Last few weeks I've been lurking a site that will not be named, and I'm really fascinated/depressed with the self described "stalinists" there. I mean.... what the fuck? Its almost funny, but not really. I just can't wrap my head around how someone could literally describe them self as a Stalinist.. I've always used the term a slur for a very orthodox marxist-lennistszs. Are these cats just trying to be offensive or? Hate to judge someones personality because of their politics, its just hard not to here. Just seems like posturing to the point of absurdity. The USSR is gone... are there even any "real stalinists" or "tankies" alive these days?
admin: thread title changed. Don't post thread titles in all capitals
Well in my limited experience Stalinists as in actually supporters of Stalin who aren't Maoists come in two types, the originals, who are very old but still very much alive. They're usually part of dwindling splits from the old CPGB, and spend there time trying to sell papers an old copies of books about the Red Army. They usually justify their faith by a form of denial curiously similar to Holocaust Denialism. "It didn't happen, it's all lies from the West".
The other type are very young, usually teens and early twenties. My dealings with them give me the impression that most of them aren't really Stalinists, they've just become latched onto the Soviet Union as a solution to their frustrations with the current system. And since Stalin is seen to have been the height of Soviet Power, and he defeated the Nazi's he gets there admiration. They're either equally suspicious of accounts of the purges as Western Propaganda or like a few are so far removed from the sufferings of the Soviet People's in the 30's they simply don't care.