Anti-Stalinism

A picture of Leon Trotsky, a major anti-Stalinist and founder of Trotskyism.

This article is about opposition to Joseph Stalin. For positions opposed to communism generally, see anti-communism.

Anti-Stalinism is opposition to Joseph Stalin, his ideas, his legacy, and Marxism–Leninism more broadly. Anti-Stalinism is an extension of anti-communism, although some anti-Stalinists such as Trotskyists and "left"-communists claim to be communists. Some anti-revisionists object to the word "Stalinism", but they are not anti-Stalinist.

A materialist analysis of the past several decades shows that anti-Stalinism (and De-Stalinization more broadly) led to the weakening of the international communist movement and the eventual degeneration of the socialist camp. It's also not a coincidence that anti-Stalinism was used to justify revisionist and opportunist positions. Trotskyism, which had been defeated as an ideology, made a comeback after Khrushchev's "secret speech". Khrushchev himself was an ardent Trotskyist.

See also

• Historical revisionism
• Non-communist left
• Anti-communism