"Trotskyist"

[RedOctober]

what exctly does it mean by being a "trotskyist."

[Tegan]

Most authentic Trotskyists, if they use the term, do so to distinguish themselves from the Stalinists, who are obsessed with being termed nothing other than Marxist-Leninist.

[turnoviseous]

Ok, to start with.

Trotskyists are the ones that have the genuine ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin, while Stalinists have many misguided ideas which are very harmful to working class and socialist revolution (two stages theory, socialism in one country, third period, social fascism, Popular Front, etc., those are reactionary ideas of Stalinism).

So Trotskyism and Stalinism are opposites. So to superficial mind this seems only a contradiction between Trotskyism and Stalinism, but in fact Trotskyists (the real ones, even here there are people who claim to be Trotskyists, but in fact aren´t) stand for genuine principles of Marx, Engels and Lenin, while Stalinism contradicts them. To sum them up, Trotskyists stand for: workers´democracy (es expounded by Lenin and Marx), world socialist revolution, no class collaboration, etc.

For more info, just post questions here (this was VERY brief explanation of what Trotskyism is). If you have time for reading, I suggest you a really great book on the issue of the events in Russia between 1917 and 1990. Among others, it covers also your question.

http://www.marxist.com/russiabook/index.asp

comradely,

[RedOctober]

all right cool...thats what i thought that meant...i recently read Stalinism and Bolshevism by trotsky and got the impression that trots upheld the "genuine ideas of marx, engels and lenin"