The Stalin Society is a British discussion group for individuals who see
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
as a great
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
and wish to preserve his legacy. The society originated as a consequence of the
dissolution of the Soviet Union and what the members perceived as a subsequent increase in the criticism of Stalin. According to the Stalin Society's website, "
e Stalin Society was formed in 1991 to defend Stalin and his work on the basis of fact and to refute
capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
,
revisionist,
opportunist
Opportunism is the practice of taking advantage of circumstances – with little regard for principles or with what the consequences are for others. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term ...
and
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
propaganda directed against him".
Organisation
The society is based on individual membership but political groups such as the
Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) (RCPB-ML) is a small British communist political party, previously named the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) (CPE (ML)) on formation in 1972 until being reorg ...
, and the
Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist), abbreviated CPGB-ML, is an anti-revisionist, Marxist–Leninist communist party in the United Kingdom, active in England, Scotland, and Wales. The CPGB-ML was created after a split ...
are notably prominent within it. Many have pointed to a considerable overlap of membership with
Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...
's
Socialist Labour Party, including Scargill himself.
[Andy McSmith and Severin Carrell]
"Stalin apologists drink to the memory of Uncle Joe"
''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'', 2 March 2003 The Stalin Society's chair,
Harpal Brar, for instance, was at one time a member of both organisations (although he subsequently left the SLP to head the CPGB-ML). Through Brar, the society was also linked to the
Association of Communist Workers
The Association of Communist Workers was an anti-revisionist political party in the United Kingdom.
It originated in 1969 as a split from the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League around Harpal Brar. Initially regarded as Maoist, it spent time ...
. One of the Stalin Society's founders,
Bill Bland, was expelled in an organizational dispute.
Kamal Majid, a founding member of the Stalin Society, is a patron of the
Stop the War Coalition
The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars.
The Coalition has c ...
.
Views on excess mortality during Stalin’s leadership
The Stalin Society upholds traditional Soviet views on a number of controversial events that took place in the Soviet Union under Stalin's leadership. The
Holodomor, a famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932–33 and which was part of the
Soviet famine of 1930–1933, is said to have resulted from poor weather conditions and sabotage by rich peasants. The belief that Stalin intentionally brought the Holodomor about in order to break the Ukrainian national spirit is attributed to 1930s
anti-Soviet propaganda
Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) (russian: антисове́тская агита́ция и пропага́нда (АСА)) was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union. To begin with the term was interchangeably used with counter-revolu ...
perpetuated by Ukrainian nationalists and
McCarthyist
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
s.
[John Puntis]
"The Ukrainian famine-genocide myth"
July 2002 The
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
, a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union in 1936–38, is regarded as a fair legal process designed to thwart an anti-Soviet coup, for which the numbers of imprisoned and dead have been exaggerated by anti-Soviet propagandists.
[Mario Sousa]
"Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union"
March 1999 The
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
, a mass execution of Polish figures in 1940, is said to have been committed by
Nazi German
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
forces who captured Polish prisoners of war held by the Soviets. Nazi propaganda is said to have been responsible for its attribution to the Soviets.
[Ella Rule]
"The Katyn Massacre"
July 2002
21st century
The society continues to hold public meetings. The Stalin Society has produced many booklets on subjects including
CPSU
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
purges, famines and
George Orwell.
The "Stalin Society of Pakistan" was formed in 2013 and has a website and Facebook account. The society has claimed on Facebook that it "stands for communist revolution in Pakistan" and on its website it states that it is "not a political party but an academic venture" which aims to "refute anti-Stalin propaganda and revisionism". Stalin Societies have also been formed in the United States and Canada, Tunisia, India, Italy, Ireland, and Argentina, and an International Stalin Society was formed in 2014.
See also
*
Anti-revisionism
Anti-revisionism is a position within Marxism–Leninism which emerged in the 1950s in opposition to the reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Where Khrushchev pursued an interpretation that differed from his predecessor Joseph Stalin, ...
*
Neo-Stalinism
Neo-Stalinism (russian: Неосталинизм) is the promotion of positive views of Joseph Stalin's role in history, the partial re-establishing of Stalin's policies on certain issues and nostalgia for the Stalin period. Neo-Stalinism ove ...
*
Holodomor denial
*
Cult of personality
References
External links
British Stalin Society homepageThe Stalin Society of North America
{{UK far left, state=collapsed
Anti-revisionist organizations
Neo-Stalinist organizations
Communist organisations in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1991
1991 establishments in the United Kingdom
Political organisations based in the United Kingdom