Revol

Track 6 off the album The Holy Bible and the second single from that album. A fast post-punk song which I love but apparently James Dean Bradfield doesn’t; I have heard this song performed twice so I’m happy.

Mr. Lenin – awaken the boy
Mr. Stalin – bi-sexual epoch
Kruschev – self love in his mirrors
Brezhnev – married into group sex
Gorbachev – celibate self importance
Yeltsin – failure is his own impotence

Revol revol
Revol revol
Lebensraum kulturkampf
Raus raus
Fila fila

Napoleon – childhood sweethearts
Chamberlain – you see God in you
Trotsky – honeymoon – serenade the naked
Che Guevara – you’re all target now
Pol Pot – withdrawn traces bye bye
Farrakhan – alimony alimony

Revol revol
Revol revol
Lebensraum kulturkampf
Raus raus
Fila fila

Revol revol
Revol revol
Lebensraum kulturkampf
Raus raus
Fila fila

Revol

Revol is a palindrome and means lover backwards and since the lyrics concern themselves with sexual habits of world leaders and their potency it is a fitting title.
The chorus differs from using fascist terms which to me insinuates power dynamics can change for the worse in politics or at least be perverted.

References
Lenin – Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924), leader of the Russian Soviet Federalist Republic from 1917 to his death and premier of the Soviet Union from 1922.

Stalin – Joseph Stalin (1878 – 1953), de-factor Soviet leader from the mid 1920s until his death. Founder of Stalinism.

Khrushchev – Nikita Khrushchev (1894 – 1971), Stalin’s successor as Soviet Premier and responsible for undoing significant parts of his legacy in the country.

Brezhnev – Leonid Brezhnev (1906 – 1982) Soviet leader criticised for his failure to reform the Soviet economy leading to its stagnation in the 1970s.

Gorbachev – Mikhail Gorbachev (1931 -) former Soviet statesman and reformer who pioneered the Glasnost and Perestroika restructuring programmes in the 1980s. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Yeltsin – Boris Yeltsin (1931 – 2007), first president of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999, at which point he resigned with extremely low popularity ratings. Spearheaded “shock therapy” and the extremely rapid economic liberalisation which led to concentration of wealth in the hands of oligarchs and criminals.

Lebensraum – German for “living space”. A component of Nazi German ideology used to justify territorial expansionism.

Kulturkampf – German for “culture struggle”. Term used to refer to efforts by Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck to suppress Catholicism in Germany through legislation in the 1870s.

Raus – German for “out”. The shout of “raus raus” was one of the first heard by many concentration camp inmates as they were herded out of trains by German troops.

Fila – Italian for “form a line” or “line up”. A similar WWII-era camp command.

Napoleon – Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. Eventually decisively defeated by other European powers in the Napoleonic Wars.

Chamberlain – Neville Chamberlain (1869 – 1940), British Prime Minister and exponent of the appeasement policy who signed the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler in 1938.

Trotsky – Leon Trotsky (1879 – 1940), Russian revolutionary and founder of Red Army. Assassinated by agents sent by Joseph Stalin in Mexico City in 1940.

Che Guevara – Ernesto “Che” Guevara (1928 – 1967), Argentine revolutionary and global countercultural symbol. Murdered during his disastrous campaign to inspire revolution in Bolivia in 1967, with the support of the CIA.

Pol Pot – leader of the genocidal Khmer Rouge faction in Cambodia  

Farrakhan – Louis Farrakhan (1933 – ) leader of the largely African-American religious group the Nation of Islam.

As you can see the list of names in this song are in the majority Russian leaders but other world leaders are in there too.

An in-depth essay that delves into all the disparate strands this song entails is here:
https://227lears.com/2021/04/06/revolutionary-positions/

With the current crisis in Ukraine and the zeal and adulation President Zelensky has received for standing up to the Russian invasion inspires this abstract piece which utilises Ukrainian colours.
The title The humanitarian corridor is a type of temporary demilitarized zone intended to allow the safe transit of humanitarian aid in, and/or refugees out of a crisis region.
The colours hint at instability and the use of red as danger or a sniper light indicates the danger lurking.