Stalin Society

The Stalin Society is a British and Swedish discussion group for individuals who see Joseph Stalin as a great Marxist-Leninist and wish to preserve what they believe is his positive legacy. According to its website, " [t] he Stalin Society was formed in 1991 to defend Stalin and his work on the basis of fact and to refute capitalist, revisionist, opportunist and Trotskyist propaganda directed against him." [ [http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk Official web site] ]

The society is based on individual membership but political groups such as the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) are notably prominent within it. Many have pointed to a considerable overlap of membership with Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party.Andy McSmith and Severin Carrell, [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article120991.ece "Stalin apologists drink to the memory of Uncle Joe"] , "The Independent", 2 March 2003] The Stalin Society's chair, Harpal Brar, for instance, was at one time a member of both organisations (although he subsequently left the SLP to head the CPGB-ML). Through Brar, the society was also linked to the Association of Communist Workers. One of its founders, Bill Bland, was expelled in a doctrinal dispute. [ [http://www.etext.org/Politics/Committee.Sol.Peru/English/rim-fraud.html The antagonisms in the Stalin Society (an attack on Bill Bland)] , London, March 5, 1995]

The society’s website also contains documents that deny the responsibility of the Soviet government during the time of Stalin’s leadership for the Holodomor,John Puntis, [http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/ukrainian.html "The Ukrainian famine-genocide myth"] , July 2002] the Great Purge,Mario Sousa, [http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/lies.html "Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union"] , March 1999] or the Katyn Massacre,Ella Rule, [http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/katyn.html "The Katyn Massacre"] , July 2002] which they variously dismiss as propaganda, describe as fair process, or blame it on the Nazis.

The society continues to hold public meetings, most often at Conway Hall in central London.

Criticism

Two writers for The Independent claimed in an editorial that the society is "tiny, ageing and schism-ridden". Johann Hari wrote an editorial for the New Statesman, which describes a meeting of the society in a highly critical fashion. The paper also published a response by the Stalin Society, which criticized Johann Hari's statements about the society and Joseph Stalin. [ [http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=155.html "The horrors of the British Stalin Society"] , at JohannHari.com]

References

ee also

*Anti-Revisionist
*Denial of the Holodomor

External links

* [http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/ British Stalin Society's homepage]
* [http://www.geocities.com/stalinsallskapet/ Swedish Stalin society's homepage]