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The Theorectical and Historical Meaning of Stalinism
May 13, 2026. Editorial Team of the Communist Front USA (Leninist-Stalinist)
May 13, 2026. Editorial Team of the Communist Front USA (Leninist-Stalinist)
“The modern revisionists and reactionaries call us Stalinists, thinking that they insult us and, in fact, that is what they have in mind. But, on the contrary, they glorify us with this epithet; it is an honor for us to be Stalinists for while we maintain such a stand the enemy cannot and will never force us to our knees.” – Enver Hoxha, Selected Works Vol. IV, pp. 234-235.
The word “Stalinism” has a certain connotation to it, from the Trotskyites to the liberals the word means a personal dictatorship and a perversion of all things good and holy. Countries belonging to the modern camp of "actually existing socialism" like modern China or North Korea are often labelled Stalinist, and even fascistic leaders like Donald Trump have been likened to Stalinism^1 despite sharing totally opposing viewpoints. To the Khrushchevite revisionists, “Stalinism” was a dark period in the history of the USSR. To the Brezhnevite revisionists, “Stalinism,” is a demagogical term to curry favor from the true Marxist-Leninists that oppose the open counterrevolution represented by Khrusuchevite revisionism. To the revisionists of the so-called “Stalinist-Hoxhaist” tendency, “Stalinism” represents “Marxism-Leninism of the period of transition from socialism in “one” country, to communism in “one” country - in particular.”^2
When we say Stalinism, by which is meant Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism, we have a specific definition in mind. Not merely a slogan, but a scientific and historical description of the construction of socialism in a Marxist-Leninist manner.
Stalinism is not a demagogical slogan for the neo-revisionists to use, nor is it an insult, as Hoxha said to be called a Stalinist is to be glorified. Why do we find glory in calling ourselves Stalinists? It must be understood that Stalinism emerged after the construction of socialism in the main within the USSR. As such we are honored to be recognized as fighters of the path of Stalin, the path of socialist construction and revolutionary anti-imperialism. Stalin constructed socialism in the main within the Soviet Union, taking the dictatorship of the proletariat established by Lenin into its highest form, socialism. Stalin oversaw the end of the New Economic Policy(NEP), and revitalized the Soviet workers, he saw with clearheadedness that the NEP had fulfilled its goals and had begun to become a fetter on socialism. In the 1930s the Soviet Union went through an Industrial Revolution, but not of a capitalist character, rather of a socialist proletarian character. As such by the time of his death a mere 20 years later the USSR had abolished general commodity production, wage labor, unemployment, and homelessness through the development, and socialisation, of the means of production. The historical meaning of Stalinism can hence be understood as having the following practical characters. Firstly it is socialist construction in adherence to Leninism, moving beyond the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat into lower stage communism; advancing beyond the abolition of the present state of things into socialist construction where the proletarian dictatorship is not a specific apparatus but rather a fact of life. secondly it is socialist anti-imperialism, thirdly it is the simultaneous development of productive forces and the socialization of them. These are the historically significant characteristics of the phenomenon of Stalinism.
In our present day the revisionist camp was destroyed 35 years ago this year, and globally revolutions have not merely stalled, but counterrevolutions are actively winning. Most prominently the Indian state has crushed the Naxalite Maoist insurgency, which was effectively forced into disarmament this March. Despite their Maoist revisionism, they were militant fighters, but in this era of blackest reaction even the revisionists and reformists make no ground, as Kerala has become non-communist ruled for the first time in 50 years following recent elections. The world socialist movement has only ever been in such a state of disarray once before, and that was during the period leading up to World War 1, where Marxism was proliferating as a catchword but at the cost of its revolutionary substance. Famously Lenin said, “All the social-chauvinists are now “Marxists” (don’t laugh!).”^3 and he is right, this is no laughing matter. Here in the USA the social-chauvinists have concentrated themselves primarily into the American “Communist” Party, an openly reactionary Duginist project, the “Communist” Party of the USA, a party of Browderite social-chauvinism spanning generations, and the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization whose right and centre are firmly opportunist if not explicitly Democratic Party entryists. This work is not the time to delve into these parties and organizations closely, however the growth of the DSA off of the back of liberal Zionist demagogue Zohran Mamdani, and the growth of the “C”PUSA into over 20,000 members as of 2024^4, are clear demonstrations that an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist, or Stalinist, theoretical line is necessary.
Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism, in addition to providing an analysis of the conditions of the proletariat in the era of imperialism and socialist revolution (via Leninism), advances Marxist theory by testing it under the harshest conditions which a socialist country finds itself in. The great theory of socialism in one country, its origins hinted at by Marx and Engels, was enumerated by Lenin^5. However, the theory was truly put to the test under Stalin and Hoxha within the context of socialist construction in the Soviet Union and socialist Albania respectively.
The Soviet Union and socialist Albania faced encirclement on all sides by imperialists, opportunists, and other bourgeois forces. Despite such incredible odds stacked against them, the socialist countries managed to not only survive for an extended period of time, but build the lower stage of socialism and abolish many of the remains of the old society. Albania in particular was able to construct the most advanced socialist society in history despite being paltry in size and backwards and agrarian in the economic sector.
In such circumstances, the thesis that socialism could not be built in a single country was wholly defeated.
Secondly, Stalin demonstrated the political economy of socialism through works like Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR. He showed that under the lower stage of socialism, the law of value, while not entirely gotten rid of, changed forms to match the new mode of production. Currency, commodity production, etc. also took on different forms under the lower stage of socialism.
And thirdly, the means by which socialism was defeated in the revisionist countries, and in genuinely Marxist countries defended, were clarified by Hoxha. Albania held out against the dual imperialist-revisionist encirclement for decades due to their militant unity for socialism, this unity culminating in the Cultural and Ideological Revolution which propelled the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania into the role of world-historic leader of socialism. Through this Cultural and Ideological Revolution, socialist cultural hegemony was established helping to combat revisionist and bureaucratic elements, allowing for the trade unions of Albania to take on a more directly democratic role. The expansion of proletarian democracy in economic life was furthered through the elimination of taxation, the main basis of bureaucracy as Marx pointed out “Taxes are the life source of the bureaucracy, the army, the priests, and the court – in short, of the entire apparatus of the executive power. Strong government and heavy taxes are identical. By its very nature, small-holding property forms a basis for an all-powerful and numberless bureaucracy”^6 Albania, by getting rid of taxes, dealt a mortal blow to bureaucracy in 1969. For these reasons, socialist Albania must be the model for new socialist projects.
Lastly, Hoxha showed that in works like The Demagogy of the Soviet Revisionists Cannot Conceal Their Traitorous Countenance that social-fascism is the domestic policy of social-imperialism, the foreign policy. He maintained that revisionism split and did not unite^7, and exposed all the various opportunist and pseudo-socialist schools of thought like Mao Zedong Thought, Titoism, Brezhnevism, etc.
The terms anti-revisionism and “Hoxhaism” have become rather common in Marxist spaces both online and in person. Some use the term “Hoxhaism” as a way to signal to others that they are followers of anti-revisionism Marxism-Leninism, however others use the term to try and create an ideology born from Hoxha’s analysis of revisionism’s ascendancy and decay. This is a grave error. Hoxha was a proud Stalinist, and as such the scientific term for what many describe as merely anti-revisionism Marxism-Leninism, or Hoxhaism, is Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism. We must recognize Stalinism as the correct scientific term for anti-revisionism, based in both historical and contemporary struggles like that found in the Movement for the Reorganization of the Greek Communist Party 1918-1955, otherwise known as Anasintaxi. Without the guiding light of Stalinism, Leninist theory will be made to re-tread the paths already traversed under Stalin, as Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism is “the further development of Marxism-Leninism in the era of socialist construction in the Soviet Union as well as in the countries of the socialist camp after the Second World War. Stalinism theoretically showed the path to socialism and practically realised it”^8
And we as the Communist Front (Leninist-Stalinist) recognize the need for the correct theoretical line in-sync with Stalinism. Without a Stalinist line we will be condemned to blindness in our struggle, but if we may shine the light of Stalinism on the revisionist tendencies hiding in the Marxist movement, we may prevent the rise of revisionism and thusly enable the anti-revisionist movement to play the vanguard role that Stalinism necessitates.
1- https://www.berkshireeagle.com/opinion/columnists/trump-the-neo-stalinist/article_1168270a-4971-4090-bb95-9de5c5b6a04a.html
2-https://www.scribd.com/document/894871410/What-is-Stalinism-Hoxhaism
3- https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch01.htm
4- https://www.c-span.org/program/washington-journal/joe-sims-on-communist-party-usa-and-campaign-2024/643328
5- https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/aug/23.htm
6- https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch06.htm
7- https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/euroco/env2-2.htm
8- https://anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com/2007/10/it-is-absolutely-correct-and-adoptable.html?m=1
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