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In the communist lexicon, anti-revisionism is opposition to attempts to revise,
modify, or abandon the fundamentals of revolutionary theory and practice. In
this view, reformism within communism is rejected as representing dangerous
concessions to communism's adversaries.
Because different political trends trace the historical roots of revisionism to
different eras and leaders, there is significant disagreement today as to what
constitutes anti-revisionism. Therefore, modern groups which describe
themselves as anti-revisionist fall into several categories. They universally tend
to oppose Trotskyism and de-Stalinization; however, some uphold the works of
Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao (Maoism or
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism), and some the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and
Stalin while rejecting Mao (Marxism–Leninism). In addition, other groups
uphold various less well-known historical leaders, such as Enver Hoxha
(Hoxhaism).
Historically, anti-revisionists presented a critique of the official Communist
Parties "from the left" for having abandoned orthodox Marxism–Leninism
(becoming "revisionist" and insufficiently revolutionary). The terminological
disagreement can be confusing because different versions of a left-right political
spectrum are used. Anti-revisionists consider themselves the ultimate leftists on
a spectrum from communism on the left to imperialist capitalism on the right.
But Stalinism is often labeled rightist within the communist spectrum and left
communism leftist. In the 1935 to 1960's period, the defense of Stalin and his
legacy became a hallmark of anti-revisionism.[citation needed] In the 1970s the
anti-revisionist movement expanded and diversified to encompass those
communists who rejected a pro-Soviet orientation for one aligned either with
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Chinese or Albanian positions, or who returned to Marxism–Leninism[citation
needed].
Anti-revisionism enjoyed its moment of greatest size and influence with
numerous Marxist–Leninist and Maoist parties, groups and publications
springing up around the world in the period which began with the Sino-Soviet
split of the early 1960s. Its growth was greatly accelerated by international
enthusiasm for the Cultural Revolution in China, but it began to decline in
response to controversial Chinese foreign policy decisions in the last years of
Mao Zedong's life, his death and the subsequent defeat of the Gang of Four.
Some anti-revisionists responded to these events with little change to their
theoretical orientation, others adjusted their orientation based on world events,
while still remaining in the greater anti-revisionist milieu, while yet others took
up a non-Trotskyist "left-wing" communism, independent of allegiance to
foreign authorities or models, usually abandoning their claim to anti-revisionism
in the process.
Background
Self-proclaimed anti-revisionists firmly oppose the reforms initiated in
Communist countries by leaders like Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Union
and Deng Xiaoping in China. They generally refer to such reforms and states as
state capitalist and social-imperialist. They also reject Trotskyism and its
"Permanent Revolution" as "hypocritical" by arguing that Leon Trotsky had at
one time thought it acceptable that socialism could work in a single country as
long as that country was industrialized, but that Trotsky had considered Russia
too backward to achieve such industrialization – what it later in fact did achieve,
mostly through his archenemy Joseph Stalin's Five Year Plans.