Sooner or later, all great idiocies seem to flow seamlessly one into the other. News of one of the intellectual forbearers of Shamil Basayev, one of the Chechens behind the shooting of children in the back at the school in Beslan:
When Shamil Basayev, a Chechen warlord waging Islamic "holy war" against Russia, first took up arms more than a decade ago, he also took up an unlikely role model: an Argentine atheist lionised by the Soviet Union. Along with his gun, Basayev carried a picture of Marxist rebel Che Guevara.
"He was his idol," recalls Musa Shanibov, a former KGB informant who helped turn Basayev into a warrior during the turmoil that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Like me, Basayev was a Communist Youth member and a romantic," says Shanibov. "I never saw him pray."
What totalitarians share is a worship of the boot treading on the human face. Oddly enough, this didn't surprise me at all.
Interesting, but as you say not very surprising. I have no idea what so many people found in Che that he was so popular after his death (and it seems still is).
Posted by: Zack at September 21, 2004 11:22 AMWell, isn't that something? Count me in the "not very surprised crowd" as well.
Che (his t-shirts and other apparel anyway) has a near cult-like following at my school. I know for sure, that more than half the people who wear his face on their chest have no idea who he is, let alone all the horrible things he's done in the name of egalitarianism.
Posted by: LJ at September 22, 2004 12:50 AMGuevara was the guy who signed his letters "Stalin II". Stalin I was the guy who deported Shamil Basayev's family and the rest of his people to Central Asia. As they say, go figure.
Posted by: J.Cassian at September 22, 2004 04:25 AMGreat catch. Quite revelatory. I too disagree with the author's characterization of Che as an "unlikely role model" for Basayev.
Posted by: John-Paul Pagano at September 22, 2004 10:37 AM