Stalinism

[Global_Justice]

i always considered stalin to be fascist and not left wing. but whenever i come up against people when i'm trying to defend communism they always throw stalin into the argument and say he was communist. so i say no, he was stalinist, which is quite different to marxism. but then i lack enough knowledge to back that up, so, to cut a long story short, what are the differences between stalinism and marxism?

i understand that is very broad question because there are so many different takes and adaptations of marxism, but i'm not really looking for an explanation of those, simply, how does stalinism differ from other versions of marxism?

and if you've managed to understand that question then you a smart motherfucker :o

[More Fire for the People]

Stalinism is a bit of innaccurate phrase. In a bit of irony, Stalinism is not what Stalin believed. Stalin, before WWII, advocated democratic reform while the elite bureaucracy rejected reform. Towards the end of his life, Stalin became what most people think of Stalin.

Anywho, respond, leftisim is a versatile paradigm that comes in many shades and is ready to take on any fault, even within itself.

[Led Zeppelin]

Can we have a ban on "Stalinism" threads? There are already dozens of them around, why don't you ask your question there instead of making a new thread?

It's pointless.

[viva le revolution]

There is no such thing as 'stalinism' or a 'stalinist', Stalin himself advocated Marxism-Leninism.

[sanpal]

Originally posted by viva le [email protected] 30 2006, 08:03 AM
There is no such thing as 'stalinism' or a 'stalinist', Stalin himself advocated Marxism-Leninism.
Some time ago there was no such thing as 'marxism' or 'marxist'

How did Stalin advocate Marxism-Leninism - it is the question.

The answer was given long before Stalin (when Stalin was only Jugashvilly) by Marx and Engels when they criticized mr. Duhring's socialism (the work "Anty-Duhring").

[Roses in the Hospital]

how does stalinism differ from other versions of marxism?

Fist of all you need to understand the difference between Marxism and Marxist-Leninism which was the official ideology of the USSR under Stalinism. In simple terms Lenin claimed that a vanguard party was needed to organise and run the revolution throughout it's 'socialist' phase before pure communism could be implemented. In practice this meant a dictatorship of the bolshevik party over Russia, which was broadly the situation when Lenin died.
Now, as already mentioned Stalinism was not really an ideology, more a term for his particular style of leadership, which ammounted to further centralisation of power in to a strong beurocracy, leadership through the cult of personality and ruthless purging of his political openents. Many aspects of his time in power generally associated with 'Stalinism' i.e. the famine and his ruthless treatment of troops during WWII were not so much ideology as policy decission.
So, in conclusion Stalin was not a communist in the Marxist sense of the word, but it is still not really appropriate to describe him as a facsist...

[sanpal]

Originally posted by Roses in the [email protected] 30 2006, 11:37 AM

Fist of all you need to understand the difference between Marxism and Marxist-Leninism which was the official ideology of the USSR under Stalinism.
Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed as the official ideology of the USSR under Stalin but which really was not Marxism or Leninism nor Marxism-Leninism, it was Duhringism. The Stalin's theoretical mistake was in economic policy. Even Lenin had understanding that proclaiming all means of production as State property does not mean collectivization in practice, he recognised it as State capitalism. And understanding (from hard practice) that money couldn't been abolished by only "wishes" Lenin came to understanding of transition to New Economic Policy that then through market socialism (partial private property and state property under control of the proletariat) (the dictatorship of the proletariat according Lenin's conception was necessary to prevent counterrevolution and further restoration of power of bourgeois) to come to non-market moneyless society of communism. But Stalin considered himself more genius than Lenin was and sent NEP to hell, he let money to exist (it is known that money is a market attribute) but prohibited money to function as money (by the course to exchange trading with planning). Stalin let wage (market attribute) to exist but he proclaimed in the USSR the absence of hiring of manpower and labour market.