Neo-Stalinism - Misplaced Pages

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Neo-Stalinism is a term that describes rehabilitation and glorification of Joseph Stalin, restoration of Stalinist policies, or a moderated Stalinist state, "without political reprisals but with persecution and total control." The American socialist writer Hal Draper used "neo-Stalinism" in 1948 to refer to a a new political ideology–new development in Soviet policy, which he defined as a reactionary trend whose beginning was associated with the Popular Front period of the mid-1930s, writing that "The ideologists of neo-Stalinism are merely the tendrils shot ahead by the phenomena – fascism and Stalinism – which outline the social and political form of a neo-barbarism”

In February 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the cult of personality that surrounded his predecessor, Joseph Stalin, and condemned crimes committed during the Great Purge. In 1956 Khrushchev gave a 4 hour speech condemning the Stalin regime, however it was criticized for fabricating information and exaggerating claims hugely.

In October 1964, Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev, who remained in office until his death in November 1982. During his reign, the truth about Stalinism was suppressed, leading to the exile of many dissidents, most notably Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. According to Alexander Dubček, "The advent of Brezhnev’s regime heralded the advent of neo-Stalinism, and the measures taken against Czechoslovakia in 1968 were the final consolidation of the neo-Stalinist forces in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, and other countries."

Mikhail Gorbachev took over in March 1985. He introduced the policy of glasnost in public discussions – in order to liberalize the Soviet system. The full scale of Stalinist repressions was soon revealed, and the Soviet Union fell apart. Still, Gorbachev admitted in 2000 that "Even now in Russia we have the same problem. It isn't so easy to give up the inheritance we received from Stalinism and Neo-Stalinism, when people were turned into cogs in the wheel, and those in power made all the decisions for them." .

By the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Century, Turkmenistan’s Saparmurat Niyazov regime was largely considered a neo-Stalinist one.

As of 2008, nearly half of Russians view Stalin positively, and many support restoration of his monuments dismantled in the past. In 2005, Communist politician Gennady Zyuganov said that Russia "should once again render honor to Stalin for his role in building socialism and saving human civilization from the Nazi plague."