"Andor" is about the Bolshevik Revolution. No, seriously.

I have no idea how Disney saw its way through to making this, but damn am I grateful!

There are two types of “Andor” fans: Those who watch it and see a prequel to the 2016 movie “Rogue One” (in other words, traditional “Star Wars” fans), and those who watch it and see an allegory for the Bolshevik Revolution.

You can place me in the latter category, right next to much of the Reddit community.

Since I’d rather take a blaster pistol shot to the right shoulder than divulge major spoilers for “Andor,” I’m going to instead focus on the instructive parallels between the fictional arc of protagonist Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the real-life arcs of the countless men and women who fought for the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution.

When I watched “Andor,” both seasons one and two, I repeatedly thought of my 2017 Salon Talks interview with journalist Victor Sebestyen, author of the Vladimir Lenin biography “Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror.” In addition to telling the story of the Soviet Union’s first leader, Sebestyen paints a grim picture of life in pre-Soviet Russia. Like Andor in the “Star Wars” universe, the average Russian scrounged for a living amidst crushing poverty and cruel tyranny. Even ordinary citizens who tried to keep their heads down, as Andor does in the middle of the first season, could still be caught in the maw of the imperial “justice” system.

Like the Romanov czars who controlled Russia for more than three centuries, the Empire as depicted in “Andor” is rigidly hierarchical and absolutely indifferent to human rights. In an emotional scene from a first season episode, hardened prisoner Kino Loy (Andy Serkis) leads a revolt that could easily double for an uprising of the proletariat. Note how he mixes comfort for the afflicted with a pragmatic explanation on how they can afflict the comfortable in this riveting speech.

They don't have enough guards, and they know it... We will never have a better chance than this, and I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want...

There is one way out. You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused… You keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time.

One way out!

“Andor: Season 2” fulfills the promise epitomized by Loy’s monologue. It doesn’t spoil anything important to reveal that Andor survives (“Rogue One” would be nonsensical if he didn’t), and therefore any rational audience member knows “Andor” on a basic narrative level needs to provide connective tissue between the early “Star Wars” universe and the story of “Rogue One.” If it failed to do that, it would fail to satisfy its most basic requirements for existing in this fictional universe.

In the opinion of this critic, “Andor: Season 2” does that in spades. Most of how it does so has little to do with the theme of this article (anticapitalism), but there is one detail (again, non-spoilery) that Andor and crew succeed by working together. Even though the ordinary workers, disaffected soldiers, educated class and everyone between distrust each other, their survival depends on accepting that their common enemy is the Empire.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how this relates to contemporary politics. Like the fictional “Star Wars” empire, 99 percent of the population in every nation on the planet is exploited by the top 1 percent. Our economic opportunities are diminished, our political freedoms are curbed, and our ability to tell truth from fiction in media is scrambled.

The truth is as simple and clear now as it is to the characters in “Andor",” and as it was to the thousands of Russians who joined the Bolshevik party in the early 20th century. First, the fundamental problem is capitalism, which as economist Karl Marx diagnosed concentrates wealth in ways that are both injustices and unsustainable. Second, the immediate problem is the political establishment that props up capitalism — the Empire in the “Star Wars” universe, the Romonav czars in early 20th century Russia.

To quote one of the Reddit threads cited in this article, “I'm still kind of shocked that this show even exists considering the world's political climate, what's even more baffling is that it was made under Disney.” I’d add to that it strikes me as highly unlikely that showrunner Tony Gilroy and the other creatives didn’t understand the leftist subtext in “Andor.” They may not have specifically had the Russian Revolution in mind (although even that strikes me as doubtful), but they almost certainly knew their work would be applauded in leftist spaces.

More power to them, in my book, and to so-called “woke” Disney.

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Back Seat Socialism

Column by Matthew Rozsa who is a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently he is writing a book for Beacon Press, "Neurosocialism," which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism - the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual - can be an important organizing principle for the left.

Twitter (X) @MatthewWRozsa