Why are there still Stalinists? Will they ever dissappear?

when I first got involved with left politics it seemed ridiculous that people would still adhere to Stalinism. I soon realised my ignorance seeing in Britain that although they have tiny memberships and virtually no involvement with TU struggle, there are a handful of parties, perhaps the most active being CPGB M-L. From what I can see form their meetings posted on YouTube, the majority of their members are very old or the children of party leaders. They frequently have visitors from the North Korean and Chinese embassies offering unconditional support to the dictatorships of both countries, much to my disbeleif.
My question is that if the nightmare of stalinist USSR and the horrorific state buchering from China and North Korea isn't enough to dissolve it completely then what is? This wouldn't be an issue if they didn't parade around on mayday with a placard of Stalins portrait together with the words 'communist' and 'party' in their comically wordy name, and thus seriously slowing working class conscience evolving to the ideas of socialism.

The people like stalin because he used all kinds of Cult of Pesonality. They probobly think he created the universe or something like that. Though, I gotta hand it to him, he did help in the defeat of the Nazis.

The Stalinists that cling to the past are of a dieing breed. Totally irrelevant. But, at least in the Netherlands, there are "streetwise" Stalinists that have a more healthy attitude towards the workers movement, although still handicapped politically. I think we should engage in debates with this latter variant.

Also, the second world war was won despite Stalin's policies than because of it. The purge in the late thirties killed many capable army leaders. There was a good reason why the the Soviet Union had by far most casualties in the war.

I know a fair number of CPers that wouldn't really identify as Stalinists. What does appear in radical activist circles is a weird mixture of class collaboration and undue loyalty to the labour bureaucracy.

People always try to justify what they are doing. Eventually theory will have to catch up with reality. Leftists who join the army become more conservative minded just to coop with their job. It's this kind of behavior that turns leftists into defenders of the Stalin regime when they join a party that has Stalinist roots, even though originally they didn't want to support it.

Stalin also greatly helped in starting WW2 rather than ending it. His opportunist demands that the KPD in germany should collaborate with the fascists against the social democrats for a period left the KPD confused, crippled and unable to stop the rise of Hitler in a country that was utterly ripe for the establishment of socialism

There are still Stalinists because ... there are still Stalinists. Most of us joined the communist movement we first encountered. As long as there are Stalinists, people will be recruited to Stalinism.

Why you might ask, would anyone give them the time of day? Because the Western media and Western government lie to them about everything else, and so they just might have lied about the USSR and Stalin. So people listen, and then fall for what seems like valid arguments. Same reason people become Maoists, left communists, Trotskyists, social democrats, etc. We all have part of the truth and we're all wrong about a lot of stuff too.

What should be kept in mind, though, is that very many of these comrades are very sincere in their desire for revolution and socialism. That's why, though I find their history bad, I still extend an open hand to them.

Stalin also greatly helped in starting WW2 rather than ending it. His opportunist demands that the KPD in germany should collaborate with the fascists against the social democrats

This is inaccurate. Stalin did not demand the KPD should collaborate with the Nazis. He simply demand that the KPD concentrated its fire on the SPD, because they saw the Nazis as a temporary phenomenon, a flash in the pan. "After the Nazis, us."

Stalin and the KPD simply did not consider the Nazis a serious threat, but memories of 1918-19 lingered strong in the memories of the Communists, and it's hard to blame them. The SPD not only killed the revolution in Germany (and Bavaria), but also their great leaders, Luxemburg and Liebknecht.

Stalinists look like they actually have done something to further the cause of socialism (and before you take me to task, I said 'look like'; I do not believe they have, they just look like it to Stalin kiddies); and so it seems with the Maoists.

In contrast, all we ever do is fight among ourselves, split and engage increasing arcane debates about programmes, perspectives and who did what undemocratically to whom.

In other words we look like a joke (a la Monty Python). So, no wonder Stalinism still appeals to some.

Point this out to fellow Trotskyists (and many who post here), and it doesn't even go in one ear -- and then we are treated to another ten years of the same old 'going nowhere slowly', in-figting all the way...

Stalinism will whither away through action. I have noticed that Marxist-Bolshevik (Bolshevik-Leninism, Trotskyism, whatever..) organizations are a lot more active and revolutionary than most tendencies out there. You'll see a lot of idiots here on Revleft who say they are Stalinists, Jucheists and even now "Pol-Pottists," but I wouldn't worry about them. Overall, these people are just trollers and "intellectual" types who aren't interested in any sort of revolutionary activity and just post things on Revleft to provoke argument. They seem vocal and massive here, but there totally powerless where it counts: in society. Now yes, there are in many places in the world, unfortunately, some very active ML and Maoist type organizations, but you can count that they aren't going to achieve anything different from China or Vietnam, or that they'll achieve anything period. For example, the Maoists in Nepal, who are getting much more influential, are realizing that recognizing the truly Marxist ideas of Trotsky and creating a truly revolutionary Bolshevik orgnization is the way to move toward communism. Practice will smash the idealism of Stalinist humbuggery. I think that there will always be admirers of Stalin in the same way that there are still a few admirers of Caesar or Napoleon as "strong leaders." I compre the mentality of a Stalinist to a rabid sports fan. They are loyal to their team, but only insofar as it comes out to be the "winner." They aren't willing to look at the strategy of the game or to realise when their team is using a completely stupid strategy that needs to be criticised so that the team will win. They just blindly root for their team, no matter how badly they play. Trotskyists root for the team consistently, but when the team makes a foul or uses a tactic that will lead to failure, they point it out so that the team may not lose. But we're more than likely always going to have people with the sports-fan mentality that will always root for Stalin just because it looks like he won, but it won't have an impact on te movement or society in any significant way.

The Stalinists that cling to the past are of a dieing breed. Totally irrelevant. But, at least in the Netherlands, there are "streetwise" Stalinists that have a more healthy attitude towards the workers movement, although still handicapped politically. I think we should engage in debates with this latter variant.

Also, the second world war was won despite Stalin's policies than because of it. The purge in the late thirties killed many capable army leaders. There was a good reason why the the Soviet Union had by far most casualties in the war.

There are strong possibility that whit out lend lease from US Soviet Union might have collapsed. They had superior production capacity but logistic were non existing. Railroad cars and car tires for most part came from lend lease. Also with out humiliation at winter war Stalin might have remained clueless to damages that purges had done to red army. In darkest hour nazi invasion Stalin relapsed back to religion. Stalin was like elephant in china shop, he broke everything.