You could say the Red Army GOATs didn't die to protect the country, but their nation. The land, though important, is but irrelevant compared to the people.
Its the people. That's what everything is about. That's what everything has always been about.
I like to think every communist is motivated not by loyalty to the state (even if its the state of the workers), but to the workers themselves. The state is just a passing thing. A tiny blip in the history of humanity