era Soviet artist? Also who is the person Mao has his hand on? Chiang Kai-Shek? A peasant? A former warlord or fallen communist leader?

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind
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      9 months ago

      I looked it up a little, it’s certainly not any official uniform of either RoC or Qing, but it does look as the traditional clothes of rich men, so i guess this does represent landlords or more generally traditional hierarchy.

      • Justice
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        9 months ago

        Makes sense. I figured it wouldn’t be Qing since Mao/the communists broadly (and the nationalists like Kai-Shek for a time) were known for opposing and defeating the resulting warlords after the fall of the Qing.

        I suppose it could just represent Mao, who stood for the incredibly poor peasant class, holding down the remaining and emergent (during the warlord period) wealthy or bourgeoisie. Forcing them to kneel in shame or something like that. The figure also appears ghostly or ethereal. Maybe like he’s resting his hand upon a now-dead ruling class. Lenin is sitting on the (I think) Tsarist statue head in a similar symbolic depiction.