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Anti-Revisionist

Anti-Revisionist: Encyclopedia - Anti-Revisionist

In the communist or Marxist-Leninist movement, an anti-revisionist is one who favors a strict interpretation of the ideology in accordance with the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. The term is generally seen as positive, not pejorative, and used in self-description by the "anti-revisionists" themselves. To an anti-revisionist, the populist/People's War core of Maoism and the anti-fascism of Stalin's policies are seen as fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism that cannot be abandoned lest the principles of communism ...

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Anti-Revisionist - Anti-Revisionist leaders

Anti-Revisionist, Anti-Revisionist - Anti-Revisionist leaders

Anti-Revisionist: Encyclopedia - Anti-Revisionist

Anti-Revisionist

In the communist or Marxist-Leninist movement, an anti-revisionist is one who favors a strict interpretation of the ideology in accordance with the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. The term is generally seen as positive, not pejorative, and used in self-description by the "anti-revisionists" themselves.

To an anti-revisionist, the populist/People's War core of Maoism and the anti-fascism of Stalin's policies are seen as fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism that cannot be abandoned lest the principles of communism as a whole be abandoned along with them. Anti-revisionism is seen by its followers as a healthy, solid, scientific ideological road, devoid of both the alleged corruption and elitism of Trotskyism, and the perceived idealism of Left Communism.

The opposite term, revisionism, is most often used pejoratively. In its original sense, "anti-revisionism" was used at the beginning of the twentieth century during the split between Leninist groups and Social Democracy. The Leninists called themselves "anti-revisionists" because they opposed the revisionists; that is, opposed the Social Democrats who believed that Marx's ideas should be revised to allow for the possibility of socialistic progress without revolution.

The term, while positive, and useful in differentiating an opposition from the Radical Left from those affiliated with both Trotskyism and Left Communism, is usually controversial among those who claim to adhere to it. Groups will sometimes fight over which of them is really the "true" anti-revisionist.

Self-proclaimed anti-revisionists firmly oppose the "socialist market economy" reforms initiated in communist countries by leaders like Khrushchev in the Soviet Union and Deng Xiaoping in China.

During the Sino-Soviet split, the governments of the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong and Albania under Hoxha proclaimed themselves taking an anti-revisionist line and denounced Khrushchev's policies. In the United States, those who supported China or Albania at the time were expelled from the United States Communist Party under orders from Moscow, and in 1961 they formed the Progressive Labor Movement. Anti-revisionist groups were further divided by the Sino-Albanian split, with those following Albania being loosely described as Hoxhaist.

Several other small Stalinist or Maoist political parties in the United States, such as the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, see themselves as anti-revisionist. Not every contemporary communist party adhering to elements of anti-revisionism necessarily adopts the label "anti-revisionist". These organizations may call themselves Maoist, Marxist-Leninist or even just simply "revolutionary communist".

The Workers Party of Korea still claims an anti-revisionist political line. However, this may not be an accurate label either in self-description or description by others, because of the official 'supersedence' of Marxist-Leninist thought in North Korea by the ideology of Juche.

A few anti-revisionists still positively regard the teachings of Enver Hoxha and/or Kim Il-Sung, but this is rare.

Anti-Revisionist - Anti-Revisionist leaders

Those at a state level claiming an anti-revisionist orientation actually vary very widely in their ideological perspectives from within communism. An amalgamated list of the more famous self-proclaimed Anti-Revisionist leaders: