Anti-Stalinist left
The anti-Stalinist left encompasses various kinds of left-wing political movements that oppose Joseph Stalin, Stalinism, neo-Stalinism and the system of governance that Stalin implemented as leader of the Soviet Union between 1924 and 1953. This term also refers to those that opposed Joseph Stalin and his leadership from within the Communist movement, such as Leon Trotsky and the party's Left Opposition.
In recent years, the term may also refer to left and centre-left wing opposition to dictatorship, cult of personality, totalitarianism and police states, all being features commonly attributed to Marxist–Leninist regimes that took inspiration from Stalinism such as the regimes of Kim Il Sung, Enver Hoxha and others, including in the former Eastern Bloc. Some of the notable movements within the anti-Stalinist left have been Trotskyism and Titoism, anarchism and libertarian socialism, left communism and libertarian Marxism, the Right Opposition within the Communist movement, Eurocommunism, ultra-leftism, democratic socialism and social democracy.
Revolutionary era critiques (pre-1924)
A large majority of the political left was initially enthusiastic about the Bolshevik Revolution in the revolutionary era. In the beginning, the Bolsheviks and their policies received much support because the movement was originally painted by Lenin and other leaders in a libertarian light. However, as more politically repressive methods were used, the Bolsheviks steadily lost support from many anarchists and revolutionaries. Prominent anarchist communists and libertarian Marxists such as Sylvia Pankhurst, Rosa Luxemburg, and Emma Goldman were among the first left-wing critics of Bolshevism.Rosa Luxemburg was heavily critical of the methods that Bolsheviks used to seize power in the October Revolution claiming that it was "not a movement of the people but of the bourgeoisie". Primarily, Luxemburg's critiques were based on the manner in which the Bolsheviks suppressed anarchist movements. In one of her essays published titled "The Nationalities Question in the Russian Revolution", she explains:
Because of her early criticisms toward the Bolsheviks, her legacy was vilified by Stalin once he rose to power. According to Trotsky, Stalin was "often lying about her and vilifying her" in the eyes of the public.
The relations between the anarchists and the Bolsheviks worsened in Soviet Russia due to the suppression of movements like the Kronstadt rebellion and the Makhnovist movement. The Kronstadt rebellion was a key moment during which many libertarian and democratic leftists broke with the Bolsheviks, laying the foundations for the anti-Stalinist left. The American anti-Stalinist socialist Daniel Bell later said:
Another key anti-Stalinist, Louis Fischer, later coined the term "Kronstadt moment" for this.
Like Rosa Luxemburg, Emma Goldman was primarily critical of Lenin's style of leadership, but her focus eventually transferred over to Stalin and his policies as he rose to power. In her essay titled "There Is No Communism in Russia", Goldman details how Stalin "abused the power of his position" and formed a dictatorship. In this text she states:
Emma Goldman asserted that there was "not the least sign in Soviet Russia even of authoritarian, State Communism". Emma Goldman remained critical of Stalin and the Bolshevik's style of governance up until her death in 1940.
Overall, the left communists and anarchists were critical of the statist, repressive, and totalitarian nature of Marxism–Leninism which eventually carried over to Stalinism and Stalin's policy in general. Conversely, Trotsky argued that he and Lenin had intended to lift the ban on the opposition parties such as the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries as soon as the economic and social conditions of Soviet Russia had improved.
After Stalin's rise to power (1924–1930)
The struggle for power in the Soviet Union after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924 saw the development of three major tendencies within the All-Union Communist Party. These were described by Trotsky as left, right, and centre tendencies. The Right Opposition was a label formulated by Stalin in Autumn of 1928 for the opposition against certain measures included within the first five-year plan, an opposition which was led by Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Mikhail Tomsky, and their supporters within the Soviet Union that did not follow the so-called "general line of the party". Stalin and his "centre" faction were allied with Bukharin and the Right Opposition from late 1924, with Bukharin elaborating Stalin's theory of socialism in one country. Together, they expelled Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, and the United Opposition from the Communist Party in December 1927. However, once Trotsky was out of the way and the Left Opposition had been illegalized, Stalin soon turned on his Right Opposition allies. Bukharin and the Right Opposition were, in their turn, sidelined and removed from important positions within the Communist Party and the Soviet government from 1928 to 1930, with Stalin ending the NEP and beginning the first five-year plan.One of the last attempts of the Right Opposition to resist Stalin was the Ryutin affair in 1932, where a manifesto against the policy of collectivization was circulated; it openly called for "The Liquidation of the dictatorship of Stalin and his clique". Later, some rightists joined a secret bloc with Leon Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev to oppose Stalin. Historian Pierre Broué stated that it dissolved in early 1933.
File:Leon Trotsky, 1930s.jpg|thumb|Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky was exiled by Stalin in February 1929. Trotsky would become the most vocal and prominent critic of Stalinism in the early 20th century.
Leon Trotsky and Stalin disagreed on issues of industrialization and revolutionary tactics. Trotsky believed that there was a need for super-industrialization while Stalin believed in a rapid surge and collectivization, as written in his 5-year plan. Trotsky believed an accelerated global surge to be the answer to institute communism globally. Trotsky was critical of Stalin's methods because he believed the slower pace of collectivization and industrialization to be ineffective in the long run. According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick, the scholarly consensus is that Stalin appropriated the position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation. Trotsky also disagreed with Stalin's thesis of Socialism in One Country, believing that the institution of revolution in one state or country would not be as effective as a global revolution. He also criticized how the Socialism in One Country thesis broke with the internationalist traditions of Marxism. Trotskyists believed that a permanent global revolution was the most effective method to ensure the system of communism was enacted worldwide. According to his biographer, Isaac Deutscher, Trotsky explicitly supported proletarian internationalism but was opposed to achieving this via military conquest as seen with his documented opposition to the war with Poland in 1920, proposed armistice with the Entente and temperance with staging anti-British revolts in the Middle East. Overall, Trotsky and his followers were very critical of the lack of internal debate and discussion among Stalinist organizations along with their politically repressive methods.
The consolidation of Stalin's rule and responding to the rise of fascism in Europe (1930–1939)
During the 1930s, critics of Stalin, both inside and outside the Soviet Union, were under heavy attack by the party. According to historian, Bernhard H. Bayerlein, the increasingly "repressive transformation" of the Communist movement "strengthened intermediate oppositionist and anti-Stalinist currents” in the left.Outside the Communist movement, for example, the International Revolutionary Marxist Centre was founded in 1932 as an international association of left-wing parties which rejected both more moderate mainstream social democracy and the Stalinist Third International.
File:Diego rivera Commies.jpg|thumb|A Diego Rivera mural depicts Trotsky with Marx and Engels as a true champion of the workers' struggle.
While defending the Russian Revolution from outside aggression, Leon Trotsky and his followers at the same time urged an anti-bureaucratic political revolution against Stalinism to be conducted by the Soviet working class themselves. In 1936, Trotsky called for the restoration of the right of criticism in areas such as economic matters, the revitalization of the trade unions and the free elections of the Soviet parties. Trotsky also opposed the policy of forced collectivisation under Stalin and favoured a voluntary, gradual approach towards agricultural production with greater tolerance for the rights of Soviet Ukrainians. From 1936, Trotsky and his American supporter James P. Cannon described the Soviet Union as a "degenerated workers' state", the revolutionary gains of which should be defended against imperialist aggression despite the emergence of a gangster-like ruling stratum, the party bureaucracy.
The Great Purge occurred from 1936 to 1938 as a result of growing internal tensions between the critics of Stalin but eventually turned into an all-out cleansing of "anti-Soviet elements". A majority of those targeted were peasants and minorities, but anarchists and democratic socialist opponents were also targeted for their criticisms of the severely repressive political techniques that Stalin used. Many were executed or sent to Gulag prison camps extrajudicially. It is estimated that during the Great Purge, casualties ranged from 600,000 to over 1 million people.
Concurrently, fascism was rising across Europe. Initially, during the Comintern's "third period", Communist parties saw the democratic left as social fascists, or as a worse enemy than fascism. The anti-Stalinist left played a major role in the emergence of anti-fascism in this period. The Soviet leadership switched to a popular front policy in 1933, in which Communists were expected to work with liberal and even conservative allies to defend against an expected fascist assault. Although Communists and their fellow travellers in CP-dominated front organisatons played a major role in the anti-fascist movement after 1933, Enzo Traverso and other historians have argued that the historiography has often obscured the role of the anti-Stalinist left: “it was possible to be both antifascist and anti-Stalinist, and... the fascination exercised by Stalinism at this time over the antifascist intelligentsia was not irresistible."
One of the most conflicts of the time was the Spanish Civil War. While the whole left fought alongside the Republican faction, within it there were sharp conflicts between the Communists, on the one hand, and anarchists, Trotskyists and the POUM on the other. Support for the latter became a key issue for the anti-Stalinist left internationally, as exemplified by the ILP Contingent in the International Brigades, George Orwell's book Homage to Catalonia, the periodical Spain and the World, and various pamphlets by Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker and others.
Illustrating the role of the anti-Stalinist left in the anti-fascist movement, historian Jonathan Hyslop gives the example of the "Antwerp Group" of former Communist activists in the International Transport Workers' Federation, led by Hermann Knüfken. This group sent fighters to Spain, where they joined an international militia linked to the UGT union federation, but were expelled by the group’s Communst Party leader, Hans Beimler, over political differences, whereupon they joined the anarchist Durruti Column. Traverso gives the examples of socialists Gaetano Salvemini and Carlo Rosselli.
In other countries too, non-Communist left parties competed with Stalinism as the same time as they fought the right. The Three Arrows symbol was adopted by the German Social Democrats to signify this multi-pronged conflict.