Editing Stalinism (section)

=== Trotskyism ===
{{Main|Trotskyism|Anti-Stalinist Left|The Stalin School of Falsification|Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R15068, Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzki.jpg|thumb|[[Leon Trotsky]] was the leader of the [[Left Opposition]] which advocated for an alternative set of policies to Stalin.]]

[[Leon Trotsky]] always viewed Stalin as the "candidate for grave-digger of our party and the revolution" during the succession struggle.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=431 |language=en}}</ref> American historian [[Robert Vincent Daniels]] viewed Trotsky and the Left Opposition as a critical alternative to the Stalin-Bukharin majority in a number of areas. Daniels stated that the Left Opposition would have prioritised industrialisation but never contemplated the "[[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|violent uprooting]]" employed by Stalin and contrasted most directly with Stalinism on the issue of [[Soviet democracy|party democratization and bureaucratization]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=195 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref> Trotsky also opposed the policy of forced collectivisation under Stalin and favoured a [[volunteering|voluntary]], gradual approach towards [[collective farming|agricultural production]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beilharz |first1=Peter |title=Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism |date=19 November 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-00-070651-2 |pages=1–206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lfe-DwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+widely+acknowledged+collectivisation&pg=PT196 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Joshua |title=Leon Trotsky : a revolutionary's life |date=2011 |publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13724-8 |page=161 |url=https://archive.org/details/leontrotskyrevol0000rube/page/160/mode/2up?q=forced+collectivization}}</ref> with greater tolerance for the rights of Soviet Ukrainians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |page=637 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Leon Trotsky: Problem of the Ukraine (1939) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/04/ukraine.html |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

[[Trotskyists]] argue that the [[Stalinist Soviet Union]] was neither [[socialist]] nor [[communist]] but a [[bureaucratized]] [[degenerated workers' state]]—that is, a non-capitalist state in which exploitation is controlled by a ruling [[caste]] that, although not owning the [[means of production]] and not constituting a [[social class]] in its own right, accrues benefits and privileges at the working class's expense. Trotsky believed that the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] must be spread all over the globe's working class, the [[proletarians]], for world revolution. But after the failure of the revolution in Germany, Stalin reasoned that industrializing and consolidating Bolshevism in Russia would best serve the proletariat in the long run. The dispute did not end until Trotsky was murdered in his Mexican villa in 1940 by Stalinist assassin [[Ramón Mercader]].<ref name=RefFariaStatistics>{{cite web |last=Faria|first=MA|title=Stalin, Communists, and Fatal Statistics|url=http://www.haciendapublishing.com/articles/stalin-communists-and-fatal-statistics|access-date=September 5, 2012|date=January 8, 2012}}</ref> [[Max Shachtman]], a principal Trotskyist theorist in the U.S., argued that the Soviet Union had evolved from a degenerated worker's state to a new [[mode of production]] called ''[[bureaucratic collectivism]]'', whereby [[orthodox Trotskyists]] considered the Soviet Union an ally gone astray. Shachtman and his followers thus argued for the formation of a [[Third Camp]] opposed to the [[Eastern Bloc|Soviet]] and [[Western Bloc|capitalist]] blocs equally. By the mid-20th century, Shachtman and many of his associates, such as [[Social Democrats, USA]], identified as [[social democrats]] rather than Trotskyists, while some ultimately abandoned socialism altogether and embraced [[neoconservatism]]. In the U.K., [[Tony Cliff]] independently developed a critique of [[state capitalism]] that resembled Shachtman's in some respects but retained a commitment to [[revolutionary communism]].<ref>Cliff, Tony (1948). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1948/xx/burcoll.htm "The Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism: A Critique"]. In Cliff, Tony (1988) [1974]. ''State Capitalism in Russia''. London: Bookmarks pp. 333–353. {{ISBN|9780906224441}}. Retrieved 23 April 2020.</ref> Similarly, American Trotskyist [[David North (socialist)|David North]] drew attention to the fact that the generation of bureaucrats that rose to power under Stalin's tutelage presided over the Soviet Union's [[Stagnation of the Soviet Union|stagnation]] and [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|breakdown]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=North |first1=David |title=In Defense of Leon Trotsky |date=2010 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-05-1 |pages=172–173 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVqvouA22IkC |language=en}}</ref>

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=At a time when hundreds of thousands and millions of workers, especially in Germany, are departing from Communism, in part to fascism and in the main into the camp of indifferentism, thousands and tens of thousands of Social Democratic workers, under the impact of the self-same defeat, are evolving into the left, to the side of Communism. There cannot, however, even be talk of their accepting the hopelessly discredited Stalinist leadership.|source=—Trotsky's writings on Stalinism and fascism in 1933<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany |date=1971 |publisher=Pathfinder Press |isbn=978-0-87348-136-6 |pages=555–556 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nH5KwgEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref>}}

Trotskyist historian [[Vadim Rogovin]] believed Stalinism had "discredited the idea of socialism in the eyes of millions of people throughout the world". Rogovin also argued that the [[Left Opposition]], led by Trotsky, was a political movement that "offered a real alternative to Stalinism, and that to crush this movement was the primary function of the Stalinist terror".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=1–2 |language=en}}</ref> According to Rogovin, Stalin had destroyed thousands of foreign communists capable of leading socialist change in their respective countries. He cited 600 active [[Bulgarian Communist Party|Bulgarian]] communists who perished in his prison camps along with the thousands of German communists whom Stalin handed over to the [[Gestapo]] after the signing of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact|German-Soviet pact]]. Rogovin further noted that 16 members of the [[Central Committee]] of the [[Communist Party of Germany|German Communist Party]] became victims of Stalinist terror. Repressive measures were also enforced upon the [[Hungarian Communist Party|Hungarian]], [[Yugoslav Communist Party|Yugoslav]] and other [[Communist Party of Poland|Polish Communist]] parties.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=380 |language=en}}</ref> British historian Terence Brotherstone argued that the Stalin era had a profound effect on those attracted to Trotsky's ideas. Brotherstone described figures who emerged from the [[Marxist-Leninism|Stalinist]] parties as miseducated, which he said helped to block the development of Marxism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brotherstone |first1=Terence |title=Trotsky's future. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=238}}</ref>