<DIV>"Great Patriotic War" refers only to that part of WWII that took place after Hitler invaded the USSR. This has pissed off a lot of veterans who fought e.g. in Latvia, before the invasion, because they get smaller pensions than GPW vets.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I am inclined to think that part of the reason for the name change was that Stalin wanted an anthem that mentioned himself.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>BTW the Great Patriotic War was the first time in history that Russia's Muslim community declared Jihad: against the Germans. If I am not mistaken, the soldiers who placed the Soviet flag atop the Reichstag were not Russians, but Muslim Bashkirs.<BR><BR><B><I>andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen@yahoo.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">Yes, or amyway, he thought so; the Soviets called the<BR>war The Great Patriotic War. Then there was the point<BR>about not offending possible allies like the US and<BR>Britain. My guess is that the Red Army would have<BR>fought as well or poorly as it did under any anthem.<BR>But patriotism was a big motivator. jks<BR><BR><BR>--- Doug Henwood <DHENWOOD@PANIX.COM>wrote:<BR>> Googling on "The Interionale" (I've got a playlist<BR>> with 14 versions, <BR>> so I was curious to find out its history) brought me<BR>> to a website <BR>> that claimed that Stalin dropped it as the anthem of<BR>> the USSR during <BR>> WW2 because the troops wanted to die for Mother<BR>> Russia, not the <BR>> international working class. Is that true?<BR>> <BR>> Doug<BR>> ___________________________________<BR>><BR>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>__________________________________<BR>Do you Yahoo!?<BR>Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢<BR>http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash<BR>___________________________________<BR>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</BLOCKQUOTE><p> <hr size=1><font face=arial size=-1>Do you Yahoo!?<br> Yahoo! Photos: <a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=23765/*http://photos.yahoo.c om/ph/print_splash">High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢</a>