About being labeled a "Stalinist"

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Oh ok so you do support Stalin? You have me confused...I remember your sarcastic post about how you dreamed you were hanging out with Stalin and it seemed like you were viciously criticizing him and it seemed that you actually hated him. So you were joking?

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That is damn confusing..So you do like Stalin?

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Also, Trotskyists like to throw the term "Stalinist" around as a negative one, and try to disassociate it from Marxism or Leninism.

Man In Grey wrote:

I always believed that Stalinism meant that you simply supported the leadership, and political action that Stalin took while ruling the USSR. Also, supporting his policy Socialism in One Country which was used to counter the theory of "Permanent Revolution"... I've never looked at Stalinism as any sort of ideology, just a certain group specifically, that adores, or supports Joseph Stalin and the role he played in the Socialist world.

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So, to me, being a "Stalinist" means to subscribe wholesale to the ideology underlying his writings and policies, which is much different than being sympathetic to Stalin as a political leader during a particular historical moment.

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STALIN WAS A FAITHFUL MARXIST-LENINIST

Stalin remained true to the Marxist ideal of a classless and stateless society until his death in 1953. This is the conclusion of researchers at Amsterdam University (UvA) who studied Stalin's annotations in books by Marx, Engels, and Lenin in his private library. The research was carried out in the form of a project funded by the Dutch research organisation NWO. Many people have viewed Stalin - who always considered himself Lenin's most faithful disciple - as having betrayed Marxist principles from the moment he came to power. Howerver, the researchers say that Stalin's words and deeds are in fact reconcilable.

The notes originate from the period between 1917 and 1953 and show that the dictator continued to adhere to such Marxist goals as the abolition of the state and the creation of classless society. Moreover, Stalin's correspondence and discussions with such Communist leaders as Mao Zedong and Palmiro Togliatti show a continuing faith in the spread of communism and "world revolution."

Stalin has often been accused of betraying Marxism because of the way he built up a centralised state and because of his principle of "socialism in one country." These political aims are supposed to have undermined the Marxist doctrines of a classless society and world revolution. Stalin's patriotism is also supposed not to fit in with the Marxist world view but to represent a return to ancient Russian traditions.

The Amsterdam historians say that Stalin was not in fact the originator of the idea of "socialism in one country." This principle states that an internationally isolated socialist state has long-term viability and constitutes an intervening phase on the way to the ultimate classless and stateless world society. The idea in fact originated with the German Social Democrat Georg Vollmar, and the orthodox Marxist Karl Kautsky also propounded the idea of an autarkic socialist state when explaining his Erfurt Programme. His comments on the Erfurt Programme were virtually the bible for Marxists in the early twentieth century. Thus the idea of socialism in one country was originally developed within the Socialist Second International, which the Russian Bolshevik party originally belonged to.

According to the researchers, Stalin's patriotism has a Jacobin origin. The Jacobins were a left-wing French political movement in the eighteenth century who aimed to use revolution to revive their fatherland. Stalin, too, saw this as his main aim, believinv that it could only be brought about through a revolutionary transformation. He considered the Tsarist-capitalist system as responsible for weakening the Russian state.

The political works in Stalin's private library are almost all by Marxist authors. Books by non-revolutionary Russian political thinkers are not included. The library consisted originally of some 19,500 titles, 5000 of them on political and related topics.

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In 1956, during the bloody counter-revolution in Hungary, statues of Stalin were destroyed. Thirty-five years later, statues of Lenin have been reduced to dust. The dismantling of statues of Stalin and Lenin marks the two basic breaks with Marxism. In 1956, Khrushchev attacked Stalin's achievements so that he could change the fundamental line of the Communist Party. The progressive disintegration of the political and economic system that followed led to the final break with socialism in 1990 by Gorbachev.

Of course, the media hark on every day about the clear failure of Communism around the world. But we must reiterate that, if there was a failure in the Soviet Union, it was a failure of revisionism, introduced by Khrushchev thirty-five years ago. This revisionism led to complete political failure, to capitulation to imperialism and to economic catastrophe. The current eruption of savage capitalism and of fascism in the USSR shows clearly what happens when the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism are rejected.

For thirty-five years, the revisionists worked to destroy Stalin. Once Stalin was demolished, Lenin was liquidated with a flick of the wrist. Khrushchev fought mercilessly against Stalin. Gorbachev carried on by leading, during his five years of glastnost, a crusade against `Stalinism'. Notice that the dismantling of Lenin's statues was not preceded by a political campaign against his work. The campaign against Stalin was sufficient. Once Stalin's ideas were attacked, vilified and destroyed, it became clear that Lenin's ideas had suffered the same fate.

Khrushchev started his destructive work by criticizing Stalin's errors in order to `re-assert Leninism in its original form' and to improve the Communist system. Gorbachev made the same demagogic promises to confuse the forces of the Left. Today, things have been made crystal clear: under the pretext of `returning to Lenin', the Tsar returns; under the pretext of `improving Communism', savage capitalism has erupted.

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I think there are two 'swords': one is Lenin and the other Stalin, once the sword of Stalin has been discarded ,once this gate is opened, by and large Leninism is thrown away.

Loz wrote:

The ideology underlying his writings and policies is just Marxism-Leninism.Stalin himself wasn't some "great" theorist,and saw himself as nothing more than a continuator of what Lenin had started.

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First Menshevik, later Bolshevik Revolutionary. As commissar of war led the Red Army to defeat the Entente in their invasion of Soviet Russia. Helped create the Left Opposition to overthrow Stalin and stop the monstrous attrocities he'd soon commit. Created the theory of the Permanent Revolution, and the Fourth International. Assassinated by the Soviet government.

Man In Grey wrote:

but they don't even include Stalin on that page or his achievements.

Man In Grey wrote:

Many of the "Old Bolsheviks" that he killed were allies with Trotsky such as Zinoviev and Kamenev who were of course original allies with Stalin in the struggle.

Man In Grey wrote:

Yes but my point was they were allies against him and the fate of the USSR and the socialist world depended on whoever won this struggle.

Man In Grey wrote:

What else can you do to political opponents in such a political arena?

Man In Grey wrote:

Personally I don't believe the USSR would have survived under Trotsky's policies

Man In Grey wrote:

but of course I stated I didn't want to get too much into that but of course I make myself the first person to do so

Man In Grey wrote:

Russia was always known for its questionable ways of dealing with political opponents.

Man In Grey wrote:

Trotsky may have done the same thing to his opponents. Either that or just banish them all, maybe not just completely wipe them out

Man In Grey wrote:

History is now starting to recognize this time, Stalin's Soviet times, as more of a positive one.

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So in your analysis only Stalin could save the USSR? Interesting.

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Taking a position on Stalin vs Trotsky then saying you don't want to explain is pretty lame.

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America has some pretty questionable ways of dealing with political opponents but we're known for this so it's cool.

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Stalin did some good, he was a better leader than most, but what he did against Marxists is unforgivable.

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According to the researchers, Stalin's patriotism has a Jacobin origin. The Jacobins were a left-wing French political movement in the eighteenth century who aimed to use revolution to revive their fatherland. Stalin, too, saw this as his main aim, believing that it could only be brought about through a revolutionary transformation. He considered the Tsarist-capitalist system as responsible for weakening the Russian state.

Dagoth Ur wrote:

So they should take down what was proven to be true because it makes Stalin look more like he really was? Stalin killed off almost all of the old bolsheviks, calling that anything less than monstrous is an insult to the bolsheviks as a whole.