Taistoism

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Taistoism (Finnish: taistolaisuus) was an orthodox pro-Soviet tendency^[1] in the mostly Eurocommunist Finnish communist movement in the 1970s and 1980s. The Taistoists were an interior opposition group in the Communist Party of Finland. They were named after their leader Taisto Sinisalo, whose first name means "a battle", "a fight" or "a struggle". Sinisalo's supporters constituted a party within a party, but pressure from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union prevented the party from formally splitting. The term taistolaisuus was a derogatory nickname invented by Helsingin Sanomat and was never used by the group themselves.^[2] In colloquial Finnish, taistolainen is the same as Tankie in English.

Although the Taistoists were sometimes identified as "Stalinists", this was not a central part of their orthodoxy. Sinisalo himself was quite critical of Stalin,^[3] though he did credit Stalin with the establishment of socialism in the USSR. The opposition was expelled from the party 1985–1986 and it formed the Communist Party of Finland (Unity), which took the name "Communist Party of Finland" after the original party's bankruptcy in 1992.^{[citation needed]} Some of the former Taistoists later joined the Left Alliance or have since abandoned Communism altogether.^{[citation needed]}