Neo-Stalinism is the promotion of positive views of Joseph Stalin's role in history, the partial re-establishing of Stalin's policies on certain or all issues, and nostalgia for the Stalinist period. Neo-Stalinism overlaps significantly with neo-Sovietism and Soviet nostalgia. Various definitions of the term have been given over the years. Neo-Stalinism is being actively promoted by Eurasianist currents in various post-Soviet states and official rehabilitation of Stalin has occurred in Russia under Vladimir Putin. Eurasianist philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an influential neo-Stalinist ideologue in Russian elite circles, has praised Stalin as the "greatest personality in Russian history", comparing him to Ivan IV who established the Tsardom of Russia.
Definitions The American Trotskyist Hal Draper used "neo-Stalinism" in 1948 to refer to a new political ideology—new development in Soviet policy, which he defined as a reactionary trend whose beginning was associated with the popular front period of the mid-1930s, writing: "The ideologists of neo-Stalinism are merely the tendrils shot ahead by the phenomena – fascism and Stalinism – which outline the social and political form of a neo-barbarism".
During the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) distinguished between Stalinism and neo-Stalinism in that "[t]he Soviet leaders have not reverted to two extremes of Stalin's ruleone-man dictatorship and mass terror. For this reason, their policy deserves the label "neo-Stalinist" rather than "Stalinist".
Katerina Clark, describing an anti-Khrushchev, pro-Stalin current in Soviet literary world during the 1960s, described the work of "neo-Stalinist" writers as harking back to "the Stalin era and its leaders... as a time of unity, strong rule and national honor".Clark, Katerina. The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual Indiana University Press, 2000, , p. 236 . According to historian Roy Medvedev, writing in 1975, the term describes the rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin, identification with him and the associated political system, nostalgia for the Stalinist period in Russia's history, restoration of Stalinist policies and a return to the administrative terror of the Stalinist period while avoiding some of the worst excesses.Ferdinand Joseph Maria Feldbrugge, "Samizdat and political dissent in the Soviet Union", Brill, 1975, p. 30,
Political geographer Denis J. B. Shaw, writing in 1999, considered the Soviet Union as neo-Stalinist until the post-1985 period of transition to capitalism. He identified neo-Stalinism as a political system with planned economy and highly developed military–industrial complex.Shaw identifies as features of the "political geography" of "neo-Stalinism" the following criteria: 1. A well-developed core-periphery structure, reflecting marked differences in levels of economic development and living standards. This is in part the product of a tendency towards "incrementalism"seeking to gain economies by allocating a considerable proportion of resources to those regions which have benefited most from previous investment... 2. The inbuilt conservatism of the system and the bias towards heavy industry [ensuring] the continuing importance of traditional industrial regions with "smokestack" industries, such as the Donetsk-Dnepr region of eastern Ukraine and the Urals. 3. "Extensive" (ie, resource-demanding) rather than "intensive" (resource-saving) development, leading to waste of resources and environmental deterioration in the core, growing dependence of the core on the resources of the periphery and pressure to develop the latter in the cheapest and often most short-sighted manner. 4. Administration of the economy by sectors and tendencies towards 'narrow departmentalism' [leading] to the development of a series of ministerial "empires" lacking interlinkages, reducing the scope for scale economies, encouraging excessive transportation and leading to the economic overspecialization of many cities and regions, especially peripheral ones... 5. The relative neglect of agriculture, transportation, consumer welfare and numerous services... 6. A well-developed hierarchy of well-being in the settlement structure, whereby, in general terms, the best endowed settlements were the biggest ones with major administrative and political functions... conditions [deteriorating] as they became smaller. 7. The development of regional economies... greatly influenced by the 'military-industrial complex' with the progress of individual cities, groups of cities and even entire regions (including peripheral ones) very much bound up with the needs of the military machine. 8. Continental and inward-looking development induced by the longstanding tendency towards economic autarky. Isolation from the world economy... Only from the 1960s were autarkic tendencies modified, encouraging further economic development along land frontiers, on coasts and at ports., see Shaw, Denis J.B. Russia in the Modern World: A New Geography. Wiley-Blackwell, 1999. . pp. 81–84. Philosopher Frederick Copleston, writing in 1986, portrays neo-Stalinism as a "Slavophile emphasis on Russia and her history", saying that "what is called neo-Stalinism is not exclusively an expression of a desire to control, dominate, repress and dragoon; it is also the expression of a desire that Russia, while making use of western science and technology, should avoid contamination by western 'degenerate' attitudes and pursue her own path".Copleston, Frederick, S.J. A History of Philosophy: Russian Philosophy. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003. . p. 403. According to former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, using the term in 2006, it more broadly refers to a moderated Stalinist state without large-scale repressions, but with persecution of political opponents and total control of all political activities in the country.
Stalinism and anti-Stalinism In his monograph Reconsidering Stalinism, historian Henry Reichman discusses differing and evolving perspectives on the use of the term Stalinism, saying that "in scholarly usage 'Stalinism' describes here a movement, there an economic, political, or social system, elsewhere a type of political practice or belief-system". He references historian Stephen Cohen's work reassessing Soviet history after Stalin as a "continuing tension between anti-Stalinist reformism and neo-Stalinist conservatism", observing that such a characterization requires a "coherent" definition of Stalinismwhose essential features Cohen leaves undefined.Reichman, Henry. "Reconsidering 'Stalinism'. Theory and Society Volume 17, Number 1. Springer Netherlands. January 1988. pp. 57–89.
Alleged neo-Stalinist regimes Some historians and political scientists have classified the régime of Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu (1965–1989) as "neo-Stalinist".Stalinism und Neo-Stalinism in Romania. In: Southeastern Europe in the 19. und 20. century. Foreign ways– own ways (= Berliner Jahrbuch für osteuropäische Geschichte. Bd. 2). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1994, , S. 87–102. Albanian leader Enver Hoxha (in power 1943 to 1985) described himself as Stalinist, and his ideology – Hoxhaism – features some Stalinist elements.Library of Congress Country Studies After Stalin's death (1953), Hoxha denounced Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev and accused him of revisionism in the mid-1950s – the differences eventually caused Albania to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact in 1968.
The Khalq regime in Afghanistan (April 1978 – December 1979) has been described as neo-Stalinist with its leader Hafizullah Amin, who kept a portrait of Joseph Stalin on his desk. When Soviet officials criticized him for his brutality, Amin replied "Comrade Stalin showed us how to build socialism in a backward country". Its policies shocked the country and contributed to starting the Soviet–Afghan War of 1979–1989 and subsequent Afghan Civil War.
Some Western sources have characterised North Korea as a neo-Stalinist state; North Korea abandoned Marxism–Leninism and adopted Juche as its official ideology in the 1970s, with references to Marxism–Leninism altogether scrapped from the revised state constitution in 1992, followed by references to communism in 2009.By Sŭng-hŭm Kil, Soong Hoom Kil, Chung-in Moon. Understanding Korean Politics: An Introduction. SUNY Press, 2001. , p. 275.
Ba'athist Syria had long been considered to be a neo-Stalinist state; when Hafez al-Assad established a police state modelled after Stalin's rule during 1970s. Assad's military dictatorship borrowed many features of Stalinism; such as a brutal security apparatus operating extrajudicially, mass-surveillance in the society through an invasive secret police and a pervasive state-sponsored personality cult centred around the ruling family. Assad dynasty ruled Syria by vicious methods of violence throughout its reign, characterized by state terror, massacres, aerial bombing of cities, military clampdowns, etc.; which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Ba'athist Iraq had also been considered to be a neo-Stalinist state; when Saddam Hussein established a police state modelled after Stalin's rule during 1970s. Hussein's dictatorship borrowed many features of Stalinism; such as a brutal security apparatus operating extrajudicially, mass-surveillance in the society through an invasive secret police and a pervasive state-sponsored personality cult centred around the ruling Ba'ath Party. Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq by sadistic methods of violence throughout its reign, characterized by state terror, massacres, purges, extortions, aerial bombing of cities, smuggling, etc.; which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. He also turned Iraq into a "mafia state" by starting the 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge through violence, racketeering and other methods.
In the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, Georgi Malenkov, one of the new leadership group (Premier of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1955), also headlined new ideologies. He publicly began to advocate for peace and wanted to reduce tensions by negotiating Cold-War issues, and expressing a desire to get along with the West. He called for meetings between the East and West in hopes of reducing forces in Europe, while also advocating for a settlement of the Korean situation and for German reunification.
Some socialist groups like the Trotskyist Alliance for Workers' Liberty characterise modern China as "neo-Stalinist". By the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, Turkmenistan's Saparmurat Niyazov non-communist regime was sometimes considered a neo-Stalinist one,Freedom House , United States, 2006 especially in respect of Niyazov's cult of personality. Islam Karimov's non-communist authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan from 1989 to 2016 has also been described as "neo-Stalinist".Juergensmeyer, Mark. The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. Oxford University Press US, 2006. . p. 460.Thornton, William H. New world empire: civil Islam, Terrorism, and the Making of Neoglobalism. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. . p. 134. In June 2025, Leonard Quart in The Berkshire Eagle described Donald Trump's second presidency as having neo-Stalinist qualities, due to Trump's suppression of dissenting cultural figures. Nicaraguan musicians Luis Enrique and Carlos Mejía Godoy described Daniel Ortega regime as neo-Stalinist regime due to suppression of free press and opposition.Mejia Godoy Brothers Call Ortega Regime “Neo-Stalinist”
History of neo-Stalinism
Soviet Union