With a POD after 1900, your challenge is for the swastika, instead of being seen as a symbol of fascism (or to be more precise, Nazism), is adopted by communists as their symbol and be identified with communism. Bonus points if you get the swastika fill the role of the hammer and sickle is IOTL as the "primary" symbol of communism.
AHC: Have the Swastika become a symbol of communism
- Thread starter Whiteshore
- Start date
In the late nineteenth/early twentieth century the swastika was widely used as a symbol or good luck or success. It really didn't have any religious/spiritual meaning for the vast majority of westerners. For example, there was a Canadian hockey team named the Swastikas, and in The Great Gatsby it's mentioned that a Jewish gangster owns a Swastika Holding Company. So religion/spirituality isn't really an issue, but I'm still not sure why communists would adopt it. Volkisch nationalists adopted it because they saw it as some sort of "ancient Aryan symbol". Maybe communists say the symbol was used by primitive communist societies, and is thus a symbol of egalitarianism?
http://www.bertvanvondel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Svastica.-Arnata-Rosie.-NB.jpg
With a differerent Russian revolution, the swastika emblems become a symbol of the four strata of Soviet ruling coalition, representing the toiling masses united to a single fighting force.
With a differerent Russian revolution, the swastika emblems become a symbol of the four strata of Soviet ruling coalition, representing the toiling masses united to a single fighting force.
While it would have made more sense to have Marx more of a mystic and use the Indo-Aryan symbol in a combination of social commentary and spiritual enlightenment, one can suppose a similar event happens with the Russian Bolsheviks, with Lenin or perhaps Trotsky becoming more spiritual in their message.
The fun bit is what would the Nazi symbol become? The Hammer of the State? Or the Hammer and Sickle?
The fun bit is what would the Nazi symbol become? The Hammer of the State? Or the Hammer and Sickle?
Dolan
Banned
I could see a Wolf's head, perhaps stylized in a way. After all, Nazis use Wolf symbolism too.The fun bit is what would the Nazi symbol become? The Hammer of the State? Or the Hammer and Sickle?
If you believe some idiots it already is. They take one look at the term National Socialist, see Socialist and attribute it Communism.
Ignoring them, the Nazi party did originally style itself as a socialist party, as a way to bring in the unions and workers. If Hitler has gone another way, it is possible that the Nazis could have styled themselves as a German alternative to Communism. Though the reflection would largely be only surface level.
Ignoring them, the Nazi party did originally style itself as a socialist party, as a way to bring in the unions and workers. If Hitler has gone another way, it is possible that the Nazis could have styled themselves as a German alternative to Communism. Though the reflection would largely be only surface level.
It's also a very universal symbol, found in indigenous cultures on every continent. So you'd need a Marx who accepts that religion must be part of revolution, but not necessarily Christianity or any other organised religion. The swastika becomes the most prominent symbol of this movement due to the symbol of the "church" (something like the "god-building" concept of OTL perhaps) which replaces the pre-existing religions in many communist countries TTL.
It could also be that communists (and inevitably anarchists too) are inspired by anthropology and ethnography which would discuss "primitive" societies living in perfect harmony with nature and themselves with no hierarchy and the wealth shared amongst all. Since the swastika is a very universal symbol, it becomes adopted by this variety of communist which idealises both "primitive" societies as well as groups like rural peasants who might be considered as having an unbroken link to traditions like this. So this could inspire something like the Narodniks of Russia, which could blend into a communist movement.
That's National Bolshevism, which is basically the Russian version of Strasserism (purged by the Nazis early on). Strasserism and National Bolshevism basically is National Socialism (hence why it's usually classified as a Third Position ideology).
In that case, communists could use the universality of the swastika to represent the "world revolution", arguing that its universality makes it an appropriate symbol for the world revolution.
Well, there was Gregor Strasser, a rival to Hitler within NSDAP who was eliminated during the Night of the Long Knives. He was more on the "Socialist" side of the "National Socialist" ideals, and Hitler needed the approval of the Junkers and the industrialists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Strasser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasserism
Strasserism was still opposed to the USSR (although they also did consider strengthening ties with them at one point) while National Bolshevism combines elements of both fascism (especially Russian ultranationalism) and Bolshevism. Similar, yes, but they're not the same.
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What about the possibility that communists use the universality of the swastika to symbolize the world revolution?
Step one: having the Nazis adopting an alternate symbol.
Step two: Buddhist communism in Mongolia or Myanmar.
Step two: Buddhist communism in Mongolia or Myanmar.