Astrological history of Communism :-)

(See the resemblance?) 

Today is an Earth Tiger day and it occurs to me that Marx (born 1818) and Stalin (born 1878) were both Earth Tigers. Karl Marx organized the vague socialist-Utopian dreams of the 18th and 19th centuries into a coherent ideology and philosophy of history (all human history as the struggle for dominance between haves and have-nots), and established a practical plan for action -- though Communism is often referred to as "Utopian", Marx only used the word pejoratively. 

Communism reached its peak of international influence under Stalin. Stalin transformed Lenin / Trotsky's vision of the Soviet Union as a staging ground for a second, worldwide revolution, into the idea of "Socialism in one State" -- which meant, in practice, a new Russian Empire. Earth Tigers are territorial cats, and the style of leadership is like a warlord / hegemon -- consolidating and expanding territory. Though Georgian by birth, Stalin was more Russian nationalist than Lenin, and known for his imposition of the Russian language and culture on ethnic minorities. Though they can be brutal, Earth Tigers are effective rulers in certain ways, and some Russians even today are nostalgic for Stalin's times.