Editing Stalinism (section)

=== Proletarian state ===
Traditional communist thought holds that the state will gradually "[[Withering away of the state|wither away]]" as the implementation of socialism reduces class distinction. But Stalin argued that the [[Dictatorship of the proletariat|proletarian state]] (as opposed to the [[Capitalist state|bourgeois state]]) must become stronger before it can wither away. In Stalin's view, [[counter-revolutionary]] elements will attempt to derail the transition to [[Communist society|full communism]], and the state must be powerful enough to defeat them. For this reason, [[Communist state|communist regimes]] influenced by Stalin are [[totalitarian]].<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stalinism Stalinism]." ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. [1998] 2020.</ref> Other leftists, such as [[Anarcho-communism|anarcho-communists]], have criticized the [[party-state]] of the Stalin-era Soviet Union, accusing it of being bureaucratic and calling it a [[Reformism|reformist]] [[social democracy]] rather than a form of revolutionary communism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Price |first=Wayne |title=The Abolition of the State |url=https://mirror.anarhija.net/usa.anarchistlibraries.net/mirror/w/wp/wayne-price-the-abolition-of-the-state.a4.pdf |access-date=2 March 2022}}</ref>

[[Sheng Shicai]], a Chinese [[warlord]] with Communist leanings, invited Soviet intervention and allowed Stalinist rule to extend to [[Xinjiang]] province in the 1930s. In 1937, Sheng conducted a purge similar to the [[Great Purge]], imprisoning, torturing, and killing about 100,000 people, many of them [[Uyghurs]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAs9AAAAIAAJ&q=warlords+and+muslims|title=Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949|author=Andrew D. W. Forbes|year=1986|publisher=CUP Archive|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=978-0-521-25514-1|page=151|access-date=December 31, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA57|title=Oasis Identities: Uyghur Nationalism Along China's Silk Road|last1=Rudelson|first1=Justin Jon|last2=Rudelson|first2=Justin Ben-Adam|last3=Ben-Adam|first3=Justin|date=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-10786-0|language=en}}</ref>