I see it thrown around all the time. Is it derogatory or a term of endearment?
And does it apply to every ML? What context gives it meaning?
I'm pretty sure originally it was a derogatory term for members of the british communist party who supported khrushchev sending tanks into hungary. Then it became a blanket insult against MLs before it was coopted by libs to mean anyone to the left of bernie sanders.
Then it became a blanket insult against MLs before it was coopted by libs to mean anyone to the left of bernie sanders.
And currently moving towards meaning anyone to the left of Joe Biden.
And currently moving towards meaning anyone to the left of Joe Biden.
INB4 it becomes an insult from Hitler leftwards.
A tankie is someone I don't like who is more fond of Stalin than I am. An anarkiddie is someone I don't like who is less fond of Stalin than I am.
The Soviet invasion of Hungary was good and based and one of the few correct things Kruschev did. It's worth bearing in mind the uprising in Hungary coincided with Israel, France and UKs attack on Egypt.
It was a mix of a popular uprising against Kruschevs faked "secret" speech about Stalin which enabled the fascist elements (paid, armed and trained by US and UK) of Hungarian society to gamble their chance on getting rid of socialist rule
Fascists marked Communists homes with a white cross and those of jews with a black cross for extermination squads
The special correspondent of the Yugoslav paper, Politika, (Nov. 13, 1956) describing the events of these days, said that! the homes of Communists were marked with a white cross and those of Jews with a black cross, to serve as signs for the extermination squads. “There is no longer any room for doubt,” said the Yugoslav reporter, “it is an example of classic Hungarian fascism and of White Terror. The information,” continued this writer, “coming from the provinces tells how in certain places Communists were having their eyes put out, their ears cut off, and that they were being killed in the most terrible ways.”
Andre Stil, editor-in-chief of the French Communist newspaper, LHumanite, arrived in Budapest on November 12. He toured the city and conferred with many Communist and other survivors of the days of White Terror. His account is substantially the same as the reports sent in by Times and Tribune and Commonweal and Commentary and U.S. News and Life and Politika eyewitnesses, fascistic mass murder reminding one of the Berlin days of 1933—and the Budapest days of 1919. Thus:
After the tortures, those who were still breathing were hanged Even dead people were hanged. The corpses of those hanged were in such a state that many could not be recognized. The trees in Republic Square still bear the traces. These corpses, in all parts of their bodies, were bored through with bayonet thrusts, assailed by kicks, tom by nails, covered with expectoration...
CIA sent terrorists to Hungary under the RED SOX program (Horthy here was the leader of the Hungarian fascists under 23 years of fascist rule in Hungary until Soviet liberation).
“The CIA sent RED SOX/RED CAP groups in Budapest into action to join the Freedom Fighters and to help organise them… Radio Free Europe, and the RED SOX/RED CAP groups encouraged the rebels.” Often since denied, this was something known at the time to those in the know. For example, on November 10 1956, the FBI tapped a conversation between Pagie Morris and Jay Lovestone. Morris said “I know the whole thing… Do you remember when I said to you that it was criminal to incite a revolution and a rebellion, and not to follow it through? … Well, the Wisner crowd incited it… And the Horthy crowd has been in it… That Radio Free Europe is the crowd that’s behind it.” The Horthy crowd being the party of prewar Hungarian Fascism. (James Jesus Angleton, the CIA, and the Craft of Counterintelligence, PP.150-160)
The CIA chief in Vienna recalled that these “were very sad days” – we sat powerless on the sidelines watching the Soviets preparing to crush the revolution.(ibid)
Weapons were British and American
Some of the weapons used were American, and others almost certainly British. Mr Smith says MI6 and the CIA had buried arms caches in the woods around Prague and Budapest for use by “stay-behind” parties or fifth columnists in case of war.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/mi6-trained-rebels-to-fight-soviets-in-hungarian-revolt-1359599.html
Hungary, in 1954, was considered a "weak spot" of the Soviet Union according to US committee '
Again on New Years day, 1954, the Foreign Relatiosn Committee of the US Senate released a study, through its chairman, Senator Alexander Wiley which spoke of "accumulating tensions" and mounting "sabotage and underground activities" in Eastern Europe and referred in particular to Hungary as being the most tender spot - the "weakest link (Truth About Hungary p.112)
The mid-1950s were regarded by the British and the United States as the last chance to challenge Soviet dominion over eastern Europe. The Eisenhower administration had been elected on a platform of “liberating” the Soviet satellite states, but in the 10 years since the Allied victory in Europe, the Soviet Union hadstrengthened its hold over the central and eastern part of the continent.
USA was planning on WW3 with Soviet Union in 1943 (2 years before WW2 ended) whilst the British - at war with Hungary at this time "looked on at favour of Horthy" (Horthyism was the brand of fascism in Hungary in power for 23 years prior to Soviet liberation which was only more and more influenced by Nazism as the alliance with Austria and Germany deepened during that period and was to be the main fighting force in 1956)
By April 3, 1943, the editors of The Nation, in discussing “Russia After the War,” warned that many of the rich insisted on the inevitability of World War III—a “thought entertained by powerful forces in the United States which fear any modification of property relationships and are made uneasy by the possible existence of a powerful and successful collectivist state in the world.”
Specifically, in terms of Eastern Europe, as Doreen Warriner writes: “In 1944 all the anti-Soviet elements in the Balkan capitals believed that America and Britain would invade the Balkans after the defeat of Germany,” (cited work, p. 21n.). Leigh White, an American correspondent in the Balkans, writing in 1944, commented upon “the disreputable dynasties (there) of which our Metternichs of the State Department and Foreign Office are apparently so enamored” (cited work, p. 459). The distinguished English historian, Professor A. J. P. Taylor, in his introduction to the Memoirs of Michael Karolyi, declares that: “Even in the Second World War, when Hungary was an enemy state, and democratic Hungarians, one might have thought, our only friends, the British Foreign Office looked with favour on Horthy, Kallay and the rest, while Michael Karolyi was held at arm’s length.”
Americans gravitated toward the fascist elements in Hungary at the end of WWII
When I left Italy in the Summer of 1945 (writes Mr. Riegel), talk of an inevitable war with Russia was fashionable with the Catholic Right and the small cynics who know the answer to everything. Arriving in Hungary, I found this same inevitability of war an article of general faith, intensified by a heritage of Nazi propaganda and wishful thinking.
He found, in agreement with all other observers—the testimony of some of whom has been offered on earlier pages—that .. fascism and para-fascism, with their off-shoots of anti-Semitism and clerical reaction, are still strong forces in the country.”
These forces gained encouragement from the American officials, for in Mr. Riegel’s words: “The Americans gravitate toward the most dubious elements remaining in Hungary, the remnants of the gentry, industrialists, the higher clergy, and the motley assortment of fascists and opportunists.”
—(ibid p. 73)NATO furnished support to the fascistic elements of the Horthy fascists with:
The Mutual Security Act (of 1951) has as its stated aim, “to maintain the security and promote the foreign policy and provide for the general welfare of the U. S. by furnishing assistance to friendly nations in the interest of international peace and security.” To this was added an amendment, introduced by Representative Charles Kersten (R., Wis.) and approved by the House (and the Senate and signed by President Truman in October) in the following form, appended to the above:
and for any selected persons who are residing in or escapees from the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, or the Communist- dominated areas of Germany and Austria, or any other countries absorbed by the Soviet Union, either to form such persons into national elements of the military forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or for other purposes, when it is similarly determined by the President that such assistance is important in the defense of the North Atlantic area and of the security of the United States (Congressional Record, August 17, 1951, vol. 97, p. 10261). (ibid p.95)
credit to user @JoeySteel, champion poster who has since been wrongfully banned
Literally all of that is categorically untrue and its incredible the same inaccuracies about the Hungarian revolution get spread in left circles 70 years after it. The revolution was led by Leninists. There is no evidence of fascist agitation in the fighters. The best you can find is some Horthy era officials that were in prison got released along with everyone else (and if you say Béla Király was fascist agitation, then you'll need to explain how that was true as he joined the Hungarian Communist Party in 1945 when he returned from the USSR, was promoted to general then director of the Miklós Zrinyi military academy in 1950, until the 1951 purge. He was certainly a Hungarian nationalist, and his men killed many Rakosi officials that they should not have, but not a fascist agitator. You'll also have to explain why Rakosi vouched for him and other army officials. Furthermore, there were still far more people involved in the workers councils than any of those army officials groups). The relationship of the Hungarian army and national guard, and which sides defected to who, and how that all intertwined with the worker uprisings is very complicated. The Hungarians were under extreme pressure from the soviets to accuse Nagy and others rebelling of being imperialists and fascists etc because of how embarrassing it was that fellow Leninists led the uprising. Communist worker councils had the country in a standstill for weeks with strikes even after the fighting ended. You can read declassified CIA cables from the period and they are completely shocked the revolution happened and taken by surprise and have no idea what to do because the actual fascists they did try and help post WW2 were already detained or dead. They literally had a single CIA officer in Hungary in 1956, and he didn't even do anything lol. Cables also show that in the case of Hungary, the CIA did not supply any material support. The groups they tried to fund were destroyed by 1953. The cables literally lament the fact that they don't have anyone to back.. Radio Free Europe was certainly propagandizing claiming there was US and UN support coming, but in actuality it was not and was never coming. Eisenhower was completely focused on the Suez crisis and basically ignored Hungary. RFE was even trying to appeal to insurgents (which were a combination of communists and anti-communists) at the same time as decrying and demanding Nagy step down, totally incoherent.
I mean come on Lukacs and his daughter were prominent in the uprising. The majority makeup of Nagy's government were Leninists. The initial protests were pushed by university students and leftist intellectuals (see the writers union speech outlining the principle socialist demands of the protests here and here. Hell if you want to go on the authority of Tito, he was demanding Nagy and other revolutionaries be given safe passage to Yugoslavia and only gave in to the USSR after a series of phone calls directly with Khrushchev. You can see excerpts of his speech here.
This is what was demanded and cheered on by hundreds of thousands of people protesting in Budapest (hours after which the tanks were rolled in):
PETOFI CIRCLE'S TEN DEMANDS.
BUDAPEST
The leadership of the Petofi Circle has passed the following resolution at its meeting:
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In view of the present situation in Hungary we propose that the Central Committee of the Workers' [Communist] Party should be convened with the minimum possible delay. Comrade Imre Nagy should take part in the preparatory work of this session.
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We consider it necessary that the Party and Government should reveal the country's economic situation in all sincerity, revise the second Five-Year Plan directives, and work out a specific constructive program in accordance with our special Hungarian conditions.
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The Central Committee and the Government should adopt every method possible to ensure the development of socialist democracy, by specifying the real functions of the Party, asserting the legitimate aspirations of the working class and by introducing factory self-administration and workers' democracy.
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To ensure the prestige of the Party and of the state administration, we propose that Comrade Imre Nagy and other comrades who fought for socialist democracy and Leninist principles should occupy a worthy place in the direction of the Party and the Government.
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We propose the expulsion of Matyas Rakosi from the Party Central Committee and his recall from the National Assembly and the Presidential Council. The Central Committee, which wishes to establish calm in the country, must offset present attempts at a Stalinist and Rakosiite restoration.
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We propose that the case of Mihaly Farkas be tried in public in accordance with socialist legality.
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The Central Committee should revise resolutions it passed in the period which has just elapsed -resolutions which have proved wrong and sectarian- above all the resolutions of March 1955, the December 1955 resolution on literature, and the 30 June 1956 resolution on the Petofi Circle. We propose that the Central Committee should annul these resolutions and draw the proper conclusions as to the persons concerned.
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Even the most delicate questions must be made public, including the balance sheets of our foreign trade agreements and the plans for Hungarian uranium.
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To consolidate Hungarian-Soviet friendship, let us establish even closer relations with the Soviet Party, State and people, on the basis of the Leninist principle of complete equality.
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We demand that at its meeting on 23 October the DISZ Central Committee should declare its stand on the points of this resolution and adopt a resolution for the democratisation of the Hungarian Youth Movement.
Now there was violence against communist party members, and a lot of it, but by both other communists as local party centers dissolved and were taken over by workers councils and state police who defected and by rightist national guard defextors. Many local party figures also joined the councils.
There was no mass anti-semitic violence (see here and here for what documentation there is), at best there were sporadic incidents in the countryside. Many of the militia leaders backing the workers councils were Jewish. The accusations in the Aptheker book are totally unsubstantiated and it is a tragedy of scholarship that he wrote it, it pales in comparison to his other work. He wrote it using extremely biased reports given to CPUSA that did not reflect what was actually happening. What he is actually referring to is that in the countryside where general anti-communist sentiment was higher, and anti-semiticism was higher, there were executions of commuinst officials who were more likely to be Jewish, however these incidents were isolated and in no way reflect the actual character of the uprising. Péter Nádas, the great gay Jewish socialist Hungarian writer, lived through the revolution as a teenager and celebrates its character.
Here's a great account of British Communist Party journalist who was on the ground for the whole revolution (and whose account of it got him kicked out of the party because he refused to censor it as it went against the line of the USSR on it). It of course also suffers from inaccuracies of the time (for example it reports that 2000 emigres from Austria armed with American weapons came over the border to agitate, there's no evidence this ever happened).
If you want some really good modern scholarship on worker movements in Hungary, I'd check out the work of the late Mark Pittaway, specifically this essay collection or his book The Workers State to get a better idea of the complex interactions of workers from below (by far the biggest portion of agitation that continues long after the end of the fighting), Nagy's government, and the left and right insurgents.
Hell if you want to go on the authority of Tito, he was demanding Nagy and other revolutionaries be given safe passage to Yugoslavia and only gave in to the USSR after a series of phone calls directly with Khrushchev.
the reaction raised its head, especially in Croatia, where the reactionary elements openly incited the employees of the Yugoslav security organs to violence
also you left out that one of theor complaints was "a Disproportionate number of Jews in high places"
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This is a great post. That said the Communist government in Hungary (Not the USSR which was cool and based) made major fuck ups and ignored legitimite problems, which gave the Fascists and the CIA the leverage they needed.
It was derogatory but more and more MLs are T-34 posting in response which we love to see.
I unironically embrace it as a term of endearment because lib idiots are going to start calling all of us by that term no matter what subset of Communist/Anarchist we actually inhabit. They hate all of us (which is why solidarity is important) and they aren't going to dignify the distinctions we admit between ourselves, no matter how fervently we try to explain it. They aren't interested in any sort of truth. It's just a cheap "own" for them to get in on.
Yet another reason Stalin should've kept going west, should've just steamrolled Europe.
Long story short: In 1956 Hungary, which just a decade prior was a member of the Axis, sparked a counter-revolution to overthrow the Hungarian People's Republic. The Soviet Union under Premier Khrushchev mobilized the Red Army and crushed the counter-revolution. This was shortly after Khrushchev's "Secret" speech that heaped trash on the grave of his predecessor and gave the imperialists free-reign to smear and tarnish the Reds at every opportunity with little to no pushback that continues to this day.
Obviously when you crush a counter-revolutionary movement to restore bourgeoise "democracy", the international bourgeoise use it as an opportunity to further smear your good name. The Western Left, still reeling from Khrushchev's bullshit speech, were further alienated from the Eastern Left due to the perception of the "Barbaric" Reds slaughtering innocent Hungarian protesters that simply wanted to achieve freedom and liberty and break free from the Iron curtain. Communists in the West that upheld the decision of the Soviet's leadership to put down the fascist counter-revolution were attacked wholesale, with the CPGB members that upheld the decision were publically taunted as "Tankies" for supporting the brutal Red Army tanks that ground down the last hope for Hungarian freedom with their treads.
Longer reading: The Truth about Hungary By Herbert Aptheker. Published in 1947, one year after the Hungarian Revolution, the book explores the historical and material conditions of Hungary leading up to the '56 revolution, the event itself, and the response of the international socialist and communist movement of the time period.
An insult.
Within the left its against anybody who doesn't believe 20th century MLs were just dumb brutes who didn't really understand marx.
Outside the left its anybody who wants healthcare.
Originally it meant people who agreed with Russia's use of tanks during the Hungarian revolution but has changed over time to mean anyone who says anything even mildly positive about the USSR, or even in some cases China.
Libs have started using it recently to mean anyone even mildly left wing, something I have discovered from personal experience, (I am an anarchist but have still been called a tankie by twitter libs).
Generally used by succs and anarchists on the internet to refer to leftists they don't like.
A red is anybody asking for 30 cents an hour when we say we're paying 25.
