The image attached portrays the defence of Stalin as a waste of time at best, this is frankly charitable compared to most self proclaimed leftists who think the rehabilitation of Stalin is actively harmful towards our movement.
There are reasons as to why the rehabilitation of Stalin is indeed an important issue and not just some trivial thing that we must halt in order to gain a larger following.
The rehabilitation of Stalin’s image is less about the rehabilitation of Stalin as a historical individual and more about defending and upholding Marxism.
Condemning or even refusing to uphold Stalin to at least some extent is equivalent to fighting our enemies on their terms. Why would we let our enemies decide who we should love and hate? There’s no reason to allow the historical narrative that our enemies have constructed to be our historical narrative, that’s just ideological surrender, may as well become a liberal at that point.
The total slander and demonization of Stalin’s image is what leads most people into deviationist tendencies, tendencies which are totally harmless towards the bourgeoisie. It’s only logical, if people believe Marxism-Leninism led to practically 1984 in real life, then why would they follow it?
Rather than keeping quiet about the USSR under Stalin, it is our duty to defend this period against the reactionary slander laid upon it. It was the first time in human history that mankind entered the socialist mode of production, and that’s something to be cherished.
As Weng Weiguang wrote, The Evaluation of Stalin is Essentially an Ideological Struggle. Repudiating Stalin is less about the historical figure and more about what was accomplished during his service. Demonizing Stalin demonizes the soviet union during its major industrialization, and therefore demonizes the most critical era for socialism in advancing on what came before.
In clearing Stalin’s name, we clear the record of socialism historically, proving it can, did, and does work definitively. This isn’t wasted effort, but is absolutely critical, especially as the demonized visage of Stalin is used as a club to beat Marxists and anti-imperialists in general (even non-Marxists!).
Do you have any resources that you would recommend on the Stalinist vs Trotskyist issue and/or scholarly resources on the history of the USSR? I don’t see anything in your course/advanced course and it seems to be a reoccurring debate.
There are a lot of good resources on Comrade’s Library, managed by comrade @ComradeEd@lemmygrad.ml . I also really like Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend from what I’ve read so far, as it deals with the mythology around Stalin and touches on the Stalin/Trotsky conflict as well. I haven’t read the whole book, and it’s certainly aimed more at dispelling myths than giving a historical account, but Losurdo is very adept at applying philosophy in a practical way.
Hey, I only pull in hexbear communities on l.e.s. so I didn’t get a notification for this one, so you might want to use my ml or this one instead.
Oh gotcha! Sorry! Thought it was your new main account.
It’s ok, I mean it’s not like you’re trying to get my attention(?) so it’s not a big problem, people can still look at my profile and DM me or reply to any of my comments. I am just interested and do want the ping. Also if you sometime in the future actually did want to get my attention then it would be important.
I was mostly wanting to let you know that I’m shouting it out for the sake of patting you on the back for what I consider to be an amazing project and all your hard work on it, and give others a way to reach out if they had questions. But thanks, I’ll keep that in mind! I had thought the new account was your new main, but instead I think I’ll refer to it on Hexbear, your .ml account on .ml, and your grad account on here, unless you have other preferences.
Thanks!
Thanks a lot 🫡. It’s hard to know what to read given the level of bias out there.
No problem! Part of why I don’t put history in my theory lists is because I consider history to be too important to weave into a theory list meant to be as concise and welcoming to liberals as possible. If I were to make a full curriculum, I’d need to read far more than I have and truth be told, my history is rather weak beyond the commonly discussed “gotchas” against the Soviet Union and other socialist states. I also like using Prolewiki when learning about a new topic and finding new places to read.