He entered the palace, suddenly realized he survived the fighting, found god and despises his heinous acts in war?
The empty throne speaks volumes. The man looking up really says a lot too. He’s gazing in awe at the wealth and extravagance of the ruling class. I’m sure half of him is amazed while the other half feels nothing but disgust. I say this with irony obviously, but I think the Jan 6th protestors felt a similar feeling😂
I can picture him entering the place. A hard-won battle took place outside, his ears are ringing from the sound of bullets being fired, blood rushing from his veins that – alongside the cold weather and the sheer adrenaline – make his face look as red as the curtains behind him.
Then he walks inside the palace. The silence is deafening. Maybe he can hear only muffled gunshot sounds from inside and the footsteps of his fellow comrades. Not a soul to seen but the stolen souls of the people that built this place. Not a chill of cold to be felt but the cold product of capital built on the blood of countless widows, orphans and young men. People that were murdered for millennia to let those high priests of capital sit in gold. There is nothing here. Only the uncanny still life of a brutal machine.
The man has won.
Hope, joy, awe. I see it as the first steps taken in building a true, advanced civilization. It also reminds me that it was done before, and it can be done again.
Hope. If a victory over the symbols of capitalist and imperial hegemony was won in days of old, then such a victory can be won again.
It’ll be harder now, but more satisfying.
❤️
Envy for the hope he must have felt.
The one I will feel when we get rid of our own wannabe monarch and reclaim his illegal and ugly palace.
Looks like
It’s also a stark contrast between the behavior and conduct of these brave comrades vs the J6 freak parade of HVAC and Jet Ski business owners. The soviets believed in something.
Awesome sauce 😎
I feel like I want a print of this. Do you know the name or artist?
The painting is called “It has come to pass” and is by Soviet artist Sergei Lukin.
Another good one in a similar style is “The winter palace is taken” by Vladimir Serov:
(I actually personally prefer this one a bit more over the first one.)
(I actually personally prefer this one a bit more over the first one.)
Same. This has a stronger sense of camaraderie, whereas the first almost accidentally invokes a sense of wonder at the palace even though it’s likely trying to convey relief at the end of a long fight.
I agree — though at first glance, it looked like the guy was kissing the hand of the guy on the right. Now I agree with you.
The expression seems more angry than awed.
I can see that but only when I get kinda close. From further away it looks a bit like awe or wonder or relief
Longing. I want this to happen again. At the same time, I think about the huge sacrifices, that were necessary to get this far. The person in the picture stands alone. How many comrades were killed on the way to get there? Who is missing and can’t share this moment? Feudalists murdered all those people to protect what? This empty, pointles luxury must feel painfully insulting to the memory of the fallen comrades. In this situation, I would feel like tearing it all down and burning it.
There are two more revolutionaries in the background, BTW.
And this was just before the Civil War. There would be a lot more fallen comrades.
What was that quote again about the violence of a revolution being nothing compared to the long running systemic violence that preceds it?
“There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.“
Also, we need :mark-twain: emoji.
I’m thinking we should retire that one. After all, it is a quote about a bourgeois revolution for the bourgeoisie. Perhaps this one, instead?
When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such injury that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.
Frederich Engels
Twain quote is still good, and the French revolution was still progressive one which have immense influence over socialism and basically all marxist theoreticians uphold it after suitable critique.
Acknowledge
Thank you!
Okay, head-canon: of course, there were still comrades left, just “off camera”. And after this, they left and hugged and drank to their victory calling out the names of those they lost with every toast.
Awe.
“Bit##, you live like this?” meme
But seriously, hope and assurance, proletariat did broken the shackles and won and will win again.
Hope. The knowledge that the working class, organized, class conscious and determined, has the power to break all chains and overthrow all tyrannies.
I always think of how a common person in those times would have serious trouble wrapping their head around such an extreme level of opulence. Like if you are a struggling peasant in this throne room, it’s hard to even want it for yourself because you won’t know at first what to do with such an excess. You want a better life for yourself obviously but don’t know if this is what you want.
