tankie

File:Prague-1968-street-scene.jpg to suppress liberalisation efforts by the government.{{cite web |title=Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia |url=http://www.enrs.eu/en/news/1255-invasion-of-czechoslovakia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731024148/http://www.enrs.eu/en/news/1255-invasion-of-czechoslovakia |archive-date=31 July 2017 |access-date=11 June 2016 |website=European Network Remembrance and Solidarity}}]]

Tankie originated in the UK as a term for hardline members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).{{cite journal |last=Glastonbury |first=Marion |date=March 1998 |title=Children of the Revolution: matters arising |journal=Changing English |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=7–16 |doi=10.1080/1358684980050102 |issn=1358-684X}} This Stalinist or "tankie" wing of the CPGB was associated with the views of the strong CPGB presence in British trade unions.{{cite book |title=The Scottish Labour Party: History, Institutions and Ideas |first=Gerry |last=Hassan |author-link=Gerry Hassan |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=2004 |pages=220–222}}{{cite book |title=Trade Union Merger Strategies: Purpose, Process, and Performance |first=Roger |last=Undy |author-link=Roger Undy |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2008 |pages=178}} Journalist Peter Paterson asked the Amalgamated Engineering Union official Reg Birch about his election to the CPGB Executive after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Paterson recalled:

{{Quote|When I asked him how he could possibly have sided with the tankies, so called because of the use of Russian tanks to quell the revolt, he said "They wanted a trade unionist who could stomach Hungary, and I fitted the bill."{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Paterson |title=How Much More of This, Old Boy...?: Scenes from a Reporter's Life |date=February 2011 |location=London |publisher=Muswell |isbn=9780956557537 |oclc=751543677 |pages=181}}{{efn|Reg Birch's hardline attitudes later led him to split away from the CPGB to form a pro-Albanian Maoist party.}}}}

The support for the invasion of Hungary was disastrous for the party's reputation in Britain.{{r|driver}}{{cite journal |first=Herbert |last=Pimlott |title=From 'Old Left' to 'New Labour'? Eric Hobsbawm and the Rhetoric of 'Realistic Marxism' |journal=Labour/Le Travail |volume=56 |date=2005 |pages=185}}{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Andrew |url=https://archive.org/details/tobuildnewjerusa0000davi |title=To Build a New Jerusalem: The British Labour Party from Keir Hardie to Tony Blair |date=1996 |publisher=Abacus |isbn=978-0-349-10809-4 |language=en}} The CPGB made mild criticisms of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, which they justified as a necessary intervention,{{cite book |last=Andrews |first=Geoff |title=Endgames and New Times: The Final Years of British Communism 1964–1991 |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart Ltd |date=2004 |pages=93–94 |isbn=978-0853159919 |quote=[John Gollan] said 'we completely understand the concern of the Soviet Union about the security of the socialist camp{{nbsp}}... we speak as true friends of the Soviet Union'.}} although a hardline faction supported it, including the Appeal Group who left the party in response.{{sfn|Parker|2012|loc=1977 and all that|pp=75–95}} These events then led to much of the subsequent internal politics of the CPGB to be viewed along the lines of "tankies versus Euros".{{sfn|Parker|2012|loc=Introduction|pp=11–14}}

After the Prague Spring, the term was used to describe Communist party members of Western countries who had supported the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact states, of which Czechoslovakia was a member.{{cite news |last1=Paterson |first1=Tony |title=Hard-line Czech communist Vasil Bilak dies: Last surviving tankie who supported 1968 invasion of his own country by Soviet Union passes away at 96 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hard-line-czech-communist-vasil-bilak-dies-last-surviving-tankie-who-supported-1968-invasion-of-his-9113016.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hard-line-czech-communist-vasil-bilak-dies-last-surviving-tankie-who-supported-1968-invasion-of-his-9113016.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Independent |date=6 February 2014 |access-date=11 August 2020}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/world/vasil-bilak-czechoslovak-communist-who-encouraged-1968-soviet-invasion-dies-at-96.html |title=Vasil Bilak, 96, Dies; Czech Communist Encouraged 1968 Soviet Invasion |access-date=6 October 2021 |date=6 February 2014 |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223232226/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/world/vasil-bilak-czechoslovak-communist-who-encouraged-1968-soviet-invasion-dies-at-96.html |archive-date=23 February 2014}} It was also used in the 1980s to describe the uncritical support the Morning Star gave to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.{{cite web |url=https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-cold-war/soviet-invasion-of-afghanistan/ |title=Soviet invasion of Afghanistan |website=History Learning Site |access-date=3 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190704111048/https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-cold-war/soviet-invasion-of-afghanistan/ |archive-date=4 July 2019}}{{cite web |title=Afghanistan: Making Human Rights the Agenda |page=6 |date=1 November 2001 |publisher=Amnesty International |url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/124000/asa110232001en.pdf |access-date=16 April 2021 |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416101538/https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/124000/asa110232001en.pdf |url-status=dead}}{{harvp|New Statesman|2016}}: "The first time 'Tankie' was written down was in the Guardian in May 1985, in an article describing the Morning Star crowd: 'The minority who are grouped around the Morning Star (and are variously referred to as traditionalists, hardliners, fundamentalists, Stalinists, or "tankies"—this last a reference to the uncritical support that some of them gave to the Soviet "intervention" in Afghanistan).'" According to Christina Petterson, "Politically speaking, tankies regard past and current socialist systems as legitimate attempts at creating communism, and thus have not distanced themselves from Stalin, China, etc."{{cite book |last1=Petterson |first1=Christina |title=Apostles of Revolution? Marxism and Biblical Studies |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004432208 |page=11}}

The term continued to be used into the 1980s, especially in relation to the split between the reform-minded eurocommunist wing of the CPGB and the traditionalist, pro-Soviet group, the latter continuing to be labelled tankies. The term is sometimes used within the Labour Party as slang for a politically old-fashioned leftist. Alastair Campbell reported a conversation about modernising education, in which Tony Blair said: "I'm with George Walden on selection." Campbell recalled: "DM [David Miliband] looked aghast{{nbsp}}... [Blair] said when it came to education, DM and I were just a couple of old tankies."{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Alastair |author1-link=Alastair Campbell |title=Diaries. Volume 1, Prelude to power |date=2010 |publisher=Hutchinson |location=London |isbn=9780091797263 |page=301 |url=https://archive.org/details/diariesvolume1pr0000camp/page/530/mode/2up}} In 2015, Boris Johnson referred to Jeremy Corbyn and the left wing of the Labour Party as "tankies and trots", the latter referring to Trotskyism.{{cite web |last1=Watt |first1=Nicholas |author1-link=Nicholas Watt |title=Boris Johnson: Jeremy Corbyn and Labour left are 'tankies and trots' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/05/boris-johnson-jeremy-corbyn-labour-left-tankies-trots-conservative-conference |date=5 October 2015 |work=The Guardian |access-date=11 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130013823/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/05/boris-johnson-jeremy-corbyn-labour-left-tankies-trots-conservative-conference |archive-date=30 January 2016}}{{efn|"The Trots" also puns on UK slang for diarrhea, as one has to repeatedly "trot" to the toilet.}}

In the 2006 play Rock 'n' Roll by the Anglo-Czech author Tom Stoppard, the character Max, based on Eric Hobsbawm,{{cite book |title=Tom Stoppard: Bucking the Postmodern |first=Daniel K. |last=Jernigan |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland and Co. |pages=187 |isbn=978-0786465323}} discusses with Stephen what to read to hear what is happening in the communist party, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Their options are Marxism Today and the daily newspaper, the Morning Star:

{{quote|MAX: Marxism Today? It's not so much the Eurocommunism. In the end it was the mail order gifts thing. I couldn't take the socks with little hammers and sickles on them.

STEPHEN: Well, Read the Morning Star and keep up with the Tankies.

MAX: The Tankies{{nbsp}}... How the years roll by. Dubcek is back. Russia agrees to withdraw its garrisons. Czechoslovakia takes her knickers off for capitalism. And all that remains of August '68 is a derisive nickname for the only real communists left in the Communist Party.{{cite book |title=Rock 'n' roll |title-link=Rock 'n' Roll (play) |first=Tom |last=Stoppard |author-link=Tom Stoppard |publisher=Faber and Faber |date=2006 |pages=79}}}}

By 2017, tankie had re-emerged as internet slang for authoritarian socialists,{{cite news |last=Rickett |first=Oscar |date=23 October 2017 |title=From latte socialist to gauche caviar – how to spot good-time leftwingers around the world |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2017/oct/23/latte-socialist-gauche-caviar-how-spot-good-time-leftwingers-around-world |access-date=23 August 2020 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702050709/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2017/oct/23/latte-socialist-gauche-caviar-how-spot-good-time-leftwingers-around-world |archive-date=2 July 2018}} and it became particularly popular among young democratic socialists.{{cite news |date=11 November 2018 |last1=Pearl |first1=Mike |title=How a Real Class War, Like with Guns, Could Actually Happen |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-a-real-class-war-like-with-guns-could-actually-happen/ |work=Vice |access-date=11 August 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108093601/https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3qqpk/how-a-real-class-war-like-with-guns-could-actually-happen |archive-date=8 November 2020}} Left-wing writer Carl Beijer argued that there are two distinct uses of the term tankie. The original was "exemplified in the sending of tanks into Hungary to crush resistance to Soviet communism". More generally, a tankie is someone who tends to support "militant opposition to capitalism" and a more modern online variation, which means "something like 'a self-proclaimed communist who indulges in conspiracy theories and whose rhetoric is largely performative.{{'"}} He was critical of both uses.{{cite web |last1=Peyser |first1=Eve |title=Corncob? Donut? Binch? A Guide to Weird Leftist Internet Slang |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/corncob-donut-binch-a-guide-to-weird-leftist-internet-slang/ |date=22 August 2017 |publisher=Vice |access-date=11 August 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325195126/https://www.vice.com/en/article/d338qj/corncob-donut-binch-a-guide-to-weird-leftist-internet-slang |archive-date=25 March 2021}} The Intercept journalist Roane Carey identified the "key element in the tankie mindset [as] the simple-minded assumption that only the United States can be imperialist, and thus any country that opposes the U.S. must be supported."{{Cite web |last=Carey |first=Roane |date=1 March 2022 |title=Don't Be a Tankie: How the Left Should Respond to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine |url=https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/ukraine-russia-leftists-tankie/ |access-date=23 September 2022 |website=The Intercept |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401103202/https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/ukraine-russia-leftists-tankie/ |archive-date=1 April 2022}}

While generally used pejoratively, some Marxist–Leninists have re-appropriated it and used the term as a badge of honour.{{cite news |last1=Andersen |first1=Sebastian Skov |last2=Chan |first2=Thomas |title=Tankie Man: The Pro-Democracy Hong Kongers Standing Up to Western Communists |url=https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/tankie-man-the-pro-democracy-hong-kongers-standing-up-to-western-communists/ |work=The Diplomat |access-date=8 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331062729/https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/tankie-man-the-pro-democracy-hong-kongers-standing-up-to-western-communists/ |archive-date=31 March 2021}} The Taiwanese left-wing magazine New Bloom alleges that many modern tankies are members of the Asian diasporas of English-speaking countries. In particular, members of the Chinese diaspora searching for radical responses to social ills such as xenophobia against Asians are drawn to tankie discourse. This modern conception of tankie has also been described as "diasporic Chinese nationalism".{{cite magazine |last1=Hioe |first1=Brian |title=The Qiao Collective and Left Diasporic Chinese Nationalism |url=https://newbloommag.net/2020/06/22/qiao-collective-nationalism/ |magazine=New Bloom Magazine |access-date=11 August 2020 |date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701161928/https://newbloommag.net/2020/06/22/qiao-collective-nationalism/ |archive-date=1 July 2020}} An instance of the modern usage is the description of those "who instinctively defend China based on the idea that it is an example of actually existing socialism resisting Western imperialism", in discussions around the persecution of Uyghurs in China and justify the "anti-terrorism" operations of the Chinese government.{{cite journal |last1=Robertson |first1=Matthew P. |last2=Roberts |first2=Sean R. |title=The war on the Uyghurs: A conversation with Sean R. Roberts |date=May 2021 |journal=Made in China Journal |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=262–271 |doi=10.22459/MIC.06.02.2021.33 |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.287575610835377 |doi-access=free |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230304181031/https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.287575610835377 |archive-date=4 March 2023}}

In 2022, New York magazine reported that in the U.S. "So-called tankies don't make up the majority of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) membership or wield much power within the broader left, but they do exist", and that "leftists from other countries have been contending with the American tankie for years", quoting activists from Hong Kong and Poland.{{r|Jones 2022}}{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Poland/Communist-Poland |title=Communist Poland |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica}} The term tankie has also been used in contemporary times to describe the defenders of anti-American leaders like former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or those who propagate pro-Russian narratives in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War. It has been applied to "elements within the self-identified [American] left that have soft-pedalled Russia's aggressive foreign policy and history of human rights abuses", according to Sarah Jones of New York.{{cite web |last=Jones |first=Sarah |date=3 March 2022 |title=Russia's Invasion Tests the American Left |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-tests-the-american-left.html |access-date=23 September 2022 |website=Intelligencer |publisher=New York |language=en-us |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303141052/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-tests-the-american-left.html |archive-date=3 March 2022}}

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}

• 50 Cent Party
• Anti-Americanism
• Authoritarian socialism
• Brezhnev Doctrine
• Campism
• Little Pink
• Pinko
• Red fascism
• Regressive left
• Taistoism
• Tank Man
• Soviet imperialism
• The Stalinist Legacy
• Ulusalism
• Useful idiot
• Vatnik (slang)
• Whataboutism

{{div col end}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite magazine |title=What exactly are 'Trots' and 'Tankies'? |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/08/what-exactly-are-trots-and-tankies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916143139/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/08/what-exactly-are-trots-and-tankies |archive-date=16 September 2021 |url-access=subscription |magazine=New Statesman |date=9 August 2016 |access-date=23 November 2019 |ref={{SfnRef|New Statesman|2016}} }}
• {{cite book |last=Parker |first=Lawrence |date=2012 |title=The Kick Inside: Revolutionary opposition in the CPGB, 1945–1991 |publisher=November Publications |edition=2nd |isbn=978-1-291-19609-2}}

• {{Cite journal |last1=Sullivan |first1=Jonathan |last2=Wang |first2=Weixiang |date=1 June 2024 |title=Becoming Wanghong: How Foreigners Achieve Internet Celebrity in China |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12140-024-09427-x.pdf |journal=East Asia |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=201–222 |doi=10.1007/s12140-024-09427-x}}
• {{Cite journal |first1=Utkucan |last1=Balci |first2=Michael |last2=Sirivianos |first3=Jeremy |last3=Blackburn |title=Exploring Left-Wing Extremism on the Decentralized Web: An Analysis of Lemmygrad.ml |journal=Workshop Proceedings of the 18th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media |date=1 June 2024 |doi=10.36190/2024.44 |url=https://workshop-proceedings.icwsm.org/pdf/2024_44.pdf |page=44|publisher=ICWSM }}
• {{cite news |last=Carey |first=Roane |date=1 March 2022 |title=Don't Be a Tankie: How the Left Should Respond to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine |url=https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/ukraine-russia-leftists-tankie/ |work=The Intercept |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250318054553/https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/ukraine-russia-leftists-tankie/ |archive-date=18 March 2025}}

{{Internet slang}}

Category:Anti-Americanism

category:Anti-Western sentiment

Category:Anti-Stalinist left

Category:Communism

Category:Communist Party of Great Britain

Category:Marxism

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Category:Political pejoratives for people

Category:Socialism

Category:Stalinism