Are contemporary Stalinists in the Eastern Bloc more conservative than anything?

[the demoralist]

I've known some people like this on a personal level. People who are from Eastern Europe and talk about how Communist and Marxist they are; but when you scratch the surface they have all sorts of dodgy views about nationalism, anti-semitism, sexism, homophobia etc. And they seem to see Communism as going back to living under the single party.

Seems to me that yearning for the good old days when Comrade Stalin was in control and made all our decisions for us is less about moving forward to some rational future classless order, and more about the lamenting uncertainties liberalism brings. More conservative and reactionary than progressive and revolutionary.

[Sheepy]

NazBolism in a nutshell. I've seen a lot of interviews of Russian neo-nazi's in their party headquarters with framed pictures of Stalin on the walls of their offices.

It's like they can't fucking decide whether to worship him or Hitler, completely forgetting that World War II was a thing that happened.

[d3crypt]

Sounds like the National Bolshevik clowns. :laugh:

[the demoralist]

National Bolsheviks are essentially Fascist thugs through and through so far as I can tell. Definitely totally reactionary, but not quite what I was talking about.

I'm more thinking of people that might even be involved in the left, yet they want something along the lines of a restoration of the USSR, rather than global socialist revolution (even if they say they want this). They are usually older, often members of the old CP. Basically anyone who reckons Tito, Stalin, etc were "good leaders".
Sometimes I'm even tempted to put Slavoj Zizek in this category, if you choose to take some of what he says seriously.

[Red_Banner]

Well take Putin for example.

He likes to ride off of the USSR's WW2 fame, but he dishonours and betrays the USSR.

[tuwix]

I've known some people like this on a personal level. People who are from Eastern Europe and talk about how Communist and Marxist they are; but when you scratch the surface they have all sorts of dodgy views about nationalism, anti-semitism, sexism, homophobia etc. And they seem to see Communism as going back to living under the single party.

Seems to me that yearning for the good old days when Comrade Stalin was in control and made all our decisions for us is less about moving forward to some rational future classless order, and more about the lamenting uncertainties liberalism brings. More conservative and reactionary than progressive and revolutionary.


You're generalizing too much. I'm from former eastern bloc and form Stalin ist just massive killer having nothing to do with communism.

[the demoralist]

You're generalizing too much. I'm from former eastern bloc and form Stalin ist just massive killer having nothing to do with communism.
I don't think I'm generalizing. I'm not saying every or even most Communists in the Eastern Bloc is a Stalinist or Conservative or whatever....

I'm just saying I think that there are some people there who see Communism as more a return to the USSR than anything else. And that I think that makes them more conservative than radical.

[tuwix]

Then I've misunderstood you.

And I can say maybe that so-called "communist" parties of the region, they're really state capitalism parties. Maybe in former Yguslavia countries is otherwise. In Russia is great sentiment for Stalin, but in the rest of parties Stalin is controverdial figure. Some defend him and some attack him.
Only anarchists and non-aligned marxists are stroblgly opposed to Stalin and state capiitalism.

[Paul Pott]

The average person is not a Leftist, even if they are a leftist. It's not at all surprising for people to support socialism and oppose capitalism but have dodgy views on other things that don't seem related on the surface. In Venezuela, PCV supporters have been known to accuse people of being gays and use slogans like "Jews out" when confronting opposition protesters, two positions which have nothing to do with the party line or any position anyone in the leadership has ever taken. Bolshevik supporters used anti-Semitic slurs against Kerensky's government. etc. The masses in real life are not cookie cutter left thinkers immune from reactionary positions because they are class conscious. Leftists in Eastern Europe are also the product of over half of a century of retreat from socialism and revolutionary positions, so their social views reflect that force as well.

Anyway, the entire question is flawed. There is no such thing as "Stalinism" or "Stalinists" unless you are specifically referring to people and groups who view Stalin as an example of a Marxist-Leninist leader. This immediately excludes the vast majority of so called "Stalinist" parties, most of which don't have a positive view of Stalin, much less support his thought and actions as being in accordance with the construction of socialism. Parties that are infamous for having conservative views, like the KPRF, uphold Stalin as a strong leader who beat Hitler but otherwise advocate what amounts to a return to some aspects of the 80s.

[Comrade Jacob]

Let's please not confuse Stalinists (Socialism in one country-ers) and National Bolshevik whack-jobs. Some Stalinists could easily classify for NBs but it is not by definition.