Communists with Puppies and Dogs

A fragmentary and pictorial history that proves that dogs and doglovers make for better communists.

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Leon Trotsky playing stick with German Shepherds, because before you can bend the stick you have to learn how to fetch it

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Soviet anti-tank dogs, dogs taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military targets. They were intensively trained by the Soviet forces and used in 1941–1942 against German tanks in World War II. In the Battle of Kursk in August 1943, dog bombs took out twelve German Panzer tanks.

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Ernest Hemingway hunting with his Black Spaniel dog Blackie, because the the only things you need during revolutionary warfare is an ideal, your rifle and loyal companions.

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I now have a dog whom I got from August Bredt of Barmen when he left here. It’s a handsome young spaniel, much bigger than our dear Mira and quite crazy. He has a great talent for boozing and if I go to a restaurant in the evening, he always sits near me and has his share, or makes himself at home at everybody else’s table. He’s also remarkable for an invisible collar. He is an excellent swimmer but too crazy to learn any tricks. I have taught him one thing. When I say “Namenloser (that’s his name) there’s an aristocrat!” he goes wild with rage and growls hideously at the person I show him.

- Friedrich Engels in a letter to Marie Engels (8 August 1842)

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Hugo Chavez with kids and a Mucuchie (Venezuelan sheepdog), because you can't fight imperialism without your loyal tail-wagger by your side.

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Jacques Lacan, Cécile Éluard, Pierre Reverdy, Louise Leiris, Zanie Aubier, Pablo Picasso, Valentine Hugo, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and others posing with Picasso's Afghan Hound dog Kazbek, because former colonial dogs can provide proletarian credentials to radical bourgeois intellectuals and artists .

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Frida Kahlo taking a walk with her Xoloitzcuintle dogs, because Marxism will give health to the sick and dogmunism gives love to the alienated, lonely and betrayed.

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"Karl Marx was fond of dogs, and three small animals of no particular breed--of a mixture of many breeds indeed--formed important members of the household. One was called Toddy, another Whisky--the name of the third I forget, but I fancy that, too, was alcoholic. They were all three sociable little beasts, ever ready for a romp, and very affectionate. One day, after an absence of six weeks in Scotland, I went to see Eleanor and found her with her father in the drawing-room, playing with Whisky. Whisky at once transferred his attentions to me, greeting me with ebullient friendliness, but almost immediately he ran to the door and whined to have it opened for him.

Eleanor said: 'He has gone down to Toddy, who has just presented him with some puppies.'

She had hardly finished speaking before there was a scratching and scrambling in tile hall, and in bounded Whisky, shepherding Toddy. The little mother made straight for me, exchanged affabilities in friendly fashion, then hurried back to her family. Whisky meanwhile stood on the rug, wagging a proudly contented tail, and looking from one to the other, as who should say:

'See how well I know how to do the right thing.'

Dr. Marx was much impressed by this exhibition of canine intelligence."

- Marian Comyn, a family friend recollecting on her encounters with the Marx family

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Loukanikos the Greek riot dog, forever hounding the police and accompanying its comrades in the fight against capitalist austerity.

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Lenin petting a dog.

We have all seen the pictures of Lenin with cats, but what hasn't been noticed is that the cats Lenin is holding are always in an ambiguously subdued position. Isn't the feline thus symbolic for the bourgeoisie? Arrogant, egotistical and it needs to be subdued.

Dogs on the other hand don't need submission. Dogs are in a dialectical relationship with the subaltern classes as loyal partners in the struggle against bourgeois hegemony and catpitalism.

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Albert Einstein in his office at Princeton with his Fox Terrier dog Chico, because smart communists need smart pets to accompany them in their intellectual work for the revolution. 

Einstein once said about Chico: "the dog is very smart, he feels sorry for me because I receive so much mail; that’s why he tries to bite the mailman.". So this good proletarian dog even tried to prevent Einstein from overworking. What cat has done such a caring and noble thing for its owner ever?

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Salvador Allende with his Weimaraner dog, because as a popular marxist president you can count more on the loyalty of dogs and the working class than that of cats and generals.

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Charlie Chaplin with a dog, because where else does a true communist sympathizer get its inspiration than from the most sympathetic kind of pet in the world.

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A young Fidel Castro hunting with his dog, because, either in life in general or in communist guerilla warfare, dogs are the most trustworthy comrades.

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Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka, the first living creatures to visit space and return alive.

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Diego Rivera posing with his Xoloitzcuintli dog, because dogs can inspire one to make communist art.

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Slavoj Žižek petting someone's dog, because "99% of people are boring idiots" and dogs can help remind us why we need communist revolution.